© 2004 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
保留所有权利。未经出版商书面许可，不得以任何电子或机械方式（包括影印、录制或信息存储和检索）复制本书的任何部分。
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
本书由凯蒂·萨伦 (Katie Salen) 编写，字体大小为 8.8 磅，在美国印刷和装订。
This book was set in 8.8-point Myriad by Katie Salen and was printed and bound in the United States of America.
美国国会图书馆出版品目錄數據
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
萨伦，凯蒂。
Salen, Katie.
游戏规则：游戏设计基础 / Katie Salen 和 Eric Zimmerman。
Rules of play : game design fundamentals / Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman.
页厘米
p. cm.
包括参考书目和索引。
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13：978-0-262-24045-1（精装本：碱性纸）
ISBN-13: 978-0-262-24045-1 (hc : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-262-24045-9 (精装本:碱性纸)
ISBN-10: 0-262-24045-9 (hc : alk. paper)
ISBN-13：978-0-262-29993-0（电子书）
ISBN-13: 978-0-262-29993-0 (e-book)
1. 计算机游戏——设计。2. 计算机游戏——编程。I. Zimmerman，Eric。II. 标题。
1. Computer games—Design. 2. Computer games—Programming. I. Zimmerman, Eric. II. Title.
QA76.76.C672S25 2003
QA76.76.C672S25 2003
794.8'1526—dc21
794.8’1526—dc21
2003045923
2003045923
10 9 8 7 6 5
10 9 8 7 6 5
To those for whom the game is made.
Triggs 先生、Tom Ockerse、HF 和爸爸；Enid、Gil、Laura 和 Zach
Mr. Triggs, Tom Ockerse, H.F., and Dad; Enid, Gil, Laura, and Zach
充满感激和爱。
In gratefulness and love.
感谢许多奉献时间、专业知识、支持、友谊和想法的人们；感谢游戏设计师和开发者，他们在研究过程中创造了我们研究的大量作品，包括 Reiner Knizia、James Ernest、Kira Synder、Frank Lantz 和 Richard Garfield，他们都为本书贡献了原创作品；感谢我们无畏的读者 John Sharp、Frank Lantz、Henk van Assen、Ranjit Bhatnagar、Nancy Nowacek、Mark Owens、Peter Lee 和 Julian Kücklich；感谢我们的老师和学生，他们启发我们理清思路，激发创造力；感谢 Doug Sery 和麻省理工学院出版社的其他成员；最重要的是，感谢我们的家人和朋友，他们耐心地等待我们回到现实世界与他们团聚。没有你们，我们不可能做到这一点。
Thank you to the many individuals who gave their time, expertise, support, friendship, and ideas; to the game designers and developers who created the incredible body of work we examined in the course of our study, including Reiner Knizia, James Ernest, Kira Synder, Frank Lantz, and Richard Garfield, who all contributed original work to this volume; to our fearless readers John Sharp, Frank Lantz, Henk van Assen, Ranjit Bhatnagar, Nancy Nowacek, Mark Owens, Peter Lee, and Julian Kücklich; to our own teachers and students who helped inspired clarity and invention; to Doug Sery and the rest of MIT Press; and most of all to our families and friends, who waited patiently for us to join them back in the real world. We could not have done it without you.
内容
Contents
Commissioned Essay: Reiner Knizia
10 The Primary Schemas: RULES, PLAY, CULTURE
Commissioned Game: Richard Garfield
15 Games as Systems of Uncertainty
16 Games as Information Theory Systems
17 Games as Systems of Information
18 Games as Cybernetic Systems
19 Games as Game Theory Systems
20 Games as Systems of Conflict
Commissioned Game: Frank Lantz
23 Games as the Play of Experience
24 Games as the Play of Pleasure
25 Games as the Play of Meaning
27 Games as the Play of Simulation
Commissioned Game: Kira Snyder
32 Games as Cultural Resistance
33 Games as Cultural Environment
Commissioned Game: James Ernest
前言
FOREWORD
弗兰克·兰兹
Frank Lantz
数百年来，游戏设计领域一直处于文化的雷达之下，生产出永恒的杰作和精湛的消磨时间的游戏，却没有引起太多关注——事实上，它根本不像一个“领域”。突然间，在计算机技术大爆炸的推动下，游戏设计变得非常重要，并引发了一些关于艺术和娱乐未来的挑衅性问题。
For hundreds of years, the field of game design has drifted along under the radar of culture, producing timeless masterpieces and masterful time-wasters without drawing much attention to itself—without, in fact, behaving like a “field” at all. Suddenly, powered by the big bang of computer technology, game design has become a very big deal and the source of some provocative questions about the future of art and entertainment.
在回答这些问题时，你手里的这本书也提出了不少问题。从表面上看，《游戏规则》似乎很冷静、合理，精心设计了一个广泛的理论框架来理解游戏设计领域。但在这种平静的表面之下，这本书实际上在一场关于游戏是什么以及游戏会变成什么样子的激烈、持续的讨论中，占据了一个有争议的立场。
In addressing these questions, the book you are holding raises quite a few of its own. On its surface Rules of Play appears to be calm and reasonable, carefully laying out a broad theoretical framework for understanding the field of game design. But beneath this calm surface, the book actually stakes out a controversial position in a dramatic, ongoing discussion about what games are and what they could become.
事实上，从某些角度来看，这本书似乎有着宣言般的急躁。这种急躁的本质是什么？在某种程度上，这是工人们被要求仅使用牙刷和钉枪建造大教堂时的挫败感。游戏非常复杂，无论是其内部结构还是它们所创造的各种玩家体验。但目前还没有一套完整的概念工具来思考游戏。直到最近，如果你是一名对所在领域的理论基础感兴趣的游戏设计师，你就会被迫将社会学、人类学、心理学和数学的一系列观点拼凑在一起，而这些观点都是盲人摸象，没有一个将游戏视为一个创造性领域。
In fact, from certain angles this book appears to have the burning impatience of a manifesto. What is the nature of this impatience? To some extent it is the frustration of workers who are asked to build a cathedral using only a toothbrush and a staplegun. Games are remarkably complex, both in their internal structure and in the various kinds of player experiences they create. But there exists no integrated set of conceptual tools for thinking about games. Until recently, if you were a game designer interested in the theoretical underpinnings of your field, you would be forced to stitch together a set of perspectives from sociology, anthropology, psychology, and mathematics, each of which brought its blindman’s view of the elephant, and none of which considered games as a creative domain.
最近，该领域本身出现了各种相互竞争的方法论。其中大多数都侧重于游戏设计创作过程的具体问题；很少有人试图将其见解建立在一般的理论体系中。但这本书中那种急切的渴望不仅仅是对该领域话语水平不发达的回应。毕竟，游戏设计为什么需要一个理论框架？这里涉及的不仅仅是洞察力、知识和理解。
More recently, within the field itself there has emerged a Babel of competing methodologies. Most of these have a practical focus on the nuts-and-bolts questions of the creative process of game design; few of them have attempted to ground their insights in a general theoretical system. But the impatience that gives this book its undercurrent of urgency is more than a response to the field’s underdeveloped level of discourse. Why, after all, does game design need a theoretical framework? There is something more than insight, knowledge, and understanding at stake here.
请记住，本书的作者不仅仅是从外部观察游戏的学者；他们本身就是积极的实践者。与许多从事该领域工作的人一样，他们也感受到，尽管最近技术和商业进步的速度令人惊叹，但游戏仍然缺乏创造性。一方面，游戏潜力无限，人们经常讨论游戏可能取代电影成为流行文化的决定性形式。新世纪的文化。另一方面，游戏商店的现实是——无数的货架上摆满了青少年的权力幻想、愚蠢的卡通人物和枯燥乏味的体育模拟游戏。
Remember that the authors of this book are not just academics looking at games from the outside; they are themselves active practitioners. Like many people working in this field, they are driven by the feeling that despite the breathtaking pace of recent technical and commercial advancement, games have remained creatively stunted. On the one hand, there is a sense of boundless potential, the much-discussed possibility that games could succeed film as the defining form of popular culture for the new century. On the other hand, there is the reality of the game store—endless racks of adolescent power fantasies, witless cartoon characters, and literal-minded sports simulations.
要了解激发这种急躁情绪的潜在力量，请考虑游戏可以产生的各种体验——欲望和快乐、焦虑和释放、惊奇和知识的复杂网络。游戏可以激发最高级的大脑认知，并激发最原始的身体反应，而且往往是同时进行的。游戏可以是纯粹的形式抽象，也可以运用最丰富的表现技巧。游戏能够以不同于任何其他交流形式的方式来处理人类存在的最深刻主题——开放式、程序化、协作性；它们可以无限详细、丰富地呈现，同时始终响应玩家的选择和行动。
To get a feeling for the sense of potential that fuels this impatience, consider the vast kinds of experiences games can produce—complex networks of desire and pleasure, anxiety and release, wonder and knowledge. Games can inspire the loftiest form of cerebral cognition and engage the most primal physical response, often simultaneously. Games can be pure formal abstractions or wield the richest possible representational techniques. Games are capable of addressing the most profound themes of human existence in a manner unlike any other form of communication—open-ended, procedural, collaborative; they can be infinitely detailed, richly rendered, and yet always responsive to the choices and actions of the player.
但是，探索这些多样化可能性的游戏在哪里呢？游戏无法提供丰富的乐趣，我们似乎注定要忍受那些我们再熟悉不过的奔跑和跳跃、捉迷藏和捉人游戏、复活节彩蛋寻找游戏和警察与强盗游戏的种种变化。在电脑游戏发展的早期，正规实验的爆发式增长又是怎么回事呢？有一段时间，似乎每一款游戏都是对“你能用电脑做什么？”这个问题的全新尝试。相比之下，目前的电脑游戏似乎大部分都在回答“当你控制一个在模拟三维空间中移动的化身时，你能做什么？”这个问题。
But where are the games that explore these diverse possibilities? Instead of the rich spectrum of pleasures games are capable of providing, we seem cursed to suffer an embarrassment of variations on the all-too familiar pleasures of running and jumping, of Hide and Go Seek and Tag, of Easter egg hunts and Cops and Robbers. And what happened to the explosion of formal experimentation during the early days of computer games? For a while it seemed that every other title was a fresh attempt to answer the question “What can you do with a computer?” Compare that with the current crop of computer games, the majority of which seem to be addressing the question “What can you do while controlling an avatar that is moving through a simulated three-dimensional space?”
这就是关键所在：媒介所蕴含的激进可能性与主流游戏开发的保守现实之间存在巨大差异。而这正是《游戏规则》不仅仅是对游戏功能的概念分析；它还考察了游戏可以做什么，以及它们应该做什么。
This, then, is what is at stake: a vast discrepancy between the radical possibilities contained in the medium and the conservative reality of mainstream game development. And this is the way in which Rules of Play is more than a conceptual analysis of what games do; it is also an examination of what they can do, and by extension what they should do.
《游戏规则》对主题的处理方式之一就是，理解游戏的正确方法是从美学的角度，就像我们处理建筑、文学或电影等领域一样。这不应与视觉美学领域相混淆，视觉美学只是游戏创意内容的一个方面。就像电影在构建单个作品时使用戏剧性的故事叙述、视觉构图、声音设计和复杂的动态编辑组织过程一样，游戏设计领域也有自己独特的美学。
One of the implications of Rules of Play’s approach to its subject is that the proper way to understand games is from an aesthetic perspective, in the same way that we address fields such as architecture, literature, or film. This should not be confused with the domain of visual aesthetics, which is simply one facet of a game’s creative content. Like film, which uses dramatic storytelling, visual composition, sound design, and the complex dynamic organizational process of editing in the construction of a single work, the field of game design has its own unique aesthetic.
正如下文所述，游戏设计的真正领域是交互系统的美学。即使在计算机出现之前，创建游戏也意味着为玩家设计动态系统。从石头剪刀布到模拟人生等，每款游戏都是玩家探索的可能性空间。定义这个空间是游戏设计过程的协作工作。
As laid out in the following pages, the real domain of game design is the aesthetics of interactive systems. Even before computers existed, creating games meant designing dynamic systems for players to inhabit. Every game, from Rock-Paper-Scissors to The Sims and beyond is a space of possibility that the players explore. Defining this space is the collaborative work of the game design process.
《游戏规则》也许是首次认真尝试以美学方式设计交互系统。在二十一世纪初，交互系统不仅作为我们生活的物质现实围绕着我们，而且作为理解世界和我们在其中的位置的关键概念模型，就像机械系统之于维多利亚时代一样。这就是为什么本书项目的重要性不容低估的原因之一。
Rules of Play is perhaps the first serious attempt to lay out an aesthetic approach to the design of interactive systems. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, interactive systems surround us not just as the material reality of our lives but also as a key conceptual model for understanding the world and our place in it, just as mechanical systems did for the Victorians. This is one reason that the importance of this book’s project should not be underestimated.
我对《游戏规则》作者的观点持相反观点，但其实也有合理的反对意见。他们的观点大致如下：所有关于美学的讨论都带有自命不凡和自我吹嘘的味道。游戏是一种消遣，其目的是让我们开心，我们不应该期望它们能够达到深远的创造性表达水平或不断突破创造性界限。它们只是娱乐而已。
There is a reasonable oppositional perspective to the one I have imputed to the authors of Rules of Play. It goes something like this: all of this talk about aesthetics smacks of pretension and self-aggrandizement. Games are recreation, their purpose is to amuse us, and we shouldn’t expected them to achieve profound levels of creative expression or relentlessly push creative boundaries. They are simply entertainment.
除了指出流行文化在琐碎和深刻之间来回摇摆，你对这个论点没有什么可说的。一个人无害的浪费时间可能是另一个人追求超越的手段——游戏无疑是娱乐远非简单的最好例子之一。无论如何，这个论点本身塑造了这场辩论的主题。如果有足够多的人相信游戏就是为了带来无脑的乐趣，那么游戏就会变成这样。如果有足够多的人相信游戏能够做更伟大的事情，那么它们将不可避免地进化和进步。
There isn’t much that you can say to this argument except to point out that pop culture has a surprising way of moving back and forth between the trivial and the profound. One person’s harmless waste of time might be another’s bid for transcendence—and games are certainly one of the best examples of how entertainment can be far from simple. In any event, the argument itself molds the subject of this debate. If enough people believe that games are meant to be mindless fun, then this is what they will become. If enough people believe that games are capable of greater things, then they will inevitably evolve and advance.
我们知道游戏正在迅速壮大。但现在还无法准确预测游戏的发展方向。目前，整个游戏领域都拥有巨大的能量，平衡在一个薄弱的边缘，即使受到轻微的压力，也仍然会受到影响。在研究这个奇怪物体的幌子下，《游戏规则》的作者们正在给游戏注入强大的推动力。
We know that games are getting very big, very fast. But it is too early to tell exactly what direction their evolution will take. At this stage the entire field has the unpredictable energy of something enormous, balanced on one thin edge, still vulnerable to the effects of even a slight pressure. Under the guise of examining this curious object, the authors of Rules of Play are giving it an energetic shove.
当然，如果你手里拿着这本书，那你也亲手参与了其中。
Of course, if you are holding this book then you also have a hand in it yourself.
你会朝哪个方向推进？
Which way will you push?
前言
PREFACE
确实如此。但是为什么呢？
They do. But why?
真的。有什么好喜欢的？这款游戏没什么特别的：一对桨在黑色屏幕的两边移动两条钝白线，一个块状的球在它们之间弹跳，如果你没接住球，你的对手就得一分。第一个得分 15 分的玩家获胜。没什么大不了的。然而，尽管 Pong 几乎简单原始，但它创造了有意义的玩法。
Really. What’s to love? There isn’t much to the game: a pair of paddles move two blunt white lines on either side of a black screen, a blocky excuse for a ball bounces between them, and if you miss the ball, your opponent scores a point. The first player to score fifteen points wins. Big deal. Yet despite its almost primitive simplicity, Pong creates meaningful play.
在电子游戏时代，Pong 已是老游戏了。最初由 Ralph Baer 为 Magnavox Odyssey 家庭视频游戏系统设计，1972 年，Nolan Bushnell 和 Atari 将 Pong 融入街机和家用游戏机。毫不夸张地说，Pong 一夜成名。第一个原型机在加利福尼亚州桑尼维尔的一家名为 Andy Capp's 的酒吧向公众发布，酒吧位于 Atari 总部附近。据电脑游戏历史学家称，发光的电视监视器和机柜安装在酒吧一角的第一个晚上，顾客们都很好奇，但又很困惑。说明上只写着“避免丢球以获得高分”。熟悉 25 美分弹球机的人最终投入一枚硬币，看着球从一边射向另一边，分数不断增加。其中一名玩家终于轻推了一下桨，球弹了起来，发出了令人满意的“乒乓”声。这足以告诉他们该怎么做，他们开始玩了。第一局比赛结束时，两位选手都学会了截击。第一晚结束时，酒吧里的每个人都玩了一两局。第二天早上，安迪·卡普酒吧外排起了长队：人们迫不及待地想再玩一会儿乒乓球。1
In video game years, Pong is ancient. Originally designed by Ralph Baer for the Magnavox Odyssey home video game system, in 1972 Pong was engineered into an arcade machine and a home console by Nolan Bushnell and Atari. It is no exaggeration to say that Pong was an overnight sensation. The first prototype was released to the public in a bar called Andy Capp’s, in Sunnyvale, California, near the Atari headquarters. According to computer game historians, the first night that the glowing TV monitor and cabinet were installed in a corner of the bar, patrons were intrigued but confused. The instructions read only, Avoid missing ball for high score. Someone familiar with quarter-operated pinball machines eventually plunked in a coin and watched the ball shoot from side to side as the scores racked up. One of the players finally nudged a paddle, and the ball bounced off with a satisfying “pong” sound. That was enough to tell them what to do, and they began to play. By the end of the first game, both players had learned to volley. By the end of the first night, everyone in the bar had tried a game or two. The next morning, a line had formed outside Andy Capp’s: people couldn’t wait to play more Pong.1
Pong 至今仍然活跃。您可以通过模拟器和互联网横幅广告玩 Pong。网络上出现了许多向 Pong 致敬的巧妙游戏，例如 Battle Pong 和 Text Pong。Pong 在经典游戏跳蚤市场和粉丝大会上占有重要地位。几年前，游戏发行商 Infogrames 发布了一款增强版 3D 版 Pong。最重要的是，原版仍然很好玩。当 gameLab 的 Super Pong Games IV 连接到电视上时，它总能吸引一大群人。
Pong is still alive and well today. You can play Pong via emulators and in Internet banner ads. Clever homages to Pong such as Battle Pong and Text Pong thrive on the web. Pong features prominently in classic gaming flea markets and fan conventions. The game publisher Infogrames released a souped-up, 3D version of Pong a few years ago. Most importantly, the original is still fun to play. When the Super Pong Games IV at gameLab is hooked up to the TV, it never fails to gather a crowd.
所有这些都让我们回到这个问题：为什么？为什么人们喜欢 Pong？
All of which brings us back to the question: Why? Why do people love Pong?
虽然这不是一本关于 Pong 的书，也不是一本关于电脑和视频游戏的书，但它是一本关于游戏设计的书。对于游戏设计师来说，了解人们为什么玩游戏以及为什么有些游戏如此受欢迎至关重要。人们为什么玩 Pong？我们可以想到很多原因：
Although this is not a book about Pong, or about computer and video games, it is a book about game design. It is crucial for game designers to understand why people play games and why some games are so well-loved. Why do people play Pong? We can think of many reasons:
玩法简单。一行说明和直观的旋钮界面让 Pong 简单易懂。无需解锁隐藏功能或学习特殊动作。
It is simple to play. The one-line instructions and intuitive knob interface makes Pong approachable and easy to understand. There are no hidden features to unlock or special moves to learn.
每款游戏都是独一无二的。由于球可以在屏幕上的任何地方移动，因此 Pong 是一款具有无限可能性的开放式游戏。Pong 奖励专注的游戏：它很容易学习，但很难掌握。
Every game is unique. Because the ball can travel anywhere on the screen, Pong is an open-ended game with endless possibilities. Pong rewards dedicated play: it is easy to learn, but difficult to master.
这是一种优雅的表现。毕竟，Pong 是对另一款游戏的描述：乒乓球。Pong 的抽象本质（您的头像被简化为一条白线）创造了一种与游戏的即时令人满意的物理和感知关系。
It is an elegant representation. Pong is, after all, a depiction of another game: Table Tennis. The abstracted nature of Pong, where your avatar is reduced to a single white line, creates an immediately satisfying physical and perceptual relationship to the game.
它具有社交性。玩 Pong 需要两个人。通过玩游戏，你可以与另一个人互动。Pong 的社交圈也超越了两名玩家：它是一项很棒的观赏性运动。
It is social. It takes two to play Pong. Through playing the game, you interact with another human being. Pong’s social circle also extends beyond two players: it makes a great spectator sport.
它很有趣。虽然看起来很简单，但与 Pong 互动确实很有趣。玩家从游戏中获得乐趣的原因有很多，从竞争和获胜的乐趣到令人满意的旋钮触感。
It is fun. Simple though it may seem, it is genuinely fun to interact with Pong. Players derive pleasure from the game for many different reasons, from the pleasure of competition and winning to the satisfyingly tactile manipulation of the knob.
这很酷。作为一种文化产物，Pong 是经典街机游戏时髦、低保真图像的代表。它唤起了人们对与朋友在客厅度过的午后时光的怀念，他们围坐在电视机前玩电子游戏，吃着奇多，喝着激浪。
It is cool. As a cultural artifact, Pong is a poster child for the hip, low-fi graphics of classic arcade gaming. It evokes nostalgia for afternoons spent in the livingroom with friends, huddled around the TV playing video games, eating Cheetos and swigging Mountain Dew.
人们喜欢 Pong 的原因不止这些。Pong 的互动性、表现性、社交性和文化性同时为游戏体验做出了贡献。游戏与任何其他形式的设计文化一样复杂；要充分欣赏它们，就意味着要从多个角度理解它们。
People love Pong for all of these reasons and more. The interactive, representational, social, and cultural aspects of Pong simultaneously contribute to the experience of play. Games are as complex as any other form of designed culture; fully to appreciate them means understanding them from multiple perspectives.
Pong 和当时的游戏带来了革命性的变化。它们颠覆了电视的单向互动性，将观众变成了玩家，使他们不仅可以观看媒体图像，还可以玩游戏。这种双向电子通信让玩家参与了数小时有意义的互动，而这种互动是通过一个在简单的黑色屏幕上来回弹跳的白球的设计实现的。虽然 Pong 是技术创新和独特经济愿景的产物，但它也是一种游戏设计行为。
Pong and the games of its time did something revolutionary. They turned the one-way interactivity of the television on its head, transforming viewers into players, permitting them not just to watch a media image, but to play with it. This two-way electronic communication engaged players in hours of meaningful interaction, achieved through the design of a white ball bouncing back and forth on a simple black screen. Although Pong was the product of technical innovation and a unique economic vision, it was also an act of game design.
作为游戏设计师，我们是否充分考虑了这一革命性举措的影响？我们是否真正了解我们工作的媒介或我们所属的设计领域？我们能否阐明是什么在任何游戏中产生了有意义的玩法，无论是电子游戏、棋盘游戏、填字游戏还是体育比赛？
As game designers, have we fully taken into account the implications of this revolutionary act? Do we really understand the medium in which we work or the field of design to which we belong? Can we articulate what it is that generates meaningful play in any game, whether a video game, a board game, a crossword puzzle, or an athletic contest?
事实如何？还没有。将游戏设计与其他形式的设计（如建筑或平面设计）进行比较。由于游戏设计是一门新兴学科，因此尚未形成一个研究领域。它在图书馆或书店中没有自己的区域。你无法（除了少数例外）获得游戏学位。整个文化尚未将游戏视为一项崇高的，甚至特别有用的事业。游戏是设计人类互动的最古老形式之一，但从设计的角度来看，我们仍然不知道游戏是什么。
The truth? Not yet. Compare game design to other forms of design, such as architecture or graphic design. Because of its status as an emerging discipline, game design hasn’t yet crystallized as a field of inquiry. It doesn’t have its own section in the library or bookstore. You can’t (with a few exceptions) get a degree in it. The culture at large does not yet see games as a noble, or even particularly useful, endeavor. Games are one of the most ancient forms of designed human interactivity, yet from a design perspective, we still don’t really know what games are.
我们希望这本书能够为那些对游戏设计感兴趣的人提供信息和启发。它的目的是帮助游戏设计师创造自己的游戏、自己的概念、自己的设计策略和方法。我们提供的想法和示例代表了一种仔细观察游戏的方式，还有更多的发展空间。Pong 只是一个开始。
Our hope is that this book will inform and inspire those interested in designing games. Its purpose is to help game designers create their own games, their own concepts, their own design strategies and methodologies. The ideas and examples we offer represent one way of looking closely at games, with room for more to come. Pong is just the beginning.
这就是我们被迫写这本书的原因：不是为了一劳永逸地定义游戏设计是什么，而是为了提供理解游戏的关键工具。不是为了占领和开拓游戏设计的未开发领域，而是为了探索它的一些特性，以便其他游戏设计师可以开始他们自己的探险。我们希望这本书能成为催化剂、促进剂和一记重击。接受这些概念，并迅速、有意义地运用它们，就像 Pong 的第一批玩家一定感受到的那种喜悦一样。
This is why we were compelled to write this book: not to define, once and for all, what game design is, but to provide critical tools for understanding games. Not to claim and colonize the unexplored terrain of game design, but to scout out some of its features so that other game designers can embark on their own expeditions. We hope that this book will be a catalyst, a facilitator, a kick in the ass. Take these concepts and run with them, quickly, meaningfully, with the same kind of joy that the very first players of Pong must have felt.
我们同舟共济。你准备好了吗？
We’re all in this together. Are you ready to play?
凯蒂·塞伦和埃里克·齐默尔曼
Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman
纽约市，2003 年 5 月
New York City, May 2003
笔记
Notes
1. Scott Cohen，《Zap：雅达利的崛起与衰落》（纽约：麦格劳-希尔，1984 年），第 17 页。
1. Scott Cohen, Zap: The Rise and Fall of Atari (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984), p. 17.
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1
关于本书
About This Book
这本书是关于什么的？
What Is This Book About?
这本书是关于游戏的，各种各样的游戏：纸质策略游戏和第一人称射击游戏、经典棋盘游戏和炫目的赌博游戏；数学谜题和职业体育；严肃的文字冒险游戏和青少年的搞笑派对游戏。这本书将这些不同的游戏活动联系在一个共同的框架中——一个基于游戏设计的框架。
This book is about games, all kinds of games: paper-based strategy games and first person shooters, classical board games and glitzy gambling games; math puzzles and professional sports; austere text adventures and giggly teenage party games. This book links these diverse play activities within a common framework—a framework based in game design.
在《游戏研究》中，布莱恩·萨顿-史密斯写道：“每个人都有自己的游戏定义——人类学家和民俗学家从历史起源的角度来定义游戏；军人、商人和教育家从用途的角度来定义游戏；社会科学家从心理和社会功能的角度来定义游戏。所有这些证据都表明，游戏的意义在一定程度上取决于思考游戏的人的想法。”1那么，游戏设计师给游戏研究带来了什么意义？从游戏设计的角度来看待游戏意味着什么？
In The Study of Games, Brian Sutton-Smith writes, “Each person defines games in his own way—the anthropologists and folklorists in terms of historical origins; the military men, businessmen, and educators in terms of usages; the social scientists in terms of psychological and social functions. There is overwhelming evidence in all this that the meaning of games is, in part, a function of the ideas of those who think about them.”1 What, meaning, then, does the game designer bring to the study of games? What does it mean to look at games from a game design perspective?
要回答这个问题，我们首先需要明确“游戏设计师”的含义。游戏设计师是一种特殊的设计师，与平面设计师、工业设计师或建筑师非常相似。游戏设计师不一定是程序员、视觉设计师或项目经理，尽管有时他或她也可以在游戏创作中扮演这些角色。游戏设计师可以单独工作，也可以作为大型团队的一员工作。游戏设计师可以创作纸牌游戏、社交游戏、视频游戏或任何其他类型的游戏。游戏设计师的重点是设计游戏玩法，构思和设计规则和结构，为玩家带来体验。
To answer this question, we first need to clarify what we mean by “game designer.” A game designer is a particular kind of designer, much like a graphic designer, industrial designer, or architect. A game designer is not necessarily a programmer, visual designer, or project manager, although sometimes he or she can also play these roles in the creation of a game. A game designer might work alone or as part of a larger team. A game designer might create card games, social games, video games, or any other kind of game. The focus of a game designer is designing game play, conceiving and designing rules and structures that result in an experience for players.
因此，游戏设计作为一门学科，需要关注游戏本身。我们的目标是在游戏本身的学科领域内研究游戏，而不是将游戏服务于社会学、文学批评或计算机科学等其他领域。由于游戏设计是一门新兴学科，我们经常借鉴其他领域的知识——数学和认知科学；符号学和文化研究。我们借鉴的方式可能不是最正统的，但我们这样做是为了帮助建立一个真正的游戏设计领域。
Thus game design, as a discipline, requires a focus on games in and of themselves. Rather than placing games in the service of another field such as sociology, literary criticism, or computer science, our aim is to study games within their own disciplinary space. Because game design is an emerging discipline, we often borrow from other areas of knowledge—from mathematics and cognitive science; from semiotics and cultural studies. We may not borrow in the most orthodox manner, but we do so in the service of helping to establish a field of game design proper.
本书是关于游戏设计的，而不是游戏开发的。它不是一本“如何做”的书，提供制作成功数字游戏的技巧和窍门。它不是一本关于数字游戏编程或选择开发工具的书；它不是关于编写设计文档或产生游戏创意的书。它绝对不是关于开发团队动态或资金、营销和发行游戏的书。作为一本关于游戏设计的书，它不是游戏的一般介绍，也不是游戏的历史，也不是对游戏创造者和环境的新闻报道。有很多书很好地涵盖了所有这些主题。
This book is about game design, not game development. It is not a “how to” book, offering tips and tricks for making successful digital games. It is not a book about digital game programming or choosing development tools; it is not about writing design documents or generating game ideas. And it is definitely not about development team dynamics or about funding, marketing, and distributing games. As a book on game design it is not a general introduction to games, a history of games, or a journalistic account of the people and circumstances that create games. There are plenty of books that cover all of these topics very well.
相反，《游戏规则》提供了完全不同的东西。通过连接游戏制作的理论和实践方面，我们将游戏视为设计系统，在它们的复杂性中发现模式，从而将游戏设计的挑战展现得一览无余。当我们将游戏设计作为一种设计实践进行探索时，我们不仅概述了创造有意义的游戏背后的概念（本书的核心思想），还概述了将这些概念运用到游戏中的具体方法。我们的方法考虑到了从业设计师、学生和教育工作者的兴趣和需求，我们的方法来自我们自己设计游戏、玩游戏和教授游戏设计的经验。
Instead, Rules of Play provides something altogether different. Bridging the theoretical and practical aspects of making games, we look closely at games as designed systems, discovering patterns within their complexity that bring the challenges of game design into full view. As we explore game design as a design practice, we outline not only the concepts behind the creation of meaningful play (a core idea of this book), but also concrete methods for putting these concepts to use in your games. Written with the interests and needs of practicing designers, students, and educators in mind, our approach comes from our own experience of designing games, playing games, and teaching game design.
但这本书并不只是为游戏设计师而写的。在编写《游戏规则》时，我们很快意识到它可以直接应用于游戏设计以外的领域。书中的概念和模型、案例研究、练习和参考书目对交互设计师、建筑师、产品设计师和其他交互系统的创建者都很有用。同样，我们专注于理解游戏本身，这可以使社会学、媒体研究和文化政策等不同领域的新兴游戏学术研究受益。参与创意，就像参与游戏一样，就是创意使游戏成为可能。即使你不是游戏设计师，我们相信你也会在这里找到一些让你以新方式玩转自己工作的东西。
But the book is not just for game designers. In writing Rules of Play, we quickly realized that it has direct application to fields outside game design. The concepts and models, case studies, exercises, and bibliographies can be useful to interactive designers, architects, product designers, and other creators of interactive systems. Similarly, our focus on understanding games in and of themselves can benefit the emerging academic study of games in fields as diverse as sociology, media studies, and cultural policy. Engagement with ideas, like engagement with a game, is all about the play the ideas make possible. Even if you are not a game designer, we think you will find something here that lets you play with your own line of work in a new way.
建立批判性话语
Establishing a Critical Discourse
描述本书项目的一种方式是说我们正在努力为游戏设计建立一种批判性话语。我们同意资深游戏设计师沃伦·斯佩克特的观点：“开始构建一个词汇表是绝对必要的，这样我们才能在一定程度上精确地研究游戏如何激发玩家的情感和智力反应。”2作为一个新兴的研究领域，目前尚无成熟的方法来讨论游戏及其运作方式。
One way to describe the project of this book is to say that we are working to establish a critical discourse for game design. We agree with veteran game designer Warren Spector that “It is absolutely vital that we start to build a vocabulary that allows us to examine, with some degree of precision, how games evoke emotional-intellectual responses in players.”2 As a nascent field of inquiry, there are not yet well-developed ways of talking about games and how they function.
建立批判性话语的意义何在？简而言之，批判性词汇让我们能够相互交流。它让我们分享想法和知识，从而拓展我们这个新兴领域的边界。媒体理论家和游戏学者亨利·詹金斯 (Henry Jenkins) 指出，围绕游戏建立批判性话语不仅可以帮助游戏设计师，还可以帮助整个领域，这有四种方式：
What is the point of establishing a critical discourse? Simply put, a critical vocabulary lets us talk to each other. It lets us share ideas and knowledge, and in doing so, expands the borders of our emerging field. Media theorist and game scholar Henry Jenkins identifies four ways that building a critical discourse around games can assist not just game designers, but the field as a whole:
•培训：通用语言有助于游戏设计师的教育，让他们能够更丰富多彩、更深入地探索他们的媒介。
• Training: A common language facilitates the education of game designers, letting them explore their medium in more variety and depth.
•代际转移：在该领域内，学科词汇使游戏设计师和开发者能够传递技能和知识，而不是孤立地一遍又一遍地解决相同的问题。
• Generational Transfer: Within the field, a disciplinary vocabulary lets game designers and developers pass on skills and knowledge, rather than solving the same problems over and over in isolation.
•观众建设：通过找到谈论游戏的方式，可以以更复杂的方式向公众评论、批评和宣传游戏。
• Audience-building: In finding a way to speak about them, games can be reviewed, critiqued, and advertised to the public in more sophisticated ways.
•抵御批评：许多派系都试图审查和规范游戏的内容和环境，尤其是电脑和视频游戏。批判性话语为我们提供了抵御这些攻击的词汇和理解。3
• Buffer Against Criticism: There are many factions that would seek to censor and regulate the content and contexts for gaming, particularly computer and video games. A critical discourse gives us the vocabulary and understanding to defend against these attacks.3
要创建批判性话语，我们需要从头开始审视游戏和游戏设计过程，提出游戏分析方法，评估优秀游戏的优秀之处，并提出游戏是什么以及游戏如何运作的问题。这样可以更深入地了解游戏设计，从而在游戏制作实践中实现真正的创新。
Creating a critical discourse requires that we look at games and the game design process from the ground up, proposing methods for the analysis of games, assessing what makes a great game great, and asking questions about what games are and how they function. The result is a deeper understanding of game design that can lead to genuine innovation in the practice of making games.
定义概念是创建批判性话语的一部分，但要获得这样的词汇并非易事，因为它涉及为经常穿插在多个相互矛盾的语境中的词语创建定义。我们项目的一个挑战是制定一系列术语的定义，例如“游戏”、“设计”、“互动性”、“系统”、“玩法”和“文化”，这些术语构成了我们批判性词汇的基础。当我们探索游戏设计这个很大程度上未知的领域时，定义划定了边界，就像一组点定义空间中的平面一样。
Part of creating a critical discourse is defining concepts, but arriving at such a vocabulary is no simple task, for it involves creating definitions for words that often thread their way through multiple and contradictory contexts. One challenge of our project has been formulating a set of definitions for terms such as “game,” “design,” “interactivity,” “system,” “play,” and “culture,” terms that form the foundation of our critical vocabulary. As we explore the largely uncharted terrain of game design, definitions stake out boundaries, the way a set of points define a plane in space.
从实际角度来说，定义术语很有用。但过分强调定义可能会很危险。如果过于正统，定义就会成为阻碍沟通和洞察的一种方式。对我们来说，定义不是“现实”的封闭或科学表述。对于设计师来说，定义的价值在于它能够作为理解和解决设计问题的关键工具。换句话说，通过包含定义，我们的目的并不是排除可能与我们自己的定义相辅相成或相矛盾的其他定义。我们全心全意地承认，我们的定义、概念和模型遗漏了一些东西，在某些情况下比其他情况下效果更好。但这并不会降低它们的整体效用。
Practically speaking, defining terms is useful. But an overemphasis on definitions can be dangerous. Held in too orthodox a manner, definitions become a way of shutting down communication and insight. For us, a definition is not a closed or scientific representation of “reality.” For a designer, the value of a definition is its ability to serve as a critical tool for understanding and solving design problems. In other words, by including definitions, our intention is not to exclude other definitions that might complement or contradict our own. We wholeheartedly acknowledge that our definitions, concepts, and models leave some things out and work better in some circumstances than others. But this doesn’t lessen their overall utility.
正是在相互竞争的定义相互碰撞时形成的缝隙和裂缝中，新的想法才会诞生。我们希望游戏设计能成为一个像其他领域一样丰富的领域，充满活跃的讨论和对话，以及激烈的辩论和分歧。
It is often along the seams and cracks formed when competing definitions bump up against one another that new ideas are born. Our hope for game design is that it becomes a field as rich as any other, filled with vibrant discussion and dialogue as well as virulent debate and disagreement.
观察方式
Ways of Looking
游戏是观察某事物、任何事物的一种特殊方式。
A game is a particular way of looking at something, anything.
— Clark C. Abt，《严肃游戏》
—Clark C. Abt, Serious Games
社会理论家克拉克·C·阿布特 (Clark C. Abt) 提出了一个强有力的建议。他认为游戏是一种看待事物、看待任何事物的特殊方式，从中我们找到了自己设计游戏的灵感。我们如何利用游戏来理解美学、交流、文化以及我们这个世界中似乎与游戏息息相关的其他领域？反过来，我们如何利用对这些领域的理解来丰富我们的游戏设计实践？对游戏的分析和解读往往无法充分体现其复杂性。游戏设计师兼理论家 Jesper Juul 曾评论说，关于游戏的理论往往分为两大阵营：一切都是游戏（“战争是游戏；政治是游戏；生活是游戏；一切都是游戏！”）或游戏是 X（“游戏是一种互动的讲故事媒介。”；“游戏是孩子学习规则的方式。”）。4
Social theorist Clark C. Abt makes a powerful suggestion. In his claim that a game is a particular way of looking at something, at anything, we find inspiration for our own approach to game design. How can we use games as a way to understand aesthetics, communication, culture, and other areas of our world that seem so intertwined with games? Conversely, how can we use our understanding of these areas to enrich our practice of designing games? Too often, analyses and readings of games simply do not do justice to their complexity. Game designer and theorist Jesper Juul has made the comment that theories about games tend to fall into two camps: Everything is a game (“War is a game; politics are a game; life is a game; everything is a game!”) or Games are X (“Games are an interactive storytelling medium.”; “Games are how a child learns about rules.”).4
如果游戏不是一切，也不是一件事，那么它是什么？也许游戏是许多事物。例如，如果我们说诗歌就是讲故事，那就很奇怪了。虽然讲故事是理解诗歌的一种方式，但它只是众多可能视角之一。我们还可以从形式上探讨诗歌，在韵律和韵律的背景下，或者从历史的角度探讨诗歌，重点是印刷技术。这些观点都提供了一种有效的诗歌观察方式——但只使用其中一种只能了解整体情况的一部分。另一方面，将这些框架和许多其他框架结合起来，开始勾勒出被称为诗歌的异质和多面文化现象。在《游戏规则》中，这正是我们对游戏所做的。我们的总体策略是提供多种理解观点。在这样做的过程中，我们希望避免 Juul 提到的常见陷阱，同时忠于游戏的复杂性和多形态性。
If games are not everything, nor just one thing, what are they? Perhaps they are many things. It would be strange for us to say, for example, that poetry is storytelling. Although storytelling is one way of understanding poetry, it is just one of many possible perspectives. We could also explore poetry formally, within the context of rhyme and meter, or historically, with an emphasis on printing technologies. Each of these perspectives offers a valid way of looking at poetry—yet utilizing just one of them gives access to only part of the total picture. On the other hand, these frames, and many others, considered together begin to sketch out the heterogeneous and multifaceted cultural phenomena called poetry. In Rules of Play, this is exactly what we do with games. Our general strategy is to provide multiple points of view for understanding. In doing so, we hope to avoid the common pitfalls Juul mentions while being true to the complex and polymorphous nature of games.
这种方法适合设计吗？当然。建筑师克里斯托弗·亚历山大在他的《形式综合笔记》一书中探讨了设计挑战，描述了一种以设计问题固有复杂性为中心的方法。他的论点部分基于这样的假设：只有设计师的思想和行动清晰，才能实现形式的清晰。亚历山大让我们考虑影响水壶设计的一系列因素。
Is this approach appropriate for design? Absolutely. In his book Notes on the Synthesis of Form, architect Christopher Alexander wrestles with the challenges of design, describing a methodology that centers on the inherent complexity of design problems. His argument is based in part on the assumption that clarity in form cannot be achieved until there is first clarity in the designer’s mind and actions. Alexander asks us to consider the range of factors affecting the design of a kettle.
让我们再看看设计师面临的困难究竟有多大。以一个简单的水壶的设计为例。他必须发明一种适合其使用环境的水壶。它不能太小。在热的时候，它不能很难拿起。它不能很容易被误放。它必须在厨房中存放时应不难。倒水时应不难。水不能太快冷却。制作水壶的材料应不太贵。必须能承受沸水的温度。清洗外部时应不难。形状不应太难加工。形状不应与制造它所用的合理价格的金属不相称。组装时应不难，因为这需要花费大量工时。在潮湿的厨房中，不应腐蚀。内部不应难以保持无水垢。注水时应不难。在未装满水时，加热少量水不应不经济。它不应只吸引少数人，以致无法以适当的方式制造，因为需求量小。它不应太难握住，以免儿童或病人试图使用它时发生事故。不能毫无征兆地干烧和烧坏，在沸腾时不能在炉子上不稳定。5
Let us look again at just what kind of difficulty the designer faces. Take, for example, the design of a simple kettle. He has to invent a kettle, which fits the context of its use. It must not be too small. It must not be hard to pick up when it is hot. It must not be easy to let go of by mistake. It must not be hard to store in the kitchen. It must not be hard to get the water out of. It must pour cleanly. It must not let the water in it cool too quickly. The material it is made out of must not cost too much. It must be able to withstand the temperature of boiling water. It must not be too hard to clean on the outside. It must not be a shape which is too hard to machine. It must not be a shape which is unsuitable for whatever reasonably priced metal it is made of. It must not be too hard to assemble, since this costs man-hours of labor. It must not corrode in steamy kitchens. Its inside must not be too difficult to keep free of scale. It must not be hard to fill with water. It must not be uneconomical to heat small quantities of water in, when it is not full. It must not appeal to such a minority that it cannot be manufactured in an appropriate way because of its small demand. It must not be so tricky to hold that accidents occur when children or invalids try to use it. It must not be able to boil dry and burn out without warning. It must not be unstable on the stove while it is boiling.5
亚历山大对复杂度挑战的回答是，对手头设计问题的各个方面进行组织和分类。通过这种分析得出的模式让设计师能够“克服复杂度带来的困难”，正如亚历山大所说。当设计师将问题的各个元素系统化时，他或她就会赋予问题以形状，从而以全新的视角看待问题。
Alexander’s answer to the challenge of complexity is to organize and classify aspects of the design problem at hand. The patterns that arise as a result of this analysis allow the designer to, as Alexander puts it, “overcome the difficulties of complexity.” As the designer systematizes elements of the problem, he or she gives it shape, casting the problem in a whole new light.
游戏也具有这种程度的复杂性。作为人类文化的产物，游戏满足了一系列需求、欲望、乐趣和用途。作为设计文化的产物，游戏反映了一系列技术、材料、形式和经济问题。试图从单一角度看待如此复杂的现象是无效的（甚至是愚蠢的）。这样做会完全错过大部分设计问题。我们的解决方案？游戏设计模式。
Games too, share in this degree of complexity. As products of human culture, games fulfill a range of needs, desires, pleasures, and uses. As products of design culture, games reflect a host of technological, material, formal, and economic concerns. It would be ineffective (and even silly) to try and view such a complex phenomenon from a single perspective. To do so would be to miss most of the design problem entirely. Our solution? Game design schemas.
游戏设计模式
Game Design Schemas
本书的大部分章节都以游戏设计模式为标题。模式是一种构建和组织知识的方式。游戏设计模式是一种理解游戏的方式，是一种我们可以应用于游戏分析或创作的概念视角。我们在本书中采用了哪些游戏设计模式？我们通过概率的数学视角来看待游戏。我们将它们视为社交互动的背景。我们将游戏视为讲故事的系统。我们将它们视为文化抵抗的场所。我们在每种情况下都从游戏设计的角度来这样做。
Most of the chapters of this book are organized under the heading of a game design schema. A schema is a way of framing and organizing knowledge. A game design schema is a way of understanding games, a conceptual lens that we can apply to the analysis or creation of a game. What are some of the game design schemas we employ in the course of this book? We look at games through the mathematical lens of probability. We look at them as contexts for social interaction. We look at games as storytelling systems. We look at them as sites of cultural resistance. We do so in every case from the point of view of game design.
我们根据三个主要模式来组织这些不同的观点，每个模式都包含一组相关模式。我们的主要模式是规则、游戏和文化：
We organize these varied points of view according to three primary schemas, each one containing a cluster of related schemas. Our primary schemas are RULES, PLAY, and CULTURE:
• RULES包含正式的游戏设计模式，重点关注游戏的基本逻辑和数学结构。
• RULES contains formal game design schemas that focus on the essential logical and mathematical structures of a game.
• PLAY包含体验式、社交性和代表性的游戏设计模式，突出玩家对游戏和其他玩家的参与。
• PLAY contains experiential, social, and representational game design schemas that foreground the player’s participation with the game and with other players.
•文化包含情境游戏设计模式，用于研究游戏设计和玩游戏的更大的文化背景。
• CULTURE contains contextual game design schemas that investigate the larger cultural contexts within which games are designed and played.
这些图式不仅组织了看待游戏的方式，而且作为一个整体，还为游戏设计研究提供了一种通用方法。每个图式都揭示了游戏的某些方面，同时在先前图式的基础上建立对游戏的多价理解。这三个主要图式既不相互排斥也不具有科学性。我们创建它们作为分类法并不是为了说“这是规则的一个特征，而不是游戏的一个特征”。相反，它们是概念设计工具，有助于我们将注意力集中在特定的设计问题上。
These schemas not only organize ways of looking at games but also, when taken as a whole, offer a general method for the study of game design. Each schema brings certain aspects of games to light, while building on previous schemas to arrive at a multivalent understanding of games. The three primary schemas are neither mutually exclusive nor scientific in nature. We have not created them as a taxonomy, in order to say “this is a feature of RULES, not a feature of PLAY.” Rather, they are conceptual design tools to help focus our thinking for particular design problems.
作为一个框架，规则、游戏、文化不仅仅是游戏设计的一个模型。它还代表了一种理解任何设计的方式。考虑一下更广泛应用的模型：
As a framework, RULES, PLAY, CULTURE is not merely a model for game design. It also represents a way of understanding any kind of design. Consider the model applied more broadly:
•规则= 所设计系统的组织
• RULES = the organization of the designed system
• PLAY = 该系统的人类体验
• PLAY = the human experience of that system
•文化= 与系统相关并存在于系统中的更大背景
• CULTURE = the larger contexts engaged with and inhabited by the system
例如，在分析或创建字体时，您可能会研究系统的正式规则（字母形式的视觉权重如何相互关联）、系统的发挥（字体产生的阅读体验类型）或系统的文化方面（历史参考和字体将出现的背景）。规则、发挥和文化是一种可以促进任何设计领域批判性设计思维的结构。
In analyzing or creating a typeface, for example, you might study the formal rules of the system (how the visual weights of the letterforms relate to each other), the play of the system (the kind of reading experience that the typeface engenders), or the cultural aspects of the system (historical references and the contexts where the typeface will be seen). RULES, PLAY, and CULTURE is a structure that can facilitate critical design thinking in any design field.
游戏设计基础
Game Design Fundamentals
《游戏规则》是一本关于基础知识的书。作为一种设计实践，游戏设计有其自己的基本原则，即一套定义游戏是什么以及游戏如何运作的思想体系。只有深入了解这些基本概念，该领域的创新才能发展。这些游戏设计基础知识是什么？它们包括理解设计、系统和交互性，以及玩家的选择、行动和结果。它们包括对规则制定和打破规则、复杂性和出现、游戏体验、游戏表现和社交游戏互动的研究。它们包括游戏规则与规则引起的游戏之间的强大联系、游戏所唤起的乐趣、它们构建的意义、它们体现的意识形态以及它们讲述的故事。
Rules of Play is a book about fundamentals. As a design practice, game design has its own essential principles, a system of ideas that define what games are and how they work. Innovation in the field can grow only from a deep understanding of these basic concepts. What are these game design fundamentals? They include understanding design, systems, and interactivity, as well as player choice, action, and outcome. They include a study of rule-making and rule-breaking, complexity and emergence, game experience, game representation, and social game interaction. They include the powerful connection between the rules of a game and the play that the rules engender, the pleasures games invoke, the meanings they construct, the ideologies they embody, and the stories they tell.
作为基本原则，这些理念构成了游戏设计师在他们制作的每款游戏中安排和重新安排的构建块系统。听起来可能不太可能，但围棋、Trivial Pursuit、Dance Dance Revolution 和 Unreal Tournament 都具有相同的基本原则，只是表达方式截然不同。游戏设计表达的范围非常广泛、深刻，而且很大程度上尚未探索。通过阐明这些理念，我们可以提供一套策略，帮助您将这些基本原则与您的特定设计需求相匹配。
As fundamental principles, these ideas form a system of building blocks that game designers arrange and rearrange in every game they create. As unlikely as it may sound, Go, Trivial Pursuit, Dance Dance Revolution, and Unreal Tournament all share the same fundamental principles, articulated in radically different ways. The range of game design expression is vast, deep, and largely unexplored. By clarifying these ideas, we can provide a set of strategies that help you fit these fundamentals to your particular design needs.
《游戏规则》是一本面向游戏学者和设计师的书，但它也与教学和学习息息相关。游戏设计教育是游戏设计理论和实践的重要对照，因为在课堂上，本书中确立的基本原则可以被探索、剖析、批判和重新发明。在开发教学材料时，我们必须问：构成游戏设计课程的主要要素是什么？课程包括哪些课程，课程的目标是什么，学生需要知道什么才能成为游戏设计师？
Rules of Play is a book for practicing game scholars and designers, but it is also very much about teaching and learning. Game design education represents an important counterpoint to game design theory and practice, for in the classroom the fundamentals established in this book can be explored, dissected, critiqued, and reinvented. In developing material for teaching and learning, we had to ask, What are the principle elements that constitute a game design curriculum? What courses does the curriculum include, what are the objectives of the courses, what is it that students need to know to become game designers?
这些都是学院、大学和其他专业机构在开发游戏设计教育课程时肯定会提出的问题。这些课程的需求各不相同：美术学院的游戏设计研究生学位课程、比较媒体系的游戏设计本科辅修课程和专业会议上的游戏设计行业研讨会之间存在巨大差异。
These are questions certain to be raised by colleges, universities, and other professional institutions as they develop educational programs in game design. The needs of these programs are diverse: there is a tremendous difference between a graduate game design degree program in a school of fine arts, an undergraduate minor in game design within a comparative media department, and an industry workshop on game design at a professional conference.
没有哪一门课程可以适合所有这些情况。我们并没有设计一个单一的课程，而是提供了一些工具，让教师能够解决他们自己的特殊情况。我们在开发参考书目、推荐阅读、案例研究、委托游戏和游戏设计练习时都考虑到了这种灵活性。我们相信，满足不同（也许是相互竞争的）观点需求的各种课程将带来更好的游戏、更好的游戏设计师，以及更有意义的游戏时间。
No single curriculum can fit all of these contexts. Rather than design a single program, we have instead provided tools to allow faculty to address their own particular circumstances. We developed the bibliography, suggested readings, case studies, commissioned games, and game design exercises with this kind of flexibility in mind. We believe that a variety of curricula that meet the needs of different (and perhaps competing) perspectives will lead to better games, better game designers, and hours and hours of more meaningful play.
进一步阅读
Further Readings
在大部分后续章节的末尾，我们都会列出一份书籍清单，以建议进一步阅读。这些阅读材料可能用于构建课程大纲、研讨会讲义，或满足读者对本章介绍的主题的好奇心。所选阅读材料反映了我们自己的特质，并非游戏设计理论的权威典范。但它们确实代表了我们认为与该主题最相关的资料。
At the end of most of the chapters to follow, we include a list of books to suggest further readings. These readings might be used to construct a syllabus for a class, a handout for a workshop, or to round out curiosity on a topic introduced in the chapter. The selected readings reflect our own idiosyncrasies, and are not meant as a definitive canon for game design theory. However, they do represent what we felt were the most relevant sources on the topic.
每章仅列出少量的进一步阅读材料，但本书中还有其他研究资料。在本书的最后，我们列出了一些未纳入任何特定章节的建议阅读材料。章节脚注和一般参考书目还包含许多未在任何进一步阅读材料列表中找到的参考资料。以下是本章的建议阅读材料。
Each chapter lists only a handful of further readings, but there are other research sources in this book as well. At the end of the book, we include a few more suggested readings that did not fit into any particular chapter. The chapter footnotes and general bibliography also contain many references that are not found in any of the further readings listings. Following are the suggested readings for this chapter.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
电脑游戏设计艺术，作者：Chris Crawford
The Art of Computer Game Design, by Chris Crawford
Chris Crawford 是一名游戏设计师，他的职业生涯始于 Atari。1982 年，他撰写了《计算机游戏设计艺术》，当时计算机才刚刚开始进入人们的家庭。这本书是最早涉及游戏设计本质的书籍之一，尽管其中一些想法已经随着该领域的进步而过时，但它仍然是游戏设计基本原则的绝佳资源。这本书已绝版，但可在线获取：< http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/gamebook/Coverpage.html >
Chris Crawford is a game designer who started his career at Atari. He wrote The Art of Computer Game Design in 1982, at a time when computers were just beginning to appear in people’s homes. The book was one of the very first texts dealing with the nature of game design, and although some of the ideas have been dated by advances in the field, it is still an excellent resource for basic game design principles. The book is out of print, but the text is available online at: <http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/gamebook/Coverpage.html>
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第 1 章：什么是游戏？
Chapter 1: What Is a Game?
第三章：电脑游戏的分类
Chapter 3: A Taxonomy of Computer Games
第五章：游戏设计顺序
Chapter 5: The Game Design Sequence
Gamasutra，游戏制作的艺术和科学< www.gamasutra.com >
Gamasutra, The Art and Science of Making Games <www.gamasutra.com>
Gamasutra是 Gama Network 的一部分，该网络包括游戏开发者大会和游戏开发者杂志，是目前最好的游戏设计资源之一。该网站提供游戏开发行业的新闻、有关实际游戏设计问题的编辑专题以及商业游戏的事后分析。他们最近增加了一个教育版块，发布更多有关游戏和游戏设计的学术性文章。我们经常访问这个网站。
Part of the Gama Network, which includes the Game Developers Conference and Game Developer Magazine, Gamasutra is one of the very best game design resources around. The site supports news from the game development industry, editorial features on practical game design problems, and postmortems of commercial games. They recently added a section on education, publishing more academically-oriented writing on games and game design. We visit this site regularly.
游戏研究：国际计算机游戏研究杂志，由 Espen Aarseth、Markku Eskelinen、Marie-Laure Ryan、Susana Tosca 编辑 < www.gamestudies.org >
Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research, edited by Espen Aarseth, Markku Eskelinen, Marie-Laure Ryan, Susana Tosca <www.gamestudies.org>
《游戏研究》是一本关于计算机和视频游戏的跨学科、同行评议期刊，是游戏学术论文的良好资源。该期刊由一支对游戏研究有着浓厚兴趣的优秀学者和研究人员团队编辑，专注于从人文和游戏学的角度进行游戏研究。虽然材料不一定以游戏设计为重点，但文章提供了有关叙事、媒体、互动性和沉浸感等更大理论问题的各种模型和批评。
A good resource for new scholarly writing on games, Game Studies is a cross-disciplinary, peer-reviewed journal on computer and video games. Edited by an excellent team of academics and researchers with a deep interest in the study of games, the journal focuses on games research from a humanities and ludology perspective. While the material does not necessarily have a game design focus, the articles offer various models and critiques of larger theoretical issues regarding narrative, media, interactivity, and immersion.
IGDA 课程框架：游戏与游戏开发研究，由国际游戏开发者协会教育委员会制定
IGDA Curriculum Framework: The Study of Games and Game Development, by the International Game Developers Association, Education Committee
过去几年，IGDA 成员 Doug Church、Robin Hunicke、Jason Della Roca、Warren Spector 和 Eric Zimmerman 一直在创建一份文件，为游戏设计课程提供实用框架。该文件不仅涉及游戏设计，还涉及视觉设计、编程、商业以及基于人文和社会科学的游戏研究等各种相关领域。课程框架面向教育工作者和学生，采用模块化框架的形式，可应用于各种不同的环境。该文件的当前草案可在 < http://www.igda.org /> 上找到。
For the last few years, IGDA members Doug Church, Robin Hunicke, Jason Della Roca, Warren Spector, and Eric Zimmerman have been creating a document that provides a practical framework for a game design curriculum. The document not only addresses game design, but also related fields as diverse as visual design, programming, business, and humanities and social science-based game studies. The Curriculum Framework is intended for educators and students and takes the form of a modular framework that can be applied to a variety of different contexts. Find the current draft of the document at <http://www.igda.org/>.
格雷格·科斯蒂基安的《我无话可说，但我必须设计》
“I Have No Words but I Must Design,” by Greg Costikyan
Greg Costikyan 是一位电脑和纸质游戏设计师，曾撰写过多篇关于游戏设计的文章。《我无话可说》最初发表于 1994 年《互动幻想》杂志第二期。该文章可在 Costikyan 的网站 < http://www.costik.com/nowords.html >上找到，旨在为游戏设计制定一套关键词汇。虽然篇幅很短，但这是一篇雄心勃勃、影响深远的文章，其中包含了对游戏的实用定义。
Greg Costikyan is a computer and paper game designer who has written many essays on game design. I Have No Words was originally published in 1994 in the second issue of Interactive Fantasy. The article is found on Costikyan’s website at <http://www.costik.com/nowords.html> and is an attempt to formulate a critical vocabulary for game design. Although short, it is an ambitious and influential essay, and includes a useful definition of games.
《规则、游戏和文化：将军！》（作者：弗兰克·兰兹和埃里克·齐默曼）
“Rules, Play, and Culture: Checkmate!” by Frank Lantz and Eric Zimmerman
这篇文章最初发表于 1999 年的《Merge Magazine》，是两位作者在纽约大学共同教授游戏设计时开发的三部分游戏思维模型的首次亮相。该模型的元素是本书整体结构的基础。因此，本文对这些核心游戏设计主题进行了简要而实用的概述。
This essay, originally published in 1999 in Merge Magazine, is the first appearance of the three-part Rules/Play/Culture model for thinking about games, which the authors developed while teaching game design together at New York University. Elements of this model were the basis for the overall structure of this book. As such, the essay offers a brief and useful overview of these core game design topics.
笔记
Notes
1. EM Avedon，《游戏的结构元素》，《游戏研究》由 EM Avedon 和 Brian Sutton-Smith 编辑（纽约：Wiley，1971 年），第 438 页。
1. E.M. Avedon, “The Structural Elements of Games,” In The Study of Games, edited by E.M. Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith (New York: Wiley, 1971), p. 438.
2. RE: PLAY：游戏设计 + 游戏文化。在线会议，2000 年。< www.eyebeam.org.replay >
2. RE: PLAY: Game Design + Game Culture. Online conference, 2000. <www.eyebeam.org.replay>
3. “计算机和视频游戏已成熟。全国会议探讨娱乐媒体的现状。”2000 年 2 月 10-11 日。麻省理工学院比较媒体研究系。文字记录。亨利·詹金斯。
3. “Computer and Video Games Come of Age. A National Conference to Explore the Current State of an Entertainment Medium.” February 10–11, 2000. Comparative Media Studies Department, MIT. Transcripts. Henry Jenkins.
4. Jesper Juul，布朗大学数字艺术与文化会议，2001 年。
4. Jesper Juul, Digital Arts and Culture Conference at Brown University, 2001.
5. Christopher Alexander，《形式综合笔记》（剑桥：哈佛大学出版社，1964 年），第 60 页。
5. Christopher Alexander, Notes on the Synthesis of Form (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964), p. 60.
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设计过程
The Design Process
你觉得怎么样？我又回到了高效的游戏中，现在有计划地即兴设计一条路线，将看似错误的地方变成另一种方式。——大卫·苏德诺，《微观世界的朝圣者》
How do you like that. I’m right back into efficacious play, now planfully improvising a route by turning what looked like a mistake into an alternative way to go.—David Sudnow, Pilgrim in the Microworld
迭代设计
Iterative Design
游戏设计教育不能只从理论角度来理解游戏。任何设计领域都是如此：设计师通过设计过程，即直接体验他们制作的东西，可以学到最多的东西。因此，作为游戏设计专业的学生，他们接受的大部分培训都必须涉及游戏的创作。这本书看似概念性很强，但它的目的不仅仅是引发辩论和分析，还在于促进游戏的设计。在本章中，我们将提供一些工具，用于将我们对游戏的想法融入到游戏制作过程中。
A game design education cannot consist of a purely theoretical approach to games. This is true of any design field: designers learn best through the process of design, by directly experiencing the things they make. Therefore, a large part of their training as students of game design must involve the creation of games. As conceptual as this book might seem, its intention is not just to spark debate and analysis but to facilitate the design of games. In this chapter we offer a number of tools for integrating our ideas about games into the process of making them.
本书并不提供游戏编程、项目管理或游戏开发其他方面的实用指南。它提供的是一种思考游戏设计过程的方法。这是一种非常简单而强大的方法，源自十多年的游戏教学和设计经验。我们将这种方法称为迭代设计。我们当然不是第一个使用这个术语或它所代表的设计方法的人，但我们的经验表明，对于任何游戏设计师来说，它都是一个无价的工具。
This book does not provide a hands-on guide to game programming, project management, or other aspects of game development. What it does offer is a way of thinking about the process of designing games. It is a very simple and powerful approach, one that grows out of more than a decade of experience in teaching and designing games. We call this approach iterative design. We are certainly not the first to use this term or the design methodology it represents, but our experience has shown that it is an invaluable tool for any game designer.
迭代设计是一种基于游戏的设计过程。迭代设计强调游戏测试和原型设计，是一种根据游戏开发过程中的体验做出设计决策的方法。在迭代方法中，游戏的粗略版本会在设计过程中尽可能早地快速制作原型。这个原型没有最终游戏的任何美学特征，但开始定义其基本规则和核心机制。它不是视觉原型，而是一个交互式原型。这个原型被玩、评估、调整并再次玩，允许设计师或设计团队根据游戏的连续迭代或版本做出决策。迭代设计是一个循环过程，在原型设计、游戏测试、评估和改进之间交替进行。
Iterative design is a play-based design process. Emphasizing playtesting and prototyping, iterative design is a method in which design decisions are made based on the experience of playing a game while it is in development. In an iterative methodology, a rough version of the game is rapidly prototyped as early in the design process as possible. This prototype has none of the aesthetic trappings of the final game, but begins to define its fundamental rules and core mechanics. It is not a visual prototype, but an interactive one. This prototype is played, evaluated, adjusted, and played again, allowing the designer or design team to base decisions on the successive iterations or versions of the game. Iterative design is a cyclic process that alternates between prototyping, playtesting, evaluation, and refinement.
为什么迭代设计对游戏设计师如此重要？因为不可能完全提前预测游戏。永远不可能完全预测游戏体验。游戏是否实现了其设计目标？玩家是否了解他们应该做什么？他们玩得开心吗？他们还想再玩一次吗？这些问题永远无法通过编写设计文档或制定一套游戏规则和材料来回答。它们只能通过游戏来回答。通过迭代设计过程，游戏设计师成为游戏玩家，游戏行为成为设计行为。学习批判性地玩游戏，了解游戏的优势和不足，并能够实施将游戏推向有意义的游戏的改变，这些都是核心游戏设计技能。
Why is iterative design so important for game designers? Because it is not possible to fully anticipate play in advance. It is never possible to completely predict the experience of a game. Is the game accomplishing its design goals? Do the players understand what they are supposed to be doing? Are they having fun? Do they want to play again? These questions can never be answered by writing a design document or crafting a set of game rules and materials. They can only be answered by way of play. Through the iterative design process, the game designer becomes a game player and the act of play becomes an act of design. Learning to play a game critically, seeing where it excels and where it grinds to a halt, and being able to implement changes that will push the game toward meaningful play are all core game design skills.
对于游戏原型设计和游戏测试，我们有一条简单的经验法则：游戏原型应该在项目进度的 20% 时创建并进行游戏测试。如果一款游戏是两周的学生作业，那么学生应该在作业完成后两天内玩到该游戏的一个版本。如果这是一款商业电脑游戏，从概念到黄金的开发进度为 15 个月，那么原型应该在开发三个月后开始运行——最迟如此。
We have a straightforward rule of thumb regarding prototyping and playtesting games: a game prototype should be created and playtested, at the absolute latest, 20 percent of the way into a project schedule. If a game is a two-week student assignment, the students should be playing a version of the game two days after it is assigned. If it is a commercial computer game with a 15-month concept-to-gold schedule, a prototype should be up and running three months into development—at the absolute latest.
早期的原型并不漂亮。它们可能是数字游戏的纸质版本、网络体验的单人版本、手写战略战争游戏的棋盘和棋子，或者带有占位符图案的丑陋交互式模型。尽管如此，原型不仅仅是一个交互式幻灯片——它是一个真正可玩的游戏，开始解决整个项目的游戏设计挑战。在线多人游戏 SiSSYFiGHT 2000 的原型首先是在会议桌旁的便签上制作的，接下来是一个纯文本的 IRC（互联网中继聊天）游戏，然后是一个基于网络的骨架游戏，这成为最终应用程序的基础。在每个阶段，游戏原型都经过严格的试玩、评估、调整和再次试玩。
Early prototypes are not pretty. They might be paper versions of a digital game, a single-player version of a networked experience, hand-scrawled board and pieces for a strategy wargame, or a butt-ugly interactive mock-up with placeholder artwork. Still, the prototype is more than an interactive slideshow—it is a genuinely playable game that begins to address game design challenges of the project as a whole. The online multiplayer game SiSSYFiGHT 2000 was first prototyped on Post-It notes around a conference table, next as a text-only IRC (Internet Relay Chat) game, and then as a skeletal web-based game, which became the basis for the final application. At each stage, the game prototype was rigorously played, evaluated, tweaked, and played again.
大多数纸质游戏设计师都遵循迭代设计流程，但大多数数字游戏设计师却不这样做。通常，商业计算机游戏在实际游戏制作开始之前就已经设计好了，包括长达数百页的大量故事板和设计文档。一旦开始制作开发，这些文档就必然会过时。为什么？因为游戏的玩法总是会令其创造者感到惊讶，特别是当游戏设计不同寻常或具有实验性时。即使是经验丰富的设计师，在亲身体验游戏之前也无法准确预测什么会起作用，什么不会起作用。尽早制作游戏原型。在整个设计过程中玩它。让尽可能多的人玩你的游戏，并观察他们玩。让自己感到惊讶和挑战。保持灵活性。别忘了享受乐趣。
Most paper-based game designers follow an iterative design process, but most digital game designers do not. Typically, a commercial computer game is copiously designed in advance, with extensive storyboards and design documents often hundreds of pages long, completed before any actual game production begins. These documents invariably become obsolete as soon as production development starts. Why? Because the play of a game will always surprise its creators, particularly if the game design is unusual or experimental. Even a veteran designer cannot exactly predict what will and will not work before experiencing the game firsthand. Prototype your game early. Play it throughout the entire design process. Have as many other people as you possibly can play your game, and observe them playing. Let yourself be surprised and challenged. Remain flexible. And don’t forget to have fun.
管理游戏软件开发或任何类型的游戏开发都有其自身的挑战，我们并不是说迭代设计代表了一种完整的开发方法。我们的重点是游戏设计，而不是游戏开发。迭代设计只是将游戏项目从概念推向完成的更大流程的一部分。但就其本身而言，它是严格有效的游戏设计流程的绝佳起点。
Managing game software development or any kind of game development offers its own challenges, and we are not suggesting that iterative design represents a complete development methodology. Our focus is game design, not game development. Iterative design is just one part of a much larger process for moving a game project from concept to completion. But taken on its own, it is an excellent starting point for a rigorous and effective game design process.
佣金
Commissions
理解迭代设计的最佳方法之一是研究其他游戏设计师的流程。他们是如何想出游戏创意的？他们如何实施、测试和改进这些创意？他们的游戏在设计过程中如何发展和变化？为了给出这些问题的可能答案，我们委托了四位游戏设计师专门为本书制作游戏。我们要求每位设计师设计一款可以打印和玩的游戏，作为对文本中涵盖的游戏设计原则的补充。此外（这还不够！），我们要求他们记录他们的设计过程，以此来分享沿途遇到的坎坷、斗争和障碍。这些设计日记是丰富多样的文档，详细描述了游戏设计本身的经验。虽然每个设计师都提出了非常不同的观点，但他们都严格遵循了迭代设计流程。
One of the best ways to understand iterative design is to study the processes of other game designers. How do they come up with ideas for games? How do they implement, playtest, and refine these ideas? How do their games evolve and change during the design process? In order to present possible answers to these questions, we commissioned four game designers to create games specifically for this book. We asked each designer to design a game that could be printed and played as a supplement to the game design principles covered in the text. In addition (as if that weren’t enough!), we asked them to keep a log of their design process, as a way to share the bumps, battles, and roadblocks encountered along the way. These design dairies are rich and varied documents that detail the experience of game design itself. Although each designer presents a very different point of view, all of them make rigorous use of an iterative design process.
在我们看来，这些委托游戏都很有趣。当然，你必须自己决定。这四款游戏及其随附的设计日志出现在书中的不同部分，补充了特定的章节或章节集。游戏使用不同的材料，一些印在书中，另一些由你提供，例如骰子、游戏代币或一副扑克牌。Kira Snyder 的游戏使用书本身作为游戏材料，而 Richard Garfield 的游戏使用游戏板，你必须复印才能玩。每个游戏都包含概要和规则集，但下面是每个游戏的快速概述。
And in our humble opinion, the commissioned games are all fun to play. Of course, you will have to decide for yourself. The four games and their accompanying design logs appear in different sections of the book, supplementing a particular chapter or set of chapters. The games use different sets of materials, some printed in the book, others you provide, such as dice, game tokens, or a deck of playing cards. Kira Snyder’s game uses the book itself as a game material, whereas Richard Garfield’s game uses a gameboard that you must photocopy in order to play. Each game includes a synopsis and rule set, but below is a quick overview of each.
理查德·加菲尔德：兄弟姐妹间的竞争（第 106 页）
Richard Garfield: Sibling Rivalry (page 106)
兄弟姐妹之间的对抗是一款适合两人或多人玩的棋盘游戏，游戏讲述的是行为不端的兄弟姐妹之间的冲突。玩家掷骰子并沿着棋盘上的一系列“轨道”移动，尽最大努力表现糟糕，同时避免被父母发现和惩罚。
A board game for two or more players, Sibling Rivalry is a game of conflict between misbehaving siblings. Players roll dice and move along a series of “tracks” on a board, trying their best to behave badly while still avoiding detection and punishment by their parents.
弗兰克·兰兹：铁甲舰（第 284 页）
Frank Lantz: Ironclad (page 284)
Ironclad 是一款双人游戏，由两个在同一棋盘上同时进行的“子游戏”组成。一个是大型武装机器人对战团队之间的竞技场战斗。另一个是关于两个逻辑学家试图解决一个哲学辩论。玩家每回合都会玩这两种游戏，没有人知道实际上在玩哪种游戏，直到满足其中一组胜利条件。Ironclad 在棋盘网格上进行，使用围棋棋子和跳棋棋子。
Ironclad is a two-payer game composed of two “sub-games” played simultaneously on the same board. One is a game of arena combat between opposing teams of massive, armed robots. The other is a game about two logicians attempting to resolve a philosophical debate. Players play in both games each turn, and no one is certain which game is actually being played until one of the sets of victory conditions is met. Ironclad is played on a checkerboard grid, with Go stones and Checkers pieces.
Kira Snyder：潜行（第 490 页）
Kira Snyder: Sneak (page 490)
潜行是一种社交欺骗游戏，由四名或更多玩家玩。小组中的一名玩家被秘密指定为双重间谍，被称为潜行者。本书中印刷的信息为玩家提供了一些行动，以帮助揭示小组中谁是潜行者。通过成功识别潜行者并欺骗其他玩家猜错，获得最高分。
Sneak is a game of social deception, played with four or more players. One player among the group is secretly assigned the status of double agent, known as the Sneak. Information printed within this book provides players with actions to help reveal who among the group is the Sneak. Earn the most points by successfully identifying the Sneak and by fooling other players into guessing incorrectly.
詹姆斯·厄内斯特：加勒比之星（第 588 页）
James Ernest: Caribbean Star (page 588)
加勒比之星使用一副普通扑克牌进行游戏，游戏双方是两名邮轮魔术师，他们意外地被安排在同一艘船上。魔术师们有整整一周的时间来证明谁是更好的魔术师，魔术师们通过巧妙地用扑克牌编排有趣的魔术表演来展示他们的技能。
Played with a deck of ordinary playing cards, Caribbean Star is a battle between two cruise ship magicians who have been accidentally booked on the same ship. The magicians have exactly one week to prove who is the better magician, a feat that is played out as the magicians show off their skills by strategically composing entertaining magic shows out of cards.
为了深入了解更复杂的游戏设计过程，我们委托撰写了一篇额外的文章。这篇文章由多产的棋盘游戏设计师 Reiner Knizia 撰写，描述了设计《指环王》棋盘游戏的概念和实践过程。这篇关于他的迭代设计过程的详细说明紧接着本章。
To give insight into a more involved game design process, we commissioned one additional essay. Written by the prolific board game designer Reiner Knizia, the essay describes the conceptual and practical process of designing the Lord of the Rings Board Game. This detailed account of his iterative design process appears immediately following this chapter.
游戏设计练习
Game Design Exercises
在接下来的几页中，我们将提供大量实用的游戏设计练习，供学生和设计师在课堂和专业研讨会上使用，供个人或协作使用，供短期实验或长期论文使用。游戏设计练习有无数种可能。我们不会提供详尽的列表，而是提供一系列示例，您可以根据工作环境的需求进行修改。此处介绍的练习绝不是一份全面的作业目录；它们旨在作为您开发自己的游戏设计练习的起点。
In the pages that follow, we offer a number of practical game design exercises, for students and designers, for use in classrooms and professional workshops, for solo or collaborative efforts, for short-term experiments or long-term theses. There are innumerable possibilities for what a game design exercise might be. Rather than provide an extensive list, we offer a series of examples that you can alter to fit the needs of the context in which you are working. The exercises presented here by no means represent a comprehensive catalog of assignments; they are meant to act as jumping off points for the development of your own game design exercises.
列出的每个练习都有一个特定的设计重点，与本书的一个章节或一组章节相对应。设计重点有两个关键作用。首先，它指导学生工作，为他们提供指导思维和设计方法的具体方法。其次，设计重点为教师提供了一种在设计过程中和设计之后评估项目的方法，为分析游戏的成功和失败提供了一个概念框架。在每个练习中，设计重点有助于识别设计问题以及潜在的解决方案。
Each exercise listed has a particular design focus, corresponding to a chapter or set of chapters in this book. The design focus serves two crucial roles. First, it guides students as they work, giving them a concrete way to direct their thinking and design method. Second, a design focus gives instructors a way to evaluate a project during and after the design process, offering a conceptual framework for analyzing a game’s successes and failures. In each exercise, the design focus helps identify the design problem as well as potential solutions.
练习分为三类：游戏创作、游戏修改和游戏分析。请注意，其中许多练习都使用了相关章节中解释的概念和术语。当然，不用说，所有这些练习都应该使用迭代设计过程。学习如何迭代设计是游戏设计学生可以学习的最重要的技能。
The exercises are divided into three categories: game creation, game modification, and game analysis. Note that many of them make use of concepts and terms that are explained in the associated chapters. Of course, it goes without saying that all of these exercises should make use of an iterative design process. Learning how to design iteratively is the single most important skill that a game design student can learn.
教室里的计算机
Computers in the Classroom
游戏现象不仅仅涉及电脑游戏，而且教授游戏设计并不一定需要通过在电脑上创建游戏来实现。在我们教授游戏设计的多年时间里，我们的大多数课程都没有要求学生真正编写游戏程序。编程并不等同于游戏设计，一旦学生被要求在电脑上创建游戏，编程很快就会成为他们的主要活动。
The phenomenon of games encompasses more than just computer games, and teaching game design does not have to happen through the creation of games on computers. In our many years of teaching game design, most of our classes have not required students to actually program games. Programming is not the equivalent of game design and as soon as students are tasked with creating games on a computer, programming can quickly become their primary activity.
在我们的课程中，学生们被要求关注核心游戏设计问题，这些问题并非数字技术所固有的。在许多情况下，学生们使用电脑来制作棋盘游戏、纸牌游戏、实体游戏和社交游戏。即使课程强调数字游戏的创作，游戏设计问题也占据中心位置。这并不是说这是一个非此即彼的情况。例如，基于纸张的游戏设计可以在以后在数字媒体中实现。
In our classes, students are asked to focus on core game design issues, issues which are not intrinsic to digital technology. In many cases, the students work off of the computer to create board games, card games, physical games, and social games. Even when the course emphasizes the creation of digital games, game design issues take center stage. This is not to say that it is an either-or situation. For example, a paper-based game design could be later implemented within a digital medium.
有很多方法可以将计算机技术融入游戏设计练习中，例如使用商业游戏关卡编辑器来设计游戏关卡，创建基于电子邮件的游戏，其中由人类主持人处理游戏动作的结果，或者从头开始编写游戏。游戏设计甚至可以用来教授编程的概念方法，这种方法植根于迭代、对象关系、动作和结果。毋庸置疑，您创建的课程应该基于您自己的技能和兴趣——只需记住仔细管理游戏设计基础和媒体制作技能之间的平衡。
There are many ways to incorporate computer technology into game design exercises, such as using a commercial game level editor to design game levels, creating an email-based game in which a human moderator processes the outcome of game actions, or by programming games from scratch. Game design can even be used to teach a conceptual approach to programming, one rooted in iteration, object relationships, actions and outcomes. It goes without saying that the curriculum you create should be based on your own skills and interests—just remember to carefully manage the balance between game design fundamentals and media production skills.
游戏创作练习涉及从头开始制作游戏。此处包含的任何游戏创作练习都可能设计为在一堂课、一个周末、两三周或一个学期内进行。
Game creation exercises involve making a game from scratch. Any of the game creation exercises included here might be designed to take place within a single class, over a weekend, during two or three weeks, or over the course of a single semester.
在每个练习中，设计重点都体现为一组提供给学生的参数，以限制和集中他们的设计思维。例如，一组学生正在创建一款以社交互动为设计重点的游戏，可能会被赋予参数，指定玩家数量（2、5 或 20）以及游戏所创造的社交关系类型（例如友情、敌意或调情）。参数还可以解决正在设计的游戏的媒介或格式。这些参数可以在课前创建，写在索引卡上并随机分发给学生团队（2-4 人的团队通常效果最好，具体取决于上下文和作业）。或者，学生可以选择自己的参数。通常，两个或三个参数足以集中学生的思维，而不会因太多限制而使他们感到窒息。
In each exercise the design focus manifests as a set of parameters given to the students in order to limit and focus their design thinking. For example, a group of students creating a game with a design focus on social interaction might be given parameters specifying the number of players (2, 5, or 20) and the kind of social relationships the game creates (such as camaraderie, animosity, or flirtation). Parameters can also address the medium or format of the game being designed. These parameters can be created before class, written on index cards and randomly distributed to teams of students (teams of 2–4 often work best, depending on the context and the assignment). Alternatively, students might select their own parameters. Typically two or three parameters are sufficient to focus student thinking without suffocating them with too many restrictions.
信息操纵
Information Manipulation
设计焦点：游戏作为信息系统（第 17 章）
Design Focus: Games as Systems of Information (chapter 17)
描述：根据公开和私人信息的使用情况，为学生提供设计参数。示例包括：所有游戏信息都是公开的，一些游戏信息是私人的，游戏中的一名玩家拥有特殊的私人知识，游戏包含在游戏开始时对所有玩家隐藏的信息等。为了让游戏专注于形式问题，而不是游戏媒体的发明，材料仅限于传统游戏材料，例如一副牌或棋盘和游戏棋子。
Description: Students are given design parameters based on the use of public and private information. Examples include: all game information is public, some game information is private, one player in the game has special private knowledge, the game contains information that is hidden from all players at the start of the game, etc. In order to keep the game focused on formal issues, rather than the invention of game media, the materials are limited to traditional game materials such as a deck of cards or a board and game pieces.
精致的尸体游戏
The Exquisite Corpse Game Game
设计焦点：三个层次的规则（第 12 章）
Design Focus: Rules on Three Levels (chapter 12)
描述：这种正式的设计练习最适合三人一组进行。每组的第一个人秘密写下两条可以在课堂上玩的游戏规则，每条规则在一张纸上单独写一行。最上面的规则被遮住，第二条规则露出来。第二个人看第二条规则并写下另外两条，最后一条规则露出来，让第三个人再写一条规则和一个获胜条件。然后揭示规则，小组必须根据整套规则设计一款游戏。练习的目的是了解游戏系统中规则如何相互作用，并探索规则中模糊性和特异性的限度。如果每组人数较多，学生可能只写一条规则，以防止规则集变得过于复杂。
Description: This formal design exercise works best with groups of three. The first person in each group secretly writes down two game rules for a game that could be played in the classroom, each rule on a separate line of a sheet of paper. The top rule is covered up and the second is left visible. The second person looks at the second rule and writes two more, leaving the last rule visible for the third person to write one more rule and a winning condition. The rules are then revealed and the group has to fashion a game out of the total set of rules. The goal of the exercise is to see how rules interact with each other within the system of a game, and to explore the limits of ambiguity and specificity in rules. With more people in each group, students might write only a single rule, to keep the rule-set from becoming too complex.
设计焦点：游戏作为体验游戏（第 23 章）
Design Focus: Games as the Play of Experience (chapter 23)
描述：在这个基于游戏的练习中，学生将获得体验参数来限制和集中他们的游戏设计，包括感官（设计一款强调触觉、味觉或嗅觉体验的游戏）、情绪（让玩家体验愤怒、恐惧或笑声），或第23 章中的游戏体验类型之一（围绕 Caillois 的 ilinx、alea、agôn 或模仿概念设计游戏）。游戏媒介是开放的，也可以作为参数。
Description: In this play-based exercise, students are given experiential parameters to limit and focus their game design, including the senses (design a game that emphasizes the experience of touch, taste, or smell), emotions (cause the players to experience anger, fear, or laughter), or one of the typologies of play experience from chapter 23 (design a game around Caillois’ concepts of ilinx, alea, agôn, or mimicry). The medium of the game is wide open and could serve as a parameter as well.
创造元游戏
Engendering the Metagame
设计焦点：游戏作为社交游戏（第 28 章）
Design Focus: Games as Social Play (chapter 28)
描述：学生创建一款专门用于培养新兴元游戏的游戏。例如，此练习的参数可能是游戏持续时间不得超过 60 秒，并且设计为快速连续进行。学生将报告和分析最终的元游戏，作为整体练习的一部分。
Description: Students create a game that is specifically designed to foster emergent metagames. For example, the parameters for this exercise might be that the game must last for no more than 60 seconds and is designed to be played in rapid succession. Students would report on and analyze the resulting metagame as part of the overall exercise.
特定地点的抵抗力
Site-Specific Resistance
设计焦点：游戏作为文化抵抗（第 32 章）
Design Focus: Games as Cultural Resistance (chapter 32)
描述：玩家创建专为特定物理环境（如地标、地铁车厢、星巴克咖啡馆等）设计的游戏。游戏应通过游戏玩法反映和转变所选环境的文化意识形态。学生可能只能玩他们实际可以实现的游戏，或者他们可能完成范围太大而无法进行游戏测试的游戏，例如涉及整个城市人口的游戏。如果学生无法玩完整个游戏，他们仍应将游戏玩法的某些方面分离出来以进行原型设计和测试。
Description: Players create a game designed for a particular physical context, such as a landmark, subway car, Starbucks café, etc. The game should both reflect and transform the cultural ideology of the chosen context through the play of the game. Students might be limited to games that they can actually implement or they might complete games that are too large in scope to be playtested, such as a game that involves the population of an entire city. If students cannot play their entire game, they should still isolate some aspect of the game play to prototype and test.
开源游戏系统
Open Source Game Systems
设计焦点：游戏作为开放文化（第 31 章）
Design Focus: Games as Open Culture (chapter 31)
描述：每个学生或小组创建一套游戏材料（或游戏系统），可用作各种游戏的基础。然后，他们使用该游戏系统设计单个游戏的规则。然后，每个小组获得另一个小组的游戏系统，并要求他们使用新系统设计游戏。然后，小组采用他们最初创建的游戏系统以及两套游戏规则，创建第三个游戏，该游戏是两者的综合。本练习的重点是设计一套开源游戏材料，使其适用于各种游戏设计。
Description: Each student or group creates a set of game materials (or game system) that could be used as the basis for a variety of games. They then design the rules of a single game using the game system. Each group is then given the game system of another group and asked to design a game using the new system. Groups then take the game systems they originally created, along with the two sets of game rules, and create a third game that is a synthesis of the two. The focus of this exercise is on designing an open source set of game materials that lend themselves to a diversity of game designs.
在所有游戏创作问题中，强调迭代设计过程尤为重要。学生通常很难从头脑风暴游戏创意转变为在实际的游戏原型中实现他们的概念。这就是为什么明智地选择设计参数很重要的原因之一。这些参数将为学生提供限制，帮助他们集中注意力，使他们能够得出一个连贯的设计想法。确保您分配的参数体现了整个练习的设计重点。这将有助于学生理解作业的目标，并在创建设计时评估他们的设计。
In all game creation problems, it is particularly important to emphasize the iterative design process. It is often difficult for students to shift from brainstorming game ideas to implementing their concepts within an actual game prototype. This is one reason why it is important to choose design parameters wisely. The parameters will provide students with limitations that help them focus, allowing them to arrive at a coherent design idea. Make sure that the parameters you do assign embody the design focus of the exercise as a whole. This will help students understand the objective of the assignment and assess their designs as they are creating them.
一种常见的游戏创作场景是，学生从头开始创作游戏，几乎没有任何参数来指导工作。这种情况最常发生在长达一学期或一年的论文或工作室项目中。在这种情况下，学生往往过于雄心勃勃，组织能力不足；有时，设计重点和特定设计参数的纳入可以帮助他们保持更有针对性的设计过程。此外，除非学生在团队中工作或想花大部分时间编程或创建音频和视觉资产，否则他们应该设计非数字游戏或极其简化的数字游戏。
One common game creation scenario is that a student is placed in a situation where he or she is creating a game from scratch with few or no parameters to guide the work. This happens most often in semester-long or year-long thesis or studio projects. Students tend to be grossly over-ambitious and under-organized in these situations; sometimes a design focus and the inclusion of specific design parameters can help them maintain a more directed design process. Also, unless students are working in a team or want to spend most of their time programming or creating audio and visual assets, they should be designing a non-digital game, or an extremely simplified digital one.
修改
Modification
修改练习代表了另一类游戏设计问题。修改练习的起点不是仅使用一组参数来设计游戏，而是通过设计行为来改变现有游戏。前面提到的关于设计重点、精心选择设计参数和使用迭代设计的重要性的观点同样适用于此。
Modification exercises represent another category of game design problems. Instead of coming up with a game using only a set of parameters, the starting point of a modification exercise is an existing game that is altered through an act of design. The same points made earlier about the importance of a design focus, careful selection of design parameters, and the use of iterative design apply equally here.
改变规则
Change the Rules
设计重点：定义规则和三个层次的规则（第 11 章、第 12章）描述：在这个简单的练习中，玩家选择一款游戏并更改一些规则，以查看这些更改如何影响游戏玩法。规则更改应从概念上着眼。例如，可以给学生一些简单、有点不令人满意的游戏，如井字游戏或纸牌游戏战争，并认为规则更改必须带来更有意义的游戏。这个练习也可以作为一个机会来了解制定清晰操作规则的重要性：每个小组必须为其游戏变体编写完整的规则，并观察其他小组仅以书面说明为指导尝试玩游戏。
Design Focus: Defining Rules and Rules on Three Levels (chapters 11, 12) Description: In this straightforward exercise, players take a game and change some of the rules to see how the changes affect game play. The rule changes should be given a conceptual focus. For example, students might be given simplistic, somewhat unsatisfying games like Tic-Tac-Toe or the card game War with the idea that the rule changes must result in more meaningful play. This exercise can also be used as an opportunity to understand the importance of crafting clear operational rules: each group must write the complete rules for its game variant and watch other groups try to play their games with only the written instructions as a guide.
不稳定
Destabilization
设计焦点：游戏作为控制论系统（第 18 章）
Design Focus: Games as Cybernetic Systems (chapter 18)
描述：本练习的起点是一个平衡良好的游戏。利用反馈循环原理，学生必须改变规则，引入正反馈循环或负反馈循环，使游戏状态保持过于静态或使其失去控制，疯狂摆动。然后每个小组将“损坏”的游戏交给另一个小组，后者必须修复设计问题，但要保留第一个小组对游戏规则的更改。
Description: The starting point for this exercise is a well-balanced game. Using principles of feedback loops, students must change the rules to introduce a positive or negative feedback loop that either keeps the game state overly static or makes it swing wildly out of control. Each group then hands its “broken” game to another group, who must fix the design problem but keep the first group’s rule alteration as part of the game.
规模的转变
A Shift in Scale
设计焦点：游戏作为体验游戏（第 23 章）
Design Focus: Games as the Play of Experience (chapter 23)
描述：在这个游戏修改练习中，学生将采用现有的游戏，并通过更改游戏材料对其进行修改。游戏的规模或其他物理属性应该彻底改变。由于游戏规则保持不变，因此两个版本之间的差异将在于各自的体验游戏。
Description: In this game modification exercise, students take an existing game and alter it by changing the game materials. The scale or some other physical attribute of the game should be radically transformed. Because the rules of the game remain the same, the difference between the two versions will lie in the experiential play of each.
运输核心机制
Transporting the Core Mechanic
设计焦点：游戏是一种快乐的玩乐方式（第 24 章）
Design Focus: Games as the Play of Pleasure (chapter 24)
描述：学生首先分析现有游戏并确定其核心机制。然后，他们提取核心机制的概念并用它来修改第二个现有游戏。此练习的变体是将其变成游戏创作问题，学生围绕他们最初确定的核心机制设计游戏。无论哪种情况，练习的目的都是了解核心机制的核心作用，并查看核心机制是否可以成功地从一个游戏环境移植到另一个游戏环境。
Description: Students begin by analyzing an existing game and identifying its core mechanic. They then extract the concept of the core mechanic and use it to modify a second existing game. A variant on this exercise is to turn it into a game creation problem in which students design a game around the core mechanic they initially identified. In either case, the point of the exercise is to understand the central role of a core mechanic and to see whether or not core mechanics can be successfully transplanted from one game context to another.
新的描述
New Depictions
设计焦点：游戏作为模拟游戏（第 27 章）
Design Focus: Games as the Play of Simulation (chapter 27)
描述：在此练习中，玩家选择一款描述一种冲突或活动形式的游戏，并对其进行修改，使其描述另一种形式。设计参数可能是对领土/经济/知识区别的打乱（使国际象棋成为知识冲突，或使 Trivial Pursuit 成为领土冲突）。另一种可能性是修改游戏以描述游戏中通常不会出现的主题，例如社会或心理冲突。游戏应使用程序化表示技术来描述其主题。
Description: In this exercise, players take a game that depicts one form of conflict or activity and modify the game so that it depicts another form. The design parameters might be a shuffling of the territory/economy/knowledge distinction (make Chess a conflict over knowledge or Trivial Pursuit a territorial conflict). Another possibility is to modify the games to depict subject matter not normally found in games, such as social or psychological conflict. The games should use techniques of procedural representation to depict their subject matter.
彩票的修辞
The Rhetoric of the Lottery
设计焦点：游戏作为文化修辞，游戏作为文化抵抗（第 30 章、第 32 章）
Design Focus: Games as Cultural Rhetoric, and Games as Cultural Resistance (chapters 30, 32)
描述：每个学生或小组都会得到一张现有的刮刮乐彩票作为起点。通过分析游戏中隐含的意识形态修辞，学生重新设计彩票的图形和形式元素，以颠覆修辞。作为设计练习的一部分，学生还可以重新构想游戏的建筑或社会背景。第三个变体要求学生选择一种与彩票现有修辞相矛盾的文化修辞（例如选择“进步”而不是“命运”；然后，学生们重新设计游戏的信息系统，以在两种相互竞争的意识形态之间制造摩擦。
Description: Each student or group is given an existing lottery scratch-off game ticket as a starting point. Through an analysis of the ideological rhetorics implicit in the game, students redesign the graphical and formal elements of the ticket in order to subvert the rhetoric. As part of the design exercise, students might also reconceive the architectural or social context in which the game is played. A third variant asks the students to select a cultural rhetoric that is at odds with a lottery’s existing rhetoric (such as selecting Progress in opposition to Fate). The students then redesign the game’s system of information to create friction between the two competing ideologies.
分析
Analysis
除了创作和修改游戏之外，游戏设计专业的学生玩游戏也非常重要，玩很多很多的游戏。学生应该玩所有类型的游戏，数字和非数字的、当代的和历史的、杰作和烂游戏。游戏设计专业的学生玩这些游戏是为了培养对已经设计好的游戏的历史意识和批判意识，学习游戏如何创造体验，并发现特定设计选择中哪些可行哪些不可行。
In addition to creating and modifying games, it is incredibly important that game design students play games, lots and lots of them. Students should play every possible kind of game, digital and non-digital, contemporary and historical, masterpiece and stinker. Game design students play these games in order to cultivate a historical awareness and critical sensibility about the kinds of games that have already been designed, to learn how games function to create experiences, and to discover what does and doesn’t work about particular design choices.
每次学生玩游戏时，他们都应该对其进行分析。分析可能采取非正式讨论的形式，也可能是正式的书面论文。书面分析的范围从三页的短篇论文到主要的研究论文。书面分析对于提高学生的批判性思维特别有用，但必须以明确的概念为重点，否则它们就有可能成为学生最喜欢的游戏的大量描述性的“电影评论”。本书中的每个图式都提供了一个高度具体的框架来指导学生的分析。
Every time students play a game, they should analyze it. The analysis might take the form of an informal discussion, or it might be a formal written essay. Written analyses can range from short, three-page papers to major research theses. Written analyses are particularly useful in sharpening a student’s critical thinking, but they must be assigned with a clear conceptual focus or they run the risk of becoming a largely descriptive “movie review” of a student’s favorite game. Each schema in this book provides a highly specific framework to direct a student analysis.
控制论分析
Cybernetic Analysis
设计焦点：游戏作为控制论系统（第 18 章）
Design Focus: Games as Cybernetic Systems (chapter 18)
描述：本分析的重点是识别游戏形式结构中的控制论反馈回路。学生必须选择一款游戏并找到至少一个对游戏整体系统有贡献的反馈回路。学生还应识别回路中的传感器、比较器和执行器，以及它是正反馈回路还是负反馈回路。进一步分析的问题包括：反馈回路如何影响整体游戏体验？如果将其从游戏中移除会发生什么？如何更改规则以夸大反馈回路的影响？有哪些不同的反馈回路可以进一步改善游戏？
Description: The emphasis of this analysis is on identifying cybernetic feedback loops within the formal structure of a game. Students must select a game and find at least one feedback loop that contributes to the overall system of the game. Students also should identify the sensor, comparator, and actuator in the loop and whether it is a positive or negative feedback loop. Further questions for analysis include: How does the feedback loop affect the overall game play experience? What would happen if it were taken out of the game? How could the rules be changed to exaggerate the effects of the feedback loop? What is a different feedback loop that might further improve the game?
叙述分析
Narrative Analysis
设计焦点：叙事性游戏（第 26 章）
Design Focus: Games as Narrative Play (chapter 26)
描述：学生选择一款游戏并将其作为叙事表现系统进行研究。他们必须识别嵌入式和新兴叙事的元素，并讨论游戏使用的不同形式的叙事描述符。例如，背景、情节和角色扮演什么角色？视觉设计、游戏标题、游戏世界的空间构造又如何呢？
Description: Students choose a game and study it as a system of narrative representation. They must identify elements of embedded and emergent narrative, as well as discuss the different forms of narrative descriptors used by the game. For example, what role do setting, plot, and character play? What about the visual design, the title of the game, the spatial construction of the game world?
设计焦点：游戏作为社交游戏 （第 28 章）
Design Focus: Games as Social Play (chapter 28)
描述：学生使用社交游戏模式中的概念来分析游戏。他们必须在论文中确定以下社交游戏现象中的至少两种，并描述这些元素如何促进有意义的游戏：玩家角色、玩家社区、核心社交机制、元游戏、禁忌游戏。
Description: Using concepts from the schema on social play, students analyze a game. They must identify at least two of the following social play phenomena in their paper and describe how these elements contribute to meaningful play: player roles, player community, core social mechanics, metagaming, forbidden play.
文化环境分析
Cultural Environment Analysis
设计焦点：游戏作为文化环境 （第 33 章）
Design Focus: Games as Cultural Environment (chapter 33)
描述：在本练习中，学生选择一款模糊魔法圈边界的游戏作为文化环境。分析应解决以下问题：游戏的哪些社交、建筑、叙事或其他方面与魔法圈外的世界重叠？边界的模糊如何支持有意义的游戏？游戏的形式结构以何种方式限制游戏？游戏玩法反映或改变了哪些文化修辞？
Description: For this exercise, students select a game that blurs the boundaries of the magic circle to operate as a cultural environment. The analysis should address the following kinds of questions: What social, architectural, narrative, or other aspects of the game overlap with the world outside the magic circle? How does the blurring of the boundary support meaningful play? In what ways does the formal structure of the game keep the game contained? What cultural rhetorics are reflected or transformed by the play of the game?
进一步阅读
Further Reading
《精彩比赛：一名球员的哲学》，作者：伯纳德·德科文
The Well-Played Game: A Player’s Philosophy, by Bernard DeKoven
作为新游戏基金会的前任主管，伯纳德·德科文花费了大量时间来设计游戏。在《玩得好的游戏》一书中，德科文概述了一种游戏意识形态，这种意识形态侧重于赋予玩家权力，让他们能够通过重新设计规则、帮助其他玩家和发明自己的新游戏来影响自己的游戏体验。这本书更像是一本温和的哲学文本，而不是游戏设计手册，但我们发现它非常鼓舞人心。
As the former director of the New Games Foundation, Bernard DeKoven spent countless hours designing play. In The Well-Played Game, DeKoven gives an overview of an ideology of play that focuses on giving players the power to affect their own play experiences by redesigning rules, helping other players, and inventing new games of their own. The book is more of a gentle philosophical text than a game design handbook, but we found it to be tremendously inspiring.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第二章：指引
Chapter 2: Guidelines
第三章：游戏社区
Chapter 3: The Play Community
第 5 章：改变游戏规则
Chapter 5: Changing the Game
《新游戏书》，作者：Andrew Fluegelman 和 Shoshana Tembeck
The New Games Book, by Andrew Fluegelman and Shoshana Tembeck
作为新游戏运动的圣经，《新游戏书》读起来仍然令人愉悦。它主要由游戏描述组成，按玩家数量和活动程度进行组织。一些新游戏游戏是对经典设计的改编；其他游戏则非常新颖。作为一本可供玩和分析的精心设计的体育和社交游戏的资料书，《新游戏书》是一本非常宝贵的资源。书中还包含一些文章。
The bible of the New Games Movement, The New Games Book still makes a delightful read. It primarily consists of descriptions of games, organized by number of players and degree of activity. Some of the New Games games are twists on classic designs; others are remarkably original. As a source book for well-designed physical and social games to play and analyze, The New Games Book is an invaluable resource. Also included in the book are a handful of essays.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
“创建游戏社区”，Bernard DeKoven
“Creating the Play Community,” Bernard DeKoven
斯图尔特·布兰德《博弈论变革》
“Theory of Game Change,” Stewart Brand
迭代设计示例：
For Examples of Iterative Design:
球员裁判的非规则手册
The Player-Referee’s Non-Rulebook
新排球
New Volleyball
经典游戏的新规则，作者：R. Wayne Schmittberger
New Rules for Classic Games, by R. Wayne Schmittberger
《经典游戏新规则》的内容正如书名所暗示的那样——大富翁、国际象棋、跳棋和西洋双陆棋等游戏的重新设计版本。有些版本改变了玩家人数，有些调整了游戏材料，有些只是修复了原始游戏中的设计缺陷。作为游戏修改练习的绝佳资源，下面推荐的最后一章列出了设计现有游戏变体的建议。
New Rules for Classic Games is filled with exactly what the title implies—redesigned versions of games like Monopoly, Chess, Checkers, and Backgammon. Some of the variations change the numbers of players, others adjust the game materials, and some merely fix design flaws in the original games. A fantastic resource for game modification exercises, the final chapter recommended below lists suggestions for designing variants of existing games.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第 15 章：创造你自己的获胜变体
Chapter 15: Creating Your Own Winning Variations
委托论文
COMMISSIONED ESSAY
雷纳·克尼齐亚
Reiner Knizia
棋盘游戏《指环王》的设计与测试
The Design and Testing of the Board Game—Lord of the Rings
设计《指环王》棋盘游戏既是一次绝佳的机会，也是一次非凡的挑战。托尔金的这部长达一千多页的史诗深受数百万人的喜爱。这款游戏将吸引大量受众，但他们的期望值很高，而且非常具体。出版商要求我设计一款精致的家庭游戏，游戏时间约为一小时。尽管我无法涵盖整个故事情节，但我的目标是保持书中的精神，让玩家体验到与书中读者类似的感觉。这些设计目标将对游戏设计产生许多影响。
The design of the Lord of the Rings Board Game was a great opportunity but also an extraordinary challenge. Tolkien’s powerful epic of more than a thousand pages is loved by millions. This game would reach a large audience, but they would have high and very specific expectations. My brief from the publisher was to design a sophisticated family game of about one hour playing time. Even though I couldn’t cover the entire story line, my aim was to stay within the spirit of the book so that the players would experience something similar to the readers of the book. These design goals would have many consequences for the game design.
设计过程
Design Process
我没有固定的设计流程。恰恰相反，我相信从同一个起点开始往往会得到相同的结果。寻找新的工作方式往往会带来创新的设计。当然，游戏机制、游戏材料以及主题或世界总是有基本要素的。这些都是很好的锚点，在平衡的设计中，这些维度将很好地融合在一起并相互支持。此外，还有一些关于玩家观点的基本设计问题：我是谁？我想要实现什么？我的主要选择是什么？我如何获胜？
I don’t have a fixed design process. Quite the contrary, I believe that starting from the same beginning will frequently lead to the same end. Finding new ways of working often leads to innovative designs. Of course, there are always the basic ingredients of game mechanics, game materials, and the theme or the world. These are good anchor points and in a balanced design these dimensions will blend together nicely and support each other. Furthermore, there are some fundamental design questions about the player’s point of view: Who am I? What am I trying to achieve? What are my main choices? How do I win?
在早期设计阶段，我经常闭上眼睛，观察新世界、新系统和新材料，寻找令人兴奋的游戏玩法。我试图了解自己在玩游戏时想要感受到什么：刺激、乐趣、选择、挑战。显然，对于《指环王》棋盘游戏，我需要深入了解托尔金的世界、潜在的主题和人物的动机。这并非仅靠阅读书籍本身就能实现。我还需要知道粉丝们兴奋的是什么，以及他们讨论的中心是什么。我的朋友兼定期游戏测试员戴夫·法夸尔 (Dave Farquhar) 是托尔金的忠实粉丝。我们花了无数个小时一页一页地阅读故事，讨论它与游戏的相关性。显然我无法反映书中的很多细节。但更重要的是世界的感觉。这本书的真正重点不是战斗，而是更个人化的主题——每个角色在试图克服逆境时自我意识的发展。
In the early design stages I often close my eyes and look into new worlds, new systems, and new materials, searching for exciting game play. I try to develop an understanding of what I want to feel when I play the game: the thrill, the fun, the choices, the challenges. Clearly, for the Lord of the Rings Board Game I needed to develop a deep understanding of Tolkien’s world, the underlying themes, and the motivations of the characters. This was not achievable by merely reading the book itself. I also needed to know what excited the fans, and what was at the center of their discussions. Dave Farquhar, a friend and regular playtester, was a great fan of Tolkien. We spent countless hours going through the story page by page, discussing its relevance for the game. Clearly I could not reflect much of the detail of the books. But more important was the feeling of the world. The true focus of the book was not the fighting, but more personal themes—the development of each character’s sense of self as they attempt to overcome adversity.
故事以霍比特人离开家园，前往未知的土地开始。我决定让每个玩家都扮演一个霍比特人，得到中土世界善良人物和人民的帮助。当然，他们唯一的机会就是合作。为了公正地对待托尔金的杰作，玩家必须一起玩。这种结构将使游戏设计非常不寻常。但规则不能简单地要求合作游戏：游戏系统必须从本质上激励这种类型的游戏。因此，我将霍比特人的共同敌人索伦嵌入到游戏系统本身中。即使是最具竞争力的玩家也会很快意识到游戏系统给玩家带来了如此多的危险，他们自然必须互相支持，以保持强大的阵线对抗共同的敌人。
The story starts with the hobbits leaving their home to venture into unknown lands. I decided that each player would represent a hobbit, aided by the good characters and peoples in Middle Earth. Of course their only chance was to cooperate. To do Tolkien’s masterpiece justice, the players would have to play together. This structure would make the game design very unusual. But the rules could not simply demand cooperative play: the game system had to intrinsically motivate this type of play. Therefore, I embedded the hobbits’ mutual foe, Sauron, into the game system itself. Even the most competitive players would soon realize that the game system threw so many dangers at the players that they would naturally have to support each other to maintain a strong front against their common enemy.
与书籍不同，游戏必须可多次重玩，每次都能带来新的刺激。由于许多玩家（但不是全部）已经了解故事情节，因此无论玩家是否了解托尔金的世界，游戏都必须运行良好且玩起来顺畅。另一个重要的考虑因素是游戏的外观和图形呈现。《指环王》充满了氛围，长期以来一直是精美插图的灵感来源。著名的托尔金艺术家约翰·豪 (John Howe) 签约负责艺术创作，我想给他足够的机会来丰富游戏，并用强大的视觉效果激发托尔金粉丝的兴趣。此外，目标零售价和方盒形状会影响我可以使用的组件。
In contrast to a book, a game must be replayable many times, giving fresh excitement each time. As the storyline would already be known to many of the players but not all of them, the game would have to work and play well irrespective of the players’ knowledge of Tolkien’s world. Another important consideration was the physical appearance of the game and its graphical presentation. The Lord of the Rings is full of atmosphere, and has long been a source of inspiration for beautiful illustrations. John Howe, a famous Tolkien artist, was signed up to do the artwork, and I wanted to give him plenty of opportunities to enrich the game and excite the Tolkien fans with powerful visuals. Furthermore, the target retail price and the square box shape would influence the components I could use.
脚本游戏系统
Scripted Game System
考虑到将史诗故事提炼成游戏的挑战，我开始开发一种通用方法，我称之为“脚本游戏系统”。本质上，这是一种提炼故事关键部分并以游戏形式呈现的方法。它使情节能够串联在一起，从而压缩一些部分，但详细扩展玩家将要体验的关键冒险。
Considering the challenge of distilling an epic story into a game, I started to develop a general approach that I call the “scripted game system.” Essentially, this is a method of distilling the key parts of a story and presenting them in game form. It enables episodes to be linked together in a storyline that compresses some parts, but expands the key adventures that the players will play in detail.
将这种方法应用到《指环王》棋盘游戏中，我设想了一个“总结板”，显示玩家旅程的总体进度，以及一条腐败线，以直观地展示索伦日益增长的力量。下面是一些更详细、插图更精美的“冒险板”，关键情节将按顺序播放。这些板将通过主题事件反映特定情节的风格，游戏将在代表战斗、移动、隐藏或友谊的活动轨道上进行。每个场景板都会有一条主轨道，提供场景的主要路线并衡量玩家的整体进度。盾牌代表胜利点，通常在主轨道上获得。
Applying this approach to the Lord of the Rings Board Game, I imagined a “summary board,” showing the overall progress of the players’ journey, and a corruption line to visualize the growing power of Sauron. Below would be a number of more detailed and beautifully illustrated “adventure boards” on which the key episodes would be played in sequential order. These boards would reflect the flavor of particular episodes through thematic events and play would take place on activity tracks representing fighting, movement, hiding, or friendship. Each scenario board would have a primary track that provided the main route through the scenario and measured the players’ overall progress. Shields, representing victory points, would generally be acquired on the primary track.
为了避免玩家只专注于主线并快速完成剧情，宝贵的生命标记、资源和盟友会出现在次要轨道上。剧情可以通过两种方式结束，要么通过完成主线，要么因为事件已经发展到一定阶段并超越了玩家——通常会带来严重后果。为了创造更多困境，玩家将需要用三个生命标记（每种一个）来完成场景，否则他们会被沿着概要板上的腐败线推向索伦。
In order to avoid players merely concentrating on the main track and moving swiftly through the scenario, valuable life tokens, resources, and allies would appear on the minor tracks. A scenario could be finished in two ways, either by completing the primary track, or because the events had run their course and had overtaken the players—usually with serious consequences. To create more predicaments, players would be required to complete the scenarios with three life tokens (one of each kind), or they were pushed along the corruption line on the summary board toward Sauron.
腐败线被设计为施加给玩家的主要压力。他们的霍比特人角色将从“光明端”开始，而索伦则从“黑暗端”开始。随着游戏的进展，事件会将霍比特人引向黑暗，而索伦则向他们靠拢。如果索伦遇到了霍比特人，该玩家将被淘汰出局，他的所有资源都将丢失。更糟糕的是，如果拥有至尊魔戒的霍比特人被索伦抓住，游戏将以所有玩家的失败而告终。虽然玩家可以牺牲时间和资源回到光明端，但索伦永远不会撤退。因此，在游戏过程中，玩家会逐渐滑向黑暗，营造出一种幽闭恐惧和厄运即将到来的感觉——就像书中所写的那样。
The corruption line was designed as the primary pressure being applied to the players. Their hobbit figures would start at the “light end,” with Sauron beginning at the “dark end.” As the game progressed, events would draw the hobbits toward the dark, while Sauron moved toward them. If Sauron met a hobbit, that player would be eliminated from the game and all his resources would be lost. Even worse, if the hobbit who possessed the One Ring was caught by Sauron, the game would end in defeat for all players. Although players could sacrifice time and resources to move back toward the light, Sauron would never retreat. So over the course of the game the players would gradually slip toward the dark, creating a sense of claustrophobia and impending doom—just as in the book.
托尔金笔下的霍比特人很少能掌控自己的处境。为了反映这一点，我引入了一副通用牌组，牌组中有一系列直接影响玩家的事件，在各个冒险场景中造成了巨大的时间压力。事件牌组只会触发下一个事件，但事件本身在每个场景中都会有所不同，反映了情节的特定风格。虽然玩家知道每个场景中可能发生哪些事件，但他们不知道这些事件发生的速度有多快。
Tolkien’s hobbits were rarely in control of their situation. To reflect, this I introduced a general tile deck with a series of events that affected the players directly, creating a significant time pressure in the individual adventure scenarios. The event deck would simply trigger the next event, but the events themselves would be different in each scenario, reflecting the specific flavor of the episode. Although the players would know which events could happen in each scenario, they would not know how soon they would occur.
所有这些游戏系统的相互作用会产生许多威胁，每次游戏的运作方式都不同，并创造讨论和规划的机会。许多战术选择会出现，并有望导致玩家之间的丰富互动。玩家将带来不同的个性和游戏风格，他们必须齐心协力，真正合作。这将创造一种与书中相似的感觉——游戏不仅会重述托尔金的情节，更重要的是，它会让玩家感受到故事的情感环境。
The interplay of all of these game systems would create many threats, operating differently each time the game was played, and creating opportunities for discussion and planning. Many tactical choices would present themselves and hopefully lead to a rich interaction between the players. The players, bringing different personalities and playing styles to the table, would have to pull together and truly collaborate. This would create a similar feel to the book—the game would not just re-tell Tolkien’s plot, but more importantly it would make the players feel the emotional circumstances of the story.
游戏测试
Playtesting
我的主要设计技巧是先在脑海中创建一个游戏，然后反复玩。这个过程可能持续数周。当我觉得需要实际游戏体验时，我最终会构建第一个原型并与我的游戏测试小组一起玩。进入原型阶段的决定至关重要。在没有明确概念的情况下过早行动会浪费大量时间，因为在脑海中改变事物比在物理原型中改变事物要简单得多。行动太晚可能无法及早发现设计缺陷，可能需要彻底重新设计。
My primary design technique is to create a game first in my mind and play it there over and over again. This can go on for many weeks. When I feel the need for practical playing experience, I finally build the first prototype and play it with my playtest groups. The decision to enter the prototype stage is critical. Moving too early without a clear concept wastes a lot of time, as it is much simpler to change things in one’s mind than in a physical prototype. Moving too late may not reveal design weaknesses early enough and may require a complete redesign.
一旦初步概念得到恰当阐述，游戏测试就成为游戏开发的核心活动。游戏的乐趣和刺激无法抽象地计算：必须亲身体验。我非常详细地准备每一次游戏测试——我会计划好要监控和测试的具体问题。在游戏过程中，我会记录有关游戏流程的相关数据。之后，我会分析结果，然后做出必要的或探索性的更改。这成为下一次游戏测试的准备，在下一次测试中，我可以了解这些变化将如何影响游戏。循环过程通常会持续数月，有时甚至数年。对于经验丰富的游戏测试员，我们会在每次测试后花大量时间讨论测试进展如何——哪些有效，哪些无效。我们通常会当场做出更改，然后重新开始游戏。
Once the initial concept is properly elaborated, playtesting becomes the core activity of game development. The fun and excitement of playing cannot be calculated in an abstract fashion: it must be experienced. I prepare each of my playtest sessions in great detail—I plan the exact issues I want to monitor and test. During play, I record relevant data about the game flow. Afterwards, I analyze the results and then make necessary or exploratory changes. This becomes the preparation for the next playtest session, during which I can find out how the changes will affect the game. The revolving process usually continues over many months, sometimes years. With experienced playtesters, we spend much time after each test discussing how it went—what worked and what didn’t. Often we make changes on the spot and play again.
为《指环王》棋盘游戏制作原型的第一步是准备一个场景，看看基本系统是如何运作的。选择预期的第一个场景，即离开袋底洞前往布理，这在某种程度上是自然而然的。第一次测试通常会带来许多惊喜。这是一次现实检验，我将脑海中的游戏画面与真实人物身上发生的事情进行比较。第一个原型很快就被接下来的两个场景所扩展，将我们带到了瑞文戴尔。
The first stage in prototyping the Lord of the Rings Board Game was to prepare just one scenario and to see how the basic system played. It was somewhat natural to choose the intended first scenario, the departure from Bag End and the journey to Bree. The first test usually brings many surprises. It is a reality check in which my mental picture of the game is compared to what happens with real people. The first prototype was soon extended by the next two scenarios, bringing us up to Rivendell.
最初我预计游戏会涵盖 8 到 10 个场景，但这是一个重大错误。很快我就发现游戏太长了；第一个小时结束时，我们不是攀登末日山，而是刚刚到达瑞文戴尔。我意识到我必须专注于托尔金故事的核心情节，结果前三个场景都没有在基础游戏中实现（尽管我后来在第一个扩展包中恢复了前往布理的旅程）。
Initially I anticipated the game would cover eight or ten scenarios, but this was a major miscalculation. Very soon it became apparent that the game was becoming too long; by the end of the first hour, instead of climbing Mount Doom we were only just reaching Rivendell. I realized that I had to focus on the core episodes of Tolkien’s story, and as a consequence none of the first three scenarios were realized in the Base Game (though I was later to resurrect the journey to Bree in the first expansion).
我从故事中选取了四个主要情节：莫里亚、圣盔谷、尸罗巢穴和末日山，并制作了相应的场景板。然后，这些场景在总结板上与瑞文戴尔和洛丝罗瑞恩的小情节联系起来。在一年中的大部分时间里，我和我的游戏测试小组一起玩了这款游戏——通常每周进行三到四次游戏测试，每次测试之间都会有所变化。此外，我还给了戴夫·法夸尔一份测试版，让他与其他测试人员一起使用，从而产生更多的游戏测试结果。每个场景板都分析了许多细节，包括霍比特人和索伦在腐败线上的位置、每个玩家持有的牌和盾牌、抽出的牌以及玩的回合数。
I selected four main episodes from the story: Moria, Helm’s Deep, Shelob’s Lair, and Mount Doom, and created corresponding scenario boards. These scenarios were then linked on the summary board with small episodes in Rivendell and Lothlorien. I played and played the game with my playtest groups over the better part of a year—typically three or four playtest sessions each week with changes between each session. In addition, I gave Dave Farquhar a test copy to use with other testers and generate even more playtest results. Many details were analyzed for each board, including the positions of the hobbits and Sauron on the corruption line, cards and shields held by each player, tiles drawn, and number of turns played.
良好游戏测试的一个重要原则是全面探索所有可能的策略和游戏风格。缺乏经验的设计师经常犯的一个错误是只为一个测试组开发游戏。当然，要想成功，游戏必须吸引许多不同类型的玩家。它必须在多个层面上都充满活力和刺激，无论是对休闲玩家还是经验丰富的玩家来说都是如此。我的基本方法是指环王棋盘游戏的目标是为玩家提供丰富但有限的资源。
One of the vital tenets of good playtesting is comprehensively to explore every possible strategy and style of play. A frequent error committed by inexperienced designers is to develop a game for just one test group. Of course, to be successful a game must appeal to many different types of players. It must be robust and exciting on many levels, for casual players as well as for experienced gamers. My basic approach in the Lord of the Rings Board Game was to offer the players plentiful but nevertheless limited resources.
新手通常会自由地花费这些资源，在游戏中乐观地前进，直到资源变得稀缺，他们屈服于索伦。随着经验的增加，玩家意识到在游戏早期花费资源将在以后产生严重后果。玩家预见到未来的威胁和陷阱，讨论更多地集中在战略和风险上。游戏进行得越多，你就越担心，玩家战略合作的需求就越大。就像这本书一样，游戏提供了一段个人成长的旅程。在游戏中，你可以一遍又一遍地玩，每次都做得更好。
Beginners usually spend these resources freely, proceeding optimistically through the game until the resources become scarce and they succumb to Sauron. With more experience, players realize that spending resources early in the game will have serious consequences later on. Players foresee future threats and pitfalls, and the discussions focus much more on strategy and risk. The more the game proceeds, the more apprehensive you get, and the greater the need for the players to strategically cooperate. Like the book, the game offers a journey of personal growth. In the game, you have the advantage of being able to play over and over again to do better each time.
更多变化
More Changes
我喜欢我的游戏设计从精心设计的概念和众多功能开始，然后精简游戏玩法，只保留设计中最好的部分。我发现这个过程比后来尝试添加其他元素更容易，而且总的来说，这让我的游戏设计更令人满意。
I like my game designs to begin with elaborate concepts and too many features, and then later streamline the game play, only retaining the best parts of the design. I find this process easier than trying to bolt on additional elements later, and overall it has led me to more satisfying game designs.
除了确定最有趣的功能和最直观的规则之外，不断玩和重玩的一个重要重点是平衡游戏。每场游戏应该以不同的方式进行，但所有游戏的难度应该大致相同。运气不应该让游戏变得太简单，也不应该太难。每个冒险板都需要平衡事件流，以提供不断升级的挑战。如果事件发生得太早，玩家将耗尽资源，发现自己无法继续下去。关键事件鼓励团队沿着不同的轨道前进，让他们做出如何前进的重要选择。游戏还必须针对不同数量的玩家进行平衡。否则，随着玩家的增加，游戏可能会变得容易得多，因为他们拥有更多的资源。或者随着玩家的增加，游戏可能会变得更难，因为每个角色都必须得到照顾。
Apart from identifying the most interesting features and the most intuitive rules, an important focus of the continual playing and replaying was to balance the game. Each game should play out differently, but all games should present roughly the same degree of difficulty. Luck should not make a game too easy, nor too difficult. Each of the adventure boards required balancing the flow of events needed to provide an escalating challenge. If events occurred too early the players would be drained of resources and find themselves unable to go on. Key events encouraged the party to move along different tracks, giving them important choices about how to proceed. The game also had to be balanced for the varying numbers of players. Otherwise, it could become substantially easier the more players took part, because they had more resources among them. Or it might become tougher with more players, as each character had to be looked after.
随着测试的进行，出现了另外两个主题挑战。首先，我想让甘道夫更充分地融入游戏；其次，我想让盾牌标记有其他用途，而不仅仅是衡量胜利点数。我发现解决一个设计问题往往比同时解决两个设计问题更难。一个问题允许多种可能的解决方案，而且——作为一个完美主义者——我很难确定单一的“最佳”解决方案。当同时考虑两个问题时，一个共同的解决方案通常更容易出现。在这种情况下，我引入了一副甘道夫牌组，其中包含玩家可以使用盾牌购买的强大卡牌。
Two further thematic challenges arose as testing progressed. First, I wanted to bring Gandalf more fully into the game; and second, I wanted to give the shield tokens a purpose other than merely to measure victory points. Often I find it harder to solve a single design problem than to address two at the same time. A single problem allows many possible solutions and—being a perfectionist—it is difficult for me to identify the single “best” solution. When looking at two problems at once, a common solution often appears more readily. In this case I introduced a Gandalf deck containing powerful cards that the players could buy using the shields.
这也说明了另一个重要的游戏设计原则。解决特定的设计问题不应仅仅孤立地解决问题，而应该理想地促进整体游戏玩法。这将游戏修复与游戏功能区分开来，当然，游戏永远不应该使用修复。甘道夫卡是一个很好的游戏功能，因为它们允许玩家有更多的战术选择并有助于平衡游戏。玩家可以决定保留他们的盾牌以获得更高的分数，或者“投资”它们以获得更强大的资源或克服障碍。当然，不同的玩家可能喜欢不同的方法，必须达成共识。
This also illustrates another important game design principle. Solving a specific design issue should not just address the issue in isolation but should ideally contribute to the overall game play. This differentiates a game fix from a game feature, and of course, games should never use fixes. The Gandalf cards are a nice game feature, because they allow the players more tactical choices and help in balancing the game. Players may decide to keep their shields to achieve a higher score, or “invest” them to gain more powerful resources or overcome an obstacle. And of course, different players may prefer different approaches and have to arrive at a consensus.
我最初设想的游戏是三到五人玩的，但当我监控结果时，我开始怀疑只有两个人玩是否能玩得好。为了满足市场需求，我通常最初的目标是两到四人或三到五人。当我有了稳定的设计后，我就会探索是否可以通过微小的设计更改来增加玩家数量。游戏的初步测试结果证实，双人版本是可以玩的，但获胜太容易了。作为回应，我决定减少瑞文戴尔和洛丝罗瑞恩给两位玩家的资源卡数量。
I had originally conceived the game for three to five players, but as I monitored the results I wondered whether it would play well with just two. I often initially aim for two to four, or three to five players to satisfy the market requirements. When I have a stable design, I then explore whether I can extend the player numbers through minor design changes. Initial test results with the game confirmed that the two-player version was playable, but it was too easy to win. In response, I decided to reduce the number of resource cards given to the two players in Rivendell and Lothlorien.
所有这些测试的一个副作用是，游戏针对经验丰富的玩家进行了优化，因此新玩家会发现游戏太难了。在设置最终变量时，我考虑到了这一点。永远不要忘记你的目标受众！出于保密原因，我通常会在自己的小组内进行测试，但这款游戏非常不寻常，所以我需要再次确认公众对它的反应。所以我们设置了单独的测试环节，一些是游戏玩家，一些是非玩家。有时非玩家组的表现比游戏玩家更好！所以我们知道我们得到了我们想要的东西。
One side effect of all this testing was that the game was being optimized for experienced players, so new players were finding it too difficult. In setting the final variables, I took this into account. Never forget your target audience! For confidentiality reasons, I normally keep testing within my own groups, but this game was so unusual that I needed to confirm once more how the general public would react to it. So we set up separate test sessions, some with game players and some with non-players. Sometimes the non-player groups did better than the game players! So we knew that we had what we wanted.
路永远延伸
The Road Goes Ever On
十八个月后，设计完成并交付给发行商。但设计过程仍在继续。九个月后，即 2000 年 10 月，游戏上市。一年后，即 2001 年 10 月，第一个扩展包《朋友与敌人》问世，其中包含两个新场景板和 30 个敌人的全新游戏元素。恰好一年后，第二个扩展包《索伦》问世，让玩家扮演索伦的角色，积极领导黑暗势力对抗霍比特人。如今，《指环王》棋盘游戏在全球提供 17 种语言版本，销量超过一百万份。
After eighteen months, the design was finished and delivered to the publisher. But the design process continued. Nine months later, in October 2000, the game was released into the market. One year later, in October 2001, came the first expansion, Friends & Foes, with two new scenario boards and an entirely new game element of 30 foes. Exactly one year later, the second expansion, called Sauron, let a player take the role of Sauron and actively lead the dark forces against the hobbits. Today, the Lord of the Rings Board Game is available worldwide in 17 languages, with sales of over one million copies.
雷纳·克尼齐亚
Reiner Knizia
雷纳·克尼齐亚出生于德国，现居英国，设计屡获殊荣的棋盘游戏和纸牌游戏。他曾担任数学教授和德国各大银行的战略规划总监。雷纳是当今最多产和最受尊敬的游戏设计师之一，已发布 200 多款游戏，并出版了多本关于游戏和设计的书籍。游戏包括《指环王》、《泰姬陵》、《Safari》和《失落的城市》。
Reiner Knizia was born in Germany and now lives in the United Kingdom designing award-winning board games and card games. His past lives include being a professor of Mathematics and a Director of Strategic Planning in major German banks. Reiner is one of the most prolific and respected game designers working today, with more than 200 published games and several books on games and design. Games include Lord of the Rings, Taj Mahal, Safari, and Lost Cities.
第一单元：核心概念
Unit 1: Core Concepts
有意义的游戏
Meaningful Play
设计
Design
系统
Systems
交互性
Interactivity
定义游戏
Defining Games
定义数字游戏
Defining Digital Games
魔法圈
The Magic Circle
初级图式：规则、游戏、文化
The Primary Schemas: RULES, PLAY, CULTURE
那些希望从书本上学习游戏艺术的人很快就会发现，只有游戏的开局和收局步骤才允许进行详尽的系统描述；而从开局发展而来的无穷无尽的步骤则难以描述；只有通过热心研究大师们的对局，才能填补说明书中留下的空白。—— EM Avedon，《游戏研究》
He who hopes to learn the fine art of the game from books will soon learn that only the opening and closing moves of the game admit of exhaustive systematic description; and that the endless variety of moves which develop from the opening defies description; the gap left in the instructions can only be filled in by the zealous study of games fought out by master hands.—E. M. Avedon, The Study of Games
游戏是怎样发生的？
How does play happen?
游戏板和一对骰子、硬盘上的游戏程序、棒球、球棒和空地，怎么会以某种方式影响到游戏体验——一种难以用言语描述的无尽快乐和变化的体验？什么是游戏？什么是游戏设计？我们如何设计有意义的游戏？在本单元中，我们将通过澄清我们研究中的几个关键概念来开始回答这些问题。在首先仔细研究有意义的游戏的概念之后，我们将介绍三个相互关联的概念——设计、系统和交互性，这三个概念直接引导我们定义游戏和游戏设计。这些核心概念为理解游戏设计和有意义的游戏提供了重要的基础。
How is it that a game board and a pair of dice, or a game program on a hard drive, or a baseball, a bat, and an empty lot somehow ramify into the experience of play—an experience of endless pleasure and variety that defies ordinary description? What are games? What is game design? And how do we design for meaningful play? In this unit, we begin to answer these questions by clarifying several key concepts that inform our study. After first looking closely at the concept of meaningful play, we introduce three interrelated ideas—design, systems, and interactivity—that lead us directly to a definition of games and game design. These core concepts provide the crucial foundation for any understanding of game design and meaningful play.
3
3
有意义的游戏
MEANINGFUL PLAY
意义
meaning
设计选择
designed choice
行动
action
结果
outcome
辨别能力
discernability
一体化
integration
我们只需观察小狗，就能发现它们欢快的嬉戏中具备了人类游戏的所有基本要素。它们以某种礼仪般的姿态和手势邀请彼此玩耍。它们遵守规则，即不咬或不狠狠地咬兄弟的耳朵。它们假装非常生气。最重要的是，在所有这些行为中，它们显然体验到了极大的乐趣和享受。小狗的这种嬉戏只是动物游戏的较简单形式之一。还有其他更高级的形式：定期比赛和在观众面前的精彩表演。
We have only to watch young dogs to see that all the essentials of human play are present in their merry gambols. They invite one another to play by a certain ceremoniousness of attitude and gesture. They keep to the rule that you shall not bite, or not bite hard, your brother’s ear. They pretend to get terribly angry. And—what is most important—in all these doings they plainly experience tremendous fun and enjoyment. Such rompings of young dogs are only one of the simpler forms of animal play. There are other, much more highly developed forms: regular contests and beautiful performances before an admiring public.
这里我们立刻就得到了一个非常重要的观点：即使是动物层面上最简单的游戏形式，游戏也不仅仅是一种生理现象或心理反射。它超越了纯物理或纯生物活动的范围。它是一种重要的功能——也就是说，它有一定的意义。在游戏中，有一种“在玩”的东西超越了生活的直接需要，赋予了行动意义。所有的游戏都有意义。——约翰·赫伊津哈，《游戏人》
Here we have at once a very important point: even in its simplest forms on the animal level, play is more than a mere physiological phenomenon or a psychological reflex. It goes beyond the confines of purely physical or purely biological activity. It is a significant function—that is to say, there is some sense to it. In play there is something “at play” which transcends the immediate needs of life and imparts meaning to the action. All play means something.—Johann Huizinga, Homo Ludens
引入有意义的游戏
Introducing Meaningful Play
约翰·赫伊津哈是二十世纪最伟大的游戏学者之一。他的开创性著作《游戏人》是对游戏在人类文明中的作用的独特研究。书名是对《现代人》的戏称，意为“玩家的人”。赫伊津哈认为，游戏和竞技在近代历史上被诽谤为琐碎和轻浮，但事实上，它们正是我们之所以为人的核心。“游戏比文化更为古老”，正如赫伊津哈所说，《游戏人》是对游戏的颂扬，它将竞赛的本能和好斗性质直接与战争、诗歌、艺术、宗教和其他基本文化元素联系起来。从许多方面来说， 《游戏人》都试图重新定义和提升游戏的意义。
Johann Huizinga is one of the greatest scholars of play in the twentieth century. His groundbreaking book, Homo Ludens, is a unique investigation of the role of play in human civilization. The title is a play on Homo Sapiens, and translates as Man the Player. According to Huizinga, play and games, which have been maligned in recent history as trivial and frivolous, are in fact at the very center of what makes us human. “Play isolder than culture,” as Huizinga puts it, and Homo Ludens is a celebration of play that links the visceral, combative nature of contest directly to war, poetry, art, religion, and other essential elements of culture. Homo Ludens is, in many ways, an attempt to redefine and elevate the significance of play.
赫伊津哈的游戏观为有意义的游戏概念的发展提供了一个完美的出发点。我们首先仔细阅读《游戏人》开篇的一段话：
Huizinga’s vision of play offers a perfect point of departure for the development of the concept of meaningful play. We begin with a close reading of one section of the opening passage from Homo Ludens:
它（游戏）是一项重要的功能——也就是说，它有一定的意义。游戏中有一些“在玩”的东西超越了生活的直接需要，并赋予了行动意义。所有的游戏都有意义。1
It [play] is a significant function—that is to say, there is some sense to it. In play there is something “at play” which transcends the immediate needs of life and imparts meaning to the action. All play means something.1
赫伊津哈强调，所有游戏都有意义，游戏具有“意义”，游戏超越一切。“所有游戏都有意义”这一观点是一个非常复杂的陈述，我们可以用各种方式来解释。事实上，以下所有都是对文本的可能解读：
Huizinga emphasizes the fact that all play means something, that there is “sense” to play, that it transcends. The idea thaf’ all play means something” is a wonderfully complex statement we can interpret in a variety of ways. In fact, all of the following are possible readings of the text:
• 赫伊津哈说游戏具有重要的功能。这是否意味着游戏是文化中一种重要的（可能未被认识到的）力量——它具有与艺术和文学同等重要的意义？或者他是否意味着游戏具有象征意义——它是一种象征性的交流行为？
• Huizinga says that play is a significant function. Does this mean that play is an important (and possibly unrecognized) force in culture—that it is significant in the way that art and literature are? Or does he mean that play signifies—that it is a symbolic act of communication?
• 他提到游戏有一定的意义。他的意思是游戏不仅仅是混乱的，而是一种只要仔细观察就能理解和分析的事件吗？还是他在暗示意义本身（无意义的反义词）与游戏有着内在联系？
• He mentions that there is some sense to play. Does he mean that play isn’t soley chaotic, but is instead an event that can be understood and analyzed if one looks closely enough? Or is he implying that sense itself (the opposite of nonsense) is something intrinsically related to play?
• 有一个复杂的说法：在游戏中，有一些东西“在游戏”。赫伊津哈的意思是，总有更深层次的东西“在游戏”，构成了我们在现实世界中观察到的任何游戏实例？还是说在游戏中，有些东西总是在运动，永远不会固定，并且处于不断变化状态？
• There’s the complex statement: In play there is something “at play.” Does Huizinga mean that there is always something deeper “at play,” which constitutes any instance of play we observe in the real world? Or that in play something is always in motion, never fixed, and in a constant state of transformation?
• 这种“玩耍”性质的游戏超越了生活的直接需求。 “超越”一词是否意味着某种精神层面的东西？或者赫伊津哈只是说游戏创造了一种超越日常生活的人工空间？
• This “at play” quality of play transcends the immediate needs of life. Does the word “transcend” imply something spiritual? Or does Huizinga simply mean that play creates an artificial space beyond that of ordinary life?
• 游戏的“在玩”这一特征也赋予了行动以意义。游戏总是在“在玩”这一事实是否与行动的意义有关？或者这是否意味着游戏必须被理解为一个更普遍的系统的一个元素，意义就是从这个系统中产生的？
• The same “at play” characteristic of play imparts meaning to the action. Does the fact that play is always “at play” relate to the meaning of the action? Or does it imply that play must be understood as one element of a more general system out of which meaning grows?
• 文章以以下句子结尾：所有游戏都有意义。但游戏意味着什么？它对谁或什么有意义？意义从游戏中产生的过程是什么？
• The passage concludes with the sentence, All play means something. But what does play mean? To who or what is it meaningful? What is the process by which meaning emerges from play?
这些都是复杂且多层次的问题，缺乏明确的答案。从某种意义上说，所提出的每一种解释都隐含在赫伊津哈的陈述中，它们都指向游戏的关键方面以及游戏参与创造意义。这些重要问题及其可能的答案包含了本书的所有主要主题。在接下来的几页中，我们将探讨游戏设计、游戏和意义之间的错综复杂的关系。
These are complex and multi-layered questions, lacking definitive answers. In some sense, each of the interpretations posed are implied in Huizinga’s statement, and all of them point to key aspects of play and play’s participation in the creation of meaning. These important questions, and their possible answers, contain all of the main themes of this book. We will, in the pages that follow, investigate the intricate relationships among game design, play, and meaning.
意义与游戏
Meaning and Play
意义、意义、意义。如果你不断重复这个词，你几乎可以把它哄骗到纯粹无意义的境界。因为询问意义的意义很快就会变成一团乱麻，毫无意义的混乱，所以我们尽可能简单地阐述游戏和意义之间的联系。例如，在 Pong 游戏中，玩家和游戏之间互动的意义是由游戏来介导的，从游戏本身开始。像素代表球，机械旋钮控制数字球拍，对手之间比赛的竞争性社会力量。正是出于这些原因，以及许多其他原因，游戏设计师应该关心意义和游戏之间的关系。
Meaning, meaning, meaning. If you repeat the word enough, you can almost coax it into the realm of pure non-sense. Because asking about the meaning of meaning can quickly turn into a jumbled, meaningless mess, let’s frame the connection between play and meaning as simply as we can. In the game of Pong, for example, the meaning of the interaction between player and game is mediated by play, from the play of pixels representing the ball, to the play of the mechanical knobs controlling the digital paddles, to the competitive social force of play between opponents. It is for these reasons, and many others, that game designers should care about the relationship between meaning and play.
学会为玩家创造出色的游戏体验（有意义且有意义的体验）是成功游戏设计的目标之一，也许是最重要的目标。我们将此目标称为有意义的游戏设计，这是我们方法的核心概念。这个概念对本章的其余部分至关重要，因此我们将重复一遍：成功游戏设计的目标是创造有意义的游戏。有意义的游戏是可以解决 Huizinga 提出的所有“无法回答”的问题的概念。它也是一个提出自身问题的概念，挑战了我们对设计在塑造游戏中的作用的假设。
Learning to create great game experiences for players—experiences that have meaning and are meaningful—is one of the goals of successful game design, perhaps the most important one. We call this goal the design of meaningful play, the core concept of our approach. This concept is so critical to the rest of this chapter that we are going to repeat ourselves: the goal of successful game design is the creation of meaningful play. Meaningful play is that concept which can address all of the “unanswerable” questions raised by Huizinga. It is also a concept that raises questions of its own, challenging assumptions we might have about the role of design in shaping play.
在游戏中识别有意义的玩法的困难之一是玩法可以采取近乎无限的形式。以下是一些示例：
One of the difficulties in identifying meaningful play in games is the near-infinite variety of forms that play can take. Here are some examples:
• 两位棋手在一场精彩的国际象棋比赛中展开智力较量
• the intellectual dueling of two players in a well-met game of Chess
• 即兴的、以团队为基础的篮球技巧
• the improvisational, team-based balletics of Basketball
• 在线角色扮演游戏《无尽的任务》中个人和社区身份的动态转变
• the dynamic shifting of individual and communal identities in the online role-playing game EverQuest
• 在大学校园里玩的一款侵入生活方式的游戏《刺客》
• the lifestyle-invading game Assassin, played on a college campus
所有这些例子有什么共同点？每个例子都将玩置于游戏的背景中。玩不仅仅来自游戏本身，还来自玩家与游戏互动的方式。换句话说，棋盘、棋子，甚至国际象棋规则本身都不能构成有意义的玩。有意义的玩源自玩家与游戏系统的互动，以及游戏的背景。理解这种互动有助于我们了解游戏进行时究竟发生了什么。描述玩家在玩游戏时所做的事情的一种方式是说他们在做选择。他们决定如何移动棋子、如何移动身体、打出什么牌、选择什么选项、采取什么策略、如何与其他玩家互动。他们甚至必须选择是否玩！
What do all of these examples have in common? Each situates play within the context of a game. Play doesn’t just come from the game itself, but from the way that players interact with the game in order to play it. In other words, the board, the pieces, and even the rules of Chess can’t alone constitute meaningful play. Meaningful play emerges from the interaction between players and the system of the game, as well as from the context in which the game is played. Understanding this interaction helps us to see just what is going on when a game is played. One way of framing what players do when they play a game is to say that they are making choices. They are deciding how to move their pieces, how to move their bodies, what cards to play, what options to select, what strategies to take, how to interact with other players. They even have to make the choice whether or not to play!
当玩家在游戏中做出选择时，选择所导致的行动会产生结果。在国际象棋中，如果玩家移动棋盘上的一个棋子，这一行动将影响所有其他棋子的关系：一个棋子可能会被吃掉，或者国王可能会突然发现自己被将军。在《刺客》中，如果玩家偷偷跟踪目标并设法用飞镖枪射杀他，整个游戏将因这一行动而改变：命中，受害者在剩余的游戏中出局，并且他必须将目标的名字告诉刚刚射杀他的玩家。在《无尽的任务》中，如果你与怪物交战并杀死它，你角色的属性和装备可能会发生变化；更大的游戏世界也会受到影响，即使这仅仅意味着暂时少了一个怪物。
When a player makes a choice within a game, the action that results from the choice has an outcome. In Chess, if a player moves a piece on the board, this action affects the relationships of all of the other pieces: one piece might be captured, or a king might suddenly find itself in check. In Assassin, if a player stealthily stalks her target and manages to shoot him with a dart gun, the overall game changes as a result of this action: a hit is scored, the victim is out for the rest of the game, and he must give his target name to the player that just shot him. In EverQuest, if you engage with and kill a monster, the stats and equipment of your character can change; the larger game-world is affected as well, even if it simply means that for the moment there is one less monster.
玩游戏意味着做出选择并采取行动。所有这些活动都发生在游戏系统中，该系统旨在支持有意义的选择。采取的每一个行动都会导致影响整个游戏系统的变化。另一种表述这一点的方式是，玩家在游戏中采取的行动会导致系统内产生新的意义。例如，在国际象棋中移动棋子后，棋子之间新建立的关系会产生一组新的含义——由玩家的行为创造的含义。
Playing a game means making choices and taking actions. All of this activity occurs within a game-system designed to support meaningful kinds of choice-making. Every action taken results in a change affecting the overall system of the game. Another way of stating this point is that an action a player takes in a game results in the creation of new meanings within the system. For example, after you move a piece in Chess, the newly established relationships between Chess pieces gives rise to a new set of meanings—meanings created by the player’s action.
两种有意义的游戏
Two Kinds of Meaningful Play
我们用两种不同但相关的方式来定义有意义的游戏。第一种意义是指游戏行为导致游戏结果以创造意义的方式。以这种方式构建这一概念，我们给出以下定义：游戏中有意义的游戏源自玩家行为与系统结果之间的关系；它是玩家在游戏设计系统中采取行动以及系统对该行动作出反应的过程。游戏中行动的意义在于行动与结果之间的关系。
We define meaningful play in two separate but related ways. The first sense of meaningful play refers to the way game actions result in game outcomes to create meaning. Framing the concept in this way, we offer the following definition: Meaningful play in a game emerges from the relationship between player action and system outcome; it is the process by which a player takes action within the designed system of a game and the system responds to the action. The meaning of an action in a game resides in the relationship between action and outcome.
想象一下小学课间进行的一场非正式的“恶心”游戏。玩家们一个接一个地讲述一个恶心的故事，每个故事都比上一个更恶心。当一个故事讲完后，小组会自发地集体回应，确认或否认玩家作为操场主人的地位，直到讲出一个更恶心的故事。
Think about an informal game of “Gross-Out” played during an elementary school recess. One by one, players tell a gross-out story, each tale more disgusting than the last. When a story is finished, the group spontaneously and collectively responds, confirming or denying the player’s position as master of the playground, until an even grosser story is told.
如果我们从有意义的游戏角度看待恶心游戏，我们会发现玩家通过讲述故事来采取行动。作为游戏中的一项行动，行动的意义不仅限于故事的叙述内容。它也不仅仅是用于讲述故事的戏剧效果。讲故事行动的结果取决于其他玩家及其自己的投票行为。有意义的游戏源自玩家讲述和评价故事的集体行动。从有意义的游戏意义上讲，故事的意义不仅仅是汉普顿讲了一个关于他姐姐吃活甲虫的弥天大谎——而是汉普顿的故事打败了其他人，他现在无可争议地成为了恶心游戏之王。
If we look at Gross-Out from the perspective of meaningful play we see that a player takes an action by telling a story. The meaning of the action, as a move in a game, is more than the narrative content of the story. It is also more than the theatrics used to tell the story. The outcome of the storytelling action depends on the other players and their own voting actions. Meaningful play emerges from the collective action of players telling and rating stories. The meaning of the story, in the sense of meaningful play, is not just that Hampton told a whopper about his big sister eating a live beetle—it is that Hampton’s story has beaten the others and he is now the undisputed Gross-Out king.
这种理解有意义的游戏的方式指的是所有游戏都是通过游戏产生意义的。每款游戏都让玩家采取行动，并为这些行动分配结果。因此，我们将这种有意义的游戏定义称为描述性的，因为它描述了每款游戏中发生的事情。这是我们对有意义的游戏的初步理解。
This way of understanding meaningful play refers to the way all games generate meaning through play. Every game lets players take actions, and assigns outcomes to those actions. We therefore call this definition of meaningful play descriptive, because it describes what happens in every game. This is our first understanding of meaningful play.
与此同时，有些游戏比其他游戏创造了更多有意义的玩法：有些游戏的设计为玩家创造了真正有意义的体验，而其他不太成功的游戏设计则导致体验有些不足。即使有意义的玩法是我们努力在游戏中实现的目标，但有时我们做得并不完全正确。因此，除了我们对有意义的玩法的描述性理解（即描述所有游戏中发生的事情）之外，我们还需要一些东西来帮助我们更有选择性地确定何时发生有意义的玩法。
At the same time, some games create more meaningful play than other games: the design of some games generates truly meaningful experiences for players, whereas other, less successful game designs result in experiences that somehow fall short. Even if meaningful play is a goal that we strive to achieve in our games, sometimes we don’t quite get it right. So, in addition to our descriptive understanding of meaningful play, which describes what happens in all games, we need something that will help us be more selective in determining when meaningful play occurs.
这是有意义的游戏的第二种含义。它不是对游戏运作方式的描述，而是指成功的游戏设计的目标。这种有意义的游戏含义是评价性的：它帮助我们批判性地评估行动和结果之间的关系，并决定它们在游戏设计系统中是否足够有意义：
This is the second sense of meaningful play. Instead of being a description of the way games operate, it refers to the goal of successful game design. This sense of meaningful play is evaluative: it helps us critically evaluate the relationships between actions and outcomes, and decide whether they are meaningful enough within the designed system of the game:
当游戏中动作和结果之间的关系既可辨别又能融入游戏的大背景中时，游戏就变得有意义了。创造有意义的游戏是成功游戏设计的目标。
Meaningful play occurs when the relationships between actions and outcomes in a game are both discernable and integrated into the larger context of the game. Creating meaningful play is the goal of successful game design.
从这个意义上讲，“有意义”这个词与意义的符号构造（意义是如何产生的）关系不大，而与生活在精心设计的游戏系统中的情感和心理体验关系更大。为了理解为什么游戏中的某些玩法比其他玩法更有意义，我们需要理解定义中的关键术语：可辨别和集成。
The word “meaningful” in this sense is less about the semiotic construction of meaning (how meaning is made) and more about the emotional and psychological experience of inhabiting a well-designed system of play. In order to understand why some play in games is more meaningful than others, we need to understand the key terms in the definition: discernable and integrated.
可辨别
Discernable
可辨别意味着游戏动作的结果以可感知的方式传达给玩家。在以下摘录自《游戏设计：理论与实践》的文章中，理查德·劳斯三世指出了在游戏世界中向玩家展示可辨别信息的重要性。他的例子明确地针对电脑游戏，因为电脑游戏显然需要将大量数据压缩成可以清晰传达给玩家的代表性形式。然而，可辨别结果的概念适用于所有游戏，无论是数字游戏还是其他游戏。劳斯写道：
Discernable means that the result of the game action is communicated to the player in a perceivable way. In the following excerpt from Game Design: Theory and Practice, Richard Rouse III points out the importance of displaying discernable information to the player within the context of the game world. His example looks explicitly at computer games where there is an obvious need to condense massive amounts of data into a representative form that can be clearly communicated to the player. However, the idea of discernable outcomes applies to all games, digital or otherwise. Rouse writes,
考虑一款策略游戏，玩家在一张大地图上分散着许多单位。地图太大，以至于屏幕上一次只能显示一小部分。如果一组如果玩家的单位恰好不在屏幕上并受到攻击，但游戏却没有让玩家意识到这一点，玩家就会感到恼火。想象一下，在一款角色扮演游戏中，玩家小队中的每个成员都需要定期进食，但游戏没有提供任何明确的方式来传达他的角色有多饿。那么，如果其中一名小队成员突然因饥饿而倒下，玩家就会感到沮丧，这是理所当然的。为什么玩家必须猜测这些对游戏至关重要的信息呢？2
Consider a strategy game in which the player has a number of units scattered all over a large map. The map is so large that only a small portion of it can fit on the screen at once. If a group of the player’s units happen to be off-screen and are attacked but the player is not made aware of it by the game, the player will become irritated. Consider an RPG where each member of the player’s party needs to be fed regularly, but the game does not provide any clear way of communicating how hungry his characters are. Then, if one of the party members suddenly keels over from starvation, the player will become frustrated, and rightly so. Why should the player have to guess at such game-critical information?2
如果您在玩电脑游戏时射击了一颗小行星，而小行星没有任何变化，那么您将无法知道自己是否真的击中了它。如果您没有收到表明您走在正确轨道上的反馈，那么您采取的行动将毫无意义。另一方面，如果您射击了一颗小行星，听到了撞击声，或者小行星剧烈颤抖，或者爆炸了（或三者兼而有之！），那么游戏就有效地传达了您行动的结果。同样，如果您在棋盘上移动棋子，但您完全不知道您的举动是好是坏，也不知道它是否让您更接近或远离胜利——简而言之，如果您不知道您行动的意义——那么您行动的结果就无法辨别。这些例子都清楚地表明，当行动与行动结果之间的关系无法辨别时，有意义的游戏就很难或不可能实现。
If you shoot an asteroid while playing a computer game and the asteroid does not change in any way, you are not going to know if you actually hit it or not. If you do not receive feedback that indicates you are on the right track, the action you took will have very little meaning. On the other hand, if you shoot an asteroid and you hear the sound of impact, or the asteroid shudders violently, or it explodes (or all three!) then the game has effectively communicated the outcome of your action. Similarly, if you move a board game piece on the board but you have absolutely no idea whether your move was good or bad or if it brought you closer to or farther away from winning—in short, if you don’t know the meaning of your action—then the result of your action was not discernable. Each of these examples makes clear that when the relationship between an action and the result of that action is not discernable, meaningful play is difficult or impossible to achieve.
游戏中的可辨识性让玩家知道他们采取行动时会发生什么。如果没有可辨识性，玩家可能只会随意按下按钮或扔下卡片。有了可辨识性，游戏就拥有了有意义的游戏的基石。
Discernability in a game lets the players know what happened when they took an action. Without discernability, the player might as well be randomly pressing buttons or throwing down cards. With discernability, a game possesses the building blocks of meaningful play.
融合的
Integrated
有意义的游戏的另一个要素是将行动与结果之间的关系融入游戏的大背景中。这意味着玩家采取的行动不仅在游戏中具有直接意义，而且还会影响游戏后期的游戏体验。国际象棋是一种深刻而有意义的游戏，因为微妙的开局会直接导致中局的复杂轨迹——而中局会发展成为残局中短暂而强大的遭遇战。在某一时刻采取的任何行动都会影响后续时刻可能采取的行动。
Another component of meaningful play requires that the relationship between action and outcome is integrated into the larger context of the game. This means that an action a player takes not only has immediate significance in the game, but also affects the play experience at a later point in the game. Chess is a deep and meaningful game because the delicate opening moves directly result in the complex trajectories of the middle game—and the middle game grows into the spare and powerful encounters of the end game. Any action taken at one moment will affect possible actions at later moments.
想象一下多项运动比赛，例如十项全能比赛。比赛开始时，选手们进行赛跑。如果比赛规则规定赢得赛跑与比赛本身无关，结果会怎样？想象一下会发生什么：选手们会尽可能慢地走完比赛，努力为其他更有意义的比赛保存体力。他们为什么要做其他事情呢？尽管其中一人会赢得赛跑，但这对比赛本身没有影响。另一方面，如果选手根据排名获得积分，并且这些积分成为累积分数的一部分，那么赛跑的动作和结果就可以很好地融入整个游戏。
Imagine a multi-event athletic game, such as the Decathlon. At the start of the game, the players run a footrace. What if the rules of the game dictated that winning the footrace had nothing to do with the larger game? Imagine what would happen: the players would walk the race as slowly as possible, trying to conserve energy for the other, more meaningful events. Why should they do anything else? Although one of them will win the footrace, it will have no bearing on the larger game. On the other hand, if the players receive points depending on how well they rank and these points become part of a cumulative score, then the actions and the outcomes of the footrace are well integrated into the game as a whole.
游戏事件的可辨别性告诉玩家发生了什么（我击中了怪物），而整合性则让玩家知道它将如何影响游戏的其余部分（如果我继续击中怪物，我就会杀死它。如果我杀死足够多的怪物，我就会升级。）。玩家采取的每一个行动都融入了整个游戏体验的更大结构中：这就是游戏玩法真正有意义的方式。
Whereas discernability of game events tells players what happened (I hit the monster), integration lets players know how it will affect the rest of the game (If I keep on hitting the monster I will kill it. If I kill enough monsters, I’ll gain a level.). Every action a player takes is woven into the larger fabric of the overall game experience: this is how the play of a game becomes truly meaningful.
有意义的游戏可以通过多种方式实现，具体取决于特定游戏的设计。没有一种公式适用于所有情况。在小行星射击游戏中，需要即时和本能的反馈才能使动作可辨别。但在基于故事的游戏中，也可能出现这种情况，在游戏开始时采取的行动的结果只有在最后才会完全理解，当其含义以非常出乎意料和戏剧性的方式展现出来时。这两种情况都需要不同的方法来设计有意义的游戏。
Meaningful play can be realized in a number of ways, depending on the design of a particular game. There is no single formula that works in every case. In the example of the asteroid shooting game, immediate and visceral feedback was needed to make the action discernable. But it might also be the case that in a story-based game, the results of an action taken near the beginning of the game are only understood fully at the very end, when the implications are played out in a very unexpected and dramatic way. Both instances require different approaches to designing meaningful play.
有意义的游戏会同时涉及游戏的多个方面，产生多层意义，这些意义会逐渐积累并塑造玩家体验。有意义的游戏可以发生在国际象棋中单个动作的正式、数学战略层面。它可以发生在社交层面，因为两个玩家将游戏用作进行有意义交流的论坛。它也可以发生在更大的文化舞台上，国际象棋冠军赛可以用作冷战政治宣传的场合，或者用于当代关于人类思维和人工智能相对力量的哲学辩论。
Meaningful play engages several aspects of a game simultaneously, giving rise to layers of meaning that accumulate and shape player experience. Meaningful play can occur on the formal, mathematically strategic level of a single move in Chess. It can occur on a social level, as two players use the game as a forum for meaningful communication. And it can occur on larger stages of culture as well, where championship Chess matches can be used as occasions for Cold War political propaganda, or in contemporary philosophical debates about the relative powers of the human mind and artificial intelligence.
接下来的三章将详细介绍游戏设计师为玩家构建有意义的游戏空间的多种方式。在我们可能选择的众多主题中，我们将介绍构成游戏设计几个基本组成部分的三个核心概念：设计、系统和交互性。
The next three chapters elaborate on the many ways that game designers construct spaces of meaningful play for players. Among the many topics we might select, we cover three core concepts that form several of the fundamental building blocks of game design: design, systems, and interactivity.
笔记
Notes
1. Johann Huizinga，《游戏人：文化中的游戏元素研究》（波士顿：Beacon Press，1955 年），第 446 页。
1. Johann Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture (Boston: Beacon Press, 1955), p. 446.
2. Richard Rouse III，《游戏设计：理论与实践》（德克萨斯州普莱诺： Wordware Publishing，2001 年），第 141 页。
2. Richard Rouse III, Game Design: Theory and Practice {Plano, TX: Wordware Publishing, 2001), p. 141.
有意义的游戏
概括
• 意义、玩法和游戏是密切相关的概念。成功的游戏设计的目标是有意义的玩法。
• Meaning, play, and games are intimately related concepts. The goal of successful game design is meaningful play.
• 定义有意义的游戏有两种方式：描述性和评价性。描述性定义涉及所有游戏通过游戏创造意义的机制。评价性定义帮助我们理解为什么有些游戏比其他游戏提供更有意义的游戏。
• There are two ways to define meaningful play: descriptive and evaluative. The descriptive definition addresses the mechanism by which all games create meaning through play. The evaluative definition helps us understand why some games provide more meaningful play than others.
•有意义的游戏的描述性定义：游戏中的有意义的游戏源自玩家行为与系统结果之间的关系；它是玩家在游戏设计系统中采取行动以及系统对该行动作出反应的过程。游戏中行动的意义在于行动与结果之间的关系。
• The descriptive definition of meaningful play: Meaningful play in a game emerges from the relationship between player action and system outcome; it is the process by which a player takes action within the designed system of a game and the system responds to the action. The meaning of an action in a game resides in the relationship between action and outcome.
•有意义的游戏的评价定义：当游戏中的动作和结果之间的关系既可辨别又融入到游戏的更大背景中时，就会发生有意义的游戏。
• The evaluative definition of meaningful play: Meaningful play is what occurs when the relationships between actions and outcomes in a game are both discernable and integrated into the larger context of the game.
•可辨别性意味着玩家能够感知到动作的直接结果。整合性意味着动作的结果被融入到整个游戏系统中。
• Discernability means that a player can perceive the immediate outcome of an action. Integration means that the outcome of an action is woven into the game system as a whole.
• 定义有意义的游戏的两种方式密切相关。设计成功的游戏需要从两个方面理解有意义的游戏。
• The two ways of defining meaningful play are closely related. Designing successful games requires understanding meaningful play in both senses.
4
4
设计
DESIGN
符号学
semiotics
系统
system
迹象
signs
语境
context
意义
meaning
表示
representation
设计是不断应用约束直到只剩下一个独特的产品。
Design is the successive application of constraints until only a unique product is left.
—唐纳德·诺曼，《设计心理学》
—Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things
介绍设计
Introducing Design
“设计”是“游戏设计”的一半。作为一种概念和实践，设计理念是探索游戏和有意义的游戏的核心。然而，它很难定义。就像游戏这个词一样，设计是一个具有多种含义的概念，“它的定义取决于设计是否被视为一种想法、一种知识、一种实践、一个过程、一种产品，甚至是一种存在方式。”1在缺乏明确共识的情况下，是否可能（甚至是否合适）对设计给出一个通用的定义？我们下一步该怎么做？
“Design” is half of “game design.” As a concept and as a practice, the idea of design sits at the center of an exploration of games and meaningful play. Yet it is difficult to define. Like the term game, design is a concept with many meanings, “Its definition depends on whether design is considered to be an idea, a knowledge, a practice, a process, a product, or even a way-of-being.”1 Lacking a neat consensus, is it possible, or even appropriate, to offer a general definition of design? Where do we go from here?
我们可以从列出常见的设计实践开始：平面设计、工业设计、建筑、时装设计、纺织品设计、城市规划、信息架构、设计规划……这个清单还可以继续列下去。每一种实践都涉及某种事物的“设计”，无论它是某个物体（比如一把椅子或一种字体）还是一项计划（比如交通系统或身份识别系统）。这些实践还有什么共同点呢？当然是人。每一种设计实践的核心都是人。虽然这看起来很明显，但却是设计中一个经常被忽视的基本特征。我们认为这对游戏设计师来说尤其重要，因为人是我们创造的游戏的核心。
We could begin by listing familiar kinds of design practice: graphic design, industrial design, architecture, fashion design, textile design, urban planning, information architecture, design planning . . . the list could go on. Each of these practices involves the “design” of something, be it an object (such as a chair or a typeface) or a plan (such as a transportation system or an identity system). What else do these practices share in common? People, of course. Each design practice has a human being at its core. Although this might seem obvious, it an often overlooked basic feature of design. We think it is of particular importance to game designers, for people are at the heart of the games we create.
设计的一些定义
Some Definitions of Design
不幸的是，设计实践列表并不能让我们更接近适合我们游戏研究的设计的一般定义。对于这种一般定义的先例，我们可以参考设计理论，以此来绘制可能的方法领域。我们在一个比较列表中汇集了一些定义，以强调它们的差异。
Unfortunately, a list of design practices doesn’t bring us closer to a general definition of design suited to our study of games. For precedents of such general definitions, we can look to design theory, as a way to map the territory of possible approaches. We have assembled a number of definitions within a comparative list, in order to emphasize their differences.
“设计的词源可以追溯到拉丁语de + signare，意思是制造某物，用符号来区分它，赋予它意义，表明它与其他事物、所有者、用户或神的关系。基于这个原意，我们可以说：‘设计就是让（事物）有意义。’”2此定义将制作（意义）置于设计的中心。
“The etymology of design goes back to the Latin de + signare and means making something, distinguishing it by a sign, giving it significance designating its relation to other things, owners, users, or gods. Based on this original meaning, one could say: ‘design is making sense (of things).’”2 This definition places making (sense) at the center of design.
理查德·布坎南认为，“设计涉及对人造世界的所有实例的构思和规划：符号和图像、实物、活动和服务以及系统或环境。” 这种观点将设计置于人造事物之中。3
Richard Buchanan argues that “design is concerned with the conception and planning of all of the instances of the artificial or human-made world: signs and images, physical objects, activities and services, and systems or environments.” Such a perspective situates design within the artificial.3
赫伯特·西蒙的定义强调行动，这与他的管理科学理论有着根本的联系：“每个人都在设计，设计行动方案，旨在将现有情况改变为理想的情况。”4
Herbert Simon’s definition emphasizes action, which is fundamentally related to his theories of management science: “Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.”4
John Heskett 采用了更传统的定义，强调产品作为事物的视觉外观：“设计，视觉形式的概念”。5
John Heskett employs a more traditional definition, emphasizing the visual appearance of products as things: “design, the conception of visual form.”5
乔治·尼尔森的定义强调设计是一种交流： “从某种意义上说，每种设计都是一种社会交流，而重要的是……探索和表达本质的情感强度。”6
George Nelson’s definition emphasizes design as communication: “Every design is in some sense a social communication, and what matters is . . . the emotional intensity with which the essentials have been explored and expressed.”6
唐纳德·肖恩将设计视为与设计问题的形式、物质和概念在实际使用过程中的物质对话。他的设计方法是过程驱动和反思性的，强调设计的迭代性。“在良好的设计过程中，这种对话是反思性的……设计师在行动中反思问题的构造、行动策略或现象模型，这些都隐含在他的行动中。”7
Donald Schon regards design as a material conversation with the forms, substances, and concepts of a design problem as they are being used. His design approach is process-driven and reflective, emphasizing the iterative gualities of design. “In a good process of design, this conversation is reflective . . . the designer reflects-in-action on the construction of the problem, the strategies of action, or the model of the phenomena, which have been implicit in his moves.”7
设计师 Emilio Ambasz 给出了描述性且极具智慧的定义，强调了诗意的思想： “我一直深信，建筑和设计都是创造神话的行为。”8
Designer Emilio Ambasz gives a descriptive but intellectually powerful definition, emphasizing poetic thought: “It has always been my deep belief that architecture and design are both myth-making acts.”8
设计史学家克莱夫·迪尔诺特认为，设计通过探索现有与潜在之间的张力来实现变革。“作为一种变革行动模式，设计让我们看到，我们如何在任何时刻协商我们所理解的实际情况的极限。换句话说，在设计中，我们开始看到实际情况的极限不断形成和重新形成的过程。”9
Design historian Clive Dilnot suggests that design transforms by exploring the tension between the existing and the potential. “What design, as a mode of transformative action, allows us to see is how we negotiate the limits of what we understand, at any moment, as the actual. In design, in other words, we begin to see the processes whereby the limits of the actual are continually formed and re-formed.”9
设计作为制造、人造、行动、视觉外观、交流、反思过程、思想、转变：每个定义都提供了有效且有用的方法来理解通过关注特定的品质或特征，设计实践变得更容易理解。总体而言，这些定义指出了影响设计师的一系列问题，并有助于将设计领域作为一个整体来看待。但游戏设计呢？是否有一个定义可以解决游戏设计的特定领域，即有意义的游戏设计？为了回答这个问题，我们必须问另一个问题：游戏设计中的“设计”是什么？它与有意义的游戏概念有何关联？作为答案，我们提供以下一般定义：
Design as making; the artificial; action; visual appearance; communication; a reflective process; thought; transformation: each definition offers valid and useful ways of understanding the practice of design by focusing on particular qualities or characteristics. Taken as a whole, the definitions point to a range of concerns affecting designers and help to bring the field of design as a whole into view. But what about game design? Is there a definition that addresses game design’s particular territory, the design of meaningful play? In order to answer this question, we must ask another: What is the “design” in game design and how is it connected to the concept of meaningful play? As an answer, we offer the following general definition:
设计是设计师为参与者创造环境并由此产生意义的过程。
Design is the process by which a designer creates a context to be encountered by a participant, from which meaning emerges.
让我们看看这个定义与游戏设计相关的每个部分：
Let us look at each part of this definition in relation to game design:
•设计师是游戏设计者或创作游戏的团队。有时，游戏源自民间文化或粉丝文化，因此可能没有单独的设计师或设计团队。在这种情况下，游戏设计师可以被视为整个文化。
• The designer is the individual game designer or the team of people that creates the game. Sometimes, games emerge from folk culture or fan culture, so there may not be an individual designer or design team. In this case, the designer of the game can be considered culture at large.
•游戏的背景采用空间、物体、叙述和行为的形式。
• The context of a game takes the form of spaces, objects, narratives, and behaviors.
•游戏的参与者是玩家。他们通过游戏栖居、探索和操纵这些情境。
• The participants of a game are the players. They inhabit, explore, and manipulate these contexts through their play.
•意义是我们已经开始探索的一个概念。就游戏而言，有意义的游戏是玩家在游戏过程中采取行动的结果。
• Meaning is a concept that we’ve already begun to explore. In the case of games, meaningful play is the result of players taking actions in the course of play.
设计与意义之间的这种联系让我们回到了之前关于有意义的游戏的讨论。以捉人游戏为例。如果没有设计，我们会看到一群玩家四处乱窜，随意地互相触碰、尖叫，然后朝另一个方向跑去。有了设计，我们就可以拥有精心打造的体验，这些体验由规则指导，这些规则使某些形式的互动具有明确的意义。有了设计，触碰就变得像“捉人”一样有意义，而“捉人”的人就成为操场上令人恐惧的恐怖分子。电脑游戏也是如此。正如游戏设计师道格·丘奇所说：“设计就是游戏；没有设计，你会有一张满是数据的 CD，但没有体验。”10
This connection between design and meaning returns us to the earlier discussion of meaningful play. Consider a game of Tag. Without design we would have a field of players scampering about, randomly touching each other, screaming, and then running in the other direction. With design, we have a carefully crafted experience guided by rules, which make certain forms of interaction explicitly meaningful. With design a touch becomes meaningful as a “tag” and whoever is “It” becomes the feared terror of the playground. The same is true of computer games as well. As game designer Doug Church puts it, “The design is the game; without it you would have a CD full of data, but no experience.”10
设计与意义
Design and Meaning
当我们问某事物“意味着什么”时，尤其是在设计背景下，我们试图以一种有助于我们理解的方式找出该设计实例的价值或意义。诸如“在特定产品上使用特定颜色意味着什么？”或“该图像代表什么？”或“当我点击魔法星时会发生什么？”等问题都是意义问题。设计师对意义概念感兴趣的原因多种多样，其中最重要的原因是意义是人类互动的基本原则之一。我们从一个时刻到下一个时刻的过渡需要我们理解周围的环境——我们需要参与、解释和构建意义。这种人类追求意义的运动构成了人、物和环境之间互动的核心。
When we ask what something “means,” particularly in the context of design, we are trying to locate the value or significance of that instance of design in a way that helps us to make sense of it. Questions such as, “What does the use of a particular color mean on a particular product?” or “What does that image represent?” or “What happens when I click on the magic star?” are all questions of meaning. Designers are interested in the concept of meaning for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the fact that meaning is one of the basic principles of human interaction. Our passage through life from one moment to the next requires that we make sense of our surroundings—that we engage with, interpret, and construct meaning. This very human movement toward meaning forms the core of interaction between people, objects, and contexts.
考虑一下在街上和朋友打招呼的行为。挥手、点头、亲吻脸颊、拍拍肩膀、热情拥抱、坚定握手和轻轻击打手臂都是互动的形式，意思是“你好，我的朋友”。作为这种场景的参与者，我们必须理解手势并做出适当的回应。如果我们无法理解这种情况，我们就无法理解互动的意义。游戏设计师尤其对意义的概念感兴趣，因为他们参与了互动系统的创建。这些系统随后引发了一系列意义构建活动，从在棋盘上移动游戏棋子到下注，再到在虚拟游戏世界中与其他在线角色交流“你好，我的朋友”。近年来，用户如何理解物体这个问题促使一些设计师借鉴其他领域的见解和专业知识。特别是符号学领域具有启发性。符号学是研究意义以及意义构建过程的学科。在接下来的几页中，我们将稍微绕道进入符号学，以便更谨慎地构建我们的有意义的游戏的概念。
Consider the act of greeting a friend on the street. A wave, a nod, a kiss on the cheek, a pat on the back, a warm hug, a firm handshake, and a gentle punch in the arm are all forms of interaction meaning, “Hello, my friend.” As a participant in this scenario, we must make sense of the gesture and respond appropriately. If we fail to make sense of the situation, we have failed to understand the meaning of the interaction. Game designers, in particular, are interested in the concept of meaning because they are involved in the creation of systems of interaction. These systems then give rise to a range of meaning-making activities, from moving a game piece on a board, to waging a bet, to communicating “Hello, my friend” with other online characters in a virtual game world. This question of how users make sense of objects has led some designers, in recent years, to borrow insights and expertise from other fields. In particular, the field of semiotics has been instructive. Semiotics is the study of meaning and the process by which meaning is made. In the next few pages, we will take a slight detour into semiotics, in order to more carefully build our concept of meaningful play.
符号学：简要概述
Semiotics: A Brief Overview
有可能设想一门研究符号在生活中的作用的科学……我们称之为符号学（源于希腊语 semeion，“符号”）。它将研究符号的性质及其规律。——费迪南德·德·索绪尔，《普通语言学教程》
It is . . . possible to conceive of a science which studies the role of signs as part of life . . . We shall call it semiology (from the Greek semeion, “sign”). It would investigate the nature of signs and the laws governing them.—Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics
符号学起源于 20 世纪初瑞士语言学家费迪南·德·索绪尔的学说。索绪尔最初以符号学的术语提出语言理论，认为语言是一种符号系统，这一理论影响了许多后来的思想流派，包括克劳德·列维-斯特劳斯的人类学、雅克·德里达的哲学和罗兰·巴特的社会神话学。11这些作家都对理解人类文化产物（从语言到葬礼到游戏）如何产生意义感兴趣。
Semiotics emerged from the teachings of Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist, in the early twentieth century. Originally formulated under the term semiology, Saussure’s theory of language as a system of signs influenced many later currents of thought, including the anthropology of Claude Levi-Strauss, the philosophy of Jacques Derrida, and the social mythology of Roland Barthes.11 Each of these writers shared an interest in understanding how products of human culture, from languages to funeral rituals to games, could produce meaning.
从一般意义上讲，符号学是研究意义如何形成的学科。符号代表或表示什么的问题是该领域关注的焦点。例如，如果将上流社会的晚宴构建为一个符号系统，我们就会有兴趣了解组成晚宴的不同元素的含义。我们可以看看餐桌布置如何表示用餐空间。我们可以看看精美的瓷器或银器如何代表社会阶层的概念，或者餐桌周围椅子的排列如何代表地位。我们可以看看活动如何代表“优雅”、“权力”、“上流社会”或“精致餐饮”等概念，或者将进食视为一种生存、感官享受、焦虑或社区活动。我们甚至可以考虑参加活动的行为代表什么，或者对那些没有被邀请的人意味着什么。这些观点中的每一个都有助于我们将晚宴理解为一个意义系统，它由指向“外面”世界我们熟悉的事物的符号组成。但是我们说的“标志”到底是什么意思呢？
In a general sense, semiotics is the study of how meanings are made. The question of what signs represent, or denote, is of central concern to the field. If a high society dinner party was framed as a semiotic system, for example, we would be interested in understanding the meaning of the different elements that make up the dinner party. We could look at the way the table-settings denote a space for eating. We could look at how the presence of fine china or silverware represents the idea of social class, or the representation of status in the arrangement of chairs around the table. We might look at how the event represents concepts such as “elegance,” “power,” “high-society,” or “fine dining,” or reference the idea of eating as an activity of survival, sensual pleasure, anxiety, or community. We might even consider what the act of attending the event represents or what it means to those who were not invited. Each of these perspectives contributes to our understanding of the dinner party as a system of meaning, one comprised of signs that refer to things familiar to us from the world “out there.” But what do we mean when we say “sign”?
从符号学的角度来说，人们使用符号来表示物体或想法。由于符号代表着除其自身之外的事物，因此我们将这种表示视为符号的含义。例如，烟味（符号）代表“火”的概念，国际象棋中最高的棋子代表“王”。在“石头剪刀布”游戏中，伸出的手表示“布”，握拳表示“石头”，两根呈 V 形张开的手指表示“剪刀”。我们理解符号所代表的含义的能力是符号学研究的核心。
Semiotically speaking, people use signs to designate objects or ideas. Because a sign represents something other than itself, we take the representation as the meaning of the sign. The smell of smoke (sign) represents the concept of “fire,” for example, or the tallest piece in Chess denotes the “King.” In the game Rock-Paper-Scissors, an outstretched hand means “paper,” a fist means “rock,” and two fingers spread in a V-shape means “scissors.” Our capacity to understand that signs represent is at the heart of semiotic study.
同样，理解符号“对某人有某种意义”是任何设计实践的核心。例如，平面设计师使用代表文字的印刷符号（字体）来设计一本书；时装设计师在新的春季系列中使用丝绸作为代表“美丽”或“女性气质”的符号；游戏设计师在奇幻角色扮演游戏中使用战士、巫师、盗贼和牧师等职业来表示游戏中的四种玩家角色。因此，符号是符号学研究的最基本单位，可以理解为意义的标记。正如大卫·钱德勒所指出的那样，
Similarly, understanding that signs mean “something to somebody” is at the core of any design practice. A graphic designer, for example, uses typographic signs (letterforms) representing words to design a book; a fashion designer uses silk as a sign representing “beauty” or “femininity” in a new spring line; a game designer uses the classes of Fighter, Wizard, Thief, and Cleric in a fantasy role-playing game to denote four kinds of player-characters within a game. Thus, signs are the most basic unit of semiotic study and can be understood as markers of meaning. As David Chandler notes,
我们并不生活在物理对象和事件之中，也不与它们产生联系。我们生活在有意义的符号系统之中，也不与它们产生联系。我们并不坐在复杂的木质结构上，而是坐在凳子上。我们称其为凳子，意味着它是用来坐的；它不是咖啡桌。在与他人的互动中，我们不会使用随意的手势，我们用手势表达我们的礼貌、愉悦、不解和厌恶。我们环境中的物体、我们使用的手势和词语，其意义都源自它们所属的符号系统。12
We do not live among and relate to physical objects and events. We live among and relate to systems of signs with meaning. We don’t sit on a complex structure of wood, we sit on a stool. The fact that we refer to it as a STOOL means that it is to be sat on; it is not a coffee table. In our interactions with others we don’t use random gestures, we gesture our courtesy, our pleasure, our incomprehension, our disgust. The objects in our environment, the gestures and words we use, derive their meanings from the sign systems to which they belong.12
四个符号概念
Four Semiotic Concepts
美国哲学家和符号学家查尔斯·皮尔士将符号定义为“在某个方面或能力上对某人代表某物的东西”。13这一广义定义承认了构成标志概念的四个关键思想：
The American philosopher and semiotician Charles S. Peirce defines a sign as “something that stands for something, to somebody, in some respect or capacity.”13 This broad definition recognizes four key ideas that constitute the concept of a sign:
1. 一个符号代表着它本身以外的其他事物。
1. A sign represents something other than itself.
2. 对标志进行解释。
2. Signs are interpreted.
3. 符号经过解释后，意义就产生了。
3. Meaning results when a sign is interpreted.
4. 背景影响解释。
4. Context shapes interpretation.
标志代表着其本身以外的其他事物
A Sign Represents Something Other Than Itself
符号代表着除其本身之外的某种东西；它“代表着某种东西”。例如，井字游戏中的圆圈 (O) 标记不仅代表玩家“O”（而不是玩家“X”）的动作，还代表占领游戏九宫格中的某个方格。或者考虑刺客游戏中两个玩家之间的互动。根据游戏规则，轻拍手臂可能代表“死亡”或“占领”。无论哪种情况，轻拍对玩家来说都具有非轻拍的意义。
A sign represents something other than itself; it “stands for something.” The mark of a circle (O) in the game of Tic-Tac-Toe, for instance, represents not only an action by player “O” (as opposed to player “X”) but also the capture of a certain square within the game’s nine-square grid. Or consider the interaction between two players in a game of Assassin. A tap on the arm might represent “death” or “capture,” depending on the rules of the game. In either case, the tap is meaningful to players as something other than a tap.
出于多种原因，符号代表自身以外的其他事物这一概念对于理解游戏至关重要。一方面，游戏使用符号来表示动作和结果，这是有意义的游戏的两个组成部分。井字游戏中的“X”或“O”标记，或刺客游戏中玩家手臂上的轻拍，都是与特定结果配对的动作；这些动作作为更大交互序列的一部分而具有意义。这些序列有时被称为“符号链”，这一概念提醒人们注意任何符号系统中符号之间关系的重要性。
This concept of a sign representing something other than itself is critical to an understanding of games for several reasons. On one hand, games use signs to denote action and outcome, two components of meaningful play. The marks of an “X” or “O” in Tic-Tac-Toe or the taps on the arms of players in a game of Assassin are actions paired with particular outcomes; these actions gain meaning as part of larger sequences of interaction. These sequences are sometimes referred to as “chains of signifiers,” a concept that calls attention to the importance of relations between signs within any sign system.
另一方面，游戏使用符号来表示游戏世界的元素。例如，马里奥的世界是由一个符号系统构成的，这些符号代表魔法硬币、星星、管道、敌人、隐藏平台和游戏景观的其他元素。构成游戏世界的符号以声音、图像、交互和文本的形式向玩家集体代表世界。虽然这些符号肯定是指现实世界中存在的物体，但它们的象征价值或意义来自游戏中符号之间的关系。我们可以用拼字游戏历史中的一个例子来说明符号从游戏背景中获得意义的想法。
On the other hand, games use signs to denote the elements of the game world. The universe of Mario, for example, is constructed of a systems of signs representing magic coins, stars, pipes, enemies, hidden platforms, and other elements of the game landscape. The signs that make up the game world collectively represent the world to the player—as sounds, images, interactions, and text. Although the signs certainly make reference to objects that exist in the real world, they gain their symbolic value or meaning from the relationship between signs within the game. We can illustrate the idea of signs deriving meaning from within the context of a game with an example drawn from the history of Scrabble.
1993 年末，有人发起了一场针对 Scrabble 所有者和发行商 Hasbro 公司的抗议活动，要求该公司从官方 Scrabble 玩家词典(OSPD) 中删除种族和民族辱骂性词汇。当时，这本官方可玩或“好”词的规则手册包含“JEW”、“KIKE”、“DAGO”和“SPIC”等词汇。在反诽谤联盟和全国犹太妇女委员会的压力下，Hasbro 宣布将从 OSPD 中删除 50 到 100 个“冒犯性”词汇。正如 Stefan Fatsis 在《Word Freak：拼字游戏竞技玩家世界中的伤心、胜利、天才和痴迷》一书中所写，
In late 1993, a campaign was initiated against Hasbro, the company that owns and distributes Scrabble, requesting that the company remove racial and ethnic slurs from The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (OSPD). This rulebook of officially playable or “good” words contained, at that time, words such as “JEW,” “KIKE,” “DAGO,” and “SPIC.” As a result of pressure from the Anti Defamation League and the National Council of Jewish Women, Hasbro announced that fifty to one hundred “offensive” words would be removed from the OSPD. As Stefan Fatsis writes in Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players,
拼字游戏社区对此大为恼火。少数玩家，尤其是一些虔诚的基督徒，支持这一决定。但以许多犹太玩家为首的绝大多数人指责孩之宝进行审查。他们辩称，单词就是单词，禁止它们出现在字典中并不能使它们消失。此外，玩家试图解释，拼字游戏期间在棋盘上打出的单词是没有意义的。在有限的得分背景下，在 OSPD 中被视为冒犯的 HONKIE 的含义并不比任何晦涩但常用的单词的含义更重要。14
The Scrabble community went ballistic. A handful of players, notably some devout Christians, backed the decision. But a huge majority led by a number of Jewish players, accused Hasbro of censorship. Words are words, and banning them from a dictionary would not make them go away, they argued. Plus, the players tried to explain, the words as played on a board during a game of Scrabble are without meaning. In the limited context of scoring points, the meaning of HONKIE, deemed offensive in the OSPD, is no more relevant than the meaning of any obscure but commonly played word.14
在拼字游戏中，单词被简化为字母序列——它们实际上没有单词的意义。相反，字母是具有拼图价值的符号，必须根据拼写规则仔细排列。因此，尽管字母 HONKIE 的序列在拼字游戏之外具有种族歧视的意义，但在拼字游戏中，该序列具有六个字母游戏的意义，价值在棋盘上获得一定分数。在拼字游戏中，符号链代表了被剥离了一切，只剩下句法关系的单词。然而，在拼字游戏之外，这些单词代表了种族仇恨。
Within the context of a game of Scrabble, words are reduced to sequences of letters—they literally do not have meaning as words. Rather, the letters are signs that have value as puzzle pieces that must be carefully arranged according to the rules of spelling. Thus, although the sequence of letters H-O-N-K-I-E has meaning as a racial slur outside of the context of a game of Scrabble, within it the sequence has meaning as a six-letter play worth a number of points on the board. Within Scrabble the chain of signifiers represent words stripped of everything except their syntactical relationships. Outside of Scrabble, however, the words represent racial animosity.
观察游戏中的符号链意味着要剖析游戏，以便从微观层面观察系统，了解内部机制如何运作。但整个游戏本身也可以被视为符号。从宏观而非微观的角度观察游戏，我们可以从外部观察游戏，将它们视为更大符号系统中的符号。例如，井字游戏可以看作代表童年游戏的符号，而刺客游戏可能代表 20 世纪 80 年代的大学恶作剧，或者启发了该游戏的电影《第十个受害者》。
Looking at chains of signifiers within a game means dissecting a game in order to view the system at a micro-level to see how the internal machinery operates. But entire games themselves can also be identified as signs. Viewing them from a macro—rather than micro—perspective allows us to look at games from the outside, seeing them as signs within larger sign systems. The game of Tic-Tac-Toe, for instance, could be seen as a sign representing childhood play, whereas the game of Assassin might stand for college mischief in the 1980s or the film The 10th Victim, which inspired the game.
标志被解读
Signs Are Interpreted
皮尔斯的定义表明，符号是经过解释的；它们对某些人来说代表着某种东西。索绪尔的基本见解之一是，符号的意义是通过文化习俗任意得出的。符号的意义不在于符号本身，而在于周围的系统，这一观点对于我们研究游戏至关重要。毕竟，赋予符号意义的是人（或玩家）。正如符号学家大卫·钱德勒 (David Chandler) 所指出的那样，
Peirce’s definition suggests that signs are interpreted; they stand for something to somebody. It was one of Saussure’s fundamental insights that the meanings of signs are arrived at arbitrarily via cultural convention. The idea that the meaning of signs rests not in the signs themselves but in the surrounding system is critical to our study of games. It is people (or players), after all, who bring meaning to signs. As semiotician David Chandler notes,
猪没有必要被称为 pig。它看起来、听起来或闻起来并不像“pig”这个声音序列，就像香蕉看起来、闻起来、尝起来或感觉起来并不像“banana”这个声音序列一样。只是因为我们语言群体同意它被称为“pig”，所以这个声音序列指的是现实世界中的动物。如果你愿意，你和你的朋友圈可以同意总是把猪称为“squerdlishes”。只要大家普遍同意，那就没有问题——直到你开始和不遵循相同惯例的人谈论 squerdlishes。15
There is no necessary reason why a pig should be called a pig. It doesn’t look sound or smell any more like the sequence of sounds “p-i-g” than a banana looks, smells, tastes or feels like the sequence of sounds “banana.” It is only because we in our language group agree that it is called a “pig” that that sequence of sounds refers to the animal in the real world. You and your circle of friends could agree always to refer to pigs as “squerdlishes” if you wanted. As long as there is general agreement, that’s no problem—until you start talking about squerdlishes to people who don’t share the same convention.15
当我们将玩家视为游戏符号系统的积极诠释者时，钱德勒的观点引起了共鸣。如果情况允许，孩子们在课间玩捉迷藏时可能会在每次游戏，甚至在游戏中间改变“本垒”的手势。操场角落的一棵树可能今天会用到，一堆石头可能明天会用到。虽然本垒确实必须具备某些功能性，比如可触摸的物体或地方，但除了游戏玩家对它们的指定外，树或石头并没有什么特别之处使它们成为“本垒”。因此，符号本质上是任意的，并通过一套商定的惯例获得价值。因为“符号系统和现实之间没有简单的符号=事物等式，我们才是意义的积极创造者。”16
Chandler’s point has resonance when we consider players as active interpreters of a game’s sign system. Children playing Tag during recess may change the sign for “home-base” from game to game, or even in the middle of a game, if circumstances allow. A tree in the corner of the playground might be used one day, or a pile of rocks another. Although a home base does have to possess certain functional qualities, such as being a touchable object or place, there is nothing special about the tree or rocks that make them “home base” other than their designation as such by the players of the game. Thus signs are essentially arbitrary, and gain value through a set of agreed upon conventions. Because “there is no simple sign = thing equation between sign systems and reality, it is we who are the active makers of meanings.”16
解读标志后产生的含义
Meaning Results When a Sign Is Interpreted
皮尔士的定义表明，意义源于对符号的解释；一个符号在某个方面或能力上对某人来说代表着某物。尽管这似乎是显而易见的观点，但仍需注意，因为它提醒我们注意符号在系统中获得价值的过程的结果。想象一下在正式的晚宴上坐下来喝一碗汤，发现碗旁边有一双筷子。一种反应是忽视筷子作为“勺子”的符号，而是问服务员缺少的餐具。在这种情况下，我们正在解释符号系统中代表“汤餐具”的一组符号，勺子（而不是筷子）是其中的一部分。在这个系统中，勺子的符号有价值，而筷子的符号没有价值。
Peirce’s definition suggests that meaning results when a sign is interpreted; a sign stands for something, to somebody, in some respect or capacity. Although this may seem like an obvious point it is important to note, for it calls attention to the outcome of the process by which signs gain value within a system. Consider sitting down to eat a bowl of soup at a formal dinner party and finding a pair of chopsticks next to the bowl. One response would be to disregard the chopsticks as a sign for “spoon,” and instead ask the waiter for the missing utensil. Within this scenario we are interpreting a set of signs within the sign system representing “soup utensils,” of which spoons—and not chopsticks—are part. Within this system, the sign for spoon has value, whereas the sign for chopstick does not.
另一个例子：如果玩家 A 在石头剪刀布游戏中伸出三根手指，形成“W”形，而不是两根手指，形成“V”形，那么她就无法在游戏的石头剪刀布符号结构中创造出有价值或意义的符号。玩家 B 可能会说“那应该是什么？”，试图在游戏系统中为符号注入价值。如果玩家 A 回答“剪刀”，那么玩家 B 有两个选择。她可以接受新符号作为“剪刀”的代表，也可以拒绝解释。如果她接受新的表示，那么玩家实际上就为系统添加了一个新符号；一个三指符号，现在表示“剪刀”。
Another example: If player A in a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors holds up three fingers in the shape of a “W” instead of two in the shape of a “V,” she has failed to create a sign that has value, or meaning, within the rock, paper, scissors sign structure of the game. Player B might say, “What is that supposed to be?” in an attempt to infuse the sign with value within the system of the game. If player A responds, “Scissors,” then player B has two choices. She can either accept the new sign as representative of “scissors” or she can reject the interpretation. If she accepts the new representation, the players have, in effect, added a new sign to the system; a three-fingered sign that now means “scissors.”
语境塑造解读
Context Shapes Interpretation
语境是我们对设计的一般定义中的关键组成部分。它也是意义创造的关键组成部分。设计是“设计师为参与者创造一个语境的过程，意义由此而产生。”这个定义明确地将语境和意义联系起来。当我们在语言中谈到语境时，我们指的是书面或口头内容中紧接在单词或段落之前或之后的部分，用于澄清其含义。例如，“我迷路了”这句话根据其使用的语境可以有很多不同的含义。如果文字冒险游戏 Zork 的玩家说，“我正在尝试安装游戏，但我迷路了”，我们就知道她很难理解游戏的安装说明。如果同一个玩家说：“我在第二个房间，我迷路了”，我们可以确定她确实在玩游戏，迷路了，需要帮助才能在虚构的游戏空间中导航。在每个例子中，“我迷路了”这个短语都通过其后的单词给出了上下文。
Context is a key component to our general definition of design. It also is a key component in the creation of meaning. Design is “the process by which a designer creates a context to be encountered by a participant, from which meaning emerges.” This definition makes an explicit connection between context and meaning. When we speak of context in language we are referring to the parts of something written or spoken that immediately precede or follow a word or passage that serve to clarify its meaning. The phrase “I am lost,” for example, can mean many different things depending on the context in which it is used. If a player of the text adventure game Zork says, “I am trying to install the game and I am lost,” we understand that she is having a difficult time making sense of the game’s installation instructions. If that same player were to say, “I am in the second chamber and I am lost,” we can ascertain that she is actually playing the game, has lost her way, and needs help navigating the fictional game space. In each instance the phrase “I am lost” is given context by the words it follows.
我们还可以从结构的概念来理解语境，在符号学中，结构是指一组规定符号或系统元素如何组合的规则或准则。例如，在语言中，我们将结构称为语法。句子的语法规则创建了一种结构，描述了单词可以和不可以如何排序。我们可以将这些规则称为隐形结构，因为我们并不总是意识到它们的存在。在游戏中，这种语法概念以游戏规则的形式出现，游戏规则为游戏创建了一种结构，描述了游戏的所有元素如何相互作用。结构（在语言或游戏中）的运作方式与语境非常相似，并参与意义的形成过程。通过以非常特殊的方式对系统元素进行排序，结构可以创造意义。传播理论家 David Berlo 使用以下示例来解释结构如何支持解释：
We can also understand context in relation to the idea of structure, which in semiotics refers to a set of regulations or guidelines that prescribe how signs, or elements of a system, can be combined. In language, for example, we refer to structure as grammar. The grammatical rules of a sentence create a structure that describes how words can and cannot be sequenced. We might refer to these rules as invisible structure, as we are not always aware that they are there. In games, this concept of grammar takes the form of game rules, which create a structure for the game, describing how all of the elements of the game interact with one another. Structure (in language or games) operates much like context, and participates in the meaning-making process. By ordering the elements of a system in very particular ways, structure works to create meaning. The communication theorist David Berlo uses the following example to explain how structure supports interpretation:
结构：
Structure:
大多数 smoogle 都有通讯功能
Most smoogles have comcom
我们不知道 smoogles 和 comcom 是什么，但我们仍然了解一些关于它们的知识：我们知道 smoogle 是可数词，可以用复数形式来指代，不像水或牛奶。我们知道 smoogles 是名词，而不是动词。我们知道这个句子中提到了不止一个 smoogle。我们知道 comcom 是名词，而且它是大多数 smoogles 都声称具有的性质或事物。我们仍然不知道它指的是什么，但英语语法的形式属性已经为我们提供了大量信息。17
We don’t know what smoogles and comcom are, but we still know something about them: we know that a smoogle is something countable and can be referred to in the plural, unlike, say, water or milk. We know that smoogles is a noun and not a verb. We know that more than one smoogle is referred to in this sentence. We know that comcom is a noun and that it is a quality or thing which most smoogles are claimed to have. We still don’t know what is referred to, but the formal properties of English grammar have already provided us with a lot of information.17
虽然任何系统的结构确实提供了支持解释的信息，但上下文最终决定了含义。在下面的例子中，Berlo 展示了结构和上下文如何协同工作以帮助解释：
Although the structure of any system does provide information that supports interpretation, context ultimately shapes meaning. In the following example, Berlo shows how structure and context work together to aid interpretation:
语境：
Context:
我的 gyxpyx 坏了
My gyxpyx is broken
从语言结构中，你知道 gyxpyx 是一个名词。你知道，用 broken 来指代它是有意义的。
From the structure of the language you know that gyxpyx is a noun. You know that it’s something that it makes sense to refer to as broken.
其中一个按键卡住了
One of its keys is stuck
现在我们更接近一点了——gyxpyx 可能是打字机、计算器或乐器；无论如何，它是有按键的东西。
Now we’re getting a bit closer—a gyxpyx is maybe a typewriter, calculator, or musical instrument; at any rate it’s something that has keys.
我觉得也可以换一条新丝带
and I think it could do with a new ribbon, as well
好吧，这几乎可以确定了。我们仍然没有答案，那就是打字机和 gyxpyx 之间到底有什么区别，或者为什么这个人有将打字机称为 gyxpyxes 的奇怪习惯，但我们已经可以相当肯定 gyxpyx 是打字机之类的东西。18
Well, that pretty well clinches it. We’re still left with the question of just what the difference is between a typewriter and a gyxpyx or why this person has the odd habit of referring to typewriters as gyxpyxes, but we can be reasonably sure already that a gyxpyx is something typewriter-like.18
Berlo 继续指出，我们对 gyxpyx 的理解部分来自于其结构。我们知道它是一个名词，我们知道它可以被打破，它有钥匙和丝带。但是结构只能帮助我们在寻找意义的过程中走这么远；通常必须借助上下文来完成任务。想想和朋友玩猜字游戏的经历。回合早期发生的大部分猜测都依赖于结构来提供线索。试图画“弗兰肯斯坦”的玩家可能会先画一个头和眼睛，以此作为建立人体结构的一种手段。这种结构有助于玩家猜测“眼睛”、“脸”或“头”，但很快就会发现需要更多信息。作为回应，画板前的玩家可能会开始为头部创造一个背景，画一个伸出“僵尸”手臂的大身体、表示手术疤痕的缝合痕迹和一个特斯拉线圈背景中发出噼啪声。虽然玩家最初可能不明白这些标记代表什么（针迹可能看起来只是波浪线），但图画中其他元素所创造的背景为这些标记提供了它们原本缺乏的意义。一旦玩家认识到“僵尸”或“怪物”的背景，针迹就变成了“伤疤”，弗兰肯斯坦就活了过来。
Berlo goes on to note that the meaning we have for gyxpyx comes partly from the structure. We know it is a noun and we know it can be broken, that it has keys and a ribbon. But structure can only take us so far in our search for meaning; context must often be called upon to complete the quest. Consider the experience of playing a game of Pictionary with friends. Much of the guessing that occurs early in a turn relies on structure to provide clues. A player attempting to draw “Frankenstein” may begin by drawing a head and eyes, as a means of establishing the structure of the human form. This structure helps players to make guesses such as “eyes,” “face,” or “head,” but it soon becomes clear that more information is needed. In response, the player at the drawing board may begin to create a context for the head by drawing a large body with outstretched “zombie” arms, stitch marks denoting surgical scars, and a Tesla coil crackling in the background. Although players might not initially understand what these marks represent (the stitches might just look like squiggly lines), the context created by the other elements of the drawing supply the marks with the meaning they would otherwise lack. Once the players recognize the context “zombie” or “monster,” the stitch marks become “scars” and Frankenstein is brought to life.
结构、背景和意义之间的这种关系告诉我们，解释行为在一定程度上依赖于已知信息和未知信息之间的移动。例如，玩你画我猜的游戏的玩家经常会在他们理解的符号（僵尸或怪物）的背景中遇到他们不理解的符号（针迹）。已知和熟悉的含义会因已知和未知符号之间的形式关系而产生其他含义。请记住，构成结构和背景的实际元素是流动的。头部的绘画可能在猜测阶段的早期起到结构的作用（如果它是第一个画的东西），但当它有助于识别曲线时，它就成为背景的一部分。
This relationship between structure, context, and meaning tells us that the act of interpretation relies, in part, on the movement between known and unknown information. Players of Pictionary, for example, will often come across a sign for which they don’t have a meaning (stitch marks) within the context of signs for which they do (zombie or monster). The meanings that are known and familiar generate other meanings due to the formal relations between the known and the unknown signs. Keep in mind that the actual elements that constitute structure and context are fluid. The drawing of a head might operate as structure early in the guessing period (if it is the first thing drawn), but when it serves to help identify the squiggles, it becomes part of context.
设计就是创造意义。这种意义令人激动和鼓舞。这种意义可以移动、舞动和发挥作用。这种意义可以帮助人们以新的方式理解世界。设计师通过构建整个相互关联的系统而不是一个孤立的符号来塑造这些意义体验。正如索绪尔指出的那样，在语言中，一个符号的价值只有与其他符号相关时才会产生。在石头、剪刀、布游戏中，“石头”的概念只有在与“布”或“剪刀”概念相对立时才具有同一性。符号的意义并不在于符号本身，而在于它所属的周围系统。你为玩家提供的有意义的玩法源于游戏的设计系统——以及游戏如何与更大的社会和文化系统互动。游戏设计师设计的是什么？系统。这是我们在下一章中介绍的关键概念。
To design is to create meaning. Meaning that can thrill and inspire. Meaning that moves and dances and plays. Meaning that helps people understand the world in new ways. Designers sculpt these experiences of meaning by creating not just one isolated signifier but by constructing whole systems of interlocking parts. As Saussure points out, in language the value of one sign only arises in relation to other signs. In Rock-Paper-Scissors the concept “rock” has identity only in opposition to the concepts “paper” or “scissors.” The meaning of a sign does not reside within the sign itself, but from the surrounding system of which it is part. The meaningful play you provide for your players emerges from the designed system of a game—and how that game interacts with larger social and cultural systems. What is it that game designers design? Systems. This is the key concept we introduce in the next chapter.
笔记
Notes
1. Alain Findeli，《莫霍利-纳吉在芝加哥的设计教学法，1937-46》。《设计理念：设计问题读本》由 Victor Margolin 和 Richard Buchanan 编辑（剑桥：麻省理工学院出版社，1995 年），第 29 页。
1. Alain Findeli, “Moholy-Nagy’s Design Pedagogy in Chicago, 1937–46.” In The Idea of Design, A Design Issues Reader, edited by Victor Margolin and Richard Buchanan (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995), p. 29.
2. Klaus Krippendorff，《论人工制品的本质背景或论‘设计就是让（事物）有意义’这一命题》。《设计理念：设计问题读本》，第 156 页。
2. Klaus Krippendorff, “On the Essential Contexts of Artifacts or on the Proposition that ‘Design is Making Sense (of Things)’.” In The Idea of Design, A Design Issues Reader, p. 156.
3. Richard Buchanan，《设计思维中的棘手问题》。《设计理念：设计问题读本》，第 6 页。
3. Richard Buchanan, “Wicked Problems in Design Thinking.” In The Idea of Design, A Design Issues Reader, p. 6.
4.赫伯特·西蒙，《人工智能科学》（剑桥：麻省理工学院出版社，1968 年），第 55 页。
4. Herbert Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1968), p. 55.
5. John Heskett，《工业设计》（纽约：牛津大学出版社，1980 年），第 7 页。
5. John Heskett, Industrial Design (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), p. 7.
6. Richard Buchanan，“设计思维中的棘手问题”。《设计理念：设计问题读本》，第 8 页。
6. Richard Buchanan, “Wicked Problems in Design Thinking.” In The Idea of Design, A Design Issues Reader, p. 8.
7.唐纳德·A·舍恩，《反思型实践者：专业人士在行动中的思考方式》（纽约：Basic Books，1983 年），第 79 页。
7. Donald A. Schon, The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (New York: Basic Books, 1983), p. 79.
8.艾米利奥·安巴斯（Emilio Ambasz），《艾米利奥·安巴斯：实用主义诗学》（纽约：Rizzoli International Publications，1988），第24页。
8. Emilio Ambasz, Emilio Ambasz: The Poetics of the Pragmatic (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1988), p. 24.
9 . Clive Dilnot，《不确定性的科学：设计知识的潜在贡献》，第 65-97 页。《俄亥俄会议论文集》，设计博士教育，1998 年 10 月 8-11 日。匹兹堡设计学院。卡内基梅隆大学。
9. Clive Dilnot, The Science of Uncertainty: The Potential Contribution of Design Knowledge, p. 65–97. Proceedings of the Ohio Conference, Doctoral Education in Design, October 8–11, 1998. Pittsburgh School of Design. Carnegie Mellon University.
10. Doug Church，《正式抽象设计工具》。< www.gamasutra.com >，1999 年 7 月 16 日。
10. Doug Church, “Formal Abstract Design Tools.” <www.gamasutra.com>, July 16, 1999.
11. Ellen Lupton 和 J. Abbott Miller，《字母法则》。《设计、写作、研究：平面设计写作》（纽约：普林斯顿建筑出版社，1996 年），第 55 页。
11. Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller, “Laws of the Letter.” In Design, Writing, Research: Writing on Graphic Design (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996), p. 55.
12. Daniel Chandler，《初学者符号学》。 < www.aber.ac.uk/~dgc/semiotic.html >。
12. Daniel Chandler, Semiotics for Beginners. <www.aber.ac.uk/~dgc/semiotic.html>.
13.查尔斯·S·皮尔斯：精选著作，P.O.维纳主编（纽约：多佛，1958 年），第 37 页。
13. Charles S. Pierce: Selected Writings, ed. P. O. Wiener (New York: Dover, 1958), p. 37.
14 . Stefan Fatsis，《文字狂人：拼字游戏竞技玩家世界中的伤心、胜利、天才和痴迷》（波士顿：霍顿·米夫林，2001 年），第 149 页。
14. Stefan Fatsis, Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), p. 149.
15. Daniel Chandler，《初学者符号学》。 < www.aber.ac.uk/~dgc/semiotic.html >。
15. Daniel Chandler, Semiotics for Beginners. <www.aber.ac.uk/~dgc/semiotic.html>.
16 . 米克·安德伍德，CCMS。< http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/semiomean/semio1.html >
16. Mick Underwood, CCMS. <http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/semiomean/semio1.html>
17.同上。
17. Ibid.
18.同上。
18. Ibid.
设计
概括
• 设计有许多一般定义。每个定义都强调了广泛的设计实践的不同方面。
• There are many general definitions of design. Each emphasizes different aspects of the vast range of design practices.
• 我们对设计的定义强调创造有意义的体验：
• Our definition of design emphasizes the creation of meaningful experience:
设计是设计师为参与者创造环境并由此产生意义的过程。
Design is the process by which a designer creates a context to be encountered by a participant, from which meaning emerges.
•符号学是研究意义的学科。它主要研究符号如何表示或指示的问题。
• Semiotics is the study of meaning. It is primarily concerned with the question of how signs represent, or denote.
• 人们用符号来表示物体或思想。由于符号代表着除其自身之外的其他事物，因此我们将这种代表视为符号的意义。
• People use signs to designate objects or ideas. Because a sign represents something other than itself, we take the representation as the meaning of the sign.
• 查尔斯·皮尔斯确定了四个符号学概念：
• Charles Pierce identifies four semiotic concepts:
1. 一个符号代表着它本身以外的其他事物。
1. A sign represents something other than itself.
2. 对标志进行解释。
2. Signs are interpreted.
3. 符号经过解释后，意义就产生了。
3. Meaning results when a sign is interpreted.
4. 背景影响解释。
4. Context shapes interpretation.
•手势代表着自身以外的其他事物：在游戏中，手势、物体、行为和其他元素都充当着手势。在游戏《刺客》中，轻击表示“杀死”。
• A sign represents something other than itself: In a game, gestures, objects, behaviors, and other elements act as signs. In the game Assassin, a tap denotes a “kill.”
•符号可解释：符号对某些人来说代表着某种意义。当玩家积极充当游戏符号的解释者时，游戏中的意义便会显现出来。
• Signs are interpreted: A sign stands for something to somebody. Meaning emerges in a game as players take on active roles as interpreters of the game’s signs.
•符号被解释后，意义便产生：符号在某个方面或能力上对某人代表着某物。符号的意义源于系统元素之间的关系。
• Meaning results when a sign is interpreted: A sign stands for something to somebody in some respect or capacity. The meaning of a sign emerges from relationships between elements of a system.
•语境影响解读： 语境是影响解读的符号环境。相关的结构现象也影响解读。结构是一组规定如何组合符号的规则或指导方针。
• Context shapes interpretation: Context is the environment of a sign that affects interpretation. The related phenomenon of structure also shapes interpretation. Structure is a set of rules or guidelines that prescribe how signs can be combined.
5
5
系统
SYSTEMS
对象
objects
属性
attributes
内部关系
internal relationships
环境
environment
开放系统
open systems
封闭系统
closed systems
系统部分是过去的记忆，就像折纸一样，鸟或马的本质既在于折叠的性质，也在于折叠的顺序。面对系统规划或设计问题时，必须回答的问题是系统到底是什么？因此，在制定计划之前，必须了解内部结构的性质。——沃尔夫冈·约纳斯，《论‘人工智能’的基础》
The system is partly a memory of its past, just as in origami, the essence of a bird or a horse is both in the nature and order of the folds made. The question that must be answered when faced with a problem of planning or design of a system, is what exactly is the system? It is therefore necessary to know the nature of the inner structure before plans can be made.—Wolfgang Jonas, “On the Foundations of a ‘Science of the Artificial’”
引入系统
Introducing Systems
游戏本质上是系统性的：所有游戏都可以理解为系统。这是什么意思呢？让我们从对“系统”一词的一些常见理解开始对游戏和系统的调查。
Games are intrinsically systemic: all games can be understood as systems. What do we mean by this? Let’s begin our investigations of games and systems by looking at some common understandings of the word “system.”
系统
System
1. 一组相互作用、相互关联或相互依赖的元素，形成一个复杂的整体。
1. A group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a complex whole.
2. 功能上相关的元素组，特别是：
2. A functionally related group of elements, especially:
a. 人体被视为一个功能生理单元。
a. The human body regarded as a functional physiological unit.
b. 作为一个整体的有机体，尤其是就其生命过程或功能而言。
b. An organism as a whole, especially with regard to its vital processes or functions.
c. 一组生理或解剖学上互补的器官或部分：神经系统；骨骼系统。
c. A group of physiologically or anatomically complementary organs or parts: the nervous system; the skeletal system.
d. 一组相互作用的机械或电气部件。
d. A group of interacting mechanical or electrical components.
e. 用于通讯、旅行或分配的结构和渠道网络。
e. A network of structures and channels as for communication, travel, or distribution.
3. 一套有组织的相互关联的思想或原则。
3. An organized set of interrelated ideas or principles.
4.社会、经济或政治的组织形式。
4. A social, economic, or political organizational form.
5. 自然发生的一组物体或现象：太阳系。
5. A naturally occurring group of objects or phenomena: the solar system.
6. 将一组物体或现象组合在一起以便进行分类或分析。
6. A set of objects or phenomena grouped together for classification or analysis.
7、和谐有序的互动状态。
7. A condition of harmonious, orderly interaction.
8. 一种有组织、协调的方法；一种程序。1
8. An organized and coordinated method; a procedure.1
其中一些定义侧重于“系统”一词的生物学或自然概念（2a、2b、2c、5）。另一些定义则参考机械系统（2d）或运输和通信系统（2e）。还有一些定义侧重于该词的社会意义（4、7）或思想和知识（3、6、8）。尽管侧重点不同，但所有这些“系统”定义都有一个共同点。在列表中的第一个定义中可以找到它，它将系统描述为“一组相互作用、相互关联或相互依赖的元素，形成一个复杂的整体”。将系统理解为一组相互关联以形成整体的部分，包含了这一概念的所有其他特殊情况。如果以这种方式理解——一组部分共同构成一个复杂的整体——那么很明显，游戏就是系统。
Some of these definitions focus on the biological or natural idea of the word “system” (2a, 2b, 2c, 5). Others reference mechanical systems (2d) or systems of transportation and communication (2e). Still others focus on the social meanings of the word (4, 7) or on ideas and knowledge (3, 6, 8). Despite differences in emphasis, there is something that all of these definitions of “system” share. Look for it in the very first definition on the list, which describes systems as “a group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a complex whole.” This understanding of a system as a set of parts that relate to form a whole contains all of the other special cases of this same concept. When understood in this way—as a set of parts that together form a complex whole—it is clear that games are systems.
例如，在一场足球比赛中，球员、球、球门、比赛场地都是独立的元素。当一场足球比赛开始时，这些元素在更大的游戏系统中形成了特定的关系。例如，每个球员都在两支球队中的一支球队中担任某个位置。不同的球员位置具有相互关联的角色，无论是在构成单个球队的系统内（守门员 vs. 前锋 vs. 中卫），还是在构成球队之间关系的系统内（守门员守卫球门，而对方前锋试图得分）。系统中所有这些关系形成的复杂整体构成了足球比赛。
In a game of Soccer, for example, the players, the ball, the goal nets, the playing field, are all individual elements. When a game of Soccer begins these elements gain specific relationships to each other within the larger system of the game. Each player, for example, plays in a certain position on one of two teams. Different player positions have roles that interrelate, both within the system that constitutes a single team (goalie vs. forward vs. halfback), and within the system that constitutes the relationship between teams (the goalie guarding the goal while an opposing forward attempts to score). The complex whole formed by all of these relationships within a system comprises the game of Soccer.
作为系统，游戏提供了互动的环境，可以是玩家探索、操纵和居住的空间、物体和行为。系统以多种形式出现，从机械和数学系统到概念和文化系统。我们当前讨论的挑战之一是认识到游戏可以以多种方式构建为系统。例如，国际象棋可以被认为是一个战略数学系统。它也可以被认为是两个玩家之间的社交互动系统，或者是一个抽象模拟战争的系统。
As systems, games provide contexts for interaction, which can be spaces, objects, and behaviors that players explore, manipulate, and inhabit. Systems come to us in many forms, from mechanical and mathematical systems to conceptual and cultural ones. One of the challenges of our current discussion is to recognize the many ways that a game can be framed as a system. Chess, for example, could be thought of as a strategic mathematical system. It could also be thought of as a system of social interaction between two players, or a system that abstractly simulates war.
系统的要素
The Elements of a System
系统是一组在环境中相互影响的事物，形成一个不同于任何单个部分的更大模式。在他的教科书《人类沟通理论》中，斯蒂芬·W·利特尔约翰确定了构成系统的四个要素：
A system is a set of things that affect one another within an environment to form a larger pattern that is different from any of the individual parts. In his textbook Theories of Human Communication, Stephen W. Littlejohn identifies four elements that constitute a system:
• 第一类是对象——系统内的部件、元素或变量。这些可能是物理的、抽象的或两者兼而有之，这取决于系统的性质。
• The first is objects—the parts, elements, or variables within the system. These may be physical or abstract or both, depending on the nature of the system.
• 其次，系统由属性组成——系统及其对象的品质或特性。
• Second, a system consists of attributes—the qualities or properties of the system and its objects.
• 第三，系统的对象之间存在内部关系。这一特性是系统的一个重要方面。
• Third a system has internal relationships among its objects. This characteristic is a crucial aspect [of systems].
• 第四，系统也具有环境。系统不是存在于真空中，而是受到周围环境的影响。2
• Fourth, systems also possess an environment. They do not exist in a vacuum but are affected by their surroundings.2
让我们详细了解一下国际象棋这个游戏。我们首先将国际象棋视为一个严格的战略和数学系统。这意味着将国际象棋视为一个纯粹的形式规则系统。这样一来，国际象棋系统的四个要素如下：
Let us take a detailed look at a particular game, Chess. We will first think about Chess as a strictly strategic and mathematical system. This means considering Chess as a purely formal system of rules. Framed in this way, the four elements of the system of Chess are as follows:
•物体：国际象棋中的物体是棋盘上的棋子和棋盘本身。
• Objects: The objects in Chess are the pieces on the board and the board itself.
•属性：这些是规则赋予这些对象的特征，例如每个棋子的起始位置以及每个棋子移动和捕获的具体方式。
• Attributes: These are the characteristics the rules give these objects, such as the starting positions of each piece and the specific ways each piece can move and capture.
•内部关系：虽然属性决定了棋子可能的移动，但内部关系是棋盘上棋子的实际位置。网格上的这些空间关系决定了战略关系：一个棋子可能威胁另一个棋子，或保护一个空格。有些棋子甚至可能不在棋盘上。
• Internal Relationships: Although the attributes determine the possible movements of the pieces, the internal relationships are the actual positions of the pieces on the board. These spatial relationships on the grid determine strategic relationships: one piece might be threatening another one, or protecting an empty square. Some of the pieces might not even be on the board.
•环境：如果我们只看国际象棋的形式系统，那么对象交互的环境就是游戏本身的玩法。游戏为游戏的形式元素提供了背景。
• Environment: If we are looking just at the formal system of Chess, then the environment for the interaction of the objects is the play of the game itself. Play provides the context for the formal elements of a game.
但是将游戏框架化为正式系统只是思考国际象棋系统的一种方式。我们可以扩展我们的视野，将国际象棋视为一个具有体验维度的系统。这意味着不仅要将国际象棋视为一个数学和逻辑系统，还要将其视为玩家与游戏之间互动的系统。改变我们框架游戏的方式会影响我们如何定义系统的四个组成部分。作为一个体验系统，国际象棋系统的元素如下：
But framing the game as a formal system is only one way to think about the system of Chess. We can extend our focus and think of Chess as a system with experiential dimensions as well. This means thinking of Chess not just as a mathematical and logical system, but also as a system of interaction between the players and the game. Changing the way that we frame the game affects how we would define the four components of a system. Framed as an experiential system, the elements of the system of Chess are as follows:
•对象：因为我们将国际象棋视为玩家之间的互动，所以系统的对象实际上是两个玩家本身。
• Objects: Because we are looking at Chess as the interaction between players, the objects of the system are actually the two players themselves.
•属性：每个玩家的属性是他或她控制的棋子，以及游戏的当前状态。
• Attributes: The attributes of each player are the pieces he or she controls, as well as the current state of the game.
•内部关系：由于玩家是对象，因此他们的互动构成了系统的内部关系。这些关系不仅包括他们的战略互动，还包括他们的社交、心理和情感交流。
• Internal Relationships: Because the players are the objects, their interaction constitutes the internal relationships of the system. These relationships would include not just their strategic interaction, but their social, psychological, and emotional communication as well.
•环境：将国际象棋视为一种体验系统，整个环境不仅要包括棋盘和棋子，还要包括两名玩家所在的直接环境。我们可以将此称为游戏环境。任何有助于游戏的环境部分都应包括在此环境中。例如，如果这是一场通过电子邮件进行的国际象棋游戏，游戏环境必须包括玩家发送和接收动作的软件环境。任何游戏环境还包括玩家对国际象棋的先入之见，例如他们认为玩国际象棋很酷或很有趣。这种由身体、心理和文化关联组成的网络描绘的不是游戏体验，而是围绕游戏的环境，即游戏体验发生的环境。
• Environment: Considering Chess as an experiential system, the total environment would have to include not just the board and pieces of the game, but the immediate environment that contained the two players as well. We might term this the context of play. Any part of the environment that facilitated play would be included in this context. For example, if it were a play-by-email game of Chess, the context of play would have to include the software environment in which the players send and receive moves. Any context of play would also include players’ preconceptions of Chess, such as the fact that they think it is cool or nerdy to play. This web of physical, psychological, and cultural associations delineate—not the experience of the game—but rather the context that surrounds the game, the environment within which the experience of play occurs.
最后，我们可以扩大我们的视野，把国际象棋看作一个文化系统。这里关注的是游戏如何融入整个文化。有很多方法可以将游戏视为文化。例如，假设我们想看看国际象棋是与特定时间和地点相关的意识形态价值观的代表。我们希望将游戏设计与更大的文化结构联系起来。例如，我们将寻找游戏棋子设计中的文化参考（国王和王后在视觉设计中暗示的性别权力关系是什么？）；游戏结构和仪式中的参考（下棋是礼貌和绅士还是粗俗和残酷？）；以及对下棋的人的参考（他们是谁——知识分子、军人还是电脑极客？）。作为一个文化系统，国际象棋系统的四个要素如下：
Lastly, we can expand our focus and think about Chess as a cultural system. Here the concern is with how the game fits into culture at large. There are many ways to conceive of games as culture. For example, say that we wanted to look at the game of Chess as a representation of ideological values associated with a particular time and place. We would want to make connections between the design of the game and larger structures of culture. We would be looking, for example, to identify cultural references made in the design of the game pieces (What is the gendered power relationship between King and Queen implied in their visual design?); references made in the structure and rituals of game play (Was playing Chess polite and gentlemanly or vulgar and cutthroat?); and references made to the people who play (Who are they—intellectuals, military types, or computer geeks?). Framed as a cultural system, the four elements of the system of Chess are as follows:
•对象：从最广泛的文化意义来看，对象就是国际象棋游戏本身。
• Objects: The object is the game of Chess itself, considered in its broadest cultural sense.
•属性：游戏的属性是游戏的设计元素，以及有关如何、何时和为何制作和使用游戏的信息。
• Attributes: The attributes of the game would be the designed elements of the game, as well as information about how, when, and why the game was made and used.
•内部关系：关系是游戏与文化之间的联系。例如，我们可能会发现游戏中“黑与白”两方之间的关系，以及当游戏棋子以比喻的方式表示时种族被提及的方式。
• Internal Relationships: The relationships would be the linkages between the game and culture. We might find, for example, a relationship between the “black and white” sides of the game and the way that race is referenced when the game pieces are represented figuratively.
•环境：系统的环境超越了任何一场单独的国际象棋比赛，甚至超越了比赛的背景。国际象棋文化框架的总体环境就是文化本身，包括其所有形式。
• Environment: The environment of the system extends beyond any individual game of Chess, or even the context of play. The total environment for this cultural framing of Chess is culture itself, in all of its forms.
请注意，将国际象棋视为一种文化系统的方法数不胜数。我们可以研究这项游戏复杂的历史演变。或者，我们可以研究围绕这项游戏的业余和专业亚文化（书籍、网站、比赛等）。我们可以研究国际象棋变体的文化，其中国际象棋由玩家粉丝重新设计，或者国际象棋在流行文化中是如何被引用的，例如斯波克在电视剧《星际迷航》中玩的类似国际象棋的游戏。这样的例子不胜枚举。
Note that there are innumerable ways of framing Chess as a cultural system. We could examine the complex historical evolution of the game. Or we could investigate the amateur and professional subcultures (books, websites, competitions, etc.) that surround the game. We could study the culture of Chess variants, in which Chess is redesigned by player-fans, or how Chess is referenced within popular culture, such as the Chesslike game Spock played on the television show Star Trek. The list goes on.
框架系统
Framing Systems
尽管我们每次讨论的都是同一款游戏，但随着我们从形式分析到体验分析再到文化分析，我们对系统组成部分的理解也逐渐加深。事实上，每次分析都会将之前的系统整合到自身中。复杂系统的层次性使得这种整合成为可能。
Even though we were talking about the same game each time, as we proceeded from a formal to an experiential to a cultural analysis, our sense of what we considered as part of the system grew. In fact, each analysis integrated the previous system into itself. The hierarchical nature of complex systems makes this integration possible.
由于关键或复杂系统具有层次性，在所有尺度上都有相互作用，因此我们可以任意定义单位的含义：在生物系统中，可以选择单个细胞、单个个体（例如蚂蚁、蚁巢或蚂蚁物种）作为适应性单位。在人类社会系统中，可以选择个人、家庭、公司或国家作为适应性单位。任何级别的单位都无权要求优先地位。3
Because of the hierarchical nature of the critical or complex system, with interactions over all scales, we can arbitrarily define what we mean by a unit: In a biological system, one can choose either a single cell, a single individual, such as an ant, the ant’s nest, or the ant as a species, as the adaptive unit. In a human social system, one might choose an individual, a family, a company, or a country as the unit. No unit at any level has the right to claim priority status.3
在游戏系统中，就像在人类社会系统或生物系统中一样，层次结构和交互是可扩展和嵌入的，正如复杂性理论家 Per Bak 在上面引用中指出的那样。虽然没有一个单一的框架具有固有的优先级，但这里给出的各种框架之间存在特定的关系。构成游戏规则的形式系统嵌入在其游戏系统中。同样，游戏系统也嵌入在游戏的文化框架中。例如，理解游戏棋子视觉设计的文化内涵仍然应该考虑游戏的规则和玩法：棋子的相对重要性以及它们在游戏中的实际使用方式。例如，回答有关种族代表政治的文化问题必须包括理解游戏核心规则引用颜色的形式方式。白色总是先走是什么意思？
In a game system, as in a human social system or biological system, hierarchies and interactions are scalable and embedded, as complexity theorist Per Bak points out in the quote above. Although no single framing has an inherent priority, there are specific relationships among the kinds of framings given here. The formal system constituting the rules of a game are embedded in its system of play. Likewise, the system of play is embedded in the cultural framing of the game. For example, understanding the cultural connotations of the visual design of a game piece still should take into account the game’s rules and play: the relative importance of the pieces and how they are actually used in a game. For example, answering a cultural question regarding the politics of racial representation would have to include an understanding of the formal way the core rules of the game reference color. What does it mean that white always moves first?
同样，当你设计一款游戏时，你设计的不仅仅是一套规则，而是一套在文化背景下始终会被体验到的规则。因此，当你专注于体验时，你永远无法完全忘记背景，而当你专注于游戏的形式结构时，你永远无法完全忘记体验和文化。它可以有时，限制游戏框架的数量很有用，但重要的是要记住，游戏的形式、体验和文化品质始终作为综合现象存在。
Similarly, when you are designing a game you are not designing just a set of rules, but a set of rules that will always be experienced as play within a cultural context. As a result, you never have the luxury of completely forgetting about context when you are focusing on experience, or on experience and culture when you’re focusing on the game’s formal structure. It can be useful at times to limit the number of ways you are framing the game, but it is important to remember that a game’s formal, experiential, and cultural qualities always exist as integrated phenomena.
系统的历史
The History of Systems
系统作为一种研究方法的正式使用有着悠久的历史，我们只能在这里简要概述一下。许多有关系统和系统理论的想法都来自路德维希·冯·贝塔朗菲 1928 年的毕业论文，他在论文中将生物体描述为生命系统。到 1969 年，冯·贝塔朗菲在《一般系统理论：基础、发展、应用》一书中正式阐述了他的方法。冯·贝塔朗菲提出了一种基于系统的方法来观察截然不同的现象，从粒子的运动到生物体的细胞结构再到社会的组织。冯·贝塔朗菲的书呼吁建立一门综合的系统科学，承认系统在截然不同的规模上运作方式之间的联系。贝塔朗菲基于系统的方法促进了信息论、博弈论和控制论领域的发展；反过来，这些领域又对当代计算机科学的概念做出了贡献。
The formal use of systems as a methodology for study has a rich history, which we can only quickly outline here. Many of the ideas surrounding systems and systems theory come from Ludwig von Bertalanffy’s 1928 graduate thesis, in which he describes organisms as living systems. By 1969, von Bertalanffy had formalized his approach in the book General Systems Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications. Von Bertalanffy proposed a systems-based approach to looking at radically different kinds of phenomena, from the movement of particles to the cellular structures of organisms to the organization of a society. Von Bertalanffy’s book called for a single integrated science of systems that acknowledged the linkages between the way systems operate across radically varying scales. Bertalanffy’s systems-based approach contributed to the development of the fields of information theory, game theory, and cybernetics; each of these fields, in turn, contributed to contemporary concepts of computer science.
尽管形式系统理论如今已不再常用，但基于系统的方法已催生出各种跨学科领域，包括复杂性、混沌和人工生命的研究。学者们来自数学、遗传学、物理学、生物学、社会学和经济学等各个学科。我们在这里只会涉及他们的工作，但如果您对这些基于系统的研究感兴趣，可以在第14 章“游戏作为新兴系统”的推荐阅读材料中找到更多参考资料。
Although formal systems theory is no longer in common use today, systems-based approaches have given rise to a variety of interdisciplinary fields, including studies of complexity, chaos, and artificial life. Scholars come to these fields from a wide array of disciplines, including mathematics, genetics, physics, biology, sociology, and economics. We will be only be touching on their work here, but if these systems-based investigations interest you, additional references can be found in the suggested readings for chapter 14, Games as Emergent Systems.
开放和封闭系统
Open and Closed Systems
系统有两种类型：开放系统和封闭系统。事实上，开放系统和封闭系统的概念构成了我们关于游戏形式属性及其社会和文化维度的讨论的基础。这一概念不仅涉及游戏本身，还涉及游戏与玩家及其环境之间的关系。这两种系统有何区别？ Littlejohn 写道：“[系统理论] 中最常见的区别之一是封闭系统和开放系统。封闭系统与环境没有交换。开放系统从其环境中接收物质和能量，并将物质和能量传递给其环境。”4
There are two types of systems, open and closed. In fact, the concept of open and closed systems forms the basis of much of our discussion concerning the formal properties of games and their social and cultural dimensions. This concept speaks not only to games themselves, but also to the relationships games have to players and their contexts. What distinguishes the two types of systems? Littlejohn writes, “One of the most common distinctions [in systems theory] is between closed and open systems. A closed system has no interchange with its environment. An open system receives matter and energy from its environment and passes matter and energy to its environment.”4
系统开放或封闭取决于系统与其周围环境之间的关系。系统与其环境之间传递的“物质和能量”有多种形式，从纯数据（温度计测量温度并将信息传递给试图预测天气的计算机程序系统）到人机交互（人操作并与汽车系统交互以便在高速公路上行驶）。在这两个例子中，系统是开放的，因为系统与其环境之间存在某种传输。软件系统传递来自外部气候的温度信息。汽车系统通过各种方式与驾驶员交换输入和输出（速度计、油门踏板、方向盘等）。
What makes a system open or closed is the relationship between the system and the context, or environment, that surrounds it. The “matter and energy” that passes between a system and its environment can take a number of forms, from pure data (a thermometer measuring temperature and passing the information to the system of a computer program that tries to predict the weather), to human interaction (a person operating and interacting with the system of a car in order to drive down a highway). In both examples the system is open because there is some kind of transfer between the system and its environment. The software system passes temperature information from the outside climate. The car system exchanges input and output with the driver in a variety of ways (speedometer, gas pedal, steering wheel, etc.).
当我们将游戏构建为一个系统时，识别它是被视为开放系统还是封闭系统很有用。如果我们看看国际象棋的三种框架，哪些框架是开放的，哪些是封闭的？
When we frame a game as a system it is useful to recognize whether it is being treated as an open or closed system. If we look at our three framings of Chess, which framings were open and which were closed?
•形式体系：作为一种形式化的规则体系，国际象棋是一个封闭的、自成体系的系统。
• Formal system: As a formal system of rules, Chess is a closed, self-contained system.
•文化系统：作为一个文化系统，国际象棋显然是一个开放的系统，因为我们本质上考虑的是游戏与社会、语言、历史等其他背景的交叉方式。
• Cultural system: As a cultural system, Chess is clearly an open system, as we are essentially considering the way that the game intersects with other contexts such as society, language, history, etc.
•体验系统：作为一种体验式游戏系统，事情变得很棘手。将国际象棋定义为体验式系统可能导致将游戏理解为开放或封闭。如果我们只考虑玩家及其战略游戏行为，我们可以说，一旦游戏开始，唯一相关的事件就是游戏内部的事件。从这个意义上讲，游戏是一个封闭系统。另一方面，我们可以强调玩家带入游戏的情感和社交包袱、环境的干扰、游戏结束后获得或失去的声誉。从这个意义上讲，国际象棋游戏将是一个开放的系统。作为游戏，游戏可以是开放的，也可以是封闭的。
• Experiential system: As an experiential system of play, things get tricky. Framing Chess as an experiential system could lead to understanding the game as either open or closed. If we only consider the players and their strategic game actions, we could say that once the game starts, the only relevant events are internal to the game. In this sense, the game is a closed system. On the other hand, we could emphasize the emotional and social baggage that players bring into the game, the distractions of the environment, the reputations that are gained or lost after the game is over. In this sense, the play of Chess would be an open system. Framed as play, games can be either open or closed.
在定义和理解设计和系统等关键概念时，我们的目标是更好地理解游戏设计和有意义的游戏所面临的特殊挑战。游戏设计师确实在实践设计，他们通过创建系统来实现这一点。但其他类型的设计师也会创建系统——那么游戏有什么特别之处呢？游戏设计师创建的系统有许多独特的品质，但最突出的品质之一是它们具有交互性，需要以游戏的形式直接参与。在下一章中，我们将直接基于对系统和设计的理解来解决这个令人困惑但至关重要的概念：神秘的交互性。
In defining and understanding key concepts like design and systems, our aim is to better understand the particular challenges of game design and meaningful play. Game designers do practice design, and they do so by creating systems. But other kinds of designers create systems as well—so what is so special about games? The systems that game designers create have many peculiar qualities, but one of the most prominent is that they are interactive, that they require direct participation in the form of play. In the next chapter, we build directly on our understanding of systems and design to tackle this confounding but crucial concept: the enigmatic interactivity.
笔记
Notes
1. < dictionary.com >。
1. <dictionary.com>.
2. Stephen W. Littlejohn，《人类沟通理论》，第 3 版（加利福尼亚州贝尔蒙特：Wadsworth Publishing Company，1989 年），第 41 页。
2. Stephen W. Littlejohn, Theories of Human Communication, 3rd edition (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1989), p. 41.
3. Per Bak，“自组织批判性：对自然的整体看法。”《复杂性：隐喻、模型和现实》，由 George A. Cowan、David Pine 和 David Meltzer 编辑（剑桥：Perseus Books，1994 年），第 492 页。
3. Per Bak, “Self-Organized Criticality: A Holistic View of Nature.” In Complexity: Metaphors, Models and Reality, edited by George A. Cowan, David Pine, and David Meltzer (Cambridge: Perseus Books, 1994), p. 492.
4 . Littlejohn，《人类沟通理论》，第 41 页。
4. Littlejohn, Theories of Human Communication, p. 41.
系统
概括
•系统是一组相互关联、形成复杂整体的部分。有很多方法可以将游戏构建为系统：数学系统、社交系统、表征系统等。
• A system is a set of parts that interrelate to form a complex whole. There are many ways to frame a game as a system: a mathematical system, a social system, a representational system, etc.
• 所有系统都具有四个共同的要素：
• There are four elements that all systems share:
•对象是系统内的部分、元素或变量。
• Objects are the parts, elements, or variables within the system.
•属性是系统及其对象的品质或特性。
• Attributes are the qualities or properties of the system and its objects.
•内部关系是对象之间的关系。
• Internal relationships are the relations among the objects.
•环境是围绕系统的背景。
• Environment is the context that surrounds the system.
在任何单个游戏中识别这些元素的方式取决于游戏作为一个系统的构建方式。例如，如果游戏被构建为一个正式的数学系统、一个体验式游戏系统或一个文化系统，这四个元素就会有所不同。
The way these elements are identified in any individual game depends on the way it is framed as a system. The four elements would be different, for example, if a game were framed as a formal, mathematical system, an experiential system of play, or as a cultural system.
• 游戏作为一个系统的三个框架，即形式系统、体验系统和文化系统，是相互嵌套的。作为形式系统的游戏总是嵌入在体验系统中，而作为文化系统的游戏则包含形式系统和体验系统。
• These three framings of a game as a system, formal, experiential, and cultural, are embedded in each other. A game as a formal system is always embedded within an experiential system, and a game as a cultural system contains formal and experiential systems.
• 尽管这三个层次（形式、体验和文化）同时存在，但在进行分析或解决设计问题时，只关注其中一个层次会很有用。在设计游戏时，了解这三个层次如何相互作用和相互关联至关重要。
• Although all three levels (formal, experiential, and cultural) exist simultaneously, it can be useful to focus on just one of them when making an analysis or solving a design problem. It is crucial when designing a game to understand how these three levels interact and interrelate to each other.
• 系统可以是开放的，也可以是封闭的。开放系统与环境有某种交换。封闭系统与环境是隔离的。你是否认为游戏是封闭系统或开放系统取决于你如何构建它：
• Systems can be open or closed. An open system has an exchange of some kind with its environment. A closed system is isolated from its environment. Whether or not you consider a game as a closed or open system depends on the way you frame it:
•正式系统是封闭系统。
• Formal systems are closed systems.
•体验系统可以是开放系统，也可以是封闭系统。
• Experiential systems can be open or closed systems.
•文化系统是开放系统。
• Cultural systems are open systems.
6
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互动性
INTERACTIVITY
行动 > 结果
action > outcome
四种互动模式
four modes of interactivity
选择的剖析
anatomy of a choice
内部事件
internal event
外部事件
external event
可能性空间
space of possibility
“互动性”一词不仅仅意味着给予玩家选择；它几乎完全定义了游戏媒介。—— Warren Spector，《RE:PLAY：游戏设计 + 游戏文化》
The word “interactivity” isn’t just about giving players choices; it pretty much completely defines the game medium.—Warren Spector, RE:PLAY: Game Design + Game Culture
引入交互性
Introducing Interactivity
游戏意味着互动性：玩游戏、玩玩具、玩人、玩想法就是与之互动。更具体地说，玩游戏意味着在游戏系统中做出选择，该系统旨在以有意义的方式支持行动和结果。每个动作都会导致影响整个系统的变化。这种行动和结果的过程是因为玩家与游戏设计系统互动而产生的。互动发生在所有层面，从游戏对象和部件的正式互动，到玩家的社交互动，再到游戏与游戏空间之外的环境的文化互动。
Play implies interactivity: to play with a game, a toy, a person, an idea, is to interact with it. More specifically, playing a game means making choices within a game system designed to support actions and outcomes in meaningful ways. Every action results in a change affecting the overall system. This process of action and outcome comes about because players interact with the designed system of the game. Interaction takes place across all levels, from the formal interaction of the game’s objects and pieces, to the social interaction of players, to the cultural interaction of the game with contexts beyond its space of play.
在游戏中，玩家的明确互动使游戏得以推进。从选择路径的互动性到选择要摧毁的目标，再到收集魔法星，玩家可以发起并执行一系列明确的行动。从某种意义上说，正是这些明确的行动时刻定义了特定游戏体验的基调和质感。要理解游戏的这一特殊品质——互动元素——我们必须更全面地掌握“互动”、“互动”和“互动性”这些模糊的术语。
In games, it is the explicit interaction of the player that allows the game to advance. From the interactivity of choosing a path to selecting a target for destruction to collecting magic stars, the player has agency to initiate and perform a whole range of explicit actions. In some sense, it is these moments of explicit action that define the tone and texture of a specific game experience. To understand this particular quality of games—the element of interaction—we must more completely grasp the slippery terms “interactive,” “interaction,” and “interactivity.”
定义交互性
Defining Interactivity
关于“互动性”一词的争论可能比“设计”和“系统”还要激烈。互动性是那些既可以指一切又可以指一切的词之一。如果一切都可以被认为是互动的，那么这个概念就失去了帮助我们解决设计问题的能力。在界定这个失控的词时，我们的目标是尝试从最普遍的意义上理解它，同时也要找出与游戏相关的互动性的那些非常特殊的方面。为此，我们来看看互动性的几种定义。我们从一个一般性的问题开始：“互动”是什么？以下是一些基本的字典定义：
Perhaps even more than “design” and “systems,” debates over the term “interactivity” have run rampant. Interactivity is one of those words that can mean everything and nothing at once. If everything can indeed be considered interactive, then the concept loses its ability to help us solve design problems. In corralling this runaway word, our aim is to try and understand it in its most general sense, but also to identify those very particular aspects of interactivity that are relevant to games. To this end, we look at several definitions of interactivity. We begin with a general question: What is “interaction?” Here are some basic dictionary definitions:
•相互作用： 1. 中间作用；2. 相互或互动的作用或影响；
• interaction: 1. intermediate action; 2. mutual or reciprocal action or influence;
•互动：互相作用；相互作用；
• interact: to act on each other; act reciprocally;
•交互式：相互活动；相互作用或影响；允许设备和用户之间双向流动信息，响应用户的输入。1
• interactive: reciprocally active; acting upon or influencing each other; allowing a two-way flow of information between a device and a user, responding to the user’s input.1
最一般的术语是，互动性只是描述了两件事之间的一种积极关系。然而，为了我们的目的，我们需要一个稍微严格一些的定义，一个考虑到游戏特殊性质的定义。与其抽象地问互动性，不如问“互动性”是什么意思？更具体地说，互动性是如何从系统内部产生的？
In the most general terms, interactivity simply describes an active relationship between two things. For our purposes, however, we require a slightly more rigorous definition, one that takes into account the particular nature of games. Instead of asking about interactivity in the abstract, what does it mean to say that something is “interactive?” More specifically, how does interactivity emerge from within a system?
传播理论家斯蒂芬·W·利特尔约翰 (Stephen W. Littlejohn) 这样定义互动性：“系统不可或缺的一部分是‘关系’的概念……互动系统应是两个或多个交流者在定义其关系性质的过程中或在这个层面上定义的。”2换句话说，当系统中两个元素之间存在某种互惠关系时，某事物就具有交互性。从这个意义上讲，对话、数据库、游戏和社交关系都是交互性的。此外，系统中元素之间的关系是通过交互来定义的。
Communications theorist Stephen W. Littlejohn defines interactivity this way: “Part and parcel of a system is the notion of ‘relationship’. . . . Interactional systems then, shall be two or more communicants in the process of, or at the level of, defining the nature of their relationship.”2 In other words, something is interactive when there is a reciprocal relationship of some kind between two elements in a system. Conversations, databases, games, and social relationships are all interactive in this sense. Furthermore, relationships between elements in a system are defined through interaction.
根据这一定义，数字媒体理论家兼企业家 Brenda Laurel 将表征的概念引入了对这一术语的理解：“……当人们可以作为代理参与表征环境时，某事物就是互动的。（代理是‘发起行动的人’。）”3 Laurel 的模型强调交互体验的解释性成分，将交互系统构建为一个表征空间。
Following this definition, digital media theorist and entrepreneur Brenda Laurel brings the concept of representation to an understanding of the term:” . . . something is interactive when people can participate as agents within a representational context. (An agent is ‘one who initiates actions.’)”3 Laurel’s model emphasizes the interpretive component of interactive experiences, framing an interactive system as a representational space.
在对互动性的另一种定义中，理论家安迪·卡梅伦通过强调直接干预的想法，在这一解释维度上进行了构建。卡梅伦在他的文章《伪装》中写道：
In an alternative definition of interactivity, theorist Andy Cameron builds on this interpretive dimension by stressing the idea of direct intervention. In his essay “Dissimulations,” Cameron writes that
交互性是指能够以有意义的方式干预表现本身，而不是以不同的方式解读。因此，交互性音乐中的交互意味着改变声音的能力，绘画中的交互意味着改变颜色或做标记的能力，电影中的交互意味着改变电影呈现方式的能力。”4
Interactivity means the ability to intervene in a meaningful way within the representation itself, not to read it differently. Thus interactivity in music would mean the ability to change the sound, interactivity in painting to change colors, or make marks, interactivity in film . . . the ability to change the way the movie comes out.”4
卡梅伦认为，互动性和明确行动之间存在联系，这是游戏和有意义的游戏的一个关键特征。从某种意义上说，正是这些明确行动的时刻决定了特定游戏体验的基调和质感。
Cameron suggests a connection between interactivity and explicit action, a key feature of games and meaningful play. In some sense, it is these moments of explicit action that define the tone and texture of a specific game experience.
最后的定义来自游戏设计师 Chris Crawford，他用对话来比喻互动性：“互动性：两个参与者交替聆听、思考和说话的循环过程。互动的质量取决于每个子任务（聆听、思考和说话）的质量。”5
A final definition comes from game designer Chris Crawford, who metaphorically defines interactivity in terms of a conversation: “Interactivity: a cyclical process in which two actors alternately listen, think, and speak. The quality of interaction depends on the quality of each of the subtasks (listening, thinking, and speaking).”5
虽然 Crawford 的定义让人回想起 Littlejohn 的关系模型，但他的定义强调了交互性的迭代性。他用以下例子来强调：
While his definition hearkens back to Littlejohn’s relational model, Crawford’s definition stresses the iterative quality of interactivity. He uses the following example for emphasis:
最简单的对话形式是从两个人开始的，乔和弗雷德。乔对弗雷德说了些什么。此时，球在弗雷德的手中。他采取了三个步骤来坚持自己的对话：
A conversation, in its simplest form, starts out with two people, Joe and Fred. Joe says something to Fred. At this point, the ball is in Fred’s court. He performs three steps in order to hold up his end of the conversation:
第一步：弗雷德倾听乔所说的话。他花费精力去注意乔的话语。他收集乔的所有话语，并将它们组合成一个连贯的整体。这需要弗雷德的积极努力。
Step One: Fred listens to what Joe has to say. He expends the energy to pay attention to Joe’s words. He gathers in all of Joe’s words and assembles them into a coherent whole. This requires an active effort on Fred’s part.
第二步：弗雷德思考乔说的话。他考虑、沉思、深思。弗雷德在脑海中构思对乔的陈述的回应。
Step Two: Fred thinks about what Joe said. He considers, contemplates and cogitates. The wheels turn in his mind as Fred develops his response to Joe’s statement.
第三步：弗雷德向乔表达了他的回应。他把自己的想法表达出来并说出来。
Step Three: Fred expresses his response back to Joe. He forms his thoughts into words and speaks them.
现在形势逆转了，球在乔的手中。乔必须听弗雷德说的话；乔必须思考并做出反应；然后他必须向弗雷德表达他的反应。这个过程来回循环。因此，对话是一个反复的过程，每个参与者依次倾听、思考和说话。6
Now the tables are turned; the ball is in Joe’s court. Joe must listen to what Fred says; Joe must think about it and develop a reaction; then he must express his reaction to Fred. This process cycles back and forth. Thus, a conversation is an iterative process in which each participant in turn listens, thinks, and speaks.6
这些定义中的每一个都提供了理解交互性的关键方法：它发生在一个系统中，它是关系性的，它允许在表征上下文中直接干预，并且它是迭代的。然而，这些定义都没有描述交互性如何以及在何处发生，也没有解决结构和上下文之间的关系，这两个是意义构建的关键要素。这些关于“如何”、“在何处”和“由谁”的问题对于任何面临设计交互性挑战的人来说都至关重要。
Each of these definitions provides its own critical way of understanding interactivity: it takes place within a system, it is relational, it allows for direct intervention within a representational context, and it is iterative. Yet none of the definitions describes how and where interactivity can take place, and none of them address the relationship between structure and context, two key elements in the construction of meaning. These questions of the “how,” “where,” and “by whom” are critical to anyone faced with the challenge of designing interactivity.
换句话说，这些定义都无法解决所有媒体甚至所有体验是否都具有交互性的问题。如果交互性真的如此普遍，那么它是否可能成为理解游戏的一个有用术语？
In other words, none of these definitions resolve the question of whether or not all media, or even all experiences, are interactive. If interactivity is really so ubiquitous, can it possibly be a useful term for understanding games?
多价交互模型
A Multivalent Model of Interactivity
前面的每个定义都突出了交互的一个特定方面；在我们看来，它们都是定义交互性的有用方法。我们并没有试图将它们提炼成一个复合定义，而是选择提供一个可以容纳每个定义的交互模型。该模型提出了四种交互模式，或者说一个人与交互系统可能具有的四种不同的参与程度。大多数“交互式”活动同时包含其中的一些或全部。
Each of the previous definitions foreground a particular aspect of interaction; in our view, they are all are useful ways of defining interactivity. Rather than try and distill them into a composite definition, we have elected instead to offer a model of interactivity that accommodates each of these definitions. The model presents four modes of interactivity, or four different levels of engagement, that a person might have with an interactive system. Most “interactive” activities incorporate some or all of them simultaneously.
模式一：认知互动；或解释性参与
Mode 1: Cognitive interactivity; or interpretive participation
这是人与系统之间心理、情感和智力上的互动。例如：单人玩家与图形冒险游戏之间复杂而富有想象力的互动。
This is the psychological, emotional, and intellectual participation between a person and a system. Example: the complex imaginative interaction between a single player and a graphic adventure game.
模式二：功能性互动；或功利性参与
Mode 2: Functional interactivity; or utilitarian participation
其中包括：与系统物质组件（无论是真实的还是虚拟的）的功能性、结构性交互。例如，您玩过的那个图形冒险游戏：界面怎么样？按钮有多“粘”？响应时间是多少？高分辨率显示器上的文本有多清晰？所有这些元素都是交互整体体验的一部分。
Included here: functional, structural interactions with the material components of the system (whether real or virtual). For example, that graphic adventure you played: how was the interface? How “sticky” were the buttons? What was the response time? How legible was the text on your high-resolution monitor? All of these elements are part of the total experience of interaction.
Mode 3: Explicit interactivity; or participation with designed choices and procedures
这就是“互动”的明显含义：公开参与，例如点击超文本小说的非线性链接、遵守棋盘游戏规则、重新整理一组纸娃娃的衣服、使用操纵杆操纵吃豆人小姐。其中包括：选择、随机事件、动态模拟以及编程到互动体验中的其他程序。
This is “interaction” in the obvious sense of the word: overt participation like clicking the non-linear links of a hypertext novel, following the rules of a board game, rearranging the clothing on a set of paper dolls, using the joystick to maneuver Ms. Pac-Man. Included here: choices, random events, dynamic simulations, and other procedures programmed into the interactive experience.
模式四：超越对象的互动；或参与对象的文化
Mode 4: Beyond-the-object-interactivity; or participation within the culture of the object
这是在单一设计系统体验之外的互动。最明显的例子来自粉丝文化，参与者使用设计系统作为原材料共同构建共同现实。超人会复活吗？柯克爱斯波克吗？
This is interaction outside the experience of a single designed system. The clearest examples come from fan culture, in which participants co-construct communal realities, using designed systems as the raw material. Will Superman come back to life? Does Kirk love Spock?
其中一些模式在人类体验中普遍存在，例如模式 1，认知互动性。但并非所有模式都是如此。就我们的目的而言，模式 3，即显性互动性，最接近于定义我们所说的游戏是“互动的”。只有当参与者做出已设计到体验实际结构中的选择时，体验才会真正成为卡梅伦所说的“直接干预”意义上的互动。
Some of these modes occur universally in human experience, such as Mode 1, cognitive interactivity. Yet not all of them do. For our purposes, Mode 3, explicit interactivity, comes closest to defining what we mean when we say that games are “interactive.” An experience becomes truly interactive in the sense of Cameron’s “direct intervention” only when the participant makes choices that have been designed into the actual structure of the experience.
本章的其余部分主要关注显性交互性以及游戏设计师如何创造各种选择，从而产生有意义的游戏体验。然而，尽管我们将重点关注模式 3，但重要的是要记住，当玩家做出显性选择时，其他三种交互模式也存在。例如，在扑克游戏中选择是否弃牌代表了一个显性交互性的时刻。但与此同时，纸牌的材质和大小会影响功能交互性；人头牌上的奇特图像可能会引发认知交互性；而关于成为一个温文尔雅的赌徒意味着什么的概念——或者可能是对上周在扑克牌桌上惨败的怨恨——代表了超出特定游戏范围的文化参与形式。
The rest of this chapter focuses primarily on explicit interactivity and how game designers can create the kinds of choices that result in meaningful play. However, even though we will be focusing on Mode 3, it is important to remember that the other three modes of interactivity are also present as players make explicit choices. For example, choosing whether to fold or not in Poker represents a moment of explicit interactivity. But at the same time, the material quality and size of the cards affect the functional interactivity; the fanciful images on the face cards might engender cognitive interactivity; and notions about what it means to be a suave card shark—or perhaps resentment at being trounced at the Poker table last week—represent forms of cultural participation that lie outside the bounds of the particular game being played.
交互，即使是看似简单的游戏选择中的显性交互，也绝非乍一看那么简单。但在剖析显性交互选择的组成部分之前，让我们先停下来思考一下设计本身在创造交互性方面的作用。
Interaction, even the explicit interaction of a seemingly straightforward game choice, is never as simple as it appears at first glance. But before we dissect the components of explicit interactive choices, let’s pause to consider the role of design itself in creating interactivity.
但它是“设计的”交互吗？
But Is it “Designed” Interaction?
交互有多种形式。但为了设计交互，重要的是能够识别设计师创建的交互形式。例如，比较以下两个动作：某人将苹果扔在地上，某人在掷骰子桌上掷骰子。虽然两者都是真正交互的例子，但只有第二幕，即掷骰子，才是一种设计好的交互形式。
Interaction comes in many forms. But for the purposes of designing interactivity, it is important to be able to recognize what forms of interactivity designers create. As an example, compare the following two actions: someone dropping an apple on the ground and someone rolling dice on a craps table. Although both are examples of interaction proper, only the second act, the rolling of the dice, is a form of designed interaction.
这个动作是如何设计的？首先，与苹果不同，骰子是系统（游戏）的一部分，在这个系统中，玩家和骰子之间的互动通过描述它们之间关系的一套规则变得有意义。这种关系，正如掷骰子规则所定义的，描述了动作和结果之间的联系——例如，“掷骰子时，玩家计算骰子正面朝上的点数。”即使是这个极其简单的规则也说明了掷骰子的动作在游戏设计好的交互系统中具有意义。其次，交互位于特定的环境中：游戏。请记住，有意义的游戏不仅与玩家动作和系统结果的概念有关，还与动作发生的特定环境有关。
What about this action has been designed? First, the dice, unlike the apple, are part of a system (a game) in which the interaction between the player and the dice is made meaningful by a set of rules describing their relationship. This relationship, as defined by the rules of Craps, describes the connection between action and outcome—for example, “When the dice are rolled a player counts the number of dots appearing on the face-up sides of the dice.” Even this extremely simple rule demonstrates how the act of rolling has meaning within the designed interactive system of the game. Secondly, the interaction is situated within a specific context: a game. Remember that meaningful play is tied not only to the concept of player action and system outcome, but also to a particular context in which the action occurs.
另一方面，“某人将苹果掉在地上”的描述不包含设计结构或上下文。要使这种简单的交互演变为设计交互，需要具备哪些条件？扔下苹果确实满足了交互的基本标准：系统元素之间存在相互关系（例如人的手、苹果和地面）。但这是一种经过设计的交互吗？交互是否处于特定的环境中？我们是否知道扔下苹果作为人与苹果之间交互的一种形式可能“意味着”什么？我们是否意识到了行动与结果之间的联系？
The description of “someone dropping an apple on the ground,” on the other hand, does not contain a designed structure or context. What conditions would have to be present to evolve this simple interaction into a designed interaction? The dropping of the apple does meet baseline criteria for interaction: there is a reciprocal relationship between the elements of the system (such as the person’s hand, the apple, and the ground). But is it a designed interaction? Is the interactivity situated within a specific context? Do we have any ideas about what dropping an apple might “mean” as a form of interaction between a person and an apple? Do we have a sense of the connection between action and outcome?
不。我们只知道一个苹果掉落了。这个描述缺少一个明确说明的苹果掉落的背景。如果我们稍微改变一下场景，增加第二个玩家，让两个参与者来回抛苹果，我们就会走向一个设计好的互动情况。如果我们要求两个抛苹果的人数一数他们在扔下苹果之前连续接住苹果的次数，我们就会为互动添加一个更完整的背景。简单地增加一条规则，指定玩家量化他们的互动，就可以将单个抛接动作定位在整个系统中。系统中的每个元素都被赋予了一个含义：抛、接和落下。即使在最简单的情况下，设计也能创造意义。
No. All we know is that an apple has been dropped. What is missing from this description is an explicitly stated context within which the dropping of the apple occurs. If we change the scenario a little by adding a second player and asking the two participants to toss the apple back and forth, we move toward a situation of designed interaction. If we ask the two appletossers to count the number of times in a row they caught the apple before dropping it, we add an even fuller context for the interaction. The simple addition of a rule designating that the players quantify their interaction locates the single act of toss-catch within an overall system. Each element in the system is assigned a meaning: the toss, the catch, and the dropped toss. Even in the simplest of contexts, design creates meaning.
互动与选择
Interaction and Choice
通过交互系统精心设计玩家体验对于有意义的游戏设计至关重要。然而，什么能让互动体验“有意义”呢？我们认为，为了创造有意义的游戏实例，体验不仅要包含明确的互动性，还要包含有意义的选择。当玩家在游戏中做出选择时，系统会以某种方式做出响应。玩家的选择和系统响应之间的关系是描述互动深度和质量的一种方式。这种对互动性的视角支持了第 3 章中提出的有意义的游戏的描述性定义。
The careful crafting of player experience through a system of interaction is critical to the design of meaningful play. Yet, just what makes an interactive experience “meaningful”? We have argued that in order to create instances of meaningful play, experience has to incorporate not just explicit interactivity, but meaningful choice. When a player makes a choice in a game, the system responds in some way. The relationship between the player’s choice and the system’s response is one way to characterize the depth and quality of interaction. Such a perspective on interactivity supports the descriptive definition of meaningful play presented in chapter 3.
在考虑选择如何嵌入游戏活动时，我们从两个层面来看待选择的设计：微观和宏观。微观层面代表玩家在游戏中面临的微小、瞬息万变的选择。宏观层面的选择代表这些微观选择如何像链条一样连接在一起，形成更大的体验轨迹。例如，这种区别标志着围棋等游戏中战术和战略之间的区别。围棋的战术涉及棋盘各个区域的激烈战斗，因为单个棋子和小组会在整个领地上扩张，在冲突和捕获中相互碰撞。游戏的策略是更大的图景，棋盘的整体形状最终将决定胜负。围棋设计的优雅之处在于它能够毫不费力地将微观和宏观联系起来，这样玩家的每一步都可以同时在两个层面上发挥作用。微观互动和宏观互动通常是交织在一起的，当然，两者之间有许多灰色地带。
In considering the way that choices are embedded in game activity, we look at the design of choice on two levels: micro and macro. The micro level represents the small, moment-to-moment choices a player is confronted with during a game. The macro level of choice represents the way these micro-choices join together like a chain to form a larger trajectory of experience. For example, this distinction marks the difference between tactics and strategy in a game such as Go. The tactics of Go concern the tooth-and-nail battles for individual sectors of the board, as individual pieces and small groups expand across territory, bumping up against each other in conflict and capture. The strategy of the game is the larger picture, the overall shape of the board that will ultimately determine the winner. The elegance of the design of Go lies in its ability to effortlessly link the micro and the macro, so that every move a player makes works simultaneously on both levels. Micro-interaction and macro-interaction are usually intertwined and there are, of course, numerous shades of gray in-between.
请记住，“选择”并不一定意味着显而易见或理性的选择，例如从菜单中选择操作。选择可以有多种形式，从直观的身体动作（例如“抽搐”射击 Time Crisis 手枪）到随机掷骰子。以下是游戏中设计选择的更多示例。
Keep in mind that “choice” does not necessarily imply obvious or rational choice, as in the selection of an action from a menu. Choice can take many forms, from an intuitive physical action (such as the “twitch” firing of a Time Crisis pistol) to the random throw of a die. Following are a few more examples of designed choices in games.
在玩二十一点时选择是否要牌。二十一点玩家总是有一套明确的选择：微观上选择要牌还是不要牌最终将决定玩家是赢还是输。从宏观上讲，每一轮都会影响玩家在游戏过程中获得或损失的总金额。根据击败庄家的概率分别玩每一手牌就像围棋中的战术。算牌将玩家在每一轮之间所有的手牌联系起来，是一种更长期、更具战略性的选择。
The choice of whether or not to take a hit in Blackjack. A Blackjack player always has a clear set of choices: the micro-choice of taking or not taking a hit will have the eventual outcome of a win or a loss against the house. On the macro-level, each round affects the total amount of money the player gains or loses over the course of the game. Playing each hand separately, according to its probability of beating the house is like tactics in Go. Counting cards, which links all of a players’ hands between rounds, is a more long-term, strategic kind of choice-making.
在文字冒险游戏中，选择在闪烁的光标中输入什么。与简单的“击中或弃牌”相比，这是一个更加开放的选择环境。输入命令的微观选择为玩家提供了有关玩家如何穿越或改变世界。选择输入“Move North”会将玩家带到游戏中的另一个位置，在那里可以采取不同的行动——也许这些行动最终会解决存在于游戏宏观层面上的多部分谜题。即使玩家试图采取程序无法解析的行动（例如输入“grab rock”而不是“get rock”），这也是有意义的：突破程序解析能力极限的结果有助于进一步划定游戏的界限。
The choice of what to type into the flashing cursor of a text adventure. This is a more open-ended choice context than the simple hit or pass of Blackjack. The micro-choice of typing in a command gives the player feedback about how the player moves through or changes the world. The choice to type the words “Move North” takes the player to another location in the game where different actions are possible—perhaps actions that will eventually solve the multi-part puzzles that exist on the macro-level of game play. Even when a player tries to take an action that the program cannot parse (such as typing “grab rock” instead of “get rock”), it is meaningful: the outcome of bumping up against the limits of the program’s parsing ability serves to further delineate the boundaries of play.
在一场足球比赛中选择采用哪种战术。这一比赛选择通常由教练组、四分卫和其他进攻球员共同做出。有很多种可能的战术，每种战术都有变化，而且选择总是以更大的比赛为背景：比分、时钟、场上位置、进攻机会、双方的优势和劣势。最宏观的选择涉及球在场上的长期运动和两支球队的总得分。最微观的选择发生在战术被叫出和球被传出后：每个进攻球员都面临着执行战术的时时挑战，而防守队会尽最大努力阻止进攻。
The choice of what play to call in a Football game. This moment of game-choice is often produced collaboratively among a coaching staff, a quarterback, and the rest of the offensive players. There are a large number of possible plays to call, each with variations, and the choice is always made against the backdrop of the larger game: the score, the clock, the field position, the down, the strengths and weaknesses of both teams. The most macro-level of choices address the long-term movement of the ball across the field and the two teams’ overall scores. The most micro-level of choices occur once the play is called and the ball is hiked: every offensive player has the moment-to-moment challenge of executing the play as the defensive team does its best to put a stop to it.
正如这些例子所示，选择是一个复杂的、多层次的过程。选择在微观和宏观层面之间有一个平滑的过渡，以整合的方式呈现给玩家。当每个动作的结果都是可辨别和整合的，选择就会带来有意义的游戏体验。游戏设计师 Doug Church 在他颇具影响力的在线文章“正式抽象设计工具”中概述了这些选择层次如何转变为完整的游戏体验。
As these examples demonstrate, choice-making is a complex, multi-layered process. There is a smooth transition between the micro-and macro-levels of choice-making, which play out in an integrated way for the player. When the outcome of every action is discernable and integrated, choice-making leads to meaningful play. Game designer Doug Church, in his influential online essay “Formal Abstract Design Tools,” outlines the way that these levels of choice transition into a complete game experience.
在格斗游戏中，每个控制器动作都是完全一致的，并由屏幕上的角色以视觉形式呈现。在《铁拳》中，当 Eddy Gordo 踢出侧手翻时，你知道自己会踢出什么。随着玩家学习动作，这种一致性允许他们进行规划（意图），而世界反应的可靠性则使玩家可以感知到后果。如果我看某个人玩游戏，我可以看到他或她为什么比我更厉害，但所有玩家在游戏开始时都是平等的。7
In a fighting game, every controller action is completely consistent and visually represented by the character on-screen. In Tekken, when Eddy Gordo does a cartwheel kick, you know what you’re going to get. As the player learns moves, this consistency allows planning—intention—and the reliability of the world’s reactions makes for perceived consequence. If I watch someone play, I can see how and why he or she is better than I am, but all players begin the game on equal footing.7
正如丘奇指出的那样，选择的宏观层面不仅包括在游戏过程中要做什么，还包括你是否想玩游戏以及与谁对战。如果你在一款没有明确和有意义的玩法的格斗游戏中被打败，你永远不会知道你为什么输了，你很可能不会再玩了。另一方面，如果你知道为什么你的对手比你强，你的失败是有意义的，因为它可以帮助你评估自己的能力，给你改进的想法，并刺激你与游戏的整体互动。
As Church points out, the macro-levels of choice-making include not only what to do over the course of a game, but also whether or not you want to play a game, and against whom. If you are beaten in a fighting game that doesn’t contain clear and meaningful play, you will never know why you lost and you will most likely not play again. On the other hand, if you know why your opponent is better than you are, your loss is meaningful, as it helps you assess your own abilities, gives you ideas for improvement, and spurs on your overall interaction with the game.
选择分子
Choice Molecules
[第一款电脑游戏《太空大战！》的设计者] 将动作视为关键因素，并将《太空大战！》设想为一款能够为玩家提供思考与行动之间良好平衡的游戏。他们认为计算机是一种天生适合代表你可以看到、控制和玩弄的事物的机器。它的有趣潜力不在于它执行计算的能力，而在于它代表人类可以参与的行动的能力。——布伦达·劳雷尔，《计算机作为剧院》
[The designers of Spacewar!, the first computer game] identified action as the key ingredient and conceived Spacewar! as a game that could provide a good balance between thinking and doing for its players. They regarded the computer as a machine naturally suited for representing things that you could see, control, and play with. Its interesting potential lay not in its ability to perform calculations but in its capacity to represent action in which humans could participate.—Brenda Laurel, Computers as Theater
游戏能够“代表玩家参与的行动”，这是我们“选择”概念的基础。如果我们认为每个选择都有结果，那么这个行动>结果单元就是游戏中意义出现的载体。尽管游戏可以产生意义，但为了理解有意义的游戏的互动性，我们通过多种方式（例如通过图像、文本、声音等）关注玩家互动所产生的意义。互动意义的核心是行动 > 结果单元，更大的互动结构就是由这个分子构成的。
The capacity for games to “represent action in which players participate” forms the basis of our concept of “choice.” If we consider that every choice has an outcome, then it follows that this action > outcome unit is the vehicle through which meaning in a game emerges. Although games can generate meaning in many ways (such as through image, text, sound, etc.), to understand the interactive nature of meaningful play, we focus on the kinds of meaning that grow from player interaction. At the heart of interactive meaning is the action > outcome unit, the molecule out of which larger interactive structures are built.
为了更仔细地研究这个概念，我们来看看经典街机游戏《小行星》，它是《太空大战！》的直系后代。在《小行星》中，玩家使用按钮操纵屏幕上的一艘小型宇宙飞船，避开移动的小行星和不明飞行物，并通过发射射弹摧毁它们。《小行星》中的动作 > 结果交互单元通过一系列五个玩家命令进行操纵，每个命令都是街机游戏控制面板上的一个按钮：向左旋转、向右旋转、推进、射击和超空间。在单个游戏的范围内，可能的玩家动作映射到五个按钮：
In order to examine this concept more closely we look at the classic arcade game Asteroids, a direct descendent of Spacewar!. In Asteroids, a player uses buttons to maneuver a tiny spaceship on the screen, avoiding moving asteroids and UFOs and destroying them by shooting projectiles. The action > outcome interactive units of Asteroids are manipulated through a series of five player commands, each one of them a button on the arcade game’s control panel: rotate left, rotate right, thrust, fire, and hyperspace. Within the scope of an individual game, possible player actions map to the five buttons:
•按向右旋转按钮：宇宙飞船向右旋转
• Press rotate right button: spaceship rotates right
•按向左旋转按钮：宇宙飞船向左旋转
• Press rotate left button: spaceship rotates left
•按下推力按钮：宇宙飞船沿其所面对的方向加速
• Press thrust button: spaceship accelerates in the direction it is facing
•按下射击按钮：宇宙飞船发射射弹（屏幕上一次最多发射四枚射弹）
• Press fire button: spaceship fires projectile (up to four on the screen at a time)
•按下超空间按钮：宇宙飞船消失并重新出现在不同位置（有时会因此灭亡）
• Press hyperspace button: spaceship disappears and reappears in a different location (and occasionally perishes as a result)
屏幕上的动作受到这五个控件的微妙（和不那么微妙！）编排的影响。随着游戏的进展，每个新的选择时刻都是对屏幕上情况的响应，这是之前一系列动作 > 结果单元的结果。出现的无缝流程是 Asteroids 如此有趣的原因之一。玩家很少意识到他们在躲避太空岩石和与敌舰战斗时每分钟要做出数百个选择——他们只感觉到他们在游戏中的兴奋和参与。
Action on the screen is affected through the subtle (and not so subtle!) orchestration of these five controls. As the game progresses, each new moment of choice is a response to the situation onscreen, which is the result of a previous string of action > outcome units. The seamless flow that emerges is one of the reasons why Asteroids is so much fun to play. Rarely are players aware of the hundreds of choices they make each minute as they dodge space rocks and do battle with enemy ships—they perceive only their excitement and participation inside the game.
选择的剖析
Anatomy of a Choice
尽管乍一看，选择的概念似乎很简单，但选择实际上的构成方式却出奇地复杂。要剖析我们的行动>结果分子，我们需要提出以下五个问题。它们共同勾勒出选择的结构：
Although the concept of choice may appear basic upon first glance, the way that a choice is actually constructed is surprisingly complex. To dissect our action > outcome molecule, we need to ask the following five questions. Together, they outline the anatomy of a choice:
1. 在玩家做出选择之前发生了什么？例如，游戏板上棋子的当前状态是什么，或者玩家的健康状况如何？刚刚完成的一组动作是什么？其他玩家的游戏状态如何？这个问题与游戏的微观和宏观事件都有关，并涉及做出选择的背景。
1. What happened before the player was given the choice? What is the current state of the pieces on a game board, for example, or the level of a player’s health? What set of moves just finished playing out? What is the game status of the other players? This question relates to the both the micro and macro events of a game, and addresses the context in which a choice is made.
2. 如何向玩家传达选择的可能性？在游戏板上，空格子或“抽牌堆”的存在可能表示选择的可能性，而数字游戏中的选择通常通过游戏控件来传达。例如，在《小行星》中，控制面板上的五个按钮向玩家传达了做出选择的机会。
2. How is the possibility of choice conveyed to the player? On a game board, the presence of empty squares or a “draw pile” might indicate the possibility of choice, whereas choices in a digital game are often conveyed through the game’s controls. In Asteroids, for example, the five buttons on the control panel communicate the opportunity for choice-making to the player.
3. 玩家是如何做出选择的？玩家是通过打出一张牌、按下按钮、移动鼠标、朝相反方向跑动还是跳过一轮来做出选择的？玩家做出选择的机制千差万别，但所有机制都是让玩家有机会采取行动的形式。
3. How did the player make the choice? Did the player make a choice by playing a card, pressing a button, moving a mouse, running in the opposite direction, or passing on a turn? The mechanisms a player uses to make a choice vary greatly, but all are forms through which players are given the opportunity to take action.
4. 选择的结果是什么？它将如何影响未来的选择？玩家在系统内采取行动将影响该系统中存在的关系。选择结构的这一要素说明了玩家行动的结果，确定了单一选择如何影响游戏世界中的更大事件。在二十一点游戏中“要牌”的结果会影响玩家是否想再要牌，以及游戏的结果。
4. What is the result of the choice? How will it affect future choices? A player taking action within a system will affect the relationships present in that system. This element of the anatomy of a choice speaks to the outcome of a player action, identifying how a single choice impacts larger events within the game world. The outcome of taking a “hit” in Blackjack impacts whether or not the player wants to take another hit, as well as the outcome of the game.
5. 选择的结果如何传达给玩家？向玩家呈现选择结果的方式可以有多种形式，而呈现形式通常与游戏本身的物质性有关。例如，在 Twister 游戏中，物体在空间中的物理位置传达了选择的结果；在 Missile Command 中，“开火”选择的结果通过缓慢移动的像素线传达，最后以爆炸结束；在 Mousetrap 中，捕鼠器的机械工作（或不工作）传达了将老鼠移入陷阱空间的结果。请注意，步骤 5 无缝地返回到步骤 1，因为选择的结果为下一个选择提供了背景。
5. How is the result of the choice conveyed to the player? The means by which the results of a choice are represented to a player can assume many guises, and forms of representation are often related to the materiality of the game itself. In a game of Twister, for example, the physical positioning of bodies in space conveys the results of choices; in Missile Command, the result of the choice to “fire” is conveyed by a slowly moving line of pixels, ending in an explosion; in Mousetrap, the mechanical workings (or non-workings) of the mousetrap convey the results of moving a mouse into the trap space. Note that step 5 leads seamlessly back to step 1, because the result of the choice provides the context for the next choice.
这是选择的五个阶段，即游戏中每次发生动作和结果时发生的五个事件。每个阶段都是游戏内部或外部发生的事件。内部事件与选择的系统处理有关；外部事件与选择对玩家的呈现有关。这两个类别区分了内部游戏状态处理的动作时刻和该动作对玩家的表现。
These are the five stages of a choice, the five events that transpire every time an action and outcome occur in a game. Each stage is an event that occurs internal or external to the game. Internal events are related to the systemic processing of the choice; external events are related to the representation of the choice to the player. These two categories make a distinction between the moment of action as handled by the internal game state and the manifestation of that action to the player.
游戏可以将内部事件以外部形式表现出来，这一想法意味着游戏是存储信息的系统。Jesper Juul 在题为“游戏时间、事件时间、主题性”的讲座中通过将游戏视为状态机来描述这一想法：
The idea that a game can have an internal event represented externally implies that games are systems that store information. Jesper Juul, in a lecture titled “Play Time, Event Time, Themability,” describes this idea by thinking of a game as a state machine:
游戏实际上是计算机科学所描述的状态机。它是一个可以处于不同状态的系统。它包含输入和输出函数，以及什么状态和什么输入将导致什么后续状态的定义。当你玩游戏时，你正在与游戏的状态机进行交互。在棋盘游戏中，此状态存储在棋盘上棋子的位置中，在计算机游戏中，状态存储为变量，然后在屏幕上显示。8
A game is actually what computer science describes as a state machine. It is a system that can be in different states. It contains input and output functions, as well as definitions of what state and what input will lead to what following state. When you play a game, you are interacting with the state machine that is the game. In a board game, this state is stored in the position of the pieces on the board, in computer games the state is stored as variables, and then represented on the screen.8
在 Juul 的棋盘游戏示例中，游戏的“内部”状态通过棋子在棋盘上的排列方式立即显现给玩家。正如 Juul 指出的那样，在计算机游戏中，内部变量必须转化为玩家的表示。内部事件和外部事件之间的区别有助于我们识别和区分选择的组成部分。在行动 > 结果分子中，第 1、3 和 4 阶段是内部事件，而第 2 和第 5 阶段是外部事件。这两层事件构成了选择剖析必须考虑的框架。为了了解这一切是如何结合在一起的，让我们更仔细地看看我们的两个示例游戏《小行星》和《国际象棋》中构建选择的方式。（图 1）
In Juul’s example of a board game, the “internal” state of the game is immediately evident to the players in the way that the pieces are arranged on the board. In the case of a computer game, as Juul points out, the internal variables have to be translated into a representation for the player. The distinction between internal and external events helps us to identify and distinguish the components of a choice. Within the action > outcome molecule, stages 1, 3, and 4 are internal events, and stages 2 and 5 are external events. These two layers of events form the framework within which the anatomy of a choice must be considered. To see how this all fits together, let us take an even closer look at the way choice is constructed in two of our example games, Asteroids and Chess. (Figure 1)
尽管行动 > 结果选择事件的所有五个阶段在两款游戏中都发生了，但仍存在一些显著差异。在《Asteroids》中，可用的选择和采取行动都涉及静态物理控制。在国际象棋中，棋盘上的棋子发挥着这一作用，即使它们传达了游戏的当前状态。国际象棋的内部和外部状态是相同的，但在《Asteroids》中，屏幕上显示的只是软件内部状态的向外延伸。“选择剖析”结构出现在每款游戏中，尽管每款游戏都会以自己的方式体现选择。
Although all five stages of the action > outcome choice event occurred in both games, there are some significant differences. In Asteroids, the available choices and the taking of an action both involve static physical controls. In Chess, the pieces on the board serve this function, even as they convey the current state of the game. The internal and external states of Chess are identical, but in Asteroids, what appears on the screen is only an outward extension of the internal state of the software. The “anatomy of a choice” structure occurs in every game, although each game will manifest choice in its own way.
这种理解游戏中选择的方式对于诊断游戏设计问题非常有用。如果您的游戏未能提供有意义的游戏体验，则可能是因为动作 > 结果链中某个地方出现了故障。以下是游戏中经常出现的常见“故障状态”的示例列表，以及它们与选择阶段的关系。
This way of understanding choice in a game can be extremely useful in diagnosing game design problems. If your game is failing to deliver meaningful play, it is probably because there is a breakdown somewhere in the action > outcome chain. Here is a sample list of common “failure states” that can often be found in games and the way that they relate to the stages of a choice.
•感觉决策是任意的。如果您需要从手中打出一张牌，但总是感觉无论选择哪张牌都无所谓，那么游戏可能在第 4 阶段受到影响，即玩家的选择对游戏系统的影响。解决方案是确保玩家的行为在游戏的内部系统中产生有意义的结果。
• Feeling as if decisions are arbitrary. If you need to play a card from your hand and it always feels like it doesn’t matter which card you select, the game probably suffers in stage 4, the effect of the player’s choice on the system of the game. The solution is to make sure that player actions have meaningful outcomes in the internal system of the game.
•不知道下一步该做什么。这可能是大型数字冒险游戏中常见的问题，因为玩家不清楚如何采取行动来推进游戏。问题出现在第二阶段，代表玩家的选择。这类问题通常可以通过显示附加信息来解决，例如地图上的高亮显示，或帮助引导玩家的箭头或指示器。
• Not knowing what to do next. This can be a common problem in large digital adventure games, where it is not clear how a player can take action to advance the game. The problem is in stage 2, representing choices to the player. These kinds of problems are often solved with additional information display, such as highlights on a map, or an arrow or indicator that helps direct the player.
•不知原因地输掉游戏。你以为自己即将到达山顶，但你的角色却因过度暴露而意外死亡。这种令人沮丧的体验可能是因为玩家没有充分了解游戏的当前状态。问题可能出现在第 5 阶段，玩家没有清楚地了解选择导致的游戏新状态。
• Losing a game without knowing why. You think that you’re about to reach the top of the mountain, when your character dies unexpectedly from overexposure. This frustrating experience can come about because a player has not sufficiently been informed about the current state of the game. The problem might be in stage 5, where the new state of the game resulting from a choice is not represented clearly enough to the player.
•不知道某个动作是否有结果。虽然这听起来像是永远不会发生的事情，但有许多实验性互动的例子（例如带有运动传感器输入的画廊游戏），玩家从未收到关于是否采取了某个动作的明确反馈。在这种情况下，当玩家采取行动并收到有关结果的反馈时，第 3 和第 4 阶段就会出现故障。
• Not knowing if an action had an outcome. Although this sounds like something that would never happen, there are many examples of experimental interactivity (such as a gallery-based game with motion sensor inputs) in which the player never receives clear feedback on whether or not an action was taken. In this case, there is a breakdown at stages 3 and 4, when a player is taking an action and receiving feedback on the results.
这些例子只是游戏设计中可能出现的问题的一小部分。选择剖析并不是解决问题的通用工具，但在游戏因玩家选择过程中出现故障而崩溃的情况下，它尤其有用。
These examples represent only a small sampling of the kinds of problems that a game’s design can have. The anatomy of a choice is not a universal tool for fixing problems, but it can be especially useful in cases where the game is breaking down because of a glitch in the player’s choice-making process.
可能性空间
Space of Possibility
我们以大卫·苏德诺 (David Sudnow) 的书《微观世界中的朝圣者》中的一段摘录作为本章的结尾，这本书非常详细地记录了一个人对视频游戏《打砖块》的痴迷。苏德诺通过详细描述他在玩游戏时所经历的一切（身体上、心理上和情感上）将读者带入了设计互动的空间。很少有文献能提供如此敏感和深刻的设计互动分析。
We conclude this chapter with an excerpt from David Sudnow’s book, Pilgrim in a Microworld, a wonderfully detailed personal account of one man’s very real obsession with the video game Breakout. Sudnow brings readers into the space of designed interactivity through detailed descriptions of what he experienced—physically, psychologically, emotionally—as he played. There are remarkably few documents that offer such a sensitive and insightful analysis of designed interaction.
我会发现自己把椅子调成更接近电视机的姿势。这显然是一种错觉。也许我可以将一只手肘放在电视机上，这样有助于感受我观看的角度，并加深对事物规模的感知。从这边和那边看，通过想象身体对物体的巡视，看到事物看不见的背面。胡说八道。如果我能感觉到球对球拍的冲击，那肯定会有所帮助，会给我一个触觉标记，将手势的位置印成一个可触摸的小标记，这样我就能感受到每个目标的实现，而不仅仅是见证正确击球的后果。胡说八道。
I’d catch myself turning my chair into a more en face position vis-à-vis the TV. An obvious delusion. Maybe I could rest one elbow on the set to help feel the angle of my look and deepen a sense for the scale of things. See it from this side and that, see the invisible backside of things through an imaginary bodily tour of the object. Nonsense. If only I could feel the impact of the ball on the paddle, that would certainly help, would give me a tactile marker, stamping the gesture’s places into a palpable little signature so I’d feel each destination being achieved and not just witness the consequences of a correct shot. Nonsense.
胡说，你的眼睛只是高高地望着上方，以某种方式固定在某物上，却感觉不到它们的固定，然后是下面这个无声无息的光滑小塑料旋钮，既不近也不远，而是一个无维度的不可触及的世界。在界面的所有三个节点之间，只有一种电学理论。如此流畅，你必须在二又七分之三英寸的空间内以精确一致的大小写下你的签名，而笔不知何故从未接触过纸张。没有什么可以抓住的东西，这个旋钮没有足够的重量让你的手感觉到非常轻微的运动的程度，没有深度的东西可以用来锚定你自己的坚固感。9
Non-sense, just your eyes way up top, to be somehow fixed on things in ways that can’t feel them fixing, then this silent smooth little plastic knob down there, neither near nor far away but in an untouchable world without dimensions. And in between all three nodes of the interface there’s nothing but a theory of electricity. So fluid, to have to write your signature with precise consistency in size within the strict bounds of a two and three-sevenths of an inch of space, say, while the pen somehow never makes contact with the paper. There’s nothing much to hold on to, not enough heft in this knob so your hands can feel the extent of very minor movements, no depth to things you can use to anchor a sense of your own solidity.9
作为游戏设计师，我们可以从 Sudnow 的观察中得到什么？他的分析表明，从玩家的角度来看，可以获得大量有关游戏互动性的信息。我们对当前关于游戏和互动性的文章感到失望的一点是，许多分析不是从玩家的角度进行的，而是从外部观众的角度进行的。这种过肩新闻风格未能认识到互动性是需要体验的东西，而不是观察的东西。在以玩家为中心的游戏体验中，苏德诺呼吁大家关注设计互动的关键概念。诸如定向选择、玩家控制、输入放大、系统表示和直接可见反馈等概念出现在他对感知、注意力、认知和身体的诗意冥想中。
As game designers, what can we glean from Sudnow’s observations? His analysis suggests that there is a wealth of information to be gained about a game’s interactivity by looking at it from the player’s point of view. One of our disappointments with current writing on games and interactivity is that much analysis occurs not from the point of view of the player, but from the point of view of an outside spectator. This style of over-the-shoulder journalism fails to recognize that interactivity is something to be experienced, rather than observed. In writing a player-centric account of his encounter with the game, Sudnow calls attention to key concepts for designed interaction. Concepts such as directed choice, player control, amplification of input, system representation, and direct, visible feedback emerge in his poetic meditation on perception, attention, cognition, and the body.
创建游戏意味着设计一个结构，该结构将以复杂且不可预测的方式进行，玩家在参与游戏时可以探索可能采取的行动空间。在抢椅子游戏过程中，玩家可能会采取哪些可能的行动？一旦音乐停止，疯狂的争抢椅子开始，他们可能会推搡、挠痒痒、戳刺或争夺座位。游戏设计师必须精心设计一个游戏系统，使这些行动对游戏玩法有意义，并且不会分散或打断游戏玩法。
Creating a game means designing a structure that will play out in complex and unpredictable ways, a space of possible action that players explore as they take part in your game. What possible actions might players take in the course of a game of Musical Chairs? They might push, shove, tickle, poke, or fight for their seat once the music stops and the mad scramble for chairs begins. The game designer must carefully craft a system of play in which these actions have meaning in support of the play of the game, and do not distract or interrupt its play.
但游戏设计师并不直接设计游戏玩法。他们只设计游戏发生的结构和环境，间接塑造玩家的行为。我们将游戏设计所隐含的未来行动空间称为可能性空间。它是游戏中可能发生的所有可能行动的空间，是游戏设计中可能出现的所有可能意义的空间。可能性空间的概念不仅弥合了设计结构和玩家体验之间的距离，而且还结合了我们迄今为止提出的关键概念。可能性空间是经过设计的（它是一个构建的空间、一个环境），它产生意义（它是所有可能意义的空间），它是一个系统（它是系统元素相互关联的方式所隐含的空间），它是交互式的（通过系统的交互式功能可以导航和探索空间）。
But game designers do not directly design play. They only design the structures and contexts in which play takes place, indirectly shaping the actions of the players. We call the space of future action implied by a game design the space of possibility. It is the space of all possible actions that might take place in a game, the space of all possible meanings which can emerge from a game design. The concept of the space of possibility not only bridges the distance between the designed structure and the player experience, but it also combines the key concepts we have presented so far. The space of possibility is designed (it is a constructed space, a context), it generates meaning (it is the space of all possible meanings), it is a system (it is a space implied by the way elements of the system can relate to each other), and it is interactive is through the interactive functioning of the system that the space is navigated and explored).
可能性空间源自游戏设计师创建的规则和结构。可能性空间是玩家在玩游戏的过程中探索和嬉戏、竞争和合作的游戏领域。但就像希望伸手触摸 Breakout 桨上的电子光点的 David Sudnow 一样，作为游戏设计师，您永远无法直接设计游戏的可能性空间。您只能通过设计的规则间接构建可能性空间。游戏设计是一种信仰行为 — 信仰规则、信仰玩家、信仰游戏本身。您的游戏会创造有意义的玩法吗？您永远无法确定。但了解设计、系统和交互性等关键概念可以帮助您更接近有意义的结果。
The space of possibility springs forth out of the rules and structures created by the game designer. The space of possibility is the field of play where your players will explore and cavort, compete and cooperate, as they travel through the experience of playing your game. But like David Sudnow who wishes he could reach out and touch the electronic blip of his Breakout paddle, as a game designer you can never directly craft the possible space of your game. You only can indirectly construct the space of possibility, through the rules you design. Game design is an act of faith—in your rules, in your players, in your game itself. Will your game create meaningful play? You can never know for sure. But understanding key concepts like design, systems, and interactivity can help bring you closer to a meaningful outcome.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
计算机作为剧院，作者：Brenda Laurel
Computers as Theater, by Brenda Laurel
尽管劳雷尔没有直接谈论游戏，但她对人机活动戏剧理论的讨论与游戏的互动性有很多联系。与游戏设计最相关的讨论集中在互动机制和人机界面互动的方式上。
Although Laurel is not speaking about games directly, her discussion of a dramatic theory of human-computer activity has many connections to the interactivity of games. The most relevant discussions to game design focus on the mechanics of interaction and the way people interact with machine interfaces.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第一章：野兽的本性
Chapter 1: The Nature of the Beast
第五章：人机活动的设计原则
Chapter 5: Design Principles for Human-Computer Activity
《设计心理学》（唐纳德·诺曼著）
The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald Norman
对于任何参与交互系统设计的设计师来说，诺曼的书都是必读之作。他的方法最近被正式化为流行语“体验设计”，将用户置于任何设计活动的中心。虽然诺曼写的是电话和车门等日常物品，但他的观察结果直接应用于游戏作为交互系统的设计。
Norman’s book is a must read for any designer involved in the design of interactive systems. His approach has been formalized more recently within the catch-phrase “experience design,” which places the user at the center of any designed activity. Although Norman is writing about everyday objects such as telephones and car doors, his observations have direct application to the design of games as interactive systems.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第一章：日常事物的精神病理学
Chapter 1: The Psychopathology of Everyday Things
第 2 章：日常行为的心理学
Chapter 2: The Psychology of Everyday Actions
第三章：头脑中的知识和世界中的知识
Chapter 3: Knowledge in the Head and in the World
《设计互动主题公园游乐设施：从迪士尼海盗黄金之战中吸取的教训》，作者：Jesse Schell 和 Joe Shochet
“Designing Interactive Theme Park Rides: Lessons From Disney’s Battle for the Buccaneer Gold,” by Jesse Schell and Joe Shochet
在对迪士尼互动主题公园游乐设施之一进行的设计事后分析中，Schell 和 Shochet 讨论了该游乐设施成功的原因。他们的分析以设计为导向，并深入了解了用于创造有效且有趣的互动体验的工具、技术和心理。请访问 < www.gamasutra.com >。
In this design postmortem of one of Disney’s interactive theme park rides, Schell and Shochet discuss the reasons for the ride’s success. Their analysis is design-driven, and offers insight into the tools, techniques, and psychology used to create an effective and entertaining interactive experience. Available at <www.gamasutra.com>.
《正式抽象设计工具》，作者：Doug Church
“Formal Abstract Design Tools,” by Doug Church
道格·丘奇 (Doug Church) 提出了最有力的论据之一，即开发游戏通用词汇，为新兴的游戏设计领域树立了批判性思维的先例。《形式抽象设计工具》从游戏设计的角度撰写，探讨了玩家体验设计中互动性的具体概念。可在 < www.gamasutra.com > 上找到。
In making one of the most robust arguments for the development of a common vocabulary for games, Doug Church establishes a precedent for critical thinking within the emerging field of game design. “Formal Abstract Design Tools” is written from a game design perspective and explores concrete concepts of interactivity in the design of player experience. Available at <www.gamasutra.com>.
微观世界的朝圣者，大卫·苏德诺著
Pilgrim in the Microworld, by David Sudnow
这本书以第一人称叙述了一个人对 Atari 2600 游戏 Breakout 的痴迷，清晰地描绘了互动系统的美学。书中从玩家体验的角度讨论了与选择结构、玩家动作的可辨别性和整合性、乐趣和核心机制相关的概念，对于那些想要了解游戏过程中每时每刻发生的事情的人来说，这本书是一本宝贵的资源。
This first-person account of one man’s genuine obsession with the Atari 2600 game Breakout offers a clear portrait of the aesthetics of interactive systems. Concepts related to the anatomy of a choice, discernability and integration of player action, pleasure, and core mechanics are discussed in terms of player experience, making it a valuable resource for those intent on understanding just what is happening from moment-to-moment during game play.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
记忆
Memory
界面
Interface
精神贯注
Cathexis
眼球
Eyeball
硬币
Coin
《交互设计的艺术：构建成功软件的令人欣喜和启发性的指南》，作者：Chris Crawford
The Art of Interactive Design: A Euphorious and Illuminating Guide to Building Successful Software, by Chris Crawford
《交互设计的艺术》是一本关于交互设计的非技术性书籍。Crawford 利用自己作为游戏和交互系统设计师的经验来讨论交互的工作原理。对于 Crawford 来说，交互是“一个循环过程，其中两个参与者交替聆听、思考和说话”。这种对话式交互模型在整本书中得到了很好的运用。
The Art of Interactive Design is a non-technical book about the design of interactivity. Crawford uses his experience as a designer of games and interactive systems to discuss how interactivity works. For Crawford, interaction is “a cyclic process in which two actors alternatively listen, think, and speak.” This conversational model of interaction is used throughout the text to good effect.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第一部分：第 1 至 6 章
Part I: Chapters 1–6
笔记
Notes
1. < dictionary.com >。
1. <dictionary.com>.
2. Stephen W. Littlejohn，《人类沟通理论》，第 3 版（贝尔蒙特，加利福尼亚州：Wadsworth 出版公司，1989 年），第 175 页。
2. Stephen W. Littlejohn, Theories of Human Communication, 3rd edition (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1989), p. 175.
3. Brenda Laurel，《计算机作为剧院》（马萨诸塞州雷丁：Addison-Wesley 出版公司，1993 年），第 112 页。
3. Brenda Laurel, Computers as Theater (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1993), p. 112.
4 . Andy Cameron，《伪装：互动的幻觉》（MFJ 第 28 期：1995 年春季），< http://infotyte.rmit.edu.au/rebecca/html/dissimulations.html >
4. Andy Cameron, Dissimulations: Illusions of Interactivity (MFJ No. 28: Spring 1995), <http://infotyte.rmit.edu.au/rebecca/html/dissimulations.html>
5. Chris Crawford，《理解互动性》（旧金山：No Starch Press），2002 年，第 6 页。
5. Chris Crawford, Understanding Interactivity (San Francisco: No Starch Press), 2002, p. 6.
6.同上；第 7 页。
6. Ibid; p. 7.
7. Doug Church，《正式抽象设计工具》。< www.gamasutra.com >，1999 年 7 月 16 日。
7. Doug Church, “Formal Abstract Design Tools.” <www.gamasutra.com>, July 16, 1999.
8 . Jesper Juul，《电脑游戏与数字文本》。哥本哈根信息技术大学会议，2001 年 3 月 1-2 日。
8. Jesper Juul, Computer Games and Digital Textuality. Conference at IT University of Copenhagen, March 1–2, 2001.
9.大卫·萨德诺，《微观世界中的朝圣者》（纽约：华纳图书，1983年），第117页。
9. David Sudnow, Pilgrim in a Microworld (New York: Warner Books, 1983), p. 117.
交互性
概括
•互动性与设计、系统和有意义的游戏概念密切相关。当玩家与游戏设计系统互动时，有意义的游戏便会出现。
• Interactivity is closely linked to the concepts of design, systems, and meaningful play. When a player interacts with the designed system of a game, meaningful play emerges.
• 交互性有许多有效定义。贯穿所有这些定义的交互性有四种模式：
• There are many valid definitions of interactivity. Cutting across all of them are four modes of interactivity:
模式一：认知互动；或解释性参与；
Mode 1: Cognitive interactivity; or interpretive participation;
模式二：功能性互动；或功利性参与；
Mode 2: Functional interactivity; or utilitarian participation;
模式三：明确的交互性；或通过设计的选择和程序参与；
Mode 3: Explicit interactivity; or participation with designed choices and procedures;
模式4：超越对象的互动性或文化参与。
Mode 4: Beyond-the-object-interactivity or cultural participation.
• 这四种模式并非截然不同的类别，而是理解任何互动时刻的相互重叠的方式。它们通常在设计系统的任何体验中同时出现。
• These four modes are not distinct categories but are instead overlapping ways of understanding any moment of interactivity. They usually occur simultaneously in any experience of a designed system.
• 并非所有交互都是经过设计的交互。当交互经过设计时，它具有内部结构和上下文，可为所采取的操作赋予意义。
• Not all interaction is designed interaction. When an interaction is designed, it has an internal structure and a context that assign meaning to the actions taken.
• 互动环境为参与者提供选择。选择可以是即时互动的微观选择，也可以是关系到游戏体验长期进展的宏观选择。
• An interactive context presents participants with choices. Choices can be micro-choices of moment-to-moment interactivity or macro-choices, which concern the long-term progress of the game experience.
• 构成交互意义的基本单位是动作> 结果单位。这些单位是交互设计师（包括游戏设计师）用来创建更大设计交互结构的分子。
• The basic unit out of which interactive meaning is made is the action > outcome unit. These units are the molecules out of which interactive designers (including game designers) create larger structures of designed interaction.
• 每个动作 > 结果事件包含一系列五个阶段，有助于构建游戏中的选择。这些阶段通过以下问题来表达：
• Within each action > outcome event is a series of five stages that help construct a choice in a game. These stages are expressed through the following questions:
1. 在玩家做出选择之前发生了什么？
1. What happened before the player was given the choice?
2. 如何向玩家传达选择的可能性？
2. How is the possibility of choice conveyed to the player?
3. 玩家是如何做出选择的？
3. How did the player make the choice?
4. 这个选择的结果是什么？它将如何影响未来的选择？
4. What is the result of the choice? How will it affect future choices?
5. 选择的结果如何传达给玩家？
5. How is the result of the choice conveyed to the player?
• 每个阶段都代表一个内部事件（游戏系统在其中处理和接收选择）或一个外部事件（向玩家呈现选择）。
• Each of these stages represents either an internal event, in which the system of the game processes and receives the choice, or an external event, in which the choice is represented to the player.
•游戏的可能性空间是游戏过程中可能出现的所有可能动作和意义的空间。这一概念将意义、设计、系统和互动性联系在一起。
• The space of possibility of a game is the space of all possible actions and meanings that can emerge in the course of the game. This concept ties together meaning, design, systems, and interactivity.
7
7
定义游戏
DEFINING GAMES
玩
play
游戏
games
设计系统
designed system
人造的
artificial
冲突
conflict
规则
rules
可量化的结果
quantifiable outcome
游戏和谜题
games and puzzles
角色扮演游戏
role-playing games
单词 [游戏] 用于如此多种不同的活动，以至于不值得坚持任何拟议的定义。总而言之，它是一个难以捉摸的词汇学客户，在各个领域都有许多朋友和亲戚。—— David Parlett，《牛津棋盘游戏史》
The word [game] is used for so many different activities that it is not worth insisting on any proposed definition. All in all, it is a slippery lexicological customer, with many friends and relations in a wide variety of fields.—David Parlett, The Oxford History of Board Games
游戏是什么？它们是人工制品吗？它们是行为模型，还是社会情景的模拟？它们是古代仪式的遗迹，还是魔法仪式？当人们试图回答“游戏是什么”这个问题时，这是困难的，甚至令人好奇，因为人们认为游戏是很多东西，同时特定的游戏彼此不同——但它们真的不同吗？—— EM Avedon，《游戏的结构元素》
What are games? Are they things in the sense of artifacts? Are they behavioral models, or simulations of social situations? Are they vestiges of ancient rituals, or magical rites? It is difficult and even curious when one tries to answer the question “what are games,” since it is assumed that games are many things and at the same time specific games are different from one another—but are they?—E. M. Avedon, “The Structural Elements of Games”
通过有意义的游戏，沿着将设计、系统和交互性联系起来的嵌入式概念路径，我们到达了研究的核心：游戏。因此，现在是时候定义是什么让游戏成为游戏了。我们甚至应该尝试这样的定义吗？也许，正如游戏历史学家大卫·帕莱特在本章开头的引文中警告的那样，任何试图定义“游戏”一词的行为都是愚蠢的。另一方面，如果我们的目标之一是帮助规范化游戏设计领域，那么定义这个学科如此核心的对象似乎至关重要。
Entering by way of meaningful play, following a path of embedded concepts connecting design to systems to interactivity, we have arrived at the heart of our study: games. It is therefore high time to define just what it is that makes a game a game. Should we even attempt such a definition? Perhaps, as game historian David Parlett warns in the quote that opens this chapter, any attempt to define the word “game” is a foolish endeavor. On the other hand, if one of our goals is to help formalize the field of game design, then it seems crucial to define the object that is so central to the discipline.
从历史上看，人们以各种各样的方式研究游戏和玩乐，从经济学家使用类似游戏的模拟，到文学理论家研究语言和文学中意义的“玩乐”。这些研究是为了服务于另一个领域而研究游戏或玩乐。而我们的目的是在游戏设计领域内研究玩乐和游戏。对“游戏”的定义不仅有助于区分游戏设计与其他设计实践，还能让我们更接近对有意义的玩乐的理解。
Historically, play and games have been studied in a myriad of ways, from economists using game-like simulations to literary theorists studying the “play” of meaning in language and literature. These investigations study games or play in the service of another field. Our intent, on the other hand, is to study play and games within the field of game design. A definition of “game” should help to not only distinguish game design from other design practices, but also bring us closer to an understanding of meaningful play.
游戏
Play and Game
首先，让我们看看game与同样复杂的play 有何关系。我们从一个显而易见的问题开始：“play” 和 “game” 这两个词之间有区别吗？它们指的是同一件事吗？在英语中，这两个词有明显的区别。但正如 David Parlett 在《牛津棋盘游戏史》中指出的那样，并非所有语言都将这两个概念区分开来。例如，在德语和法语中，短语“to play a game”对“play”和“game”使用了同一个词的不同版本。法语中是“on joue á un jeu；德语是“ man spielt ein Spiel”。1尽管有很多种方式来定义游戏和玩耍，但我们将利用英语的差异，将游戏和玩耍视为两个具有相关但不同含义的独立概念。
As a first step, let us see how game relates to the equally complex play. We begin with an obvious question: Is there a difference between the words “play” and “game”? Do they refer to the same thing? In English, there is a clear distinction between the two words. But as David Parlett points out in the The Oxford History of Board Games, not all languages separate the two concepts. The phrase “to play a game,” in both German and French, for example, uses different versions of the same word for both “play” and “game.” In French “on joue á un jeu; in German, man spielt ein Spiel.”1 Although there are many ways to define play and games, we will take advantage of the difference that English affords to consider games and play as two separate ideas with related, but distinct meanings.
事实证明，玩耍和游戏之间的关系非常复杂。玩耍既是比“游戏”更大也是更小的术语，这取决于其定义方式。从某种意义上说，“玩耍”是一个更大的术语，其中包括“游戏”作为子集。从另一个意义上说，情况正好相反：“游戏”是更大的术语，其中包括“玩耍”。分别考虑这些关系：
It turns out that play and games have a surprisingly complex relationship. Play is both a larger and a smaller term than “game,” depending on the way it is framed. In one sense, “play” is a larger term that includes “game” as a subset. In another, the reverse is true: “game” is the bigger term, and includes “play” within it. Consider each of these relationships separately:
关系一：游戏是游戏的一个子集。
Relationship one: Games are a subset of play.
如果我们考虑所有可以称为玩耍的活动，从草地上两只狗嬉戏地追逐，到一个孩子唱童谣，再到一个在线角色扮演者社区，似乎只有其中某些形式的玩耍才真正构成了我们所认为的游戏。例如，玩躲避球就是玩游戏：玩家遵守一套正式的规则并竞争获胜。然而，玩跷跷板或在攀爬架上打闹的活动是玩耍形式，但不构成游戏。大多数玩耍形式比游戏更松散、更无组织性。然而，有些玩耍形式是正式的，这些玩耍形式通常可以被视为游戏。从这个意义上说，“游戏”显然是“玩耍”的一个子集。这是一种类型学方法，它根据玩耍和游戏在世界上的表现形式来定义它们之间的关系。
If we think about all of the activities we could call play, from two dogs playfully chasing each other in a grassy field, to a child singing a nursery rhyme, to a community of online role-players, it seems that only some of these forms of play would actually constitute what we might think of as a game. Playing Dodge Ball, for example, is playing a game: players obey a formalized set of rules and compete to win. The activities of playing on a seesaw, or horsing around on a jungle gym, however, are forms of play which do not constitute a game. Most forms of play are looser and less organized than games. However, some forms of play are formalized, and these forms of play can often be considered games. In this sense, it is clear that “game” is a subset of “play.” ‘This is a typological approach, one that defines the relationship between play and games according to the forms they take in the world.
关系二：玩耍是游戏的组成部分。
Relationship two: Play is a component of games.
从另一个意义上讲，游戏可以被认为包含玩法。整本书都在讲游戏，而游戏的一个组成部分就是玩法。玩法体验只是看待和理解游戏的众多方式之一。因此，在游戏这一更大的现象中，游戏玩法代表了游戏的一个方面。虽然玩法是游戏这一更大概念的一个关键要素，但“玩法”实际上是“游戏”的一个子集。这两个术语的配对不是类型学上的，而是代表了一种更概念化的方法，将游戏和游戏置于游戏设计领域中。
In a different sense, games can be thought of as containing play. This entire book is about games, and one component of games is play. The experience of play is but one of many ways of looking at and understanding games. Within the larger phenomenon of games, then, the play of the game represents one aspect of games. Although play is a crucial element of the larger concept of games, “play” is in fact a subset of “game.” Rather than typological, this pairing of the terms represents a more conceptual approach that situates play and games within the field of game design.
这种对游戏和游戏的双重表述听起来可能自相矛盾，但这不仅仅是术语上的花招。关键在于“游戏”和“游戏”这两个词之间存在重要差异。英语在区分这两个术语方面可能是一个异常，但这是一个非常有用的区别。一个好的游戏定义应该在本文描述的两种意义上将其与游戏区分开来。
This double formulation of play and games may sound contradictory, but it is not simply a terminological sleight-of-hand. The point is that there are important differences between the words “game” and “play.” English may be an anomaly in the way that it differentiates between these two terms, but it is an extremely useful distinction. A good definition of game should distinguish it clearly from play in both of the senses described here.
比较定义
Comparing Definitions
理解“游戏”一词的一个挑战是它有太多用途。例如，考虑一下该词在英语中的许多用法：
One challenge of understanding the term “game” is that it has so many uses. Consider, for example, many of the ways that the word is utilized in English:
• 跛行或残废：比赛腿
• limp or crippled: a game leg
• 猎杀动物：狩猎季节已开放
• a hunted animal: game hunting season is open
• 技能娴熟，尤其是在运动或恋爱方面：玩得开心；“他玩得很开心”
• being skilled, particularly in sports or in romance: having game; “he got game”
• 参与赌博：在拉斯维加斯度过一夜赌博
• to partake in gambling: to spend a night gaming in Vegas
• 社会和心理操纵：玩心理游戏
• social and psychological manipulation: playing head games
• 获得结果的程序：与固执的朋友玩等待游戏
• a procedure for gaining an end: playing the waiting game with a stubborn friend
• 谋生的领域：写作游戏，当然还有
• a field in which one earns a living: the writing game and, of course
• 棋盘游戏、纸牌游戏、电脑游戏等。
• board games, card games, computer games, etc.
就我们的目的而言，只有“游戏”的所有可能含义中的一个子集是相关的：真正的游戏类别，包括棋盘游戏、纸牌游戏、体育、电脑游戏和类似活动。换句话说，游戏就是游戏设计师创造的东西。虽然这是一个重要的资格，但它并没有让我们更接近于准确理解什么是游戏，什么不是游戏。
For our purposes, only a single subset of all of the possible meanings of “game” is relevant: the category of games proper, a category that includes board games, card games, sports, computer games, and similar activities. Put another way, games are what game designers create. Although this is an important qualification, it does not bring us any closer to a precise understanding of what is and what is not a game.
幸运的是，我们并不是第一个尝试定义“游戏”的人，所以我们将仔细比较来自不同领域的八个定义。在这些定义中，一些棘手的问题一再出现。这些问题不仅包括阐明使游戏成为游戏的独特品质，还包括将游戏与类似现象（例如其他形式的游戏、冲突和争论）区分开来。同样明显的是，定义游戏本身和定义玩游戏的行为之间存在差异。
Luckily, we are not the first to attempt a definition of “game,” so we will be taking a close and comparative look at eight definitions that come from a variety of fields. In and among the definitions a handful of thorny issues appear again and again. These issues not only include articulating the unique qualities that make a game a game, but also differentiating games from similar phenomena, such as other forms of play, conflict, and contestation. It is also clear that there is a difference between defining games themselves and defining the act of playing a game.
关于“玩”和“游戏”之间的区别，还有最后一点需要说明。后面的“游戏”定义是用多种语言编写的，当翻译成英语时，“玩”和“游戏”之间会有一些偏差。因此，我们在调查过程中不仅研究“游戏”的定义，还研究“玩”的定义。请记住，我们不是要构建“玩”的定义（后面的章节会介绍），而是要使用“玩”的定义来阐明对游戏的理解。
There is one final point to make regarding the difference between “play” and “game.” The definitions of “game” to follow were written in many languages, and when translated to English there is some slippage between “play” and “game.” As a result, we look at definitions of play as well as “game” in the course of our investigation. Bear in mind that we are not building a definition of play (that comes in a later chapter), but are using definitions of play to shed light on an understanding of games.
定义 1：David Parlett
Definition 1: David Parlett
David Parlett 是一位游戏历史学家，曾撰写过大量有关纸牌游戏和棋盘游戏的文章。之前我们注意到 Parlett 对定义“游戏”这个模糊术语的能力表示怀疑。然而，尽管他坚持相反的观点，但 Parlett 确实提供了一个理解游戏的模型。
David Parlett is a game historian who has written extensively on card games and board games. Earlier we noted Parlett’s skepticism regarding the ability to define the slippery term “game.” Yet despite his assertion to the contrary, Parlett does provide a model for understanding games.
帕莱特首先区分了正式游戏和非正式游戏。”非正式游戏只是无指导的游戏，或“玩耍”，就像孩子或小狗打闹玩耍一样。”他将这种活动与“正式游戏”进行了对比：
Parlett begins by distinguishing between formal and informal games.” An informal game is merely undirected play, or ‘playing around,’ as when children or puppies play at rough and tumble.” He contrasts this kind of activity with a “formal game”:
正式游戏具有基于目的和手段的双重结构：
A formal game has a twofold structure based on ends and means:
目的。这是一场为实现目标而展开的竞赛。（比赛的希腊语是 agôn，意为竞赛。）无论是个人还是团队，只有其中一名竞争者能够实现目标，因为实现目标就意味着比赛结束。实现目标就是获胜。因此，正式比赛从定义上来说，有一个赢家；获胜是比赛的“目的”，既是结束，也是目标。
Ends. It is a contest to achieve an objective. (The Greek for game is agôn, meaning contest.) Only one of the contenders, be they individuals or teams, can achieve it, since achieving it ends the game. To achieve that object is to win. Hence a formal game, by definition, has a winner; and winning is the “end” of the game in both senses of the word, as termination and as object.
手段。它有一套约定的设备和程序“规则”，通过这些规则可以操纵设备创造获胜局面。2
Means. It has an agreed set of equipment and of procedural “rules” by which the equipment is manipulated to produce a winning situation.2
帕莱特对正式游戏和非正式游戏的区分直接解决了定义“游戏”时面临的一个关键挑战：如何区分游戏和其他形式的游戏。帕莱特所说的两只小狗嬉戏的“非正式游戏”可能更简单地被称为游戏。他对“正式游戏”的定义有两个主要组成部分：
Parlett’s distinction between formal and informal games directly addresses a key challenge in arriving at a definition of “game:” how to distinguish games from other forms of play. What Parlett calls an “informal game” of two puppies romping about might more simply be called play. His definition of a “formal game” has two main components:
•结束： “正式比赛”是以终点为目标的比赛。
• Ends: The fact that a “formal game” is a contest with an endpoint as its goal.
•手段：赢得比赛所商定的规则和材料。
• Means: The agreed-upon rules and materials by which one wins the contest.
这两个要素——获胜的理念和通过规则获胜的理念——都是定义游戏以及将游戏与其他不太“正式”的游戏区分开来的关键理念。
Both components—the idea of winning and the idea of doing so by means of rules—are key ideas in defining games, and in distinguishing them from other, less “formal” kinds of play.
定义 2：Clark C. Abt
Definition 2: Clark C. Abt
克拉克·C·阿布特在他的《严肃游戏》一书中提出了如下的游戏定义：
In his book Serious Games, Clark C. Abt proposes the following definition of games:
从形式本质来看，博弈是两个或多个独立决策者在特定限制环境下为实现目标而进行的活动。更传统的定义是，博弈是对手在有规则的环境下为实现目标而展开的活动。3
Reduced to its formal essence, a game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context. A more conventional definition would say that a game is a context with rules among adversaries trying to win objectives.3
Abt 的定义提供了一种对游戏的理解，强调玩家在游戏中的积极作用。以下是他强调的四个关键术语：
Abt’s definition offers an understanding of games that emphasizes the active role of players in a game. Here are the four key terms he highlights:
•活动：游戏是一种活动、一个过程、一个事件；
• Activity: a game is an activity, a process, an event;
•决策者：游戏需要玩家主动做出决策；
• Decision-makers: games require players actively making decisions;
•目标：按照Parlett的定义，游戏有目标；
• Objectives: as with Parlett’s definition, games have goals;
•限制背景：有限制和构建游戏活动的规则。
• Limiting context: there are rules that limit and structure the activity of the game.
将 Abt 的定义与 Parlett 的定义进行比较，我们发现游戏具有目标或目的。Abt 通过暗示规则本质上是限制性的，改进了 Parlett 的基于规则的手段的想法。但也许最有趣的部分是 Abt 承认游戏是玩家做出决定的活动。从对有意义的游戏的讨论中，我们知道游戏中的互动性是基于玩家做出具有有意义结果的决定。
Comparing Abt’s definition to Parlett’s, we have another instance where games are seen to have a goal or objective. Abt refines Parlett’s idea of rules-based means by implying that rules are intrinsically limiting. But perhaps the most interesting component is Abt’s acknowledgment that games are an activity in which players make decisions. We know from our discussion of meaningful play that the interactivity present in games is based on players making decisions that have meaningful outcomes.
Abt 定义的范围是否合适？游戏的定义可能过于狭隘，以至于忽略了游戏，也可能过于宽泛，以至于包含了非游戏的内容，因此不成立。Abt 在同一本书中写道，他的定义在两个方面都存在问题：
Does the scope of Abt’s definition feel appropriate? A definition of games can fail by being so narrow as to leave things out that are games or by being so broad that it includes things that are not games. Abt writes, in the same volume, that his definition fails on both accounts:
这个定义的问题在于，并非所有游戏都是对手之间的较量——在某些游戏中，玩家合作实现一个共同的目标，以对抗阻碍力量或自然情况，而这些阻碍力量或自然情况本身并不是真正的玩家，因为它没有目标。4
The trouble with this definition is that not all games are contests among adversaries—in some games the players cooperate to achieve a common goal against an obstructing force or natural situation that is itself not really a player since it does not have objectives.4
Abt 当然是对的。由于需要两个或多个独立决策者并强调对抗性竞争，他的定义太过狭隘——它忽略了合作或单人游戏。而且，正如他继续补充道，这个定义也太过宽泛：
Abt, of course is correct. With its requirement of two or more independent decision-makers and emphasis on adversarial contest, his definition is too narrow—it leaves out cooperative or solitaire games. And, as he goes on to add, the definition is also too broad:
当然，大多数现实生活中的活动都涉及独立的决策者在某些有限的背景下寻求实现目标……政治和社会局势也常常可以被看作是游戏。每一次选举都是一场游戏。国际关系是一场游戏。每一次个人争论都是一场游戏。几乎所有的商业活动都是一场游戏。无论这些政治、战争、经济和人际关系的较量是用权力、技能、知识还是运气来进行的，它们总是具有独立行为者之间相互决策的共同特征，这些行为者的目标至少是部分相互冲突的。”5
Of course, most real-life activities involve independent decisionmakers seeking to achieve objectives in some limiting context . . . . Political and social situations can often also be viewed as games. Every election is a game. International relations are a game. Every personal argument is a game. And almost all business activity is a game. Whether these contests of politics, war, economics, and interpersonal relations are played with resources of power, skill, knowledge, or luck, they always have the common characteristics of reciprocal decisions among independent actors with at least partly conflicting objectives.”5
战争？选举？争论？游戏确实与其他形式的人类冲突有相似之处。尽管 Abt 的定义中有一些非常有用的概念，但我们在准确界定什么是游戏、什么不是游戏方面还有很长的路要走。
War? Elections? Arguments? Games do bear similarity to other forms of human conflict. Although there are some very useful concepts in Abt’s definition, we still have a long way to go in demarcating exactly what does and does not constitute a game.
定义 3：Johann Huizinga
Definition 3: Johann Huizinga
1938 年，荷兰人类学家约翰·赫伊津哈 (Johann Huizinga) 发表了一项关于文化中游戏元素的开创性研究，名为《游戏人》( Homo Ludens )。除其他内容外，《游戏人》还对赫伊津哈所说的“游戏”进行了定义：
In 1938, Dutch Anthropologist Johann Huizinga published a groundbreaking study of the play element in culture, Homo Ludens (“Man the Player”). Among other things, Homo Ludens provides a definition of what Huizinga calls “play”:
[游戏] 是一种自由活动，它自觉地脱离了“普通”生活，因为“不严肃”，但同时又能完全吸引玩家。这是一种与物质利益无关的活动，也不能从中获利。它按照固定的规则有条不紊地在自己适当的时间和空间范围内进行。它促进了社会群体的形成，这些群体倾向于将自己置于秘密之中，并通过伪装或其他手段强调自己与普通世界的不同。6
[Play is] a free activity standing quite consciously outside “ordinary’ life as being “not serious,” but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It promotes the formation of social groupings, which tend to surround themselves with secrecy and to stress their difference from the common world by disguise or other means.6
在这个定义中，赫伊津哈断言游戏：
In this definition, Huizinga asserts that play:
• 脱离了普通生活；
• is outside ordinary life;
• “并不严重”；
• is “not serious”;
• 非常引人入胜；
• is utterly absorbing;
• 不与物质利益或利润相关；
• is not to be associated with material interest or profit;
• 发生在其自身的时间和空间界限内；
• takes place in its own boundaries of time and space;
• 按规定进行；
• proceeds according to rules;
• 创建与外界隔离的社会群体。
• creates social groups that separate themselves from the outside world.
这一定义的优点之一是，赫伊津哈成功地识别出了游戏的一些更难以捉摸和抽象的特质。例如，游戏既令人着迷又不严肃，这一观点很好地描述了游戏的感觉。另一方面，尚不清楚这些体验性特质是否有助于定义游戏：仅仅因为设计不佳的游戏不引人入胜，并不意味着它不是游戏。他的定义的其他方面，例如他强调游戏与日常生活的分离以及游戏发生在时间和空间的特殊界限内，都指出了游戏的内在人为性。这种人为性特征是否是游戏的决定性特质？我们拭目以待。
One of the strengths of this definition is that Huizinga manages to identify some of the more elusive and abstract qualities of play. The idea that play is both utterly absorbing but also not serious, for example, wonderfully describes the sense of being at play. On the other hand, it is not clear that these experiential qualities will help define a game: just because a poorly designed game fails to be absorbing doesn’t mean that it is not a game. Other aspects of his definition, such as his emphasis on play’s separation from ordinary life and the fact that play takes place within special boundaries of time and space, point to the intrinsic artificiality of games. Is this feature of artificiality a defining quality of games? We shall see.
赫伊津哈的定义包含许多重要思想，但总体上存在一些问题。其中几个组成部分，例如游戏创造了社会群体，处理的是游戏和游戏的影响，而不是游戏本身。其他要素，例如否认从游戏中获得物质利益，与游戏人的意识形态议程联系过于紧密。最后，赫伊津哈定义的包容性是其最大的弱点。例如，它最终没有区分“游戏”和“游戏”。
Huizinga’s definition includes many important ideas, but on the whole it has some problems. Several of the components, such as the fact that play creates social groups, address the effects of play and games rather than games themselves. Other elements, such as the disavowal of material gain from play, are too closely linked to the ideological agenda of Homo Ludens. In the end, the inclusive generality of Huizinga’s definition is its greatest weakness. It does not, for example, ultimately differentiate between “play” and “game”.
定义 4：Roger Caillois
Definition 4: Roger Caillois
20 世纪 60 年代，法国社会学家罗杰·凯洛瓦 (Roger Caillois) 扩展了赫伊津哈 (Huizinga) 的研究成果，出版了《人、游戏和 游戏，这本书在很多方面都直接回应了《游戏人》。Caillois还提出了游戏的定义，将其描述为：
Expanding on the work of Huizinga during the 1960s, the French sociologist Roger Caillois published Man, Play, and Games, a book that is in many ways a direct response to Homo Ludens. Caillois also presents a definition of play, describing it as being:
•免费：游戏中玩家不一定要玩游戏；如果玩游戏是强制性的，那么游戏就会立刻失去其作为消遣的吸引力和愉悦性；
• Free: in which playing is not obligatory; if it were, it would at once lose its attractive and joyous quality as diversion;
•分离：在空间和时间的限制内，预先定义和固定；
• Separate: circumscribed within limits of space and time, defined and fixed in advance;
•不确定性：无法确定游戏进程，也无法预先确定结果，为玩家的主动创新留下一定的空间；
• Uncertain: the course of which cannot be determined, nor the result attained beforehand, and some latitude for innovations being left to the player’s initiative;
•非生产性的：既不创造商品，也不创造财富，也不创造任何类型的新元素；并且，除了玩家之间的财产交换外，最终的局面与游戏开始时的情况相同；
• Unproductive: creating neither goods, nor wealth, nor new elements of any kind; and, except for the exchange of property among the players, ending in a situation identical to that prevailing at the beginning of the game;
•受规则管辖：根据暂停普通法律的惯例，暂时制定新的立法，这才算数；
• Governed by rules: under conventions that suspend ordinary laws, and for the moment establish new legislation, which alone counts;
•虚构：伴随着对第二种现实或自由的非现实的特殊认识，与现实生活相反。7
• Make-believe: accompanied by a special awareness of a second reality or of a free unreality, as against real life.7
其中一些想法是先前定义的一部分；还有一些是新的。到目前为止，每个定义都提到了游戏受规则支配的事实。游戏存在于独立空间中并且不创造资本的想法是从 Huizinga 那里借来的。但 Caillois 通过将游戏描述为自由或自愿的，指出游戏的结局是不确定的，并将游戏与一种虚构的感觉联系起来，扩展了对游戏的理解。
Some of these ideas were part of the previous definitions; several are new. Every definition so far includes reference to the fact that play is governed by rules. The ideas that play exists in a separate space and does not create capital are borrowed from Huizinga. But Caillois extends an understanding of play by describing it as free or voluntary, by pointing out that the end of a game is uncertain, and by associating play with a sense of make-believe.
Caillois 列出的所有元素真的可以描述游戏吗？虽然它们似乎符合直觉，但我们可以想象游戏不是自愿的、不确定的或虚构的。如果你被朋友逼着玩你不想玩的游戏，这还是游戏吗？如果国际象棋大师与初学者对战，对国际象棋大师来说，游戏的结果是否不确定？井字棋中是否存在虚构元素？
Do all of the elements Caillois lists really describe games? Although they seem to make intuitive sense, it is possible to think of situations where games are not voluntary, uncertain, or make-believe. If you are pressured by your friends into playing a game that you don’t want to play, is it still a game? If a Chess master plays against a beginner, is the outcome of the game uncertain for the Chess master? Is there a make-believe element to Tic-Tac-Toe?
Caillois 定义的核心问题是，与 Huizinga 的定义一样，它对于我们的目的来说过于宽泛。在《人、游戏和游戏》一书中，Caillois 将戏剧和非正式打闹等活动归入游戏范畴。虽然这些活动可能被视为游戏，但我们正在寻找一个更狭义的定义，以解决游戏的特定情况。
A central problem with Caillois’ definition is that like Huizinga’s definition, it is too broad for our purposes. In Man, Play, and Games, Caillois includes under the rubric of play activities such as theater and informal rough-housing. Although these activities might be considered play, we are looking for a definition that more narrowly addresses the particular instance of games.
定义 5：Bernard Suits
Definition 5: Bernard Suits
Bernard Suits 是一位对游戏有着浓厚兴趣的哲学家。他那本充满趣味的书《蚱蜢：游戏、生活和乌托邦》是对蚱蜢和蚂蚁寓言的重述；也是对游戏本质的深入探究。Suits 对游戏给出了这样的定义：
Bernard Suits is a philosopher with a strong interest in games. His playful book Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia is a retelling of the Grasshopper and the Ants fable; it is also a deep investigation into the nature of games. Suits offers this definition of games:
玩游戏就是从事旨在实现特定状态的活动，仅使用规则允许的手段，规则禁止更有效的手段而倾向于效率更低的手段，并且接受这些规则只是因为它们使这种活动成为可能。8
To play a game is to engage in activity directed towards bringing about a specific state of affairs, using only means permitted by rules, where the rules prohibit more efficient in favour of less efficient means, and where such rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity.8
—或者更简洁地说—
—or more succinctly—
我还提供以下更简单、更便携的版本：玩游戏是为了克服不必要的障碍而自愿做出的努力。9
I also offer the following simpler and, so to speak, more portable version of the above: playing a game is the voluntary effort to overcome unnecessary obstacles.9
尽管 Suit 的定义听起来很抽象，但他涵盖的是熟悉的领域。以下是两个版本的主要元素：
Although Suit’s definitions sound abstract, he is covering familiar territory. Here are the primary elements from both versions:
•活动：与 Abt 一样，Suits 强调玩游戏的活动；
• Activity: as with Abt, Suits emphasizes the activity of playing a game;
•自愿：游戏是自由参加的；
• Voluntary: games are freely entered into;
•具体情况：游戏有一个目标；
• A specific state of affairs: games have a goal;
•规则：与之前的定义一样，Suits 将规则视为游戏的组成部分；
• Rules: as in the previous definitions, Suits identifies rules as a component of games;
•效率低下：游戏规则限制行为，导致效率低下；
• Inefficiency: the rules of games limit behavior, making it less efficient;
•接受规则：玩游戏意味着接受规则。
• Rules are accepted: playing a game means accepting the rules.
其他定义包括许多这些要素：游戏是一种活动，游戏是自愿的，有目标，并且涉及规则。然而，Suits 为这个概念增添了一些新思想。当他说“规则禁止更有效的方式，而倾向于更低效的方式……这些规则之所以被接受，只是因为它们使这种活动成为可能”时，他指的是所谓的游戏态度，即游戏玩家的特殊心理状态。游戏态度的一部分是游戏规则使游戏变得低效：如果一名跑步者想尽可能高效地越过终点线，她可能会离开跑道，穿过场地——但规则告诉她要留在白线内。游戏态度的另一个组成部分是玩家接受这些规则，接受游戏中的“不必要的障碍”，仅仅是因为它们使游戏成为可能。Suits 实际上指出了游戏创造意义的方式，因为玩家为了玩游戏而接受这些规则、目标和障碍。
Other definitions have included many of these elements: the fact that a game is an activity, that it is voluntary, has a goal, and involves rules. However, Suits adds some new ideas to the mix. When he states that “the rules prohibit more efficient in favour of less efficient means . . . such rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity,” he is referring to what he calls the lusory attitude, the peculiar state of mind of game players. Part of the lusory attitude is that the rules of a game make play inefficient: if a runner wanted to cross the finish line as efficiently as possible, she might leave the track and cut across the field—but the rules tell her to stay within the white lines. Another component of the lusory attitude is that players accept these rules, taking on the “unnecessary obstacles” of a game simply because they make play possible. Suits is actually pointing to the way that games create meaning as players accept these rules, goals, and obstacles in order to play.
尽管这个定义很有见地，但值得注意的是，《金装律师》最终并没有给出游戏的定义，而是给出了玩游戏的行为的定义。事实上，Huizinga 和 Caillois 的定义同样侧重于游戏活动，而不是游戏本身。然而，接下来的两个定义将使我们更接近游戏本身的领域。
As insightful as this definition is, it is important to note that Suits does not ultimately offer a definition of game, but a definition of the act of playing a game. In fact, the definitions of Huizinga and Caillois similarly focus on the activity of play rather than on games themselves. However, the next two definitions will bring us closer to the territory of games themselves.
定义 6：Chris Crawford
Definition 6: Chris Crawford
克里斯·克劳福德 (Chris Crawford) 是一位开创性的电脑游戏设计师，他撰写了大量有关游戏设计、叙事和互动性的文章。在他颇具影响力的著作《电脑游戏设计艺术》中，克劳福德并没有对游戏做出简洁的定义，但他列出了定义我们称之为游戏的事物类别的四个主要特质：表现、互动、冲突和安全性。我们摘录了他这本书第一章的摘录，他在其中总结了这四个特质：
Chris Crawford is a pioneering computer game designer who has written extensively about game design, narrative, and interactivity. In his influential book The Art of Computer Game Design, Crawford does not offer a succinct definition of games, but he does list four primary qualities that define the category of things we call games: representation, interaction, conflict, and safety. We have pulled together excerpts from the first chapter of his book, where he summarizes these four qualities:
表征：游戏是一个封闭的形式系统，主观地表征现实的一个子集。我所说的“封闭”是指游戏作为一个结构是完整且自给自足的。游戏所创造的模型世界是内部完整的；无需参考游戏之外的代理。我所说的形式仅指游戏有明确的规则。游戏是相互交互的部分的集合，通常以复杂的方式进行交互。它是一个系统。游戏创造了一种主观且刻意简化的情感现实表征。10
Representation: A game is a closed formal system that subjectively represents a subset of reality. By “closed” I mean that the game is complete and self-sufficient as a structure. The model world created by the game is internally complete; no reference need be made to agents outside of the game. By formal I mean only that the game has explicit rules. A game’s a collection of parts which interact with each other, often in complex ways. It is a system. A game creates a subjective and deliberately simplified representation of emotional reality.10
互动：现实最迷人的地方不在于它的存在，甚至不在于它的变化，而在于它的变化方式，在于所有事物都由错综复杂的因果关系联系在一起。正确呈现这种关系的唯一方法是让观众探索其细节，让他们产生原因并观察结果。游戏提供了这种互动元素，这是游戏吸引力的关键因素。11
Interaction: The most fascinating thing about reality is not that it is, or even that it changes, but how it changes, the intricate webwork of cause and effect by which all things are tied together. The only way to properly represent this webwork is to allow the audience to explore its nooks and crannies, to let them generate causes and observe effects. Games provide this interactive element, and it is a crucial factor in their appeal.11
冲突：所有游戏中都会出现的第三个元素是冲突。冲突自然而然地从游戏互动中产生。玩家积极追求某个目标。障碍阻止他轻松实现这一目标。冲突是所有游戏的内在元素。它可以是直接的或间接的，可以是暴力的或非暴力的，但它在每个游戏中都存在。12
Conflict: A third element appearing in all games is conflict. Conflict arises naturally from the interaction in a game. The player is actively pursuing some goal. Obstacles prevent him from easily achieving this goal. Conflict is an intrinsic element of all games. It can be direct or indirect, violent or nonviolent, but it is always present in every game.12
安全：冲突意味着危险；危险意味着伤害的风险；伤害是不可取的。因此，游戏是一种提供冲突和危险的心理体验，同时排除其物理实现的手段。简而言之，游戏是一种安全的体验现实的方式。更准确地说，游戏的结果总是比游戏模拟的情况要好。十三
Safety: Conflict implies danger; danger means risk of harm; harm is undesirable. Therefore, a game is an artifice for providing the psychological experiences of conflict and danger while excluding their physical realizations. In short, a game is a safe way to experience reality. More accurately, the results of a game are always less harsh than the situations the game models.13
我们可以分别考虑这四个特性。克劳福德的表征概念让人想起凯洛瓦列出的虚构特性。但克劳福德更进一步，将游戏的表征能力直接与其规则以及其作为相互关联的系统的地位联系起来。事实上，克劳福德的定义是第一个明确将游戏称为系统的定义，也许是因为他是这些作者中第一个从数字游戏的角度写作的。克劳福德的互动元素与游戏的系统性质密切相关。他的互动“因果”方案与上一章概述的行动和结果思想相似。
We can consider each of these four qualities separately. Crawford’s notion of representation is reminiscent of the quality of make-believe listed by Caillois. But Crawford takes the concept one step further, linking the game’s capacity for representation directly to its rules, and to its status as a system of interlocking parts. In fact, Crawford’s definition is the first to explicitly call games a system, perhaps because he is the first of these authors writing from a digital game point of view. Tied closely to the systemic nature of games is Crawford’s element of interaction. His scheme of interactive “cause and effect” parallels the ideas of action and outcome outlined in the previous chapter.
克劳福德的定义首次提到了冲突。尽管帕莱特的“为实现目标而进行的竞争”和阿布特的“对手之间的竞争”都暗示了冲突，但克劳福德明确地提到了冲突，并将其直接与游戏有目标这一事实联系起来。他提出的游戏的最后一个特征是安全性，这与其他定义中对游戏的人为性的强调相呼应，即游戏发生在与日常生活不同的空间和时间中。虽然这四个特征描述了游戏，但严格来说，它们并不是定义性的。
Crawford’s definition names conflict for the first time. Although Parlett’s “contest to achieve an objective” and Abt’s “contest among adversaries” imply conflict, Crawford names conflict explicitly, linking it directly to the fact that games have goals. His final characteristic of games, safety, echoes the emphasis made in other definitions on the artificiality of games, that they take place in a space and time separate from ordinary life. Although these four characteristics describe games, they are not, strictly speaking, definitional.
定义 7：Greg Costikyan
Definition 7: Greg Costikyan
撰写过多篇游戏文章的游戏设计师兼作家 Greg Costikyan 在他的文章《我无话可说，但我必须设计》中为该术语提出了定义：14
Greg Costikyan, a game designer and writer who has authored many articles on games, proposes a definition for the term in his essay, “I Have No Words and I Must Design:”14
游戏是一种艺术形式，其中参与者（称为玩家）通过游戏代币管理资源来做出决策以达到目标。
A game is a form of art in which participants, termed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal.
此定义中的关键术语是：
The key terms in this definition are:
•艺术：游戏被视为一种文化形式；
• Art: games are identified as a form of culture;
•决策型玩家：游戏需要玩家在做出选择时积极参与；
• Decision-making players: games require active participation as choices are made;
•资源管理：玩家的决策取决于操纵资源；
• Resource management: player decisions hinge on manipulating resources;
•游戏代币：玩家实施决定的手段；
• Game tokens: the means by which players enact their decisions;
•目标：游戏有一个目的。
• Goal: a game has an objective.
与 Crawford 一样，Costikyan 也受到数字游戏设计的影响，同样强调游戏的决策性和互动性。尽管他对游戏目标的认可在其他定义中也有提及，但 Costikyan 的提法有许多独特的元素。例如，他的定义是唯一一个在定义游戏时忽略规则的特殊性质的定义。同样值得注意的是，他对游戏的系统性进行了详细的阐述：玩家通过游戏代币管理游戏资源的方式。Costikyan 也是唯一一位将游戏与艺术或其他文化实践联系起来的作家。虽然我们也强调游戏是文化的，但 Costikyan 将游戏与“艺术”联系起来的决定对我们的目的来说没那么有用。将游戏标记为艺术会让他们卷入关于游戏和艺术、高雅文化和低俗文化以及游戏的社会地位的当代争论中。毫无疑问，这是 Costikyan 的挑衅意图。
Like Crawford, Costikyan is influenced by digital game design and shares an emphasis on the decision-making, interactive quality of game playing. Although his acknowledgement of the goal of a game is something mentioned in other definitions, Costikyan’s formulation has a number of unique elements. For example, his is the only definition to leave out the special quality of rules in defining a game. Also notable is a detailed explication of the systemic quality of a game: the way that players manage game resources through game tokens. Costikyan is also the only writer to link games to art, or to any other cultural practice, for that matter. While we also emphasize the fact that games are cultural, Costikyan’s decision to associate games with “art” is less useful for our purposes. Labeling games as art embroils them in contemporary debates about games and art, high culture and low culture, and the social status of games. Undoubtedly, this is Costikyan’s provocative intention.
定义 8：Elliot Avedon 和 Brian Sutton-Smith
Definition 8: Elliot Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith
布莱恩·萨顿-史密斯 (Brian Sutton-Smith) 可能是 20 世纪研究游戏和玩乐最多产、最重要的学者。在萨顿-史密斯与艾略特·阿维顿 (Elliot Avedon) 合编的《游戏研究》 (The Study of Games) 中，作者对游戏给出了极为简洁有力的定义：
Brian Sutton-Smith is perhaps the most prolific and important scholar of play and games in the twentieth century. In The Study of Games, which Sutton-Smith co-edited with Elliot Avedon, the authors present an extremely concise and powerful definition of games:
游戏是自愿控制系统的一种运用，其中力量之间在规则的约束下进行竞争，以产生不均衡的结果。15
Games are an exercise of voluntary control systems, in which there is a contest between powers, confined by rules in order to produce a disequilibrial outcome.15
此定义的关键要素为：
The key elements of this definition are:
•锻炼控制系统：游戏涉及某种形式的身体或智力活动：
• Exercise of control systems: games involve some form of physical or intellectual activity:
•自愿：游戏是自由参加的；
• Voluntary: games are freely entered into;
•力量较量：博弈体现的是玩家之间的冲突；
• Contest between powers: games embody a conflict between players;
•受规则限制：强调规则的限制性；
• Confined by rules: the limiting nature of rules is emphasized;
•不均衡结果：游戏的结果是一种与游戏的起始状态不同的目标状态。
• Disequilibrial outcome: the outcome of a game is a goal-state which is different than the starting state of the game.
虽然这些元素并非完全出自该定义，但 Avedon 和 Sutton-Smith 的表述的优势在于它简洁、清晰，并且针对游戏本身，而不是玩游戏的活动。他们的定义范围狭窄，明确区分了游戏和不太正式的游戏活动。另一方面，它并不包含其他定义中的所有元素。也许是时候退后一步并进行评估了。
Although none of these elements are wholly original to this definition, the strength of Avedon and Sutton-Smith’s formulation is that it is compact, clear, and addresses games themselves, rather than the activity of playing them. Elegantly narrow in scope, their definition clearly demarcates games from less formal play activities. On the other hand, it doesn’t contain all of the elements found in other definitions. Perhaps it is time to step back and take stock.
一个对比
A Comparison
上表总结了游戏的元素，如每个定义中所述。
The chart above summarizes the elements of a game, as described in each of the definitions.
在将复杂的想法简化为一个由共同元素组成的网格时，作者想法中的许多背景和微妙之处显然都消失了。每位作者出于特定原因在特定背景下定义游戏；例如，除了 Chris Crawford 和 Greg Costikyan 之外，没有一位作者从事游戏设计领域的工作。另一方面，对他们定义游戏的方法进行这种相互排斥的剖析产生了一些有趣的比较结果。除了 Costikyan 之外，所有作者都将规则作为关键组成部分。除此之外，没有明确的共识。虽然 15 个元素中有 10 个由多位作者共享，但除了规则和目标之外，没有一个作者对其中任何一个达成了多数共识。
In simplifying complex ideas to a grid of common elements, much of the context and subtlety of the authors’ ideas is clearly lost. Each author defines games for particular reasons within specific contexts; for example, with the exception of Chris Crawford and Greg Costikyan, none of the authors are operating from within the field of game design. On the other hand, this cannibalistic dissection of their approaches to defining games yields some interesting comparative results. All of the authors except Costikyan include rules as a key component. Beyond this there is no clear consensus. Although 10 of the 15 elements are shared by more than one author, apart from rules and goals, there is no majority agreement on any one of them.
显然，并非所有元素都需要包含在游戏的定义中。有些元素，例如游戏自愿或低效的因素似乎并不适用于所有游戏。其他因素，例如游戏会创造社会群体，描述的是游戏的效果，而不是游戏本身。其他因素，例如游戏的表征性或虚构性，也出现在许多其他媒体中，并且无助于将游戏与其他类型的设计体验区分开来。
It is clear that not all of the elements need to be included in a definition of game. Some elements, such as games being voluntary or inefficient, do not seem to apply to all games. Others, such as the fact that games create social groups, describe the effects of games rather than games themselves. Still other elements, such as the representational or make-believe quality of games, appear in many other media and do not help differentiate games from other kinds of designed experiences.
我们的定义
Our Definition
将先前定义中的元素拼凑在一起并删去不必要的部分，我们得到以下定义：
Cobbling together elements from the previous definitions and whittling away the unnecessary bits leaves us with the following definition:
游戏是一种玩家参与由规则定义的人工冲突并产生可量化结果的系统。
A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.
这个定义在结构上与 Avedon 和 Sutton-Smith 的定义类似，但也包含了许多其他作者的概念。以下是该定义的主要思想：
This definition structurally resembles that of Avedon and Sutton-Smith, but contains concepts from many of the other authors as well. Here are the definition’s primary ideas:
系统：我们在第 5 章中介绍了系统的概念。系统是我们游戏方法的基础。
System: We introduced the concept of a system in chapter 5. Systems are fundamental to our approach to games.
玩家：游戏是一个或多个参与者积极参与的活动。玩家与游戏系统互动，以体验游戏的玩法。
Players: A game is something that one or more participants actively play. Players interact with the system of a game in order to experience the play of the game.
人造：游戏在时间和空间上都与所谓的“现实生活”划清界限。虽然游戏显然发生在现实世界中，但人造性是游戏的一大特征。
Artificial: Games maintain a boundary from so-called “real life” in both time and space. Although games obviously occur within the real world, artificiality is one of their defining features.
冲突：所有游戏都体现了权力的较量。竞争可以采取多种形式，从合作到竞争，从与游戏系统的单人冲突到多人社交冲突。冲突是游戏的核心。
Conflict: All games embody a contest of powers. The contest can take many forms, from cooperation to competition, from solo conflict with a game system to multiplayer social conflict. Conflict is central to games.
规则：我们同意作者的观点，规则是游戏的重要组成部分。规则通过界定玩家可以做什么和不可以做什么，为游戏提供了结构。
Rules: We concur with the authors that rules are a crucial part of games. Rules provide the structure out of which play emerges, by delimiting what the player can and cannot do.
可量化的结果：游戏具有可量化的目标或结果。游戏结束时，玩家要么赢，要么输，要么获得某种数字分数。可量化的结果通常是游戏与非正式游戏活动的区别。
Quantifiable outcome: Games have a quantifiable goal or outcome. At the conclusion of a game, a player has either won or lost or received some kind of numerical score. A quantifiable outcome is what usually distinguishes a game from less formal play activities.
对于本书的其余部分，这个定义就是我们所说的“游戏”。它适用于各种游戏，从电脑和视频游戏到室内游戏和体育游戏。我们也可以用这个定义来定义本书的核心研究领域：
For the rest of this book, this definition is what we mean when we say “game.” It applies to all kinds of games, from computer and video games to parlor games and sports. We can also use this definition to define the field of study at the center of this book:
游戏设计是游戏设计师创造游戏以供玩家体验并产生有意义的游戏体验的过程。
Game design is the process by which a game designer creates a game, to be encountered by a player, from which meaningful play emerges.
当你终于知道这本书的主题是什么时，难道你不高兴吗？
Aren’t you happy to finally know what it is this book is about?
谜中之谜
The Puzzle of Puzzles
这个游戏定义是故意设得很狭窄的。我们的目的不是了解广泛的游戏现象，而是明确划分游戏和游戏设计的范围。但这个定义是否太狭窄了？是否有一些显然是游戏但不符合这个定义的东西？本章关于游戏的定义最后讨论了两种游戏活动，它们可能适合也可能不适合这个定义所划定的游戏类别。这些“极限情况”将有助于阐明这个定义如何帮助我们研究类似游戏的现象。
This definition of games is intentionally quite narrow. It is not our intent to understand the broad phenomena of play, but instead to clearly demarcate the realm of games and game design. But is the definition too narrow? Are there things that are clearly are games but that don’t fit this definition? This chapter on defining games concludes by looking at two kinds of game-activities that may or may not fit into the category of games this definition delineates. These “limit cases” will help clarify how this definition can help us investigate game-like phenomena.
首先是谜题。根据谜题和游戏设计师 Scott Kim 的说法，谜题与游戏不同，因为谜题有正确答案或结果。想象一下填字游戏：谜题设计师创造正确答案，玩家的活动包括尝试重建该答案。这与扑克游戏的情况非常不同，例如，扑克游戏没有游戏创建者提出的固定“正确答案”。相反，在扑克游戏中，玩家每时每刻都会做出复杂的决定，同时考虑到游戏不断变化的动态。
First, puzzles. According to puzzle and game designer Scott Kim, puzzles are different from games because puzzles have a correct answer or outcome. Think of a crossword puzzle: the puzzle designer creates the correct answer, and the player’s activity consists of trying to reconstruct that answer. This is a very different situation than a game of Poker, for example, in which there is no fixed “right answer” posed by the creator of the game. Instead, in Poker, players make complex decisions at every moment, taking into account the evolving dynamics of the game.
But this does not mean that a puzzle is not a game. Recall our definition:
游戏是一种玩家参与由规则定义的人工冲突并产生可量化结果的系统。
A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.
填字游戏包含此定义的所有元素。它是一种由方块、字母和线索组成的系统，玩家在其中遵循规则以得出适当的结果。尽管冲突发生在玩家与系统之间，而不是一组玩家之间，但填字游戏无疑是一种游戏。事实上，所有类型的谜题都是游戏。它们可能被视为游戏的一个特殊子集，但它们显然符合定义的要求。
A crossword puzzle contains all of the elements of this definition. It is a system of squares, letters, and clues, in which a player follows rules in order to arrive at an appropriate outcome. Although the conflict is between the player and the system rather than between a set of players, a crossword puzzle is most certainly a game. In fact, all kinds of puzzles are games. They might be considered a special subset of games, but they clearly meet the requirements of the definition.
有时，很难确定一款游戏是否是益智游戏。在他的文章《什么是益智游戏？》中16 Kim 引用了游戏设计师 Kevin Maroney 的话，他指出 Solitaire 是一个边缘案例。如果我们将 Solitaire 视为一种开放式活动，可以以多种方式进行，那么它就不是谜题。另一方面，正如 Kim 所说，“事实上它是一种谜题，因为任何给定的牌组都有明确的解决方案（有时没有解决方案）。洗牌是一种随机生成新谜题的方法。”17
Sometimes, it is difficult to determine whether or not a game is a puzzle. In his article, “What is a Puzzle?”16 Kim references game designer Kevin Maroney, who points to Solitaire as a borderline case. If we think about Solitaire as an open-ended activity that can play out in many ways, it is not a puzzle. On the other hand, as Kim states, “in fact it is a kind of puzzle, since any given deck has a definite solution (or sometimes no solution). Shuffling the cards is a way to randomly generate a new puzzle.”17
我们不会吹毛求疵。我们认为，所有谜题都是游戏，尽管它们构成了一种特殊的游戏。将游戏视为谜题，即具有正确答案或一组答案的游戏，可以成为构建游戏的一种有用方法。例如，您的 3D 冒险游戏是否缺乏游戏感？也许它太像谜题了，所有结果都是预先确定的，您需要让整体设计远离谜题领域。或者，如果您的冒险游戏感觉太开放，也许您可以注入一些类似谜题的游戏玩法，更好地塑造玩家的成就感。“谜题”的概念可以成为构建游戏设计问题的一种有用方法。
We are not going to split hairs. In our opinion, all puzzles are games, although they constitute a special kind of game. Thinking about a game as a puzzle, a game with a correct answer or set of answers, can be a useful way to frame a game. For example, is your 3D adventure game lacking a sense of play? Perhaps it is too puzzle-like, with all of the outcomes predetermined, and you need to ease the overall design away from puzzle territory. Alternately, if your adventure game feels too open-ended, perhaps you can inject some puzzle-like game play into it and better shape the player’s sense of accomplishment. The idea of the “puzzle” can be a helpful way to frame game design problems.
角色扮演游戏
Role-Playing Games
第二个游戏“极限情况”是角色扮演游戏。在电脑之外，这些游戏包括《龙与地下城》，玩家在游戏中扮演虚拟世界中的角色。数字角色扮演游戏可以是单人冒险游戏，例如经典的《创世纪》游戏，也可以是多人社区游戏，例如《无尽的任务》。在这两种情况下，玩家都会在叙事环境中控制和发展角色。
The second game “limit case” is role-playing games. Off the computer, these are games such as Dungeons & Dragons, in which players are cast as characters in an imaginary world. Digital role-playing games can be single-player adventures like the classic Ultima games, or multiplayer community worlds like EverQuest. In both cases, the player controls and evolves a character over time within a narrative setting.
角色扮演游戏 (RPG) 当然具有游戏的特征。纸质桌面 RPG 通常涉及骰子、规则手册、统计数据和相当多的战略游戏。角色扮演游戏显然体现了我们对游戏定义的每个组成部分，除了一个：可量化的结果。作为一名 RPG 玩家，您将经历游戏故事，遵守规则，克服障碍，完成任务，并通常提高角色的能力。然而，通常缺少的是游戏的单一终点。角色扮演游戏的结构类似于连续叙事，随着会话的进行而发展和演变。有时它们会结束；有时不会。即使角色死亡，玩家也可以以不同的角色重新加入。换句话说，在角色扮演游戏中，没有一个所有玩家都努力追求的单一目标。如果游戏确实结束，它不会量化，玩家获胜或失败或获得分数。 《龙与地下城》的联合设计师 Gary Gygax 对此表示赞同：“《龙与地下城》和大多数角色扮演游戏一样，都是开放式结局。游戏中没有‘赢家’，没有最终目标，随着剧情的成熟，战役也会不断发展变化。”18这对于数字和非数字多人 RPG 游戏都是如此。（请注意，单人数字 RPG 游戏的结构不同 - 通常具有冒险游戏风格的获胜结果。）
Role-playing games (or RPGs) certainly have the trappings of games. A paper-based, tabletop RPG usually involves dice, rulebooks, statistics, and a fair amount of strategic play. Role-playing games clearly embody every component of our definition of game, except one: a quantifiable outcome. As an RPG player, you move through game-stories, following the rules, overcoming obstacles, accomplishing tasks, and generally increasing the abilities of your character. What is usually lacking, however, is a single endpoint to the game. Role-playing games are structured like serial narratives that grow and evolve from session to session. Sometimes they end; sometimes they do not. Even if a character dies, a player can rejoin as a different character. In other words, there is no single goal toward which all players strive during a role-playing game. If a game does end, it does not do so quantifiably, with players winning or losing or receiving a score. Gary Gygax, co-designer of Dungeons & Dragons, would concur: “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is, as are most role-playing games, open-ended. There is no ‘winner,’ no final objective, and the campaign grows and changes as it matures.”18 This is true of both digital and non-digital multiplayer RPGs. (Note that single-player digital RPGs are structured differently—usually with an adventure game-style winning outcome.)
从这个描述来看，多人角色扮演游戏实际上并不是游戏。但这似乎是一个荒谬的结论，因为角色扮演游戏与游戏和游戏文化的发展密切相关。我们的立场是：角色扮演游戏可以以任何一种方式来定义——有或没有可量化的结果。如果你把游戏作为一个整体来看，可能不是一个单一的、压倒一切的量化目标。但如果你考虑到玩家完成的会话任务、玩家为自己设定的个人目标、玩家达到的权力水平，那么 RPG 确实有可量化的结果。从这个意义上说，RPG 是一个更大的系统，它促进了游戏的进行，产生了一系列随着时间的推移而相互建立的结果。游戏设计师 Greg Costikyan 这样说：“没有胜利条件，没错。但 [RPG] 肯定有目标；很多目标，你可以选择。积累旧的经验值。或者完成友好的 GM 刚刚给你的任务。或者重建帝国并阻止文明的最终崩溃。或者努力实现精神上的完美。随便什么。”19
From this description, it would appear that multiplayer role-playing games are not, in fact, games. But this seems like a ridiculous conclusion, because RPGs are so closely bound up in the development of games and gaming culture. Our position is this: RPGs can be framed either way—as having or not having a quantifiable outcome. If you look at the game as whole, there may not be a single, overriding quantifiable goal. But if you consider the session-to-session missions that players complete, the personal goals players set for themselves, the levels of power that players attain, then yes, RPGs do have quantifiable outcomes. In this sense, an RPG is a larger system that facilitates game play within it, giving rise to a series of outcomes that build on each other over time. Game designer Greg Costikyan puts it this way: “No victory conditions, true. But certainly [RPGs] have goals; lots of them, you get to pick. Rack up the old experience points. Or fulfill the quest your friendly GM has just inflicted on you. Or rebuild the imperium and stave off civilization’s final collapse. Or strive towards spiritual perfection. Whatever.”19
当然，RPG 也有可能变得更像游戏。在游戏大会上，通常会有“锦标赛式”游戏，玩家或团队通过完成某些动作和达成目标获得积分，并且实际上可以宣布一个获胜者。相反，有些 RPG 不强调力量、统计数据和进步，而是专注于讲故事和叙事。这种形式的 RPG 似乎与我们定义的游戏非常不同。
It is possible, of course, for RPGs to become more game-like. At game conventions, there are often “tournament-style” games, in which players or teams earn points for completing certain actions and accomplishing goals, and a single winner can in fact be declared. Conversely, there are RPGs that de-emphasize power, statistics, and advancement and instead focus on storytelling and narrative. This form of RPG seems very unlike games as we have defined them.
角色扮演游戏并不是我们定义边界上唯一一种游戏活动。像《模拟城市》这样的计算机程序没有明确的目标，因此更像是玩具而不是游戏。然而，正如其设计师威尔·赖特经常说的那样，玩家可以通过构建自己的目标将其变成游戏。这是否使《模拟城市》成为非正式的游戏活动或正式的游戏？这完全取决于如何构建它。
Role-playing games are not the only kind of play activity that exists on the border of our definition. A computer program like Sim City does not have explicit goals, and in that way is more like a toy than a game. However, as its designer Will Wright has often stated, players can turn it into a game by constructing their own goals. Does this make Sim City an informal play activity or a formalized game? It all depends on how it is framed.
有时，一款游戏是否是游戏的答案取决于旁观者的眼光。任何像游戏这样复杂的现象的定义都会遇到定义应用有些模糊的情况。我们不会将这些时刻视为定义的分解，而是将其视为了解游戏整体的宝贵机会。更严格的定义边界上的地形为洞察和调查提供了肥沃的土壤。在这些有趣而有限的空间中，假设受到挑战，思想不断发展，定义也发生变化。这种变革性的游戏是我们游戏设计模型的核心。
Sometimes the answer to the question of whether or not a game is a game rests in the eye of the beholder. Any definition of a phenomena as complex as games is going to encounter instances where the application of the definition is somewhat fuzzy. Rather than seeing these moments as a breakdown of the definition, we view them as valuable opportunities to understand games as a whole. The terrain along the borders of more rigid definitions offers fertile ground for insight and investigation. In these playful and liminal spaces, assumptions are challenged, ideas evolve, and definitions change. It is this kind of transformative play that is at the heart of our model of game design.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
罗杰·凯洛瓦 (Roger Caillois) 著《人、游戏和游戏》
Man, Play, and Games, by Roger Caillois
哲学家罗杰·凯洛伊斯 (Roger Caillois ) 的一本书直接改编自约翰·赫伊津哈 (Johann Huizinga) 的《游戏人、人类、游戏和游戏》一书，其目的也类似：识别和分析游戏的普遍现象，并找出其在文化中的更大意义。对于我们的目的而言，他早期关于定义和分类游戏的章节是最有用的，为理解游戏内外的游戏提供了富有洞察力的类型学和定义。
A book that builds directly from the work of Johann Huizinga’s Homo Ludens, Man, Play, and Games by philosopher Roger Caillois has a similar agenda: to identify and analyze the general phenomenon of play and locate its larger significance within culture. For our purposes, his early chapters on defining and classifying games are the most useful, providing insightful typologies and definitions for understanding play in and out of games.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
一、游戏的定义
I. The Definition of Play
二、游戏的分类
II. The Classification of Games
笔记
Notes
1.David Parlett， 《牛津棋盘游戏史》（纽约：牛津大学出版社，1999 年），第 1 页。
1. David Parlett, The Oxford History of Board Games (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 1.
2.同上，第 3 页。
2. Ibid. p. 3.
3.克拉克·C·阿布特，《严肃游戏》（纽约：维京出版社，1970 年），第 6 页。
3. Clark C. Abt, Serious Games (New York: Viking Press, 1970), p. 6.
4.同上，第 7 页。
4. Ibid. p. 7.
5.同上，第7-9页。
5. Ibid. p. 7–9.
6. Johann Huizinga，《游戏人：文化中的游戏元素研究》（波士顿：Beacon Press，1955 年），第 13 页。
6. Johann Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture (Boston: Beacon Press, 1955), p. 13.
7. Roger Caillois，《人、游戏和游戏》，Meyer Barash 从法语译出（香槟：伊利诺伊大学出版社，2001 年），第 9-10 页。
7. Roger Caillois, Man, Play, and Games, Translated from the French by Meyer Barash (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2001), p. 9–10.
8. Bernard Suits，《Grasshopper：游戏、生活和乌托邦》（波士顿：David R. Godine，1990），第34页。
8. Bernard Suits, Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia (Boston: David R. Godine,1990), p.34.
9.同上，第41页。
9. Ibid. p. 41.
10 . Chris Crawford，《电脑游戏设计艺术》，< http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/gamebook/Coverpage.htmlx
10. Chris Crawford, The Art of Computer Game Design, <http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/gamebook/Coverpage.htmlx
11.同上。
11. Ibid.
12.同上。
12. Ibid.
13.同上。
13. Ibid.
14 . Greg Costikyan，“我无话可说，但我必须设计。” 《互动幻想》第 2 期，1994 年 < www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/2535/nowords.html >。
14. Greg Costikyan,” I Have No Words and I Must Design.” Interactive Fantasy #2,1994 <www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/2535/nowords.html>.
15. Elliott Avedon 和 Brian Sutton-Smith 编，《游戏研究》（纽约：John Wiley & Sons，1971 年），第 405 页。
15. Elliott Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith, eds, The Study of Games (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1971), p. 405.
16。Scott Kim，“什么是拼图？” www.scottkim.com/articles.html。
16. Scott Kim, “What is a Puzzle?” www.scottkim.com/articles.html.
17.同上。
17. Ibid.
18. Gary Gygax，《高级龙与地下城玩家手册》（日内瓦湖：TRS Hobbies，1978 年），第 7 页。
18. Gary Gygax, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook (Lake Geneva: TRS Hobbies, 1978), p. 7.
19 . Costikyan，“我无言，但我必须设计。” http://www.geod-ties.com/SiliconValley/Bay/2535/nowords.http。
19. Costikyan, “I Have No Words and I Must Design.” http://www.geod-ties.com/SiliconValley/Bay/2535/nowords.http.
定义游戏
概括
•英语中play和games这两个词有着独特的关系。有两种方法可以表达它们之间的关系，这两种方法都很有用：
• The words play and games have a unique relationship in the English language. There are two ways to frame their relationship, both of which are useful:
1. 游戏是玩乐的一个子集：玩乐这一类别代表了许多种玩乐活动。其中一些活动是游戏，但很多不是。从这个意义上说，游戏包含在玩乐中。
1. Games are a subset of play: The category of play represents many kinds of playful activities. Some of these activities are games, but many of them are not. In this sense, games are contained within play.
2. 玩耍是游戏的一个子集：游戏是一种复杂的现象，有很多种方法来构建和理解它们。规则、玩耍和文化是游戏现象的三个方面。从这个意义上说，玩耍包含在游戏中。
2. Play is a subset of games: Games are complex phenomena and there are many ways to frame them and understand them. RULES, PLAY, and CULTURE are three aspects of the phenomena of games. In this sense, play is contained within games.
•游戏是一种系统，玩家参与由规则定义的人工冲突，并产生可量化的结果。此定义的关键要素是：游戏是一种系统，玩家与系统交互，游戏是冲突的一个实例，游戏中的冲突是人工的，规则限制玩家行为并定义游戏，并且每个游戏都有可量化的结果或目标。
• A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome. The key elements of this definition are the fact that a game is a system, players interact with the system, a game is an instance of conflict, the conflict in games is artificial, rules limit player behavior and define the game, and every game has a quantifiable outcome or goal.
•拼图是一种特殊的游戏，其中只有一个正确答案或一组正确答案。所有拼图都是游戏。
• A puzzle is a special kind of game in which there is a single correct answer or set of correct answers. All puzzles are games.
• 多人角色扮演游戏(RPG) 显然不具备可量化的结果。它们是否符合游戏的定义取决于它们的框架。与《模拟城市》等其他开放式游戏体验一样，RPG 具有新兴的可量化目标，但通常没有单一的主导结果。
• Multiplayer Role-playing games (RPGs) do not clearly possess a quantifiable outcome. Whether or not they fit the definition of a game depends on how they are framed. As with other open-ended game-like experiences such as Sim City, RPGs have emergent quantifiable goals but usually no single overriding outcome.
8
8
定义数字游戏
DEFINING DIGITAL GAMES
即时互动
immediate interactivity
窄输入和窄输出
narrow input and ouput
信息操纵
information manipulation
自动化
automation
网络通信
networked communication
[电子游戏] 是有史以来最复杂的玩具，其反应能力远超以往发明的任何其他玩具。例如，将它与同时代玩具 Chatty Cathy 相比较，后者有十几个不同的句子，当你拉动绳子时，它们会做出反应。Chatty Cathy 不会考虑你的各种反应，而计算机会。Chatty 有十几个反应，而计算机有数百万个。—— Brian Sutton-Smith，《玩具即文化》
[The video game] is the most complex toy ever built and is vastly more responsive than any other toy ever invented. Compare it, for example, with its contemporary, the doll Chatty Cathy, which has about a dozen different sentences with which to respond when you pull the string. Chatty Cathy does not take into account the variety of your responses; the computer does. Chatty has a dozen responses; the computer has millions.—Brian Sutton-Smith, Toys as Culture
我们在上一章中提出的“游戏”定义并未区分数字游戏和非数字游戏——在一种媒体中定义游戏的特质在另一种媒体中也同样适用。我们探讨的大多数思想家的定义都是在电脑游戏发明之前撰写的，更不用说在电子游戏行业最近蓬勃发展之前了。然而，电脑和电子游戏是游戏领域的重要组成部分，因为它们为游戏设计实践带来了许多独特的品质和关注点。在继续讨论之前，我们将在本章中简要介绍一下数字游戏的特殊品质。
The definition of “game” that we proposed in the previous chapter makes no distinction between digital and non-digital games—the qualities that define a game in one media also define it in another. Most of the thinkers whose definitions we explored were writing before the invention of computer games, let alone before the recent explosion of the video game industry. Yet computer and video games are an important part of the game landscape, as they bring a number of unique qualities and concerns to the practice of game design. Before proceeding any further, in this chapter we take a brief look at the special qualities of digital games.
计算机不是计算机
The Computer Is Not a Computer
数字和电子游戏形式多样，出现在许多不同的计算机平台上。这些包括个人电脑或电视游戏机（如索尼 Playstation 或微软 XBox）的游戏；手持游戏设备（如任天堂 Game Boy Advance 或只能玩一种游戏的专用手持设备）；PDA 或手机游戏；以及街机或游乐园游戏。数字和电子游戏可以为单个玩家、小群体玩家或大型社区设计。为简单起见，我们将所有这些游戏形式称为数字游戏。
Digital and electronic games take a multitude of forms and appear on many different computer platforms. These include games for personal computers or TV-attached game consoles such as the Sony Playstation or Microsoft XBox; handheld game devices such as the Nintendo Game Boy Advance or specialized handhelds that only play one game; games for PDAs or cell phones; and games for arcades or amusement parks. Digital and electronic games can be designed for a single player, for a small group of players, or for a large community. For simplicity’s sake, we will refer to all of these game forms as digital games.
数字游戏是一种系统，就像迄今为止讨论过的其他游戏一样。计算机的物理介质是构成游戏系统的一个元素，但它并不代表整个游戏。计算机硬件和软件只是游戏的组成材料。人们不会说一副 UNO 牌和 UNO 游戏是一回事。但人们在描述数字游戏时常常会陷入这种思维。举一个简单的数字游戏例子：任天堂 Game Boy 掌上游戏机上的游戏名称《俄罗斯方块》。游戏系统是否完全由 Game Boy 游戏机和俄罗斯方块游戏卡带构成？如系统所述，系统的四个元素是对象、属性、关系和环境。在游戏中分配给这些元素的身份取决于游戏的框架：是正式的规则系统、体验式游戏系统，还是嵌入更大文化系统中的情境系统。
Digital games are systems, just like every other game discussed so far. The physical medium of the computer is one element that makes up the system of the game, but it does not represent the entire game. The computer hardware and software are merely the materials of which the game is composed. One would not say that a deck of UNO cards is the same thing as the game of UNO. But people often fall into this kind of thinking when it comes to describing digital games. Take a straightforward example of a digital game: the game title Tetris for the Nintendo Game Boy handheld platform. Is the system of the game constituted entirely by the Game Boy console and the Tetris game cartridge? As outlined in Systems, the four elements of a system are objects, attributes, relationships, and an environment. The identities assigned to these elements within a game depend on how the game is framed: as a formal system of rules, as an experiential system of play, or as a contextual system embedded within larger systems of culture.
为了了解这一分析在当前游戏和数字技术讨论中的作用，我们从最广泛的框架——文化——开始，然后逐步深入。如果我们将俄罗斯方块视为一个文化背景系统，游戏的实际硬件和软件是一个相关组成部分，但它几乎不能说明全部情况。在文化背景下考虑俄罗斯方块时，我们需要考虑游戏迷杂志（例如 Nintendo Power）、Game Boy 游戏机的营销、制造和经济性、游戏的混合文化身份（俄罗斯方块的原始设计师俄罗斯人 Alexy Pajitnov 和日本出版商 Nintendo）、玩家的人口统计等因素。我们需要考虑每一个组成部分。要研究的具体元素取决于所进行的具体文化解读。无论如何，从文化角度来说，俄罗斯方块的技术方面只是众多元素之一。
In order to see how this analysis functions within the present discussion of games and digital technology, we start with the widest frame—culture—and work our way in. If we view Tetris as a system of cultural context, the actual hardware and software of the game is a relevant component, but it hardly tells the whole story. In considering Tetris within the context of culture, we would need to include elements such as game fan magazines (Nintendo Power, for example), the marketing, manufacturing, and economics of the Game Boy console, the hybrid cultural identity of the game (Tetris’ original designer, Russian Alexy Pajitnov and Japanese publisher Nintendo), the demographics of players, and so on. We would need to take each of these components into account. The exact elements to investigate depend on the specific cultural reading undertaken. In any case, culturally speaking the technological facet of Tetris is merely one element among many others.
现在让我们来思考一下俄罗斯方块的体验式游戏：玩家与游戏之间产生的认知和心理、身体和情感关系。在这种情况下，系统的元素由 1) 玩家和 2) Game Boy Advance 游戏机组成。玩家与游戏之间的互动回路在玩家玩游戏时以某种循环方式运行，玩家对游戏做出响应，游戏对玩家做出响应。在这幅图中，数字技术本身是系统的一部分，但肯定不是系统的全部。
Now consider the experiential play of Tetris: the cognitive and psychological, physical and emotional relationships that emerge between a player and the game. In this case, the elements of the system are constituted by 1) the player and 2) the Game Boy Advance console. The circuit of interaction between player and game runs in a kind of loop as the player plays, responding to the game even as the game responds to the player. In this picture, the digital technology itself is a part of the system, but certainly does not constitute it entirely.
将焦点缩小到俄罗斯方块的正式规则，即独立于玩家的游戏数学系统，我们谈论的仅仅是技术吗？是也不是。规则嵌入在硬件和软件中，但它们也是独立于代码的东西。例如，规则的制定取决于玩家。规则决定了玩家在游戏中的某个时刻按下按钮时会发生什么。这样，游戏的内部逻辑就不是可以完全脱离游戏与外界交换信息的方式。即使在这里，将俄罗斯方块视为一个正式系统，将技术本身视为目的也会产生误导。
Narrowing the focus to the formal rules of Tetris, the mathematical system of the game that exists apart from the player, are we talking just about the technology? Yes and no. The rules are embedded in the hardware and the software, but they are also something separate from the code. For example, the enactment of the rules is contingent on the player. The rules determine, among other things, what happens when a player pushes a button at a certain moment in the game. In this way, the internal logic of the game is not something that can be completely severed from the ways that the game exchanges information with the outside world. Even here, in looking at Tetris as a formal system, considering the technology as an end in itself can be misleading.
这些多重框架的意义何在？游戏设计师并不创造技术。游戏设计师创造的是体验。计算机和视频游戏技术可以成为这种体验的一部分——甚至可以成为这种体验的焦点——但为了设计有意义的游戏，设计师必须考虑整个画面。
What is the point of these multiple framings? A game designer doesn’t create technology. A game designer creates an experience. Computer and video game technology can be a part of that experience—it can even be the focal point of that experience—but in order to design meaningful play a designer has to consider the complete picture.
它能做什么？
What Can It Do?
对于游戏设计师和数字媒体来说，关键问题不是“它是什么？”而是“它能做什么？”面对数字平台，游戏设计师需要了解如何将技术融入设计好的系统中，从而带来有意义的游戏体验。这种强调并非数字游戏所独有：构成游戏的材料在设计体验时始终至关重要。
The key question for game designers and digital media is not, What is it? But instead, What can it do? Confronted with a digital platform, a game designer needs to understand how to harness the technology into a designed system that results in meaningful play. This emphasis is not unique to digital games: the materials that constitute a game are always crucial in designing an experience.
数字技术能做什么？数字媒体有哪些特殊品质可以支持其他游戏形式无法实现的游戏体验？我们可以列出数字媒体的四个“特征”。这些品质并不相互排斥——类别之间存在一些重叠——并且它们并不构成每个数字游戏中都会出现的明确特征列表。事实上，这些特征也出现在非数字游戏中。但它们确实代表了数字游戏中最明显的品质，游戏设计师在用数字媒体创作游戏时应该利用这些特征。
What can digital technology do? What are the special qualities of digital media that can support gaming experiences not possible in other game forms? We can list four “traits” of digital media. The qualities are not mutually exclusive—there is some overlap between categories—and they do not constitute a definitive list of traits that appear in every digital game. In fact, these traits appear in non-digital games as well. But they do represent the qualities that appear most robustly in digital games, characteristics that game designers should take advantage of when creating games in a digital medium.
特征1：即时但狭窄的交互性
Trait 1: Immediate but Narrow Interactivity
数字技术最引人注目的品质之一是它能够提供即时、互动的反馈。设计动作和结果系统，让游戏无缝响应玩家的输入，是数字游戏的常见元素。因此，数字技术提供了实时游戏玩法，可以根据玩家的决定进行动态变化和反应。
One of the most compelling qualities of digital technology is that it can offer immediate, interactive feedback. Designing systems of actions and outcomes, where the game responds seamlessly to a player’s input, is a common element in digital games. Digital technology thus offers realtime game play that shifts and reacts dynamically to player decisions.
关于数字互动的一个常见误解是，它为玩家提供了广泛而富有表现力的互动范围——计算机可以模仿任何媒介并提供任何类型的体验。事实上，参与者与计算机之间的互动类型非常狭窄。与家用计算机的互动通常仅限于鼠标和键盘输入以及屏幕和扬声器输出。将点击、拖动和打字等乏味的活动与可能的非计算机游戏互动范围进行比较：网球运动中动觉参与的运动、感知和战略互动；猜字游戏的表演性戏剧交流；专业围棋比赛的仪式化形式。因此，尽管数字游戏的即时互动性是设计师需要考虑的重要元素，但这种媒介充满了局限性。
A common misconception about digital interactivity is that it offers players a broad and expressive range of interaction—that a computer can mimic any medium and provide any kind of experience. In fact, the kind of interaction that a participant can have with a computer is quite narrow. Interaction with a home computer is generally restricted to mouse and keyboard input, and screen and speaker output. Compare the anemic activities of clicking, dragging, and typing with the range of possible non-computer game interactions: the kinesthetically engaging athletic, perceptual, and strategic interaction of Tennis; the performative theatrical communication of Charades; the ritualized formality of a professional Go match. So although the immediate interactivity of digital games is a powerful element for designers to consider, the medium is rife with limitations.
另一方面，游戏中的局限性有助于塑造可能性空间。例如，街机格斗游戏《街头霸王 II》只为玩家提供六个按钮和八个操纵杆方向作为输入方式，远少于鼠标和键盘。然而，在这种有限的交互词汇中，玩家可以发展高度个性化的格斗风格并参与各种不同的游戏体验。程序的闪电般快速响应与简化的控制输入相结合，为精心设计的格斗游戏带来了独特而有意义的玩法。
On the other hand, limitations in games help shape the space of possibility. For example, an arcade fighting game such as Street Fighter II gives a player only six button pushes and eight joystick directions as a means of input, far fewer than a mouse and keyboard. Yet within this limited interactive vocabulary, players can develop highly personal fighting styles and take part in a vast range of different game experiences. The lightning-quick response of the program, paired with the streamlined control input, contribute to the uniquely meaningful play of a well-designed fighting game.
类似有限但即时的互动组合也出现在非数字游戏中。自行车比赛等运动为玩家提供了一组非常有限的互动。同时，玩家会立即收到速度、转向和身体在自行车上的位置的细微调整的反馈。自行车手在比赛过程中体验到的深度参与感很大程度上直接来自于这项运动的有限但即时的互动性。
Similar pairings of limited but immediate interactivity appear in non-digital games as well. A sport such as bicycle racing gives players a very restricted set of interactions. At the same time, players receive immediate feedback for each tiny modification of speed, steering, and the position of their bodies on their bicycles. Much of the deep engagement that cyclists experience while racing emerges directly from the narrow but immediate interactivity of the sport.
Trait 2: Information Manipulation
数字媒体的一种定义方式是作为存储和处理信息的机器。游戏无疑利用了这种能力，正如珍妮特·默里在《全息甲板上的哈姆雷特》中所说的，数字媒体具有“百科全书”般的品质。1
One way of framing digital media is as machines for storing and manipulating information. Games certainly capitalize on this capacity for what Janet Murray, in Hamlet on the Holodeck calls the “encyclopedic” quality of digital media.1
数字游戏可以而且确实充分利用了数据：它们通常充斥着文本、图像、视频、音频、动画、3D 内容和其他形式的存储数据。事实上，可以说数字游戏对计算机数据渲染能力的要求远高于任何其他类型的消费软件。高端个人电脑经过专门配置，可以最佳地显示 3D 图形和音频，被称为“游戏机”。
Digital games can and do make good use of data: they are often filled to bursting with text, images, video, audio, animations, 3D content, and other forms of stored data. In fact, it is fair to say that digital games tax the data-rendering capabilities of computers far more than any other genre of consumer software. High-end personal computers, specially configured for the best display of 3D graphics and audio, are marketed as “gamer” machines.
但图像和音频并不是数字游戏操纵的唯一信息类型。数字游戏的每个方面，实际上是其程序的每个方面 — — 内部逻辑、处理玩家交互的机制、内存管理 — — 都可以看作信息。数字游戏操纵这些信息的方式是非数字游戏通常无法做到的。例如，考虑游戏规则。在典型的棋盘游戏中，至少有一名玩家需要在游戏开始前学习并完全理解规则。另一方面，正如设计师 Karen Sideman 所指出的那样，数字游戏可以在玩游戏时学习游戏规则；将发现游戏运作方式作为游戏玩法的一部分。2
But graphics and audio are not the only kind of information that a digital game manipulates. Every aspect of a digital game, in fact every aspect of its program—the internal logic, mechanisms for handling player interactivity, memory management—can be regarded as information. Digital games manipulate this information in ways that non-digital games generally cannot. For example, consider the rules of a game. In a typical board game it is necessary for at least one of the players to learn the rules and understand them fully before a game begins. On the other hand, with a digital game it is possible, as designer Karen Sideman has pointed out, to learn the rules of the game as it is being played; to make the discovery of the way that the game operates part of the play of the game.2
数字游戏还擅长向玩家隐藏信息，并以非常特殊的方式显示信息。例如，《魔兽争霸 III》是一款实时战略游戏，它利用了“战争迷雾”机制：游戏在一张大地图上进行，玩家对手的领土和行动最初是隐藏的，只有当玩家的单位探索游戏地图时才会显示出来。当然，许多非数字游戏也涉及信息操纵。简单的纸牌游戏《记忆》中，玩家将一副纸牌面朝下摆放，并试图通过记住对手过去的动作来拾取成对的相同纸牌，这是一款明确涉及操纵和逐渐发现隐藏信息的游戏。
Digital games are also excellent at hiding information from players and revealing it in very particular ways. Warcraft III, for example, is a real-time strategy game that makes use of a “fog of war” mechanic: the game is played on a large map, and the territory and actions of a player’s opponents are initially hidden and only revealed as the player’s units explore the game map. Of course, many nondigital games involve information manipulation as well. The simple card game Memory, in which players lay a grid of cards face-down and attempt to pick up pairs of identical cards by remembering past moves of their opponents, is a game explicitly about the manipulation and gradual discovery of hidden information.
特征3：自动化复杂系统
Trait 3: Automated Complex Systems
数字游戏最普遍的特征或许是它们可以自动执行复杂的程序，从而简化在非计算机环境下过于复杂的游戏。在大多数非数字游戏中，玩家必须通过操纵棋子或按照规则概述的明确指示行事，推动游戏的每一步向前发展。在数字游戏中，程序可以自动执行这些程序并推动游戏向前发展，而无需玩家直接输入。
Perhaps the most pervasive trait of digital games is that they can automate complicated procedures and in so doing, facilitate the play of games that would be too complicated in a non-computerized context. In most non-digital games, players have to move the game forward at every step, by manipulating pieces or behaving according to explicit instructions outlined by the rules. In a digital game, the program can automate these procedures and move the game forward without direct input from a player.
当微型战争游戏玩家聚在一起，用微型主角进行战斗时，他们会遵循复杂的规则，这些规则决定了军队的移动、视线和战斗决心。尽管战争游戏玩家往往对复杂的规则有很高的容忍度，但他们在游戏变得乏味之前，所能忍受的复杂程度肯定是有限的。这正是计算机可以轻松处理的那种复杂性。事实上，为计算机创建的战争游戏通常比非数字战争游戏考虑了更多的动态变量。
When miniatures wargamers get together to stage their battles with tiny lead figures, they follow complex rules that determine the movement, lines of sight, and combat resolution of their armies. Even though wargamers tend to have a high tolerance for complex sets of rules, there are certainly limits on the degree of complexity that they can endure before the game becomes an exercise in tedium. This is exactly the kind of complexity that computers handle with ease. In fact, wargames created for play on computers generally take into account many more dynamic variables than their non-digital counterparts.
这不一定是件好事。正如电脑内外战争游戏设计师詹姆斯·邓尼根 (James Dunnigan) 所说，“虽然电脑战争游戏比手动游戏有很多优势，但对游戏设计师来说，它们有一个很大的缺点。电脑游戏没有揭示其内部运作。”3 Dunnigan 将此称为电脑游戏的“黑箱综合症”：
This is not necessarily a good thing. As James Dunnigan, a designer of wargames on and off the computer states, “While computer wargames had many advantages over manual games, they had one major minus for game designers. Computer games did not reveal their internal workings.”3 Dunnigan calls this the “Black Box Syndrome” of computer games:
纸牌游戏的另一个优点是，你知道游戏中事情为什么会以某种方式发生。所有规则和概率表都摆在你面前。是的，要花很多精力才能理解所有这些细节，但你最终会很好地了解游戏的内部运作方式。一种流行的这样做的好处是有机会改变游戏规则和概率表。许多玩家都这样做，这就是游戏玩家最终成为游戏设计师的原因。计算机战争游戏很少向你展示它是如何工作的。计算机程序只是这样做，有时让你嘟囔着神秘的“黑匣子”。4
Another advantage of paper games is that you know why things are happening a certain way in the game. All the rules and probability tables are right there in front of you. Yes, it takes a lot of effort to wade through all of that detail, but you do end up with a good idea of how the inner workings of the game function. A popular benefit of this is the opportunity to change the game’s rules and probability tables. Many players do this, and that’s how gamers eventually turn into game designers. Computer wargames show you very little of how it does its thing. The computer program just does it, leaving you sometimes muttering about mysterious “black boxes.”4
Dunnigan 认为，玩家对游戏内部机制的欣赏和理解是玩战争游戏的关键要素。由于数字游戏的自动化特性，计算机战争游戏通常不会考虑内部机制，从而削弱玩家的游戏体验。
Dunnigan feels that a player’s appreciation and understanding of the internal game mechanics are a key component of the play of wargames. Because of the automated nature of digital games, computer wargames generally leave the internal machinations out of the picture, diminishing a player’s experience of the game.
数字游戏中出现的自动化复杂系统种类繁多，从《模拟城市》不断发展的生态系统，到《神偷》复杂的人工智能对手，再到《虚幻》复杂的光影渲染程序，再到《Zork》的自然语言解析。可以肯定地说，数字游戏的几乎每个方面都以某种方式实现了自动化。
The kinds of automated complex systems that appear in digital games vary greatly, from the evolving ecosystems of Sim City, to the sophisticated artificial intelligence opponents of Thief, to the complex light-and-shadow rendering routines of Unreal, to the natural language parsing of Zork. It is safe to say that nearly every aspect of digital games is automated in some way.
然而，同样存在包含复杂自动化系统的非数字游戏的例子。日本的弹球式游戏 Pachinko 涉及一个复杂的随机系统，即金属球落在桩上。一旦玩家发射一个球，游戏系统的自动化复杂过程就会接管，确定球将落在哪里以及是否会为玩家得分。要想熟练掌握 Pachinko，就需要了解特定游戏的内部运作，并知道如何使用微妙的控制来达到预期的结果。
Once again, however, there are examples of non-digital games that contain complex automated systems. The Japanese pinball-like game of Pachinko involves a complex randomizing system of metal balls falling over pegs. Once the player launches a ball, the automated, complex process of the game system takes over, determining where the ball will land and if it will score points for the player. Becoming skilled at Pachinko entails getting to know the inner workings of a particular game, and knowing how to use subtle control to arrive at the desired result.
特征4：网络化沟通
Trait 4: Networked Communication
许多（但并非所有）数字游戏都具有的最后一个特点是它们可以促进玩家之间的交流。数字媒介通信有很多种形式，从电子邮件和文本聊天到实时视频和音频通信。通过连接线连接的两台 Game Boy 游戏机甚至可以被视为一个微型数字游戏网络。
A final trait that many (but not all) digital games possess is that they can facilitate communication between players. There are many forms of digitally mediated communication, from email and text chat to real-time video and audio communication. Two Game Boy consoles connected through a link cable can even be considered a miniature digital game network.
显然，所有多人游戏，无论是数字游戏还是非数字游戏，都是玩家之间交流的场所。然而，数字游戏提供了远距离交流和与许多其他参与者共享一系列社交空间的能力。例如，Ultima Online 的持久世界吸引了数万名玩家，他们都聚集在同一个复杂的社交空间中。
It is clear that all multiplayer games, digital or non-digital, are contexts for communication among players. However, digital games offer the ability to communicate over long distances and to share a range of social spaces with many other participants. For example, the persistent worlds of Ultima Online draw tens of thousands of players, all brought together in the same complex social space.
尽管数字媒体的输入和输出有限，但数字游戏中的交流并不一定局限于文本。例如，Quake 死亡竞赛将少数玩家聚集在一个交流游戏空间中。尽管文本聊天是玩家互动的一种方式，但他们的主要交流形式是通过他们对玩家的移动和武器攻击做出的瞬间决定来进行的。游戏本身就是一种社交交流形式。
Although communication input and output are limited by the narrow input and output of digital media, communication in a digital game does not have to be restricted to text. For example, a Quake deathmatch gathers a small number of players together in a single communicative game space. And although text chat is one way that the players interact, their primary form of communication takes place through the split-second decisions they make about their player’s movement and weapon attacks. Game play itself is a form of social communication.
与数字游戏的其他特征一样，非数字游戏中也存在网络通信，即使是远距离通信。邮政系统长期以来一直是游戏的媒介，从国际象棋和外交等邮件游戏到完全通过书面通信进行的角色扮演游戏。从更广泛的意义上讲，无论是奥运会还是高中篮球队的体育数据和记录，都具有与在线高分榜类似的交流功能。
As with the other traits of digital games, networked communication, even over long distances, occurs in non-digital games. The postal system has long served as a medium for game play, from play-by-mail games of Chess and Diplomacy to role-playing games that take place entirely through written correspondance. In a wider sense, sports stats and records, whether for the Olympics or for a high school Basketball team, serve a communicative function similar to online high score boards.
一体化
Integration
在结束对数字游戏品质的讨论时，重要的是要记住，这四个特征并不是游戏设计的路线图或分析游戏的清单。它们只是强调了理解数字游戏设计能力的方法。例如，在 Quake 死亡竞赛中，我们可以看到所有四个特征都在发挥作用：
In concluding the discussion of the qualities of digital games, it is important to remember that these four traits are not a roadmap for designing games or a checklist for analyzing them. They simply highlight ways of understanding the capabilities of digital game design. In a Quake deathmatch, for example, we can see all four traits in operation:
•即时但狭窄的交互性：游戏控制需要熟练操作鼠标和键盘，并得到游戏系统的即时响应。
• Immediate but narrow interactivity: The game controls require deft manipulation of the mouse and keyboard, with instantaneous response from the game system.
•信息操纵：与所有数字游戏一样，Quake 会操纵信息，从定义死亡竞赛地图的 3D 数据到玩家动作存在但彼此隐藏的方式。
• Manipulation of information: Like all digital games, Quake manipulates information, from the 3D data defining the deathmatch map to the way that players’ movements are present but hidden from each other.
•自动化复杂系统：图形引擎、控制程序、对手 AI 以及游戏的所有其他形式方面都是自动化的。
• Automated complex systems: The graphics engine, control routines, opponent AI, and all other formal aspects of the game are automated.
•网络通信：在线死亡竞赛为玩家之间的丰富社交互动创造了一个论坛。
• Networked communication: The online deathmatches create a forum for rich social interaction between players.
在任何实际的游戏体验中，这四个类别通常会重叠并同时运行，共同提供整体的游戏体验。
During any actual game experience, the four categories generally overlap and operate simultaneously, together providing the overall experience of play.
在结束本章之前，让我们花点时间考虑一个“边缘”案例：棋盘游戏《活着》。在这个非数字游戏中，游戏发生在一个网格上，网格上有一组简单的机械塑料开关。有两组开关，彼此成 90 度角。有些开关位置有孔，有些没有。玩家将弹珠放在网格上，然后依次移动开关，试图消除对手的弹珠。
Before we end this chapter, let’s take a moment to consider a “border-line” case: the board game Stay Alive. In this non-digital game, play takes place on a grid that houses a simple mechanical set of plastic switches. There are two sets of switches, at ninety degrees to each other. Some of the switch positions have holes and some do not. Players place their marbles on the grid and then try to eliminate opponents’ marbles by moving the switches in turn.
《Stay Alive》不是一款数字游戏，但它具有一些数字游戏的属性。例如，《Stay Alive》包含一个复杂的系统，该系统半独立于玩家运行。由于存在有关滑块的哪些位置有孔并会掉落弹珠的隐藏信息，因此玩家可以间接与系统交互，在系统边缘移动滑块以查看游戏场因此受到的影响。玩家不会内化滑块所有位置的规则；相反，这些信息包含在游戏场的机械结构中。
Stay Alive is not a digital game, but it has some of the properties of a digital game. For example, Stay Alive contains a complex system that functions semi-autonomously from the players. Because there is hidden information about which positions of the sliders have holes and will drop marbles, players interact with the system indirectly, moving sliders on the margins of the system to see how the playfield is affected as a result. Players do not internalize the rules of all of the positions of the sliders; instead, this information is contained in the mechanical construction of the playfield.
活着
Stay Alive
《Stay Alive》是一款数字游戏吗？当然不是。它不是电子游戏，也没有使用数字技术。然而，它清楚地表明了数字游戏的许多元素并不是这种媒介所独有的。事实上，一副牌也可以保存信息：如果玩家洗牌，玩家不需要记住牌的顺序。相反，牌组的物理属性（可以洗牌，牌可以面朝下）让牌包含独立于玩家的信息，例如哪张牌在面朝下的牌组顶部。
Is Stay Alive a digital game? Of course not. It is not electronic and does not make use of digital technology. However, it clearly demonstrates how many of the elements of digital games are not really unique to the medium. In fact, a deck of cards can hold information as well: if a player shuffles the cards, the player does not need to internalize the order of the cards. Instead, the physical properties of the deck (the fact that it can be shuffled and that the cards can be face-down) lets the cards contain information that is autonomous from the players, such as which card is on the top of a face-down deck.
这些游戏技术的例子（一副纸牌、《Stay Alive》、一款数字游戏）为游戏材料所能体现的复杂程度提供了一个衡量标准。它们还有助于强调一个更大的观点：尽管不同的游戏材料可以带来不同的游戏体验，但游戏的基本属性最终还是相似多于不同。设计有意义的游戏的核心挑战在任何游戏媒介中都是如此。
These examples of game technologies (a deck of cards, Stay Alive, a digital game) provide a sliding scale for the kinds of complexity that game materials can embody. They also help to underscore a larger point: although different game materials allow for different game experiences, the underlying properties of games are ultimately more similar than different. The core challenges of designing meaningful play hold true in any game medium.
笔记
Notes
1. Janet Murray，《全息甲板上的哈姆雷特》（纽约：自由出版社，1997 年），第 83 页
1. Janet Murray, Hamlet on the Holodeck (New York: The Free Press, 1997), p.83
2. Karen Sideman，游戏设计演讲，2000 年。
2. Karen Sideman, Game Design address, 2000.
3. James F. Dunnigan，《战争游戏手册：如何玩和设计商业和专业战争游戏》，第 3 版（圣何塞：作家俱乐部出版社，2000 年），第 xii 页。
3. James F. Dunnigan, Wargames Handbook: How to Play and Design Commercial and Professional Wargames, 3d ed. (San Jose: Writers Club Press, 2000), p. xii.
4.同上，第74-5页。
4. Ibid. p.74–5.
定义数字游戏
概括
• 如果将游戏视为一个系统，那么显然游戏的物理媒介是游戏的一个重要元素，但并不构成整个系统。数字技术不应被强调为游戏本身的目的，而应被理解为更大设计系统中的一个元素。
• If a game is framed as a system, it is clear that the game’s physical medium is an important element of the game, but does not constitute the entire system. Digital technology should not be emphasized as an end in itself, but instead should be understood as one element in a larger designed system.
• 有四个特征可以概括数字游戏的特殊品质。这些特征也存在于非数字游戏中，但数字游戏通常更能体现这些特征：
• There are four traits that summarize the special qualities of digital games. These traits are also present in non-digital games, but digital games generally embody them more robustly:
特征一：即时但狭窄的交互性
Trait 1: Immediate but narrow interactivity
特征2：操纵信息
Trait 2: Manipulation of information
特征3：自动化复杂系统
Trait 3: Automated complex systems
特征4：网络化沟通
Trait 4: Networked communication
• 无论游戏采用何种媒介，游戏的基本属性和游戏设计的核心挑战都是相同的。
• The underlying properties of games and the core challenges of game design hold true regardless of the medium in which a game manifests.
9
9
魔法圈
THE MAGIC CIRCLE
播放框
play frame
开放系统
open system
封闭系统
closed system
幻想态度
lusory attitude
这是我们进入和退出游戏的方式的问题……控制这些进入和退出的代码是什么？——布莱恩·萨顿-史密斯，《儿童游戏》
This is the problem of the way we get into and out of the play or game . . . what are the codes which govern these entries and exits?—Brian Sutton-Smith, Child’s Play
进入游戏系统意味着什么？游戏是如何开始和结束的？游戏的边界是什么？在我们即将结束第一单元时，我们需要解决最后一组关键概念。这些概念都包含在 Sutton-Smith 提出的问题中：“我们如何进入和退出游戏？”关键在于理解游戏的人工性，即游戏如何创造与日常生活不同的时间和空间。游戏中的冲突是人工冲突这一观点正是我们对游戏的定义的一部分。
What does it mean to enter the system of a game? How is it that play begins and ends? What makes up the boundary of a game? As we near the end of our first Unit, we need to address one last set of key concepts. These concepts are embedded in the question raised by Sutton-Smith: “How do we get into and out of the play or game?” At stake is an understanding of the artificiality of games, the way that they create their own time and space separate from ordinary life. The idea that the conflict in games is an artificial conflict is part of our very definition of games.
史蒂夫·斯奈德曼 (Steve Sniderman) 在其出色的文章《游戏生活》中指出，游戏入场规则缺乏明确的表述。“任何游戏或运动的玩家、球迷和官员都对游戏的‘框架’或背景有着敏锐的认识，但即使经过仔细思考，我们也很难用文字解释这些标志到底是什么。毕竟，即使是裁判喊‘开始比赛’，也不是比赛开始的确切时刻。”1他继续解释道，玩家（和粉丝）必须依靠直觉和他们对特定文化的体验来判断游戏何时开始。他写道，在游戏过程中，“人类不断注意游戏条件是否仍然得到满足，不断监控‘框架’，游戏周围的环境，以确定游戏仍在进行中，始终意识到（即使只是无意识地）其他参与者表现得好像游戏正在‘进行’。”2
Steve Sniderman, in his excellent essay “The Life of Games,” notes that the codes governing entry into a game lack explicit representation. “Players and fans and officials of any game or sport develop an acute awareness of the game’s ‘frame’ or context, but we would be hard pressed to explain in writing, even after careful thought, exactly what the signs are. After all, even an umpire’s yelling of ‘Play Ball’ is not the exact moment the game starts.”1 He goes on to explain that players (and fans) must rely on intuition and their experience with a particular culture to recognize when a game has begun. During a game, he writes, “a human being is constantly noticing if the conditions for playing the game are still being met, continuously monitoring the ‘frame,’ the circumstances surrounding play, to determine that the game is still in progress, always aware (if only unconsciously) that the other participants are acting as if the game is ‘on.’”2
斯奈德曼提到的“框架”有多种功能，我们将在后面的章节中介绍。现在，我们只需注意，游戏的框架传达了这样一种信息：游戏内的人在“玩耍”，而游戏空间在某种程度上与现实世界是分开的。心理学家迈克尔·阿普特 (Michael Apter) 也赞同这一观点，他写道：
The “frame” to which Sniderman alludes has several functions, which we will cover in later chapters. For now, it is sufficient to note that the frame of a game is what communicates that those contained within it are “playing” and that the space of play is separate in some way from that of the real world. Psychologist Michael Apter echoes this idea when he writes,
在游戏状态下，你会感受到一个保护框架，它挡在你和“现实”世界及其问题之间，创造出一个令人着迷的区域，最终，你会确信不会有任何伤害。虽然这个框架是心理上的，但有趣的是，它通常有一个可感知的物理表现：剧院的舞台拱门、公园周围的栏杆、板球场上的边界线等等。但这样的框架也可能是抽象的，比如管理正在进行的游戏的规则。3
In the play-state you experience a protective frame which stands between you and the “real” world and its problems, creating an enchanted zone in which, in the end, you are confident that no harm can come. Although this frame is psychological, interestingly it often has a perceptible physical representation: the proscenium arch of the theater, the railings around the park, the boundary line on the cricket pitch, and so on. But such a frame may also be abstract, such as the rules governing the game being played.3
换句话说，框架是一个与游戏的“真实性”问题有关的概念，与游戏的虚拟世界与其相交的“现实生活”背景之间的关系有关。游戏的框架创造了一种安全感，这是克里斯·克劳福德在《定义游戏》中探讨的游戏定义的一部分。它不仅决定了游戏与外部世界之间的不寻常关系，还决定了游戏在玩时的许多内部机制和体验。我们将这种框架称为魔法圈，这一概念的灵感来自约翰·赫伊津哈的游戏研究。
In other words, the frame is a concept connected to the question of the “reality” of a game, of the relationship between the artificial world of the game and the “real life” contexts that it intersects. The frame of a game creates the feeling of safety that is part of Chris Crawford’s definition of a game explored in Defining Games. It is responsible not only for the unusual relationship between a game and the outside world, but also for many of the internal mechanisms and experiences of a game in play. We call this frame the magic circle, a concept inspired by Johann Huizinga’s work on play.
边界
Boundaries
说游戏是在由游戏行为所建立的既定界限内进行的，这是什么意思呢？这是真的吗？真的有这样一条明确的界限吗？事实上是有的。例如，比较一下玩玩具的非正式方式和玩游戏的正式方式。例如，一个孩子在接近一个洋娃娃时，可以慢慢地逐渐与洋娃娃建立起游戏关系。这个孩子可能会从房间的另一边看着洋娃娃，并向它投去一个顽皮的目光。后来，这个孩子可能会把它捡起来握在手里，然后把它放下，离开一会儿。这个孩子可能会漫不经心地把洋娃娃拖到房间里，有时会和它说话，承认它的存在，有时甚至忘记它在那里。
What does it mean to say that games take place within set boundaries established by the act of play? Is this really true? Is there really such a distinct boundary? In fact there is. Compare, for example, the informal play of a toy with the more formal play of a game. A child approaching a doll, for example, can slowly and gradually enter into a play relationship with the doll. The child might look at the doll from across the room and shoot it a playful glance. Later, the child might pick it up and hold it, then put it down and leave it for a time. The child might carelessly drag the doll around the room, sometimes talking to it and acknowledging it, at other times forgetting it is there.
玩娃娃和不玩娃娃之间的界限是模糊的，可以穿透的。在这个场景中，我们可以识别出具体的玩耍行为，比如让娃娃像木偶一样移动。但也有很多模棱两可的行为，这些行为可能是玩耍，也可能不是玩耍，比如一边看电视一边无所事事地揉娃娃的头。玩耍和不玩耍之间可能有一个框架，但其界限并不明显。
The boundary between the act of playing with the doll and not playing with the doll is fuzzy and permeable. Within this scenario, we can identify concrete play behaviors, such as making the doll move like a puppet. But there are just as many ambiguous behaviors, which might or not be play, such as idly kneading its head while watching TV. There may be a frame between playing and not playing, but its boundaries are indistinct.
现在将这种非正式游戏与游戏玩法（两个孩子玩井字游戏）进行比较。为了玩游戏，孩子们必须收集适当的材料，画出组成棋盘网格的四条线，并在游戏过程中遵循适当的规则。对于玩具，可能很难准确地说出游戏何时开始和结束。但是对于游戏，活动是形式化的。游戏有开始、中间和可量化的结果。游戏发生在精确定义的物理和时间游戏空间中。孩子们要么在玩井字游戏，要么没有。他们的行为没有任何歧义：他们显然是在玩游戏。
Now compare that kind of informal play with the play of a game—two children playing Tic-Tac-Toe. In order to play, the children must gather the proper materials, draw the four lines that make up the grid of the board, and follow the proper rules each turn as they progress through the game. With a toy, it may be difficult to say exactly when the play begins and ends. But with a game, the activity is richly formalized. The game has a beginning, a middle, and a quantifiable outcome at the end. The game takes place in a precisely defined physical and temporal space of play. Either the children are playing Tic-Tac-Toe or they are not. There is no ambiguity concerning their action: they are clearly playing a game.
同样的分析也可以在数字媒体的背景下发生。例如，比较一下用户与类似玩具的屏幕保护程序的随意互动和他们与俄罗斯方块等计算机游戏的互动。屏幕保护程序允许用户摆动鼠标并在屏幕上制作图案，我们可以随意进入然后停止这种活动。用户的进入和退出是非正式的，不受定义开始、中间和结束的规则的约束。另一方面，俄罗斯方块游戏为游戏提供了正式的界限：游戏要么在进行中，要么不在进行中。俄罗斯方块玩家不会“随意互动”它；相反，他们是在玩游戏。俄罗斯方块玩家确实可以暂停正在进行的游戏并在稍后继续 - 就像两个网球运动员可能会停下来喝水一样。但在这两种情况下，玩家都是走出游戏空间，正式暂停游戏，然后再回来继续游戏。
The same analysis can occur within the context of digital media. Compare, for example, a user’s casual interaction with a toy-like screensaver program to their interaction with a computer game such as Tetris. The screensaver allows the user to wiggle the mouse and make patterns on the screen, an activity that we can casually enter into and then discontinue. The entry and exit of the user is informal and unbound by rules that define a beginning, middle, and end. A game of Tetris, on the other hand, provides a formalized boundary regarding play: the game is either in play or it is not. Players of Tetris do not “casually interact” with it; rather, they are playing a game. It is true that a Tetris player could pause a game in progress and resume it later—just as two Tennis players might pause for a drink of water. But in both cases, the players are stepping out of the game space, formally suspending the game before stepping back in to resume play.
当玩家进入和退出游戏时，他或她就会跨越定义游戏时间和空间的边界或框架。如上所述，我们将游戏的边界称为魔法圈，这个术语借用自赫伊津哈的《游戏人》一书中的以下段落：
As a player steps in and out of a game, he or she is crossing that boundary—or frame—that defines the game in time and space. As noted above, we call the boundary of a game the magic circle, a term borrowed from the following passage in Huizinga’s book Homo Ludens:
所有游戏都是在事先用物质或理想、有意或无意地划定的操场内进行的。……竞技场、牌桌、魔术圈、寺庙、舞台、屏幕、网球场、法庭等，在形式和功能上都是操场，即禁区、隔离区、围墙、神圣区，其中有特殊的规则。所有这些都是普通世界中的临时世界，专门用于表演一个单独的行为。4
All play moves and has its being within a play-ground marked off beforehand either materially or ideally, deliberately or as a matter of course . . . . The arena, the card-table, the magic circle, the temple, the stage, the screen, the tennis court, the court of justice, etc., are all in form and function play-grounds, i.e., forbidden spots, isolated, hedged round, hallowed, within which special rules obtain. All are temporary worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart.4
尽管魔法圈只是赫伊津哈的“游乐场”清单中的一个例子，但该术语在这里被用作游戏在时间和空间中创造的特殊位置的简写。魔法圈本身就是一个圆圈，这是该概念的一个重要特征。作为一个封闭的圆圈，它所界定的空间是封闭的，与现实世界分离。作为时间的标记，魔法圈就像一个时钟：它同时代表了一条有始有终的路径，但又代表了一条无始无终的路径。魔法圈刻画了一个可重复的空间，一个既有限又无限的空间。简而言之，一个有无限可能性的有限空间。
Although the magic circle is merely one of the examples in Huizinga’s list of “play-grounds,” the term is used here as shorthand for the idea of a special place in time and space created by a game. The fact that the magic circle is just that—a circle—is an important feature of this concept. As a closed circle, the space it circumscribes is enclosed and separate from the real world. As a marker of time, the magic circle is like a clock: it simultaneously represents a path with a beginning and end, but one without beginning and end. The magic circle inscribes a space that is repeatable, a space both limited and limitless. In short, a finite space with infinite possibility.
进入
Enter In
从最基本的意义上讲，游戏的魔法圈就是游戏发生的地方。玩游戏意味着进入魔法圈，或者在游戏开始时创建一个魔法圈。游戏的魔法圈可能有一个物理组件，如棋盘游戏的棋盘或运动比赛的场地。但许多游戏没有物理边界——例如，腕力比赛不需要太多特殊空间或材料。当一个或多个玩家决定玩时，游戏就开始了。
In a very basic sense, the magic circle of a game is where the game takes place. To play a game means entering into a magic circle, or perhaps creating one as a game begins. The magic circle of a game might have a physical component, like the board of a board game or the playing field of an athletic contest. But many games have no physical boundaries—arm wrestling, for example, doesn’t require much in the way of special spaces or material. The game simply begins when one or more players decide to play.
“魔法圈”这个术语很恰当，因为当游戏开始时，确实会发生一些真正神奇的事情。一套精美的西洋双陆棋孤零零地摆放在咖啡桌上，可能是个漂亮的装饰品。如果这就是游戏的功能——装饰——那么游戏棋子的排列方式、棋子是否错位甚至丢失都无关紧要。然而，一旦你和朋友坐下来玩西洋双陆棋游戏，棋子的排列就变得非常重要。西洋双陆棋棋盘变成了一个特殊的空间，方便游戏的进行。玩家的注意力高度集中在游戏上，通过游戏来协调他们的互动。在游戏进行过程中，玩家不会随意排列和重新排列棋子，而是根据非常特殊的规则移动它们。
The term magic circle is appropriate because there is in fact something genuinely magical that happens when a game begins. A fancy Backgammon set sitting all alone might be a pretty decoration on the coffee table. If this is the function that the game is serving—decoration—it doesn’t really matter how the game pieces are arranged, if some of them are out of place, or even missing. However, once you sit down with a friend to play a game of Backgammon, the arrangement of the pieces suddenly becomes extremely important. The Backgammon board becomes a special space that facilitates the play of the game. The players’ attention is intensely focused on the game, which mediates their interaction through play. While the game is in progress, the players do not casually arrange and rearrange the pieces, but move them according to very particular rules.
在魔法圈内，特殊的意义会逐渐积累，并围绕着物体和行为聚集起来。实际上，一个新的现实被创造出来，由游戏规则定义，并由玩家居住。在“蛇梯棋”游戏开始之前，它只是一块棋盘、一些塑料棋子和一个骰子。但一旦游戏开始，一切都变了。突然间，材料代表着某种非常具体的东西。这个塑料标记就是你。这些规则告诉你如何掷骰子和移动。突然间，哪个塑料标记先到达终点变得非常重要。
Within the magic circle, special meanings accrue and cluster around objects and behaviors. In effect, a new reality is created, defined by the rules of the game and inhabited by its players. Before a game of Chutes and Ladders starts, it’s just a board, some plastic pieces, and a die. But once the game begins, everything changes. Suddenly, the materials represent something quite specific. This plastic token is you. These rules tell you how to roll the die and move. Suddenly, it matters very much which plastic token reaches the end first.
想象一下，一群孩子在郊区的前院闲聊、闲逛。他们决定玩捉迷藏游戏。其中一个孩子拿了一块石头，放在院子中间，代表本垒。这群孩子围在石头周围，玩“eenie-meenie-miney-moe”来选出第一个当“它”的人；然后他们散开躲起来，而“它”则捂住眼睛，开始数到二十。突然间，玩家之间的关系有了特殊的意义。谁是“它”，谁不是？谁被藏起来了，谁还能被看见？谁被抓住了，谁又被释放了？谁会赢得游戏？
Consider a group of kids in a suburban front yard, casually talking and hanging out. They decide to play a game of Hide-and-Seek. One of the kids takes a rock and plants it in the middle of yard to represent home base. The group huddles around it, playing “eenie-meenie-miney-moe” to pick the first person to be “It”; then they scatter and hide as “It” covers his eyes and starts to count to twenty. All at once, the relationships among the players have taken on special meanings. Who is “It” and who is not? Who is hidden and who can be seen? Who is captured and who is free? Who will win the game?
这些西洋双陆棋、蛇梯棋和捉迷藏的例子到底是怎么回事？正如赫伊津哈雄辩地指出的那样，在游戏空间中“存在特殊规则”。游戏的魔法圈是游戏空间的边界，游戏规则在这个边界内发挥作用并具有权威性。
What is going on in these examples of Backgammon, Chutes and Ladders, and Hide-and-Seek? As Huizinga eloquently states, within the space of a game “special rules obtain.” The magic circle of a game is the boundary of the game space and within this boundary the rules of the game play out and have authority.
临时世界
Temporary Worlds
游戏的边界是什么？现实世界与被魔法圈限制和划定的游戏人造世界之间的边界究竟有多大？赫伊津哈将游戏世界称为“普通世界中的临时世界”。但这是什么意思呢？魔法圈是否框定了一个与现实世界完全分离的现实？游戏在某种程度上是日常生活的延伸吗？或者游戏只是普通现实的一个特例？
What lies at the border of the game? Just how permeable is the boundary between the real world and the artificial world of the game that is circumscribed and delimited by the magic circle? Huizinga calls play-worlds “temporary worlds within the ordinary world.” But what does that mean? Does the magic circle enframe a reality completely separated from the real world? Is a game somehow an extension of regular life? Or is a game just a special case of ordinary reality?
让我们回到系统的概念。我们已经确定游戏是系统。作为系统，游戏可以理解为开放或封闭。在他的系统定义中，Littlejohn 告诉我们“封闭系统与其环境没有交换。开放系统从其环境中接收物质和能量，并将物质和能量传递给其环境。”5那么这与魔法圈有什么关系呢？手头的问题与游戏魔法圈与游戏外世界之间的边界有关。解决这个问题的一种方法是考虑这个边界是封闭的，在里面框出一个完全独立的世界；还是开放的，允许游戏与框架外的世界进行交流。正如伯纳德·德科文在《玩得好的游戏》中指出的那样，“边界有助于将游戏与生活区分开来。它们在维护游戏的虚构性方面发挥着关键作用，这样我们不想玩的现实方面就可以安全地留在外面。”6此外，游戏是封闭系统还是开放系统这个问题的答案取决于用哪种模式来理解它们：游戏是否被定义为规则、游戏还是文化。
Let us return to the concept of a system. We have already established that games are systems. As systems, games can be understood as being either open or closed. In his definition of systems, Littlejohn informs us that “a closed system has no interchange with its environment. An open system receives matter and energy from its environment and passes matter and energy to its environment.”5 So what does this have to do with the magic circle? The question at hand has to do with the boundary between the magic circle of a game and the world outside the game. One way of approaching that question is to consider whether that boundary is closed, framing a completely self-contained world inside; or whether it is open, permitting interchange between the game and the world beyond its frame. As Bernard DeKoven notes in The Well-Played Game, “Boundaries help separate the game from life. They have a critical function in maintaining the fiction of the game so that the aspects of reality with which we do not choose to play can be left safely outside.”6 Moreover, the answer to the question of whether games are closed or open systems depends on which schema is used to understand them: whether games are framed as RULES, as PLAY, or as CULTURE.
规则：被视为规则的游戏是封闭系统。将游戏视为正式系统意味着在玩家实际参与之前将其视为规则系统。
RULES: Games considered as RULES are closed systems. Considering games as formal systems means considering them as systems of rules prior to the actual involvement of players.
游戏：就游戏而言，游戏可以是封闭系统，也可以是开放系统。从游戏体验的角度看，我们可以限制我们的关注点，只关注游戏固有的游戏行为，而忽略其他行为。与此同时，玩家从外部世界带来了很多东西：他们的期望、好恶、社会关系等等。从这个意义上说，我们不可能忽视游戏是开放的这一事实，游戏是玩家的反映。
PLAY: Considered as PLAY, games can be either closed systems or open systems. Framed as the experience of play, it is possible to restrict our focus and look at just those play behaviors that are intrinsic to the game, ignoring all others. At the same time, players bring a great deal in from the outside world: their expectations, their likes and dislikes, social relationships, and so on. In this sense, it is impossible to ignore the fact that games are open, a reflection of the players who play them.
文化：游戏被视为一种文化，是一种极其开放的系统。在这种情况下，游戏的内部功能并不被强调；相反，作为一种文化系统，重点在于游戏与整个文化交换意义的方式。在考虑职业足球的文化方面时（例如，关于美洲原住民球队吉祥物的政治辩论），游戏系统被开放，以揭示它与整个社会互动的方式。
CULTURE: Considered as CULTURE, games are extremely open systems. In this case, the internal functioning of the game is not emphasized; instead, as a cultural system the focus is on the way that the game exchanges meaning with culture at large. In considering the cultural aspects of professional Football—political debates over Native American team mascots, for example—the system of the game is opened up to expose the way that it interfaces with society as a whole.
说游戏可以同时是开放系统和封闭系统是否矛盾？其实并非如此。与许多复杂现象一样，研究对象的性质取决于研究本身的方法论。游戏是封闭系统还是开放系统，是否真正是人造的，取决于分析游戏所用的模式。在本书中，我们多次回顾这个重要问题。
Is it a contradiction to say that games can be open and closed systems at the same time? Not really. As with many complex phenomena, the qualities of the object under study depend on the methodology of the study itself. The answer to the question of whether games are closed or open systems, whether they are truly artificial or not, depends on the schema used to analyze them. We return to this important question many times over the course of this book.
诱惑态度
The Lusory Attitude
到目前为止，在讨论魔法圈时，我们已经概述了游戏内部空间与其外部现实世界空间的关系，以及魔法圈如何构建一个独立于现实世界但仍参考现实世界的独特意义空间。我们尚未考虑的是，从玩家的角度来看，魔法圈代表什么。由于游戏需要正式的互动，因此决定玩游戏通常需要真正的承诺。例如，如果玩家选择坐下来玩大富翁，他不能简单地在中途退出，否则会破坏游戏并惹恼其他玩家。另一方面，如果他忽略这种冲动并坚持玩到最后，他可能会以失败告终。然而，这些障碍显然不能阻止大多数人玩游戏。决定玩游戏意味着什么？如果魔法圈创造了一种替代现实，那么玩家进入游戏需要什么样的心理态度？
So far in the discussion of the magic circle we have outlined the ways that the interior space of a game relates to the real world spaces outside it, how the magic circle frames a distinct space of meaning that is separate from, but still references, the real world. What we have not yet considered is what the magic circle represents from the player’s point of view. Because a game demands formalized interaction, it is often a real commitment to decide to play a game. If a player chooses to sit down and play Monopoly, for example, he cannot simply quit playing in the middle without disrupting the game and upsetting the other players. On the other hand, if he ignores this impulse and remains in the game to the bitter end, he might end up a sore loser. Yet, these kinds of obstacles obviously don’t keep most people from playing games. What does it mean to decide to play a game? If the magic circle creates an alternate reality, what psychological attitude is required of a player entering into the play of a game?
在《定义游戏》中，我们研究了 Bernard Suits 在他的著作《蚱蜢：游戏、生活和乌托邦》中对游戏的定义。Suits定义的独特之处之一是他认为游戏本质上是低效的。他用拳击手的例子来解释这个概念。如果拳击比赛的目标是让对方倒地 10 秒，那么实现这一目标的最简单方法就是拿起枪，朝对方拳击手的头部开枪。当然，这并不是拳击比赛的玩法。相反，正如 Suits 所指出的那样，拳击手会戴上加垫手套，只以非常有限和程式化的方式击打对手。同样，Suits 讨论了高尔夫比赛：
In Defining Games we looked at the definition of games Bernard Suits gives in his book Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia. One of the unique components of Suits’ definition is that he sees games as inherently inefficient. He uses the example of a boxer to explain this concept. If the goal of a boxing match is to make the other fighter stay down for a count of 10, the easiest way to accomplish this goal would be to take a gun and shoot the other boxer in the head. This, of course, is not the way that the game of Boxing is played. Instead, as Suits points out, boxers put on padded gloves and only strike their opponents in very limited and stylized ways. Similarly, Suits discusses the game of Golf:
假设我的目标是尽可能高效地将一个小圆球放入地上的一个洞中。用手将它放入洞中是一种自然的方法。但我肯定不会拿着一根一端有金属片的棍子，走到离洞三四百码远的地方，然后试图用棍子将球推入洞中。这在技术上并不明智。但这样的任务是一种非常受欢迎的游戏，上述描述方式显然表明了游戏与技术活动的不同之处。7
Suppose I make it my purpose to get a small round object into a hole in the ground as efficiently as possible. Placing it in the hole with my hand would be a natural means to adopt. But surely I would not take a stick with a piece of metal on one end of it, walk three or four hundred yards away from the hole, and then attempt to propel the ball into the hole with the stick. That would not be technically intelligent. But such an undertaking is an extremely popular game, and the foregoing way of describing it evidently shows how games differ from technical activities.7
苏伊茨认为，拳击手和高尔夫球手的共同点在于对比赛的态度，即对采取这种间接手段实现目标的可能性持开放态度。“在除比赛之外的任何事物中，无端地引入不必要的障碍来达到目的都被视为绝对不合理的行为，而在比赛中，这似乎是绝对必要的行为。”8 Suits 将这种心态称为“游戏态度”，这是我们在他的游戏定义中引入的一个术语。游戏态度允许玩家“采用规则，要求玩家采用更坏的手段而不是更好的手段来达到目的。”9试图用一根金属棒将一个小球推到很远的一个小洞里，这当然需要某种态度！
What the boxer and the golfer have in common, according to Suits, is a shared attitude toward the act of game-playing, an openness to the possibility of taking such indirect means to accomplish a goal. “In anything but a game the gratuitous introduction of unnecessary obstacles to the achievement of an end is regarded as a decidedly irrational thing to do, whereas in games it appears to be an absolutely essential thing to do.”8 Suits calls this state of mind the lusory attitude, a term we introduced under his definition of a game. The lusory attitude allows players to “adopt rules which require one to employ worse rather than better means for reaching an end.”9 Trying to propel a miniature ball with a metal stick into a tiny hole across great distances certainly requires something by way of attitude!
“ludo” 一词在拉丁语中是“玩”的意思，“lusory” 的词根与“Homo Ludens” 中的“ludens” 相同。lusory 态度是一个非常有用的概念，因为它描述了游戏玩家进入游戏时需要的态度。玩游戏在很多方面都是一种“信仰”的行为，赋予游戏特殊的意义——如果没有自愿的玩家，游戏就是一个等待被融入的正式系统，就像一张等待被演奏的乐谱。这个概念可以延伸为游戏是一种社会契约。决定玩游戏就是凭空创造一个任意的权威，来指导和指挥游戏的进行。做出决定的那一刻可能非常神奇。想象一群男孩在街上相聚，互相展示他们的弹珠收藏。他们开玩笑，翻白眼，然后一个挑战响起。其中一个男孩在人行道上用粉笔画了一个圆圈，每个人都把一颗弹珠放进去。他们突然开始玩一个游戏，一个引导和指挥他们行动的游戏，一个决定他们能做什么和不能做什么的游戏。男孩们非常认真地对待这个游戏，因为他们在玩真的。
The word “ludo” means play in Latin, and the root of “lusory” is the same root as “ludens” in “Homo Ludens.” The lusory attitude is an extremely useful concept as it describes the attitude that is required of game players for them to enter into a game. To play a game is in many ways an act of “faith” that invests the game with its special meaning—without willing players, the game is a formal system waiting to be inhabited, like a piece of sheet music waiting to be played. This notion can be extended to say that a game is a kind of social contract. To decide to play a game is to create—out of thin air—an arbitrary authority that serves to guide and direct the play of the game. The moment of that decision can be quite magical. Picture a cluster of boys meeting on the street to show each other their marble collections. There is joking, some eye rolling, and then a challenge rings out. One of the boys chalks a circle on the sidewalk and each one of them puts a marble inside. They are suddenly playing a game, a game that guides and directs their actions, that serves as the arbiter of what they can and cannot do. The boys take the game very seriously, as they are playing for keeps.
他们的目标是赢得游戏并从对手手中夺走弹珠。如果他们只想这样做，他们大可以抢走对方的弹珠然后跑开。相反，他们玩游戏。经过一个漫长而戏剧性的过程，他们最终要么失去自己的弹珠，要么从别人那里赢得一些。如果男孩们想要做的只是增加他们收藏的弹珠数量，那么这个游戏似乎很荒谬。但玩乐态度不仅仅意味着接受游戏规则规定的限制——它还意味着接受规则，因为游戏本身就是目的。实际上，玩乐态度确保玩家接受游戏规则“以便通过这种接受而实现的活动能够发生。”10即使不是真打真碰，我们的弹珠玩家也会认真对待比赛。
Their goal is to win the game and take marbles from their opponents. If that is all they wanted to do, they could just grab each other’s marble collections and run. Instead, they play a game. Through a long and dramatic process, they end up either losing their marbles or winning some from others. If all that the boys wanted to do was increase the number of marbles in their collection, the game might seem absurd. But the lusory attitude implies more than a mere acceptance of the limitations prescribed by the rules of the game—it also means accepting the rules because the play of the game is an end in itself. In effect, the lusory attitude ensures that the player accepts the game rules “just so that the activity made possible by such an acceptance can occur.”10 Our marble players would take their game seriously even if they weren’t playing for keeps.
这种低效率也是一种乐趣。当你在《导弹指挥》中发射导弹时，它不会简单地飞到十字准线下方的位置。相反，它会从屏幕底部慢慢爬上来。要击倒一组保龄球瓶，你不会带着保龄球沿着球道前进；而是站在很远的地方让它滚动。在行动和结果之间的某个间隙中，在受挫的欲望和游戏诱人的目标之间的摩擦中，游戏玩法的独特乐趣就此诞生。玩家为了游戏本身的乐趣而采取这种诱惑态度。
There is a pleasure in this inefficiency. When you fire a missile in Missile Command, it doesn’t simply zap to the spot underneath the crosshairs. Instead, it slowly climbs up from the bottom of the screen. To knock down a set of bowling pins, you don’t carry the bowling ball down the lane; instead you stand a good distance away and let it roll. From somewhere in the gap between action and outcome, in the friction between frustrated desire and the seductive goal of a game, bubbles up the unique enjoyment of game play. Players take on the lusory attitude for the pleasure of play itself.
魔法圈可以定义一个强大的空间，赋予玩家的行动权威，并创造只有在游戏空间中才有可能产生的新的复杂意义。但它也非常脆弱，需要不断维护才能保持完整。在接下来的章节中，我们将探索用于创建和支持魔法圈的设计结构，以及影响游戏态度和有意义游戏可能性的游戏设计品质。
The magic circle can define a powerful space, investing its authority in the actions of players and creating new and complex meanings that are only possible in the space of play. But it is also remarkably fragile as well, requiring constant maintenance to keep it intact. Over the course of the following chapters we explore the design structures that serve to create and support the magic circle, as well as qualities of a game’s design that affect the lusory attitude and the possibility of meaningful play.
现在已经了解了设计、系统、互动性和游戏的定义，我们已经为进入魔圈铺平了道路。穿过它的开放和封闭边界，我们发现自己处于它的中心。我们发现，在游戏的核心，就是规则，即以形式系统为框架的游戏空间。
Having now passed through definitions of design, systems, interactivity, and games, the way has been paved for our entrance into the magic circle. Passing through its open and closed boundaries, we find ourselves in its center. What we find there, at the very heart of games, is RULES, the space of games framed as formal systems.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
《蚱蜢：游戏、生活、乌托邦》，作者：伯纳德·苏茨
Grasshopper: Games, Life, Utopia, by Bernard Suits
《蚱蜢》是伊索寓言《蚱蜢和蚂蚁》的复述，是一本引人入胜、见解深刻的书，探讨了游戏引发的一些哲学悖论。作弊、遵守规则以及游戏与现实世界的现实是《金装律师》讨论的主题之一。正是从这本书中，我们得出了“游戏态度”这一重要游戏设计概念的概念。
A retelling of Aesop’s fable of the Grasshopper and the Ants, Grasshopper is an engaging and insightful book that addresses some of the philosophical paradoxes raised by games. Cheating, rule-following, and the reality of games versus the real world are among the topics Suits addresses. It is from this book that we derive our concept of the lusory attitude, an important game design concept.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第三章：定义的构建
Chapter 3: Construction of a Definition
第四章：无聊之人、欺骗之人和扫兴之人
Chapter 4: Triflers, Cheats, and Spoilsports
约翰·惠津加 (Johann Huizinga) 的《卢登斯人》
Homo Ludens, by Johann Huizinga
荷兰哲学家和历史学家赫伊津加在《游戏人》（ Homo Ludens ）一书中探讨了游戏、游戏和文化之间的关系，这也许是 20 世纪最具影响力的理论著作。赫伊津加的观点当然不是设计的观点；然而，赫伊津加的作品直接影响了我们在此引用的许多其他作者，例如 Roger Caillois 和 Brian Sutton-Smith。在下面推荐的章节中，赫伊津加确立了他对游戏的基本定义。
Perhaps the most influential theoretical work on play in the twentieth century, in Homo Ludens (Man the Player), Dutch philosopher and historian Huizinga explores the relationship between games, play, and culture. His point of view is certainly not that of design; however, Huizinga’s work directly influenced many of the other authors we reference here, such as Roger Caillois and Brian Sutton-Smith. In the chapter recommended below, Huizinga establishes his essential definition of play.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第一章：游戏作为一种文化现象的性质和意义
Chapter 1: Nature and Significance of Play as a Cultural Phenomenon
笔记
Notes
1. Steven Sniderman，《游戏人生》第 2 页。< www.gamepuzzles.com/tlog/tlog2.htm >。
1. Steven Sniderman, “The Life of Games” p. 2. <www.gamepuzzles.com/tlog/tlog2.htm>.
2.同上，第 2 页。
2. Ibid. p. 2.
3. Michael J. Apter，《游戏的结构现象学》，《成人游戏：一种逆转理论方法》，JH Kerr 和 Michael J. Apter 编辑（阿姆斯特丹：Swets and Zeitlinger，1991 年），第 15 页。
3. Michael J. Apter, “A Structural-Phenomenology of Play,” in Adult Play: A Reversal Theory Approach, edited by J. H. Kerr and Michael J. Apter (Amsterdam: Swets and Zeitlinger, 1991), p. 15.
4. Johann, Huizinga，《游戏人：文化中的游戏元素研究》（波士顿：Beacon Press，1955 年），第 10 页。
4. Johann, Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture (Boston: Beacon Press, 1955), p. 10.
5. Stephen W. Littlejohn，《人类沟通理论》，第 3 版（贝尔蒙特，加利福尼亚州：沃兹沃斯出版公司，1989 年），第 41 页。
5. Stephen W. Littlejohn, Theories of Human Communication, 3rd edition (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1989), p. 41.
6. Bernard DeKoven，《玩得好的游戏》（纽约：Doubleday，1978 年），第 38 页。
6. Bernard DeKoven, The Well-Played Game (New York: Doubleday, 1978), p. 38.
7. Bernard Suits，《Grasshopper：游戏、生活和乌托邦》（波士顿：David R. Godine，1990 年），第 23 页。
7. Bernard Suits, Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia (Boston: David R. Godine, 1990), p. 23.
8.同上，第38-9页。
8. Ibid. p. 38–9.
9.同上，第38-9页。
9. Ibid. p. 38–9.
10.同上，第40页。
10. Ibid. p. 40.
魔法圈
概括
• 每场游戏都存在于一个框架内：一个特别划分的时间和空间。框架会有意或无意地向玩家传达游戏正在进行的信息。
• Every game exists within a frame: a specially demarcated time and space. The frame communicates to players, consciously or unconsciously, that a game is being played.
•游戏的魔法圈是游戏发生的空间。虽然非正式的游戏形式没有明确的界限，但游戏的形式化性质使魔法圈变得明确。
• The magic circle of a game is the space within which a game takes place. Whereas more informal forms of play do not have a distinct boundary, the formalized nature of games makes the magic circle explicit.
• 在魔法圈中，游戏规则为游戏玩家创造了一套特殊的意义。这些意义指导游戏的进行。
• Within the magic circle, the game’s rules create a special set of meanings for the players of a game. These meanings guide the play of the game.
• 作为一个系统，游戏可以被认为与其环境具有开放或封闭的关系。作为规则，游戏是封闭的。作为游戏，游戏既是开放的又是封闭的。作为文化，游戏是开放的。
• As a system, a game can be considered to have an open or closed relationship to its context. Considered as RULES, a game is closed. Considered as PLAY, a game is both open and closed. Considered as CULTURE, a game is open.
•游戏态度是参与游戏所需的心理状态。为了玩游戏，一群玩家会接受规则的限制，因为游戏能带来乐趣。
• The lusory attitude is the state of mind required to enter into the play of a game. To play a game, a group of players accepts the limitations of the rules because of the pleasure a game can afford.
10
10
初级模式
THE PRIMARY SCHEMAS
架构
schema
规则
RULES
玩
PLAY
文化
CULTURE
总而言之，有更大文化的修辞，它们有自己的社会影响力，有玩游戏的群体的游戏相关修辞……然后，在这两者之中，就有游戏本身。——布赖恩·萨顿·史密斯，《游戏的模糊性》
In sum, there are the rhetorics of the larger culture that have their own socializing influence, there is the game-relevant rhetoric of the group that plays the game . . . and then, within both of these, there is the game itself.—Brian Sutton-Smith, The Ambiguity of Play
概念框架
A Conceptual Framework
本章代表着一个转折点：从某种意义上说，迄今为止的一切都是准备工作。设计、系统和交互性的概念塑造了我们对有意义游戏设计的理解，并帮助我们理清了游戏的定义。至少就本书的目的而言，游戏的构成是明确的。但游戏和游戏设计的研究需要的不仅仅是一套定义；它需要一个强大的概念框架。框架的作用是组织游戏的研究方式。例如，游戏研究可以按主题、按时间顺序、按游戏类型或按技术平台进行组织。在每种情况下，框架都将指导如何探索和解释游戏。
This chapter represents a turning point: in a certain sense, everything so far has been preparatory work. The concepts of design, systems, and interactivity have shaped our understanding of the design of meaningful play and helped to order a definition of game. It is clear—at least for the purposes of this book—what constitutes a game. But the study of games and game design requires more than a set of definitions; it requires a robust conceptual framework. The role of a framework is to organize how games are studied. For example, a study of games might be organized by topic, or by chronology; by type of game or technological platform. In each case, the framework would guide how games are explored and explained.
本书中指导游戏设计研究的框架不是主题性的或历史性的，也不按类型或平台区分游戏。相反，它基于游戏设计模式的概念，从不同的角度概念性地构建游戏。游戏设计模式是一种理解游戏的方式，我们可以将其应用于任何游戏的分析或创作。可以选择的模式种类繁多，因为看待游戏的方式有很多种。为了我们的目的，我们选择了三个主要模式：规则、游戏和文化。
The framework guiding the study of game design in this book is not topical or historical, and does not separate games by type or platform. Instead, it is based on the idea of game design schemas, which conceptually frame games from distinct perspectives. A game design schema is a way of understanding games, a lens that we can apply to the analysis or creation of any game. The variety of schema that could be selected is vast, as there are many, many ways of looking at games. For our purposes, we selected three primary schemas: RULES, PLAY, and CULTURE.
• RULES是一种正式的主要模式，侧重于游戏的内在数学结构。
• RULES is a formal primary schema, and focuses on the intrinsic mathematical structures of games.
• PLAY是一种体验式初级模式，强调玩家与游戏和其他玩家之间的互动。
• PLAY is an experiential primary schema, and emphasizes the player’s interaction with the game and other players.
•文化是一种情境主要模式，它强调任何游戏所嵌入的文化背景。
• CULTURE is a contextual primary schema, and highlights the cultural contexts into which any game is embedded.
这个由三部分组成的结构是支持更详细模式的概念架构。规则、游戏和文化中包含一组专门的模式，它们以非常特殊的方式构建游戏。例如，规则中包含的游戏模式包括信息系统游戏和不确定性系统游戏等。这些更专业的模式中的每一个都是形式化的（将游戏视为形式化的数学系统），但每个模式都以不同的形式重点看待游戏。规则、游戏和文化这三个主要模式还包含较小的嵌入式模式。
This three-part structure is the conceptual architecture supporting even more detailed schemas. Contained within RULES, PLAY, and CULTURE are a set of specialized schemas, which frame games in very particular ways. For example, contained within RULES are the schemas Games as Information Systems and Games as Systems of Uncertainty, among others. Each of these more specialized schema are formal in scope (looking at games as formal, mathematical systems) but each looks at games with a different formal emphasis. The three primary schemas RULES, PLAY, and CULTURE each also contain smaller embedded schemas.
主架构
Primary Schemas
最终结果是一个从一系列重叠角度构建和重新构建游戏的系统。使用模式不仅为揭示游戏的丰富性提供了一个通用框架，而且从整体上看，还为任何设计研究提供了一种通用方法。正如我们在开篇中提到的，规则、游戏和文化的框架可以帮助促进任何设计领域的批判性设计思维。
The end result is a system that frames and reframes games from a series of overlapping perspectives. The use of schemas not only offers a general framework for uncovering the richness of games, but also, when taken as a whole, offers a general method for any design study. As we mentioned in the opening chapter, the framework of RULES, PLAY, and CULTURE can help facilitate critical design thinking in any design field.
什么是模式？
What Is a Schema?
图式是我们规则、游戏、文化框架的基石。但图式到底是什么？为什么它适合于游戏研究？在他的论文《图式》中，1本·马丁 (Ben Martin) 将该概念的历史追溯到柏拉图和亚里士多德。根据马丁的说法，柏拉图使用图式一词来表示“重要信息而非详尽信息”。1这种属性，即概括性，是图式的主要特征：“图式充当对象或事件重要方面的简化描述。”2马丁随后将这个概念追溯到康德的表述：“知识只能通过图型来到我们身边”，图型是构建我们关于世界的知识的框架。3在更现代的时代，图式的概念属于心理学和认知科学的范畴，这得益于心理学家弗雷德里克·巴特利特和皮亚杰以及马文·明斯基等认知理论家的研究。对于这些思想家来说，图式是指思维获取、表达和转化知识的方式。使用图式概念来组织游戏设计研究直接借鉴了这一传统，尽管它挪用并改变了这一概念。
Schemas are the building blocks of our RULES, PLAY, CULTURE framework. But what is a schema, really, and why is it a concept appropriate to the study of games? In his essay, “The Schema,”1 Ben Martin traces the history of the concept back to Plato and Aristotle. According to Martin, Plato used the word schema to mean “important rather than exhaustive information.”1 This property, summarization, is the primary characteristic of a schema: “A schema acts as a reduced description of important aspects of an object or event.”2 Martin then traces the concept to Kant’s formulation that “knowledge can only come to us through schemata,” that schemas are the frameworks that construct our knowledge about the world.3 In more contemporary times, the concept of schema falls under the domain of psychology and cognitive science, through the work of psychologists Frederic Bartlett and Piaget, as well as cognitive theorists such as Marvin Minksy. For these thinkers, schema refers to the way that the mind acquires, represents, and transforms knowledge. The use of the concept of schema as a way of organizing the study of game design draws directly on this tradition, even as it appropriates and transforms the concept.
David Rumelhart 和 Andrew Ortony 在他们的论文《记忆中的知识表征》中5提出了一个详细的图式理论，该理论借鉴了认知心理学和计算机科学的学科。Rumelhart 和 Ortony 指出了图式的四个特征：
David Rumelhart and Andrew Ortony, in their essay “The Representation of Knowledge in Memory”5 undertake a detailed theory of schema that draws on the disciplines of both cognitive psychology and computer science. Rumelhart and Ortony point out four qualities of schemas:
图式具有变量。图式提供了一个框架，可将来自环境的新信息集成到其中。
Schemas have variables. Schemas provide a framework into which new information from the environment is integrated.
图式可以嵌入。换句话说，构成理解飞机概念的框架的图式可能包含表示有关机翼甚至旅行过程的信息的图式。
Schemas can embed. In other words, the schema that constitutes a framework for understanding the concept airplane may contain a schema for representing information about wings or even about the process of traveling.
图式表示多个抽象层次上的知识。例如，图式可以表示有关环境中对象的信息，但也可以表示有关对象交互方式或事件性质和结构的信息。
Schemas represent knowledge at many levels of abstraction. For example, schemas can represent information about objects in the environment, but they can also represent information about the way objects interact or the nature and structure of events.
图式代表的是知识，而不是定义。图式本质上是“百科全书式的”，而不是“定义式的” 。5
Schemas represent knowledge rather than definitions. Schemas are essentially “encyclopedic” rather than “definitional.”5
所有这四个特质对于我们使用图式都很重要。第一个特质，即图式是一个理解信息的框架，是我们使用该术语的主要意义。游戏设计图式提供了理解游戏的形式、体验和文化方面的框架。图式的第二和第三个特质，即它们可以相互嵌入，并且可以表示不同抽象层次上的知识，也是关键。这些特质是指图式作为关键设计工具的灵活性。图式不是孤立的框架，而是通过共同的关注点联系在一起的。例如，图式“作为社交游戏的游戏”嵌入在更大的游戏主要图式中，图式“作为叙事游戏的游戏”和图式“作为愉悦游戏的游戏”也是如此。
All four of these qualities are important for our use of schema. The first quality, that schema are a framework for understanding information, is the primary sense in which we use the term. Game design schemas provide frameworks for understanding the formal, experiential, and cultural aspects of games. The second and third qualities of schemas, that they can be embedded in each other and that they can represent knowledge at different levels of abstraction, are also key. These qualities refer to the flexibility of schema as critical design tools. Rather than isolated frameworks, schema are linked together through common concerns. The schema Games as Social Play is embedded within the larger primary schema of PLAY, for example, as are the schemas Games as Narrative Play and Games as the Play of Pleasure.
最后，图式代表知识，而不是定义，这一观点至关重要。尽管我们在下文中给出了许多概念的定义，但我们从未以绝对的术语定义图式本身。作为理解游戏和游戏设计实践的镜头或一般框架，图式很有用，因为它们使我们能够以松散和直观的方式梳理游戏的复杂现象，突出游戏的特定特征。图式不是定义的概念——它们是让我们吸收游戏知识的思维方式。从这个意义上说，图式与我们在本书中构建的更明确定义的概念形成对比。
Last, the idea that schema represent knowledge, rather than definitions, is critical. Although we offer many definitions of concepts in the following pages, we never define schemas themselves in absolute terms. As lenses or general frameworks for understanding games and the practice of game design, schemas are useful because they allow us to sort through the complex phenomena of games in a loose and intuitive fashion, highlighting particular features of games. Schemas are not defined concepts—they are ways of thinking that allow us to assimilate the knowledge of a game. In this sense, schemas act as a counterpoint to the more clearly defined concepts that we construct throughout this book.
规则：正式模式
RULES: Formal Schemas
游戏有规则。这也许是游戏最突出的特征，也是游戏区别于其他形式的媒体、艺术和娱乐的特征。在比较上一章中“游戏”的众多定义时，我们发现最常见的定义元素是游戏由规则来安排和构建。因此，我们的框架必须将规则作为主要关注点。规则范畴下的模式是形式模式。其中包括将游戏视为公共和私人信息系统、冲突系统和博弈论系统。所有这些看待游戏的方式如何都是形式化的？更具体地说，“形式”一词指的是什么？
Games have rules. This is perhaps the most prominent feature of games, one that distinguishes them from other forms of media, art, and entertainment. In comparing the many definitions of “game” in the previous chapter, the idea that games were ordered and structured by rules was the most common definitional element we found. It is therefore critical that our framework includes rules as a primary focus. The schemas that fall under the rubric of RULES are formal schemas. They include, among others, looking at games as systems of public and private information, as systems of conflict, and as Game Theory systems. How are all of these ways of looking at games formal? More specifically, to what does the word “formal” refer?
RULES模式至少在两种意义上提供了一种“正式”的游戏观察方式。首先，“正式”一词用于“形式”的意义：规则构成了游戏的内部形式或组织。换句话说，规则是构成现实世界中被称为游戏的对象的内部、基本结构。例如，考虑两盘在很多方面都不同的围棋游戏。它们可能在以下方面有所不同：
There are at least two senses in which the RULES schemas offer a “formal” way of looking at games. First, the term formal is used in the sense of “form”: rules constitute the inner form or organization of games. In other words, rules are the inner, essential structures that constitute the real-world objects known as games. For example, consider two games of Go that differ in a variety of ways. They might differ in terms of:
•材料：一个版本是在木板上用石头玩的；另一个版本是在计算机上玩的。
• Material: one version is played with stones on a wooden board; the other is played on a computer.
•动机：在一个游戏中，一个朋友教另一个朋友玩游戏；在另一个游戏中，两个大师争夺奖品。
• Motivation: in one a friend teaches the game to a friend; in the other, two masters compete for a prize.
•结果：一局比赛白棋轻松获胜；另一局比赛势均力敌，黑棋最终领先。
• Outcome: in one game white wins easily; the other game is a very close match with black pulling ahead at the end.
• Time and space: one game is played in ancient China; the other is played in contemporary France.
这个清单还可以继续列下去。重点是，尽管这些围棋游戏在游戏体验上截然不同，但它们都被称为“围棋”游戏。尽管它们各不相同，但这些游戏有一个共同点：围棋规则。这些“游戏规则”将所有曾经或将要进行的围棋游戏统一起来。从这个意义上讲，围棋规则构成了围棋游戏的正式身份。
The list could go on. The point is that although these games of Go would be radically different as game play experiences, all would be identified as the game of “Go.” Despite their differences, the games share one thing in common: the rules of Go. These “rules of play” unite all of the games of Go that have ever been or will ever be played. It is in this sense that the rules of Go constitute the formal identity of the game of Go.
形式这个词的第二种含义与“形式化”概念有关，即把游戏视为规则具有一定的条理性和精确性。游戏和文化中的图式往往比较模糊，而且更难量化；而规则中的图式最具分析性。此外，大多数采用的形式图式都包含数学成分。把游戏视为规则意味着把游戏视为形式系统，既指规则是构成游戏的内部结构，也指规则图式是数学剖析游戏的分析工具。
A second sense in which the word formal is used has to do with the concept of “formalization,” the idea that there is something methodical and precise about looking at games as RULES. The schemas clustered under PLAY and CULTURE tend to be fuzzy and more difficult to quantify; it is in RULES that the schemas are most analytical. In addition, most of the formal schemas employed contain a mathematical component. Looking at games as RULES means looking at games as formal systems, both in the sense that the rules are inner structures that constitute the games and also in the sense that the RULES schemas are analytic tools that mathematically dissect games.
游戏：体验模式
PLAY: Experiential Schemas
虽然所有游戏都有规则，但游戏的概念本身与玩耍的概念紧密相关，这也是事实。玩耍实际上就是我们在游戏中所做的事情。我们下棋、打棒球、玩铁拳。虽然也会玩其他东西（收音机、喇叭或戏剧作品中的角色），但玩耍与游戏和游戏设计有着非常特殊的关系。
Although all games have rules, it is certainly also true that the very concept of games is closely intertwined with the idea of play. Play is, in fact, what we do with games. We play Chess, we play Baseball, and we play Tekken. Although other things are played as well (the radio, the trumpet, or a role in a theater production), play has a very special relationship to games and game design.
游戏设计模式归类于“玩”的范畴，与“规则”的范畴截然不同。游戏模式不是专注于游戏对象本身的形式品质，而是体验模式，直接关注游戏玩家的实际体验。这是与“规则”观点的根本性转变，这一转变开辟了许多看待游戏的新方式。但为什么会这样呢？游戏提供了什么，而规则没有提供呢？
The game design schemas clustered under the heading of PLAY are quite different from those grouped under RULES. Rather than being focused on the formal qualities of the game object itself, PLAY schemas are experiential schemas, directly focused on the actual experience of the game players. This is a radical shift in point of view from RULES, a shift that opens up many new ways of looking at games. But why is this the case? What does PLAY offer that RULES does not?
其实很简单。游戏的玩法只存在于一种体验中。我们可以考虑规则系统的逻辑，形式化地考虑游戏，而无需理解该规则系统将如何被体验。然而，在将游戏定义为PLAY时，我们不仅要考虑规则，还要将规则系统视为一种旨在为游戏参与者提供特定游戏体验的环境。这种体验可能是社交体验、叙事体验或愉悦体验。将游戏视为体验系统意味着将其视为参与、观察、心理状态、身体感觉、情感和生活。在PLAY 中，游戏的体验维度被明确表达出来。
It is simple, really. The play of a game is something that only exists as an experience. It is possible to consider the logic of a rule system, to consider the game formally, without understanding how that rule-system will be experienced. However, in framing games as PLAY, we must consider not only the rules, but also the rule-system as a context designed to deliver a particular experience of play for the game’s participants. That experience might be a social experience, or a narrative experience, or an experience of pleasure. Looking at games as experiential systems means looking at them as participation, as observation, as a mental state, as bodily sensation, as emotion, as something lived. In PLAY, the experiential dimensions of games are made explicit.
文化：语境图式
CULTURE: Contextual Schemas
尽管与规则的分析世界相比，游戏领域似乎广阔而多样，但从某种意义上说，游戏也是有界限的。游戏发生在特定的时间和空间地点。当我们在文化领域内探索游戏时，游戏世界和整个世界之间的重叠就会显现出来。当我们将游戏视为游戏时，我们会将分析限制在由实际游戏本身定义的空间内。在游戏中，我们强调人类的游戏体验，但不会偏离游戏的界限太远。一旦我们开始超越游戏的内部、内在品质，着眼于外部环境给游戏带来的品质，焦点就会深入到文化领域。
Even though the realm of play may seem expansive and varied compared to the analytic world of rules, play is, in some sense, bounded too. Games take place in definite locales of time and space. It is when we explore games within the realm of culture that the overlap between the game world and the world at large comes to light. When we consider games as PLAY, we confine the analysis to the space defined by the actual game itself. In PLAY, we emphasize the human experience of the game, but without straying too far outside the boundaries of the game. Once we begin to look beyond the internal, intrinsic qualities of games toward the qualities brought to the game from external contexts, the focus extends deep into the territory of CULTURE.
文化下呈现的图式是情境图式。它们侧重于游戏、游戏设计和玩法的文化维度。从文化角度考虑游戏时，我们的目标是了解游戏设计（作为有意义的玩法设计）如何融入共同的价值和意义体系。在考虑游戏的形式和体验特质的同时，这些图式研究了文化对游戏的影响以及游戏对文化的影响。从修辞和表现的理念到游戏的人造世界向现实世界的渗透，这些图式强调了游戏与游戏和制作环境之间的可变界限。
The schemas presented under CULTURE are contextual schemas. They focus on the cultural dimensions of games, game design, and play. In considering games from a cultural point of view, our goal is to understand how the design of a game, as the design of meaningful play, engages shared systems of value and meaning. While taking into account both the formal and experiential qualities of games, these schemas look at the effects of culture on games, and the effects of games on culture. From ideas of rhetoric and representation to the leaking of the artificial world of a game into the real world, these schemas highlight the variable boundaries between games and the contexts in which they are played and produced.
情境的作用对于游戏研究至关重要，因为情境是游戏系统的环境。它是围绕系统并存在于系统之外的空间。在创建系统的外部边界时，情境还有助于定义系统本身。此外，如果系统是一个开放系统，它会与其环境交互，即使系统本身发生变化，也会改变其情境。
The role of context is critical to the study of games because a context is the environment of the game system. It is the space that surrounds and exists outside the system. In creating the outer boundary of the system, the context also helps define the system itself. Furthermore, if the system is an open system, it interacts with its environment, changing its context even as it is changed itself.
以上就是我们三个主要模式的概述，我们结束了游戏规则第 1 单元。在接下来的章节中，我们将充实这个骨架结构，以我们的基本关键概念为基础，让游戏设计和有意义的游戏完全栩栩如生。
With this outline of our three Primary Schemas, we end Unit 1 of Rules of Play. In the chapters to come, we flesh out this skeletal structure, building on our fundamental key concepts to bring game design and meaningful play fully to life.
笔记
Notes
1. George Cowen 和 David Pines，《复杂性：隐喻、模型和现实》（圣达菲：Addison Wesley Longman，1994 年），第 263-277 页。
1. George Cowen and David Pines, Complexity: Metaphors, Models and Reality (Santa Fe: Addison Wesley Longman, 1994), p. 263–277.
2.同上，第265页。
2. Ibid. p. 265.
3.同上，第268页。
3. Ibid. p. 268.
4. David Rumelhart 和 Andrew Ortony，《记忆中知识的表征》。《学校教育与知识获取》 ，由 Richard Anderson、Rand Spiro 和 William Montague 编辑（新泽西州希尔斯代尔：Lawrence Earlbarm，1997 年），第 99–135 页。
4. David Rumelhart and Andrew Ortony, “The Representation of Knowledge in Memory.” In Schooling and the Acquisition of Knowledge, edited by Richard Anderson, Rand Spiro, and William Montague (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbarm, 1997), p. 99–135.
5. Ben Martin，《模式》。《复杂性：隐喻、模型和现实》，由 George Cowen 和 David Pines 编辑（圣达菲：Addison Wesley Longman，1994 年），第 272-273 页。
5. Ben Martin, “The Schema.” In Complexity: Metaphors, Models and Reality, edited by George Cowen and David Pines (Santa Fe: Addison Wesley Longman, 1994), p. 272–273.
初级图式：规则、游戏、文化
概括
• 本书的概念框架提供了三种构建或理解游戏的方法：规则、游戏和文化。每个主要模式都包含许多更专业的模式。
• The conceptual framework for this book provides three ways to frame or understand games: RULES, PLAY, and CULTURE. Each of these primary schemas contains a number of more specialized schemas.
•规则包含正式的游戏设计模式
• RULES contains formal game design schemas
• PLAY包含体验式游戏设计模式
• PLAY contains experiential game design schemas
•文化包含情境游戏设计模式
• CULTURE contains contextual game design schemas
•图式是组织和构建知识的一种方式。图式具有以下特征：
• A schema is a way of organizing and framing knowledge. Schemas have the following characteristics:
•图式有变量：它们提供了一个可以整合新信息的框架。
• Schemas have variables: they provide a framework that can integrate new information.
•模式可以嵌入：它们可以在其内部包含其他模式。
• Schemas can embed: they can contain other schemas inside of themselves.
• 模式代表多个抽象层次上的知识：它们允许对同一对象有多种看法。
• Schemas represent knowledge at many levels of abstraction: they allow many points of view of the same object.
•图式代表的是知识而不是定义：它们本质上是“百科全书式的”而不是“定义的”。
• Schemas represent knowledge rather than definitions: they are essentially “encyclopedic” rather than “definitional.”
• 基于规则或形式化的模式侧重于游戏的逻辑和数学结构。“形式化”一词既指游戏的内在形式，也指游戏知识的形式化。
• Rule-based or formal schemas focus on the logical and mathematical structures of games. The word “formal” refers both to the inner form of games as well as to formalization of the knowledge about the game.
• 基于游戏或体验式的模式关注人类的多维度体验和互动。
• Play-based or experiential schemas focus on human experience and interaction in its many dimensions.
• 文化或背景图式关注游戏与其所处的文化背景之间的关系。
• Cultural or contextual schemas focus on the relationship between a game and the cultural contexts in which it is embedded.
委托游戏 1
COMMISSIONED GAME 1
理查德·加菲尔德
Richard Garfield
兄弟之争
Sibling Rivalry
适合 2 人或以上玩家的游戏
A game for 2 or more players
概述
Overview
玩家扮演兄弟姐妹，试图打扰对方。如果他们做得太过分，父母会介入并惩罚他们。随着玩家得分，他们会在得分轨道上前进。游戏的目标是成为第一个越过得分轨道终点线的玩家。
Players are siblings trying to bother one another. If they go too overboard, a parent will step in and punish them. As players score points, they advance on the score track. The object of the game is to be the first player to cross the finish line on the score track.
规则
Rules
装备和开始游戏
Equipment, and Starting the Game
兄弟姐妹竞争有一个游戏板，分为两部分：挑战板和计分轨道。挑战板由五条挑战轨道组成，用骰子编号，2-6。计分轨道是有起点和终点的轨道，在一些方格中用小恶魔和小天使标记。每个玩家都有两个匹配的棋子（例如，两个一角硬币）。当玩家成功折磨其兄弟姐妹时，一个棋子从计分轨道的起点行进到终点；另一个棋子在挑战板上发起挑战。第一个棋子将是挑战棋子；第二个棋子是得分棋子。您还需要五个骰子才能玩。选择一名玩家先走。
Sibling Rivalry has a playboard, with two parts: the challenge board and the score track. The challenge board is made up of a grid of five challenge tracks numbered with dice, 2–6. The score track is the track with a start and finish, marked with little devils and little angels in some of the squares. Each player has two matching pawns (for example, two dimes.) One pawn progresses from start to finish on the score track, as a player successfully torments their siblings; the other pawn makes challenges on the challenge board. The first pawn will be the challenge pawn; the second the scoring pawn. You also need five dice to play. Select a player to go first.
轮到你了
On Your Turn
在您的回合开始时，如果您的挑战棋子在挑战轨道上，请将其移除并通过推进您的得分棋子来获得该方格中的点数。示例：如果您的挑战棋子位于 2 号挑战轨道上的 4 个方格上，在标有“稳固凝视”的方格上，您将获得 3 分。当然，在第一回合，您不会在任何轨道上有任何棋子。
At the start of your turn, if your challenge pawn is on the challenge track, remove it and score the number of points in that square by advancing your scoring pawn. Example: If your challenge pawn was 4 squares along the number two challenge track, on the square labeled “steady stare,” you score 3 points. Of course, on the first turn you won’t have any pawns on any track.
在您的回合，您掷出五个骰子并沿着其中一条轨道推进您的挑战棋子，您掷出的每个轨道数字代表一个方格。例如：您掷出 2、2、3、5、6 — 如果您沿着 2 号轨道推进，您可以推进您的挑战棋子 2 格。如果您在 3 号轨道上推进，您可以推进棋子 1 格。如果您在 4 号轨道上推进，您根本无法推进棋子。您掷出的所有 1 都将被搁置，您可以选择再次掷骰或停止。如果您再次掷骰，请掷出除 1 之外的所有骰子。继续重新掷骰的过程，推进您的得分棋子，将 1 放在一边，直到您选择停止或累积三个（或更多）1。
During your turn, you roll the five dice and advance your challenge pawn along one of the tracks, one square for each of the track’s number you roll. Example: you roll 2,2,3,5,6—if you are advancing along the number two track you can advance your challenge pawn 2 squares. If you are advancing on the number three track, you can advance your pawn one square. If you are advancing on the number four track, you cannot advance your pawn at all. All the 1s you roll are set aside and you may choose to roll again or stop. If you roll again, roll all the dice but your 1s. Continue the process of re-rolling, advancing your scoring pawn, setting the 1s aside until either you choose to stop or you accumulate three (or more) 1s.
您在哪些轨道上前进受到限制。当挑战板清空后，您必须在 2 号轨道上前进。如果板上有挑战棋子，您可以在任何有棋子的轨道上前进，以试图超越您的兄弟，或升级到更高的轨道。例如：3 号轨道上有一个棋子，4 号轨道上有一个棋子。您可以在 3 号、4 号轨道上推进您的挑战棋子，或升级到 5 号轨道。
You are restricted on which tracks you can advance. When the challenge board is clear you must advance on the number two track. If the board has challenge pawns on it, you can advance in any track with a pawn in it, in an attempt to outdo your sibling, or escalate one track higher. Example: There is a pawn on the number three track, and a pawn on the number four track. You can advance your challenge pawn in tracks number three, four, or escalate to track number five.
您可以在自己的回合中更改前进的轨道。在沿着一条轨道前进后，您可以在掷骰子后移除您的棋子并开始沿着另一条轨道前进。示例：棋盘在第三个方格的四号轨道上有一个挑战棋子，标记为“下巴”。您只能选择在四号轨道上推进您的棋子，挑战您兄弟姐妹的挠痒痒，或者升级到五号轨道。您掷出 1、2、4、6、6，然后将您的挑战棋子沿着四号轨道前进一格。然后您重新掷四个骰子（您不能重新掷出 1 的骰子），然后掷出 1、5、5、5。您可以选择从四号轨道上移除您的挑战棋子并沿着五号轨道前进 3。
You may change the track you are advancing during the course of your turn. After advancing along a track you may remove your pawn after a roll and begin advancing along another track. Example: The board has a challenge pawn in the number four track in the third square, marked “chin.” You can only choose to advance your pawn on the number four track, challenging your sibling’s tickle, or escalate to the number five track. You roll 1, 2, 4, 6, 6, and advance your challenge pawn one square along the number four track. You then re-roll four dice (you are not allowed to re-roll the dice that rolled the 1), and you roll 1, 5, 5, 5. You may choose to remove your challenge pawn from the number four track and advance 3 along the number five track.
结束你的回合
Ending Your Turn
如果您累计了三个（或更多）1，妈妈或爸爸就会发现您这样做了，并且您在回合结束时每获得一个 1，就会在得分轨道上向后移动一格。您还可以移除挑战棋子。
If you accumulated three (or more) 1s, Mom or Dad has caught you in the act and you move backwards on the score track one square for each 1 you ended your turn with. You also remove your challenge pawn.
如果您选择结束您的回合并且您的挑战轨道上只有唯一的棋子，您就把它留在那里并希望它在下一个回合开始时仍然在那里，这样您就可以为该方格得分。
If you choose to end your turn and have the only pawn on your challenge track, you leave it there and hope that it is still there at the start of your next turn, so you can score the points for that square.
如果您选择结束回合，并且是挑战的赛道上最靠前的棋子，则移除其他棋子并将您的棋子留在那里。如果您在下一回合开始时仍在那里，则可以得分。
If you choose to end your turn and are the most advanced pawn along the track you were challenging, remove the other pawn and leave yours there. You may score your pawn if you are still there at the start of your next turn.
如果您选择结束回合并且您在所选轨道上与另一个棋子打平或落后于另一个棋子，请移除您的挑战棋子，因为您还没有超越您的兄弟姐妹。
If you choose to end your turn and you were tied with or behind another pawn in the track you chose, remove your challenge pawn, because you have not outdone your sibling.
如果您成功地将挑战棋子推进至轨道上的最后一个方格，请移除该轨道上的所有棋子，对该方格进行计分，然后进行另一轮。
If you manage to advance a challenge pawn to the last square on a track, remove all pawns in that track, score the square, and take another turn.
评分
Scoring
当你推进得分棋子时：
When you advance your scoring pawn:
如果您停在另一个玩家的棋子上，则向后移动直到到达自由空间（或完全滑出得分表！）。
If you land on another player’s pawn move backwards until you are on a free space (or slide off the scoring chart entirely!).
如果您的得分棋子尚未出现在棋盘上，请忽略向后移动。同样，如果您必须将棋子向后移动并到达轨道的末端，请移除得分棋子并忽略多余的向后移动。
If your scoring pawn isn’t on the board yet, ignore backwards movement. Similarly, if you must move your pawn backwards and reach the end of the track, remove your scoring pawn and ignore the excess backward movement.
如果你的棋子放在“小天使”上，那么你不知何故得到了父母的青睐。需要四个 1 才能抓住你！
If your pawn is on “Little Angel,” you have somehow gotten into your parent’s good graces. It takes four 1s to catch you!
如果你的棋子在“小恶魔”身上，说明你的父母已经对你产生了高度怀疑。只需两个 1 就能抓住你。
If your pawn is on “Little Devil,” your parents have developed a heightened suspicion of you. It takes only two 1s to catch you.
如果您将得分棋子推进至终点，您就赢得了游戏！
If you advance your scoring pawn past the finish, you have won the game!
最终游戏板
计分轨道
设计说明
DESIGN NOTES
理查德·加菲尔德
Richard Garfield
兄弟之争
Sibling Rivalry
第一阶段：一般约束
Stage 1: General Constraints
我做的第一件事就是考虑项目的制约因素，包括受众和设备。我理解受众是成年人，但不一定喜欢玩游戏。因此，我倾向于制作一款轻松的游戏，但不是没有策略的游戏。在设备方面，我在一本书中准备了几页。有人提议加入模切的筹码，但我知道这对出版商和书主来说都很麻烦，所以我拒绝了那个选择。我决定只使用人们通常拥有的游戏材料（骰子、筹码、标准牌组、书写纸等）。我会用这些页面来记录规则，也许还有一个简单的棋盘，可以将其复制或放在书内玩。
The first thing I did was consider the constraints of the project, which included the audience and equipment. The audience I understood to be adults but not necessarily game players. As a result, I was leaning toward a light game, but not one without strategy. In terms of equipment, I had some pages in a book. There was the offer to include die cut counters, but I knew that is a pain both for the publisher and the book owner, so I rejected that option. I decided to limit myself to the use of game materials that people commonly have available (dice, counters, standard decks of cards, writing paper, and so forth). I would use the pages for rules and perhaps a simple board, which could either be copied or perhaps played with inside the book.
第二阶段：概念
Stage 2: Concept
我经常玩弄游戏设计概念和游戏主题，用它们制作小游戏，供自己娱乐和成长。我只尝试发布其中很小一部分游戏。这意味着当我接到委托项目时，我通常有很多想法可以借鉴。
I am constantly toying with game design concepts and game motifs, using them to make little games for my own enjoyment and growth. I only attempt to publish a very small percentage of these games. This means that typically I have a lot of ideas to draw on when I am given a commissioned project.
主题：我一直在考虑的一个想法是兄弟姐妹竞争游戏，孩子们试图互相打扰，但又不被抓住（或者让别人陷入麻烦）。我一直认为这是一个带有专门牌组的纸牌游戏，或者是一个带有精致棋盘的棋盘游戏，其中包括孩子们可能互相打扰的各种环境（汽车后座、电视机前、学校）。为了使用这个主题，我必须减少使用这种专门的设备。不过，我发现这种风格很有趣，而且适合这样的项目，所以我尝试了各种方法来应对这些变化。
Motif: One idea I had been mulling over was a game of Sibling Rivalry, with kids trying to bother one another, while not getting caught (or while getting someone else in trouble). I had been thinking of it as a card game with a specialized deck, or a board game with an elaborate board that included all sorts of environments in which the kids might bother each other (back of the car, in front of the TV, at school.) In order to use this motif, I would have to cut back on use of this specialized equipment. I found the flavor fun though, and appropriate for a project like this, so I toyed with ways to address these changes.
机制：我对“碰运气”机制很感兴趣，并根据此机制设计了一些游戏。这些游戏的特点是玩家可以选择继续游戏或将利润存入银行。经典的“碰运气”游戏是 Sid Sackson 的《Can't Stop》。另一个例子是《Six Man Zonk》，这款游戏的市场定位是《Cosmic Wimpout》。我在自己的几款游戏中都使用过这种核心机制，我最喜欢的一款游戏是我称之为《Gonzo》的游戏。在《Gonzo》中，玩家掷五个骰子，计算出一个特定的结果（比如 4），然后将 1 放在一边，然后选择是重新掷骰子还是存入银行。如果玩家累积了三个 1，他们就输掉了这一轮。我喜欢这种机制，因为它总能让你感觉自己可以走运并卷土重来。
Mechanics: I have been interested in press-your-luck mechanics for a while, and have designed a few games based on them. These games are characterized by the choice to keep going or bank your profit. The classic press-your-luck game is Can’t Stop, by Sid Sackson. Another example is Six Man Zonk, which was marketed as Cosmic Wimpout. I have used the core mechanic in several of my own games, my favorite being a game I call Gonzo. In Gonzo, players roll five dice, count a particular result—say, 4s—and set aside the 1s, and choose whether to re-roll or bank. If the player ever accumulated three 1s, they lost their turn. I like this mechanic because it always feels like you can get lucky and come back.
当我脑子里有了这两个概念——兄弟姐妹之间的竞争主题和 Gonzo 的游戏机制——我意识到我找到了一个可能有效的组合。我冒着被抓住的风险（三个 1）试图对我的兄弟姐妹做更多离谱的事情，这个想法对于游戏来说是一个很有吸引力的想法。
Once I had both these concepts in my head—the motif of sibling rivalry, and the game mechanic of Gonzo—I realized I had a combination that probably worked. The idea of my trying to do more and more outrageous things to my sibling while risking getting caught (three 1s), was an appealing idea for a game.
第三阶段：第一个原型
Stage 3: First Prototype
我测试的最早版本名为“但是她先挑起事端！”，专为双人游戏设计。我试图让某个人“先挑起事端”；被妈妈或爸爸抓住的玩家会惹上麻烦。如果被抓住的玩家不是先挑起事端的玩家，那么胜利会特别甜蜜（也就是说，会获得很多分数）。游戏没有棋盘，玩家轮流掷五个骰子，直到有人掷出 2，这表明他们“先挑起事端”。这个原始设计与最终版本非常相似，只是没有计分轨道，玩家得分更高（四个 3 值 12 分，而不是最终游戏的 4 分），并且“先挑起事端”且未被抓住的玩家会获得奖励。
The earliest version I playtested was called “But She Started It!” designed specifically for two players. I tried to make it so that someone “started it”; the player who got caught by mom or dad was in trouble. If the player who got caught wasn’t the player who started it, then the victory was especially sweet (that is, worth a lot of points). The game had no board, and players alternated rolling five dice until someone rolled a 2, which indicated that they had “started it.” This original design was very similar to the final version, except there was no scoring track, players scored many more points (four 3s were worth 12 points, not the final game’s 4 points), and there was a bonus for “starting it” and not getting caught.
很快，人们就发现，“开始”虽然在原则上是一种巧妙的游戏机制，但需要太多规则：它让游戏变得更加复杂，而游戏价值却很小。记录分数也很麻烦，需要进行大量的加减运算。这一观察促使他们制作了一个棋盘，既可以记录分数，又可以记录当前的挑战。
It was quickly apparent that “starting it,” though a neat game mechanic in principle, required too many rules: it made the game far more complex for only a little play value. Keeping track of points was also a pain, involving a lot of addition and subtraction. This observation led to the construction of a board, which served both to keep track of the score and the current challenge.
第四阶段：进化
Stage 4: Evolution
有许多元素是沿着相对独立的轨道演变的：
There were many elements that evolved along somewhat independent tracks:
挑战委员会的演变
Evolution of Challenge Board
我附上了一个早期棋盘的设计以供参考。一旦棋盘被添加到游戏中，有些事情就会变得比其他事情更自然。例如，从挑战棋盘上给出分数就变得很自然了，因为玩家可以在棋盘上写下分数。这种方法不像我以前使用的“总点数”那么明显。有一段时间，我不希望挑战轨道是有限的，但显然它们必须是有限的：即使不是逻辑上的，也是物理上的。因此出现了一个问题，挑战轨道有多大，当玩家到达顶部时会发生什么？最终我决定使用七个方格（从最初的十个减少）。如果使用十个方格，如果人们几乎从未到达顶部，那么棋盘就会变得拥挤不堪。通常，在七个方格的情况下，有人会在游戏过程中到达顶部，但并非总是如此，所以这似乎是一个不错的长度。最初我有一个蹩脚的规则，当你到达顶部时，你可以击败顶部的另一个玩家。这条规则类似于原版游戏，如果你足够幸运，你总能击败前一个玩家。这条规则让游戏尽可能接近原版无棋盘游戏。我认为，使用棋盘的自然规则是奖励坚持到最后的玩家：立即获胜加上额外的回合似乎是个不错的主意。特别是，这条规则让玩家如果足够幸运，可以在任何回合获胜，这让人感觉很疯狂。
I’ve included the design of an early board for reference. Once a board is added to a game, some things become more natural than others. For example, it became natural to give points from the challenge board, because players could write the points on the board. This method was less obvious than “the total number of pips” that I was using before. For a while, I didn’t want the challenge tracks to be finite, but obviously they had to be finite: physically if not logically. So the question arose, how big a challenge track is there and what happens when a player reaches the top? Eventually I settled on seven squares (down from an initial ten). With ten squares, if people hardly ever reach the top, then the board is needlessly crowded. Typically, with seven squares someone would reach the top during the course of a game, but not always, so it seemed like a good length. Originally I had a kind of lame rule that when you reached the top you could beat another player at the top. This rule was analogous to the original game in which you could always beat the previous player if you got lucky enough. The rule kept the game as close as possible to the original boardless version. With the use of a board I believed that the natural rule was to reward the player who made it to the end with a bonus: an immediate victory plus an additional turn seemed to be a pretty good idea. In particular, this rule makes it so that a player can win on any turn if they are lucky enough, which has a wild feel to it.
游戏板原型
计分轨道的演变
Evolution of Scoring Track
在整个开发过程中，计分轨道的尺寸不断缩小，这不仅使计分变得更加简单，还使计分轨道获得了特殊的游戏功能。例如，当轨道长度超过 100 个方格时，玩家必须向后滑动的规则确实令人恼火。向后滑动的想法太微不足道了，而且这种情况很少发生，因此不值得为规则占用空间。然而，随着棋盘的缩小，这条规则变得有趣，因为它通常会改变玩家在挑战棋盘上的保守程度。同样，在较小的轨道上，小天使和小恶魔方格以一种有趣的方式影响了挑战棋盘上的策略和游戏。在长轨道上，瞄准特定方格会太烦人且困难。
The scoring track shrank in size throughout development process, which not only made the scoring more simple, it also allowed the score track to acquire a special play function. For example, the rule that a player must slide backward when the player lands on another player’s pawn is a real irritation when the track is 100+ squares long. Sliding back is so minor an idea, and it happens so seldom that it really isn’t worth the space the rule takes up. As the board shrank, however, this rule became interesting, in that it would often modify how conservatively a player would play on the challenge board. Similarly, on the smaller track the Little Angel and Little Devil squares affected strategy and play on the challenge board in an interesting way. On the long track it would just be too annoying and difficult to aim for a particular square.
评分的演变
Evolution of Scoring
计分系统一开始相当繁琐：玩家必须将所有掷出的点数相加，然后将其从当前得分中加减。我真的很想让计分变得简单，所以我尝试使用相反的极端方法：赢得一轮比赛可获得一分，无论掷出什么数字。不出所料，这个系统更简单——但也有点枯燥。玩家被激励去碰碰运气，因为他们掷出的数字越高，他们被打败——并失去分数的机会就越小。最后，我决定采用一个介于两者之间的解决方案，前三级的分数固定，之后分数缓慢增加。
The system of scoring started out quite cumbersome: a player would have to add the total of all the pips rolled and add or subtract that from their current score. I really wanted to make the scoring simple, so I tried using the opposite extreme: one point received for winning a round, regardless of what number was rolled. As expected, this system was simpler—but also a bit dry. Players were motivated to press their luck, as the higher the number they rolled the less chance they had of being beaten—and losing their point. In the end I settled on a solution somewhere in between, with fixed points for the first three ranks, and points ramping up slowly after that.
玩家数量的演变
Evolution of Number of Players
我的理念是，作为一款双人游戏，也许可以自然地适应三人或更多人。游戏测试表明，在这些人数下，游戏效果出奇地好。我甚至不确定是否对游戏进行了更改以适应两人以上的玩家群体——只是改变了我概括规则的方式。例如，对于两人游戏，我认为当一个玩家被妈妈或爸爸抓住时，回合就会结束。对于两人以上的玩家，最好只惩罚被抓住的玩家，然后继续回合，直到挑战板清空。
My philosophy was that as a two-player game, maybe it could be adapted naturally to accommodate three or more players. Playtesting showed that at these numbers the game worked surprisingly well. I am not even sure if there were ever changes made to the game to accommodate groups of more than two players—just changes made to the way I generalized the rules. For example, with two players, I thought that when one player was caught by Mom or Dad, the round would end. With more than two players, it worked best if just the player that was caught was punished and the round continued, until the challenge board was clear.
游戏人体工程学是我看待游戏机械过程的方式：什么是尴尬的，什么是太复杂的，哪些操作花费太多时间或产生太多错误。游戏人体工程学变化的一个例子是在回合过程中沿着挑战轨道推进你的棋子，如果你没有通过对手的棋子，就把它移走。最初，你只有在击败其他玩家的棋子时才能将棋子放在棋盘上，所以我们可以制定规则，即挑战轨道上只能有一个棋子。除了允许玩家不必在脑海中记住他们回合的结果之外，这一变化对游戏没有任何影响。这是一个非常自然的结果，但直到开发进行到一半时我才真正意识到这一点，当时一些玩家开始理所当然地这样做。
Play ergonomics is how I view the mechanical process of playing: what is awkward, what is too complex, which manipulations take too much time or spawn too many mistakes. An example of a change to the play ergonomics is advancing your pawn along the challenge track during the course of a turn, and removing it if you haven’t passed your opponent’s pawn. Originally, you only placed the pawn on the board if you beat the other player’s pawn, so we could make the rule that a challenge track only ever has one pawn on it. This change didn’t affect the game in any way other than allowing players not to mentally keep a tally of their turn’s result. It is a very natural outcome but it didn’t actually occur to me until about halfway through development, when some players started doing it as a matter of course.
理查德·加菲尔德
Richard Garfield
理查德·加菲尔德小时候就开始设计和摆弄游戏和游戏设计，这个爱好伴随了他整个求学时期和早期职业生涯。他获得了宾夕法尼亚大学的数学博士学位，打算过上学术数学家的生活。理查德出版的第一款游戏《万智牌：聚会》是一款允许玩家选择自己的卡牌的游戏，实际上与玩家共享游戏设计师的角色。《万智牌》的巨大成功使他成为一名全职游戏设计师。现在，他研究和设计的游戏范围广泛，从派对游戏到集换式卡牌游戏（他创造的一种纸牌游戏类型）。
Richard Garfield was designing and tinkering with games and game design as a kid, a hobby that stuck with him through his schooling and early career. He earned a doctorate in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania, intending to live the life of an academic mathematician. Richard’s first published game, Magic: The Gathering, was a game that allowed players to choose their own cards, in effect sharing the role of game designer with the players. The phenomenal success of Magic allowed him to become a full-time game designer. Now he studies and designs games ranging from party games to the trading card game, a genre of paper game that he created.
第二单元：规则
Unit 2: RULES
定义规则
Defining Rules
三层规则
Rules on Three Levels
数字游戏的规则
The Rules of Digital Games
游戏作为新兴系统
Games as Emergent Systems
游戏作为不确定性系统
Games as Systems of Uncertainty
游戏作为信息理论系统
Games as Information Theory Systems
游戏作为信息系统
Games as Systems of Information
游戏作为控制论系统
Games as Cybernetic Systems
游戏作为博弈论系统
Games as Game Theory Systems
游戏作为冲突系统
Games as Systems of Conflict
打破规则
Breaking the Rules
游戏中的界线似乎并非完全随意。因为界线的划定和划定位置不仅对游戏类型有重要影响，而且对游戏质量也有重要影响。可以说，巧妙地（因此不是随意地）划定这样的界线是游戏制作者的本领。游戏制作者必须避免两个极端。如果他的界线划得太松，游戏就会变得乏味，因为获胜会太容易。当松散程度增加到完全松懈的程度时，游戏就会崩溃，因为没有规则来限制可用的手段……另一方面，规则是可以划得太紧的界线，这样游戏就会变得太难。如果界线划得太紧，游戏就会被挤垮。——伯纳德·苏茨，《蚱蜢：游戏、生活和乌托邦》
It seems to be the case that the lines drawn in games are not really arbitrary at all. For both that the lines are drawn and also where they are drawn have important consequences not only for the type, but also for the quality, of the game to be played. It might be said that drawing such lines skillfully (and therefore not arbitrarily) is the very essence of the gamewright’s craft. The gamewright must avoid two extremes. If he draws his lines too loosely the game will be dull because winning will be too easy. As looseness is increased to the point of utter laxity the game simply falls apart, since there are then no rules proscribing available means . . . . On the other hand, rules are lines that can be drawn too tightly, so that the game becomes too difficult. And if a line is drawn very tightly indeed the game is squeezed out of existence.—Bernard Suits, Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia
玩游戏就要遵守游戏规则。
To play a game is to follow its rules.
规则是游戏的基本特征之一：每个游戏都有一套规则。相反，每一套规则都定义了一款游戏。规则是游戏的正式结构，是描述游戏系统如何运作的一组固定的抽象准则。什么是规则？它们如何运作？它们与游戏设计有何关联？在本单元“规则”中，我们将讨论这些问题以及有关游戏正式结构的更多问题。
Rules are one of the essential qualities of games: every game has a set of rules. Conversely, every set of rules defines a game. Rules are the formal structure of a game, the fixed set of abstract guidelines describing how a game system functions. What are rules? How do they function? And what is their relevance for game design? In this unit on RULES, we address these questions and many more regarding the formal structures of games.
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定义规则
DEFINING RULES
正式结构
formal structures
人造的
artificial
限制
limits
明确
unambiguous
固定的
fixed
捆绑
binding
可重复
repeatable
当然，国际象棋规则规定了棋子可以如何移动；它们区分了合法和非法的移动。例如，由于骑士只能以严格受限的方式移动，因此很明显，允许移动骑士的手段比移动骑士的可能手段范围要小。——伯纳德·苏茨，《蚱蜢：游戏、生活和乌托邦》
The rules of chess, of course, state how the pieces may be moved; they distinguish between legal and illegal moves. Since the knight, for example, is permitted to move only in a highly restricted manner, it is clear the permitted means for moving the knight are of less scope than the possible means for moving him.—Bernard Suits, Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia
什么是游戏规则？让我们从一个简单的例子开始，这是我们能找到的最简单的游戏之一：井字游戏。井字游戏由以下规则定义：
What are game rules? Let’s begin with a simple example, one of the most minimal games we can find: Tic-Tac-Toe. The game of Tic-Tac-Toe is defined by the following set of rules:
1. 游戏在一个 3×3 的网格上进行，网格上有 9 个空方格。
1. Play occurs on a 3 by 3 grid of 9 empty squares.
2. 两个玩家轮流标记空格，第一个玩家标记 X，第二个玩家标记 O。
2. Two players take turns marking empty squares, the first player marking Xs and the second player marking Os.
3. 如果一个玩家连续放置三个相同的标记，则该玩家获胜。
3. If one player places three of the same marks in a row, that player wins.
4. 如果所有空格都被填满，并且没有获胜者，则游戏以平局结束。
4. If the spaces are all filled and there is no winner, the game ends in a draw.
这四条规则完全描述了井字游戏的正式系统。它们没有描述玩游戏的体验，也没有描述游戏的历史和文化，但它们构成了游戏的规则。这四条规则是你开始玩井字游戏所需要的全部内容。
These four rules completely describe the formal system of Tic-Tac-Toe. They don’t describe the experience of playing the game, they don’t describe the history and culture of the game, but they do constitute the rules of the game. These four rules are all you need to begin playing a game of Tic-Tac-Toe.
令人惊讶的是，这些简单的规则已经产生了数百万小时的游戏时间。有了这些规则，任何两个井字游戏玩家都可以放心，当他们开始游戏时，他们玩的都是完全相同的游戏。无论是在计算机终端前玩，还是在沙滩上玩，每场井字游戏都具有相同的基本形式特征。从这个意义上说，规则是游戏的深层结构，游戏的所有现实世界实例都源于此。
Astonishingly enough, these simple rules have generated millions and millions of hours of game play. Armed with these rules, any two Tic-Tac-Toe players can be assured that when they begin play, they will both be playing the exact same game. Whether played in front of a computer terminal or scratched in the sand of a beach, every game of Tic-Tac-Toe shares the same basic formal identity. In this sense, rules are the deep structure of a game from which all real-world instances of the game’s play are derived.
一副牌
A Deck of Cards
在探索游戏作为形式系统时，确定什么是规则、什么不是规则非常重要。规则是任何游戏体验表面之下的逻辑基础。但由于游戏本质上是结构性的，因此很难区分游戏中哪些结构是规则的一部分，哪些不是。例如，扑克游戏的哪些元素构成了扑克规则？一些结构显然是规则的一部分。规定给每个玩家发多少张牌、如何下注以及不同牌组合的价值的准则显然都是游戏规则的一部分。
In exploring games as formal systems it is important to determine exactly what are and are not rules. Rules are the logical underbelly beneath the experiential surface of any game. But because games are innately structural, it can be tricky to distinguish which structures in a game are part of the rules and which are not. For example, what elements of the game of Poker constitute the rules of Poker? Some structures are unambiguously part of the rules. The guidelines that dictate how many cards to deal to each player, how to bet, and the value of different combinations of cards all clearly seem to be part of the game rules.
任何一套完整的扑克规则都会参考一副标准扑克牌。这副牌是规则的一部分，因为扑克牌的特定数学性质（确切的牌数、每张牌由数字和花色定义等）是游戏的关键部分。例如，大多数扑克变体都指定是否使用小丑牌。扑克牌的构成始终是扑克规则的一部分，尽管规则的这一要素通常没有说明。明文规则和暗文规则之间的关系将在后面的章节中再次讨论。现在，只要知道扑克规则包含（或至少暗示）一副扑克牌的精确结构就足够了。
Any complete set of rules of Poker will also reference a deck of standard playing cards. This deck of cards is part of the rules, because the particular mathematical qualities of the deck (the exact number of cards, the fact that each card is defined by a number and a suit, etc.) are a crucial part of the game. Most variants of Poker, for example, specify whether or not Jokers are to be used. The constitution of a deck of playing cards is always part of the rules of Poker, even though this element of the rules usually goes unstated. The relationship between stated and unstated rules will come up again in later chapters. For now, it is enough to know that the rules of Poker contain—or at least imply—the precise structure of a deck of playing cards.
如果通过改变四花色来改变一副牌，结果会怎样？我们还会玩同样的游戏吗？也许黑桃会变成死亡，红心会变成爱，梅花会变成战争，方块会变成性。这种改变可能涉及改变牌上花色的图形或玩家对牌的称呼。（“我有一张战争八。”）这似乎是对一副牌的彻底改变。但从形式上讲，什么都没有改变：游戏保持不变。玩家可以用这副牌玩扑克游戏，只要牌组由按等级顺序排列的四花色和 13 个数字组成。某些扑克变体的某些方面（例如使用红皇后作为万能牌）可能需要转换为新牌组，但只要游戏的形式结构保持不变，将爱皇后和性皇后指定为万能牌与在普通牌组中将红皇后指定为万能牌是一样的。当然，用这种牌组玩扑克的体验与用标准牌组玩扑克的体验不同，这是不言而喻的。但游戏的正式系统，即被视为一套规则的游戏，并不是游戏。因此，当从规则的角度看待游戏时，我们更关心构成体验的规则，而不是玩家体验。虽然这种区别在游戏结构和玩家对结构的体验之间造成了人为的分离，但这种分离使我们能够将游戏视为形式系统。
What if the deck of cards was altered by changing its four suits? Would we still be playing the same game? Perhaps Spades becomes Death, Hearts becomes Love, Clubs becomes War, and Diamonds becomes Sex. The change might entail a graphical alteration to the suits as they appear on the cards or the name by which players refer to the cards. (“I’ve got an eight of War.”) This seems like a radical change to make to a deck of cards. But on a formal level, nothing has changed at all: the game remains the same. Players could, with this deck, still play a game of Poker, as long as the deck was composed of four suits in a rank order and 13 numbers. Some aspects of certain Poker variants, such as playing with Red Queens as wild cards, might require a translation to the new deck, but as long as the game’s formal structure remained intact, designating the Queens of Love and Sex as wild cards is the same as making the Red Queens wild in a regular deck. Of course it goes without saying that the experience of playing Poker with such a deck would be different than the experience a player would have with a standard deck. But the formal system of a game, the game considered as a set of rules, is not the experience of the game. Therefore, when looking at games from the point of view of rules, we are less concerned with player experience than with the rules constituting the experience. Although this distinction creates an artificial separation between the structure of a game and players’ experience of the structure, the separation allows us to look at games as formal systems.
从形式上讲，只要一副牌具有适当的数学特性，就可以用来玩扑克。事实上，只要游戏“牌”具有正确的 4×13 信息，并且可以随机化（洗牌）、分发（发牌），并在必要时（在手中）适当隐藏，它们就根本不必是牌。例如，它们可以是精心标记的冰棒棍。可以玩一种表面上不像扑克的“扑克”游戏，观察者可能不会将其识别为扑克，但仍具有扑克的正式结构。
Formally speaking, as long as a deck of cards has the proper mathematical qualities, it can be used to play Poker. In fact, as long as the game “cards” have the right kind of 4 × 13 information and can be randomized (shuffled), distributed (dealt), and properly kept hidden when necessary (in a hand), they would not have to be cards at all. They could be, for example, carefully marked Popsicle sticks. It would be possible to play a game of “Poker” that would not resemble Poker on the surface, and might not be recognized as Poker by observers, but would still possess the formal structure of Poker.
这怎么可能呢？当我们谈论游戏规则时，即游戏的形式特征，我们指的不是美学特质（如花色名称）或表征特征（如观察者识别的能力）。我们将焦点限制在规则集或构成游戏的形式结构上。单纯地关注游戏规则意味着要压抑游戏玩法和游戏文化的许多其他迷人特质。这并非易事。但正如我们将看到的，游戏规则是游戏最独特的特征之一，值得仔细研究——分析性研究对解决游戏设计问题大有裨益。
How is this possible? When we talk about the rules of a game—the formal identity of a game—we are not referring to aesthetic qualities (such as the names of the suits) or representational identity (such as its ability to be recognized by an observer). We are limiting the focus to the set of rules, or formal structures that constitute the game. Looking purely at the rules of a game means repressing many other fascinating qualities of game play and game culture. This is not an easy thing to do. But as we will see, the rules of games are among their most unique features and deserve careful study—analytic study that can be of great benefit in solving game design problems.
规则与策略
Rules and Strategy
关于游戏规则和策略规则之间的区别，需要澄清一点：我们在这里理解的规则是游戏的形式结构，与游戏策略并不相同，尽管两者看起来很相似。
One note of clarification about the difference between the rules of a game and rules of strategy: rules as we understand them here as the formal structure of a game are not the same thing as strategies for play, even though the two might seem similar.
在玩井字游戏时，您可能会想出一条“经验法则”来帮助您玩游戏。例如，如果您的对手即将获胜，您需要放置一个标记来阻挡对手。这种战略“规则”是游戏的一个重要方面（例如，您可以使用这样的规则为井字游戏编写计算机对手），但这些战略规则不是游戏正式规则的一部分。实际的游戏规则是构成游戏功能的核心正式系统。帮助玩家表现更好的规则不是这个正式系统的一部分。
While playing Tic-Tac-Toe, you might devise a “rule of thumb” to assist your play. For example, if your opponent is about to win, you need to place a mark that will block your opponent. This kind of strategic “rule” is an important aspect of games (for example, you might use rules like this to program a computer opponent for a Tic-Tac-Toe game), but these rules of strategy are not part of the formal rules of the game. The actual game rules are the core formal system that constitutes how a game functions. Rules that help players perform better are not a part of this formal system.
其他类型的规则
Other Kinds of Rules
通常，当我们研究游戏的某种特质时，我们会将其与其他形式的文化进行比较。比较有助于将游戏置于更广泛的背景中，并突出游戏的独特品质。我们的主要目的之一是了解是什么让游戏与众不同，是什么让游戏设计作为一个领域独一无二。但这并不意味着唯一需要进行的比较就是将游戏与其他一切区分开来的比较。
Often, when we investigate a particular quality of games, we compare them to other forms of culture. Comparison helps situate games within a broader context and also highlights the qualities of games that make them unique. One of our primary intentions is to understand what makes games distinctive and what makes game design unique as a field. But that does not mean that the only kind of comparisons to make are the ones that set games apart from everything else.
举个例子：在试图弄清楚游戏规则到底是什么时，问一问“规则是否是游戏独有的”会很有帮助。答案既是肯定的，也是否定的。许多类型的活动中肯定存在“规则和条例”。例如，礼仪惯例是行为规则；国家法律或国际战争“规则”也是如此。“禁止践踏草坪”的标志传达了一条规则，学校禁止考试作弊的政策备忘录也是如此。有些人可能会这样定义科学：它揭示了自然界的隐藏规则，例如，分子在结合时遵循某些规则。如果规则是指导和指引行为的准则，那么在很多情况下，人们或现象似乎确实“遵守规则”。
Case in point: in trying to figure out exactly what game rules are, it is helpful to ask, Are rules unique to games? The answer is both yes and no. There are certainly “rules and regulations” in many kinds of activities. For example, conventions of etiquette are behavioral rules; so are laws of a state or the international “rules” of war. A sign to “keep off the grass” communicates a rule, and so does a memo about a school policy that forbids cheating on tests. Some might define science by saying that it uncovers hidden rules of nature, that molecules, for example, obey certain rules when they combine. If rules are guidelines that guide and direct behavior, there are many contexts in which people or phenomena do seem to “follow the rules.”
“规则”一词，就像“玩”和“游戏”一样，有多种不同的用法。为了游戏设计的目的，重要的是要考虑游戏以何种方式利用规则。也许比“规则是游戏独有的吗？”更好的问题是“游戏规则有什么独特之处？”
The word “rules,” like the words “play” and “game,” can be used in many different ways. For the purposes of game design, it is important to consider in what ways games make use of rules. Perhaps a better question than “Are rules unique to games?” is, “What is unique about the rules found in games?”
游戏是人造系统，在某种程度上与日常生活是分开的。游戏规则的权威只在有限的游戏范围内发挥作用。另一方面，一个国家的法律则以一种不那么受限的方式渗透到公民的生活体验中。法律确实是一种社会建构，游戏规则也是如此。然而，从形式的角度来看，游戏的人造性使其规则无法在游戏魔法圈之外产生影响。正如游戏设计师和哲学家 Bernard DeKoven 所说：“我认为游戏是为我们提供一个共同目标的东西，实现这一目标与游戏之外的任何事情都无关。” 3
Games are artificial systems, separate in some way from ordinary life. The authority of game rules only holds sway within the limited context of the game. The laws of a state, on the other hand, permeate the lived experience of its citizens in a much less limited way. It is true that laws are a social construct, as are game rules. However, from a formal point of view, the artificiality of games keeps their rules from having an impact outside the magic circle of the game. As game designer and philosopher Bernard DeKoven states, “I consider a game to be something that provides us with a common goal, the achievement of which has no bearing on anything that is outside the game.”3
规则的性质
Qualities of Rules
游戏规则具有绝对的约束力，不容置疑。——约翰·赫伊津哈，《游戏人》
The rules of a game are absolutely binding and allow no doubt.—Johann Huizinga, Homo Ludens
规则是游戏与其他游戏的区别。游戏最基本的定义可能是有组织的游戏，也就是说基于规则。如果没有规则，你就可以自由玩耍，而不是游戏。为什么规则对游戏如此重要？规则施加限制——它们迫使我们采取特定的路径来实现目标，并确保所有玩家都采取相同的路径。它们让我们知道什么是界限，什么是界限之外的东西，从而让我们进入游戏世界。——马克·普伦斯基，《基于数字游戏的学习》
Rules are what differentiate games from other kinds of play. Probably the most basic definition of a game is that it is organized play, that is to say rule-based. If you don’t have rules you have free play, not a game. Why are rules so important to games? Rules impose limits—they force us to take specific paths to reach goals and ensure that all players take the same paths. They put us inside the game world by letting us know what is in and out of bounds.—Marc Prensky, Digital Game-Based Learning
游戏规则是什么样的？它们与其他类型的规则有何不同？它们在游戏中如何发挥作用？考虑以下规则特征列表：
What are game rules like? What sets them apart from other kinds of rules? How do they function in a game? Consider the following list of rule characteristics:
•规则限制玩家行动。规则发挥作用的主要方式是限制玩家的活动。如果您正在玩骰子游戏 Yatzee，请想想您在该游戏中可以用骰子做的所有事情：您可以点燃它们、吃掉它们、玩杂耍或用它们制作珠宝。但您不会做任何这些事情。当您玩 Yatzee 游戏时，您会遵守规则并做一些非常狭窄和具体的事情。轮到您时，您会掷骰子并以特定方式解释其数值结果。规则是“指令集”，遵循这些指令意味着按照规则要求做事，而不是做其他事情。
• Rules limit player action. The chief way that rules operate is to limit the activities of players. If you are playing the dice game Yatzee, think of all of the things you could do with the dice in that game: you could light them on fire, eat them, juggle them, or make jewelry out of them. But you do not do any of these things. When you play a game of Yatzee, you follow the rules and do something incredibly narrow and specific. When it is your turn, you roll the dice and interpret their numerical results in particular ways. Rules are “sets of instructions,” and following those instructions means doing what the rules require and not doing something else instead.
•规则明确无歧义。规则完整，没有任何歧义。例如，如果您要玩棋盘游戏，但不清楚当您落在特定空间时该做什么，则必须消除这种歧义才能玩。同样，规则必须完全明确地传达其含义。如果您在一片废弃的场地打棒球，而一棵树被用作二垒，那么关于什么算作二垒的歧义可能会导致游戏失败。您可以触摸什么而仍然在二垒？树根？树枝？还是只是树干？
• Rules are explicit and unambiguous. Rules are complete and lack any ambiguity. For example, if you were going to play a board game and it wasn’t clear what to do when you landed on a particular space, that ambiguity would have to be cleared up in order to play. Similarly, rules have to be totally explicit in what they convey. If you were playing baseball in an abandoned lot and a tree was being used as second base, ambiguities regarding what counted as second base could lead to a collapse of the game. What can you touch and still be on second base? The roots? The branches? Or just the tree trunk?
•所有玩家都遵守规则。在多人游戏中，所有玩家都遵守同一套规则。如果一名玩家遵守的规则与其他玩家不同，游戏就会中断。以废弃场地棒球比赛为例。如果一名玩家认为触碰树枝是合法触碰二垒，但另一名玩家认为只有树干才是垒，并在跑垒员抓住树枝时触碰跑垒员，那么这名玩家是否“出局”？当出现分歧时，游戏就会陷入停顿。要解决这种情况，让游戏继续进行，所有玩家必须对规则及其在游戏中的应用达成共识。仅仅明确无误地陈述规则是不够的：规则的解释也必须共享。
• Rules are shared by all players. In a game with many players all players share the same set of rules. If one player is operating under a set of rules different than the others, the game can break down. Take the abandoned lot baseball game example. If one player thinks that touching a branch of the tree is legally touching second base, but another player thinks that only the trunk is the base and tags the runner when he is holding onto a branch of the tree, is the player “out”? When the disagreement is raised, the game grinds to a halt. For the situation to be resolved, allowing the game to continue, all players must come to a common understanding of the rules and their application within play. It is not enough that rules are explicitly and unambiguously stated: the interpretation of the rules must also be shared.
•规则是固定的。游戏规则是固定的，不会随着游戏的进行而改变。如果两个玩家正在下棋，其中一个突然宣布如果对方玩家想制定新规则，即自己的一个棋子是无敌的，对方很可能会抗议这种突然的规则即兴修改。在许多游戏中，改变规则在某种程度上是游戏的一部分；但是，规则的修改方式总是受到严格监管。例如，在职业体育中，规则的改变必须经过管理组织的立法程序。即使在游戏过程中改变规则的游戏中，例如异想天开的纸牌游戏 Flux（其中打出一张牌可以改变整个游戏的目标和规则），规则改变的方式也非常有限，而且规则本身由其他更基本的规则决定。
• Rules are fixed. The rules of a game are fixed and do not change as a game is played. If two players are playing a game of Chess and one of them suddenly announces a new rule that one of her own pawns is invulnerable, the other player would most likely protest this sudden rule improvisation. There are many games in which changing the rules is part of the game in some way; however, the way rules can be modified is always highly regulated. In professional sports, for example, changes to rules must pass through a legislative process by governing organizations. Even in games in which the rules are changed during play itself, such as the whimsical card game Flux (in which playing a card can change the overall game’s goals and rules), the ways the rules change are quite limited and are themselves determined by other, more fundamental rules.
•规则具有约束力。规则就是要遵守的。魔法圈的“魔力”部分在于规则本身就包含权威。游戏规则之所以能够保持固定和共享，是因为它们最终具有约束力。在某些游戏中，规则的权威体现在裁判的角色上。就像规则本身一样，裁判拥有超越普通玩家的权威。如果玩家觉得规则不具有约束力，他们就会随意作弊或离开游戏，因为游戏是一场“扫兴的游戏”。
• Rules are binding. Rules are meant to be followed. Part of the “magic” of the magic circle is that the rules contain their own authority. The reason why the rules of a game can remain fixed and shared is because they are ultimately binding. In some games, the authority of the rules is manifest in the persona of the referee. Like the rules themselves, the referee has an authority beyond that of an ordinary player. If players did not feel that rules were binding, they would feel free to cheat or to leave the game as a “spoil sport.”
•规则是可重复的。规则在不同的游戏中是可重复的，并且可以在不同玩家组之间移植。在《万智牌：聚会》锦标赛中，锦标赛中的所有玩家在相互对抗时都遵循相同的规则。在单个锦标赛的有限环境之外，游戏规则同样可重复和可移植。虽然游戏通常有“主规则”，例如大富翁游戏中“免费停车”空间的规则有许多不同版本，但这些规则变体只是大体一致的规则集的局部变体。无论如何，玩家必须解决“主规则”集之间的歧义才能玩游戏。
• Rules are repeatable. Rules are repeatable from game to game and are portable between sets of different players. In a Magic: The Gathering tournament, all the players in the tournament follow the same rules when they square off against each other. Outside of the limited context of an individual tournament, the game rules are equally repeatable and portable. Although games often have “home rules,” such as the many different versions of rules for the “Free Parking” space in Monopoly, these rule variants are just local variants on largely consistent rule sets. In any case, players must resolve ambiguities between sets of “home rules” in order to play a game.
规则的这些特性在玩家玩游戏时都会发挥作用。如果这些特性中的任何一个不发挥作用，游戏系统可能会崩溃，导致无法玩游戏。如果规则含糊不清，玩家必须在游戏开始前解决这些含糊不清的问题。如果规则不具约束力，玩家将不会尊重他们的权威，可能会作弊。
These qualities of rules are in operation whenever one plays a game. If any of these qualities are not in effect, the game system may break down, making play impossible. If rules are ambiguous, players must resolve the ambiguities before play begins. If rules are not binding, players won’t respect their authority and might cheat.
此列表中的特征构成了规则的品质。以这种方式描述规则是理解游戏的一种相当经典的方式。例如，可以设计一款玩家不共享相同规则集的游戏，解决这种差异就是游戏的全部内容。或者，也许你想和某人玩“练习游戏”，并且你不会遵守所有规则来学习如何玩游戏。显然，规则的权威并不总是得到严格遵守：作弊确实会发生。当我们从许多不同角度审视游戏规则时，其中一些品质可能会受到质疑。但从严格形式的角度来看，这些是所有游戏规则的一般特征。
The characteristics on this list constitute the qualities of rules. Describing rules in this way is quite a classical way of understanding games. It is possible, for example, to design a game in which players do not share the same rule set, and resolving this discrepancy is what the game is all about. Or perhaps you want to play a “practice game” with someone, and you won’t be obeying all of the rules in order to learn how to play the game. Clearly, the authority of rules is not always strictly obeyed: cheating does happen. As we examine the rules of games from many different angles, some of these qualities may be called into question. But from a strictly formal point of view, these are the general characteristics of all game rules.
规则背景
Rules in Context
如果你认为所有这些关于固定和权威规则的讨论让游戏看起来有点束缚，你是对的。在所有可能的游戏形式中，从随意扔飞盘到嬉戏做爱，游戏有些地方有点沉闷。完全开放的游戏，规则不断被发明（例如上面无敌棋子的例子），按照我们的定义可能不是游戏。虽然游戏玩法可以是自由的和高度自发的，但还有其他形式的游戏比游戏中通常的玩法更具即兴性。但游戏有一种特殊的清晰度和可理解性。“现实生活”充满了模糊性和部分已知信息，但这也是游戏作为设计系统是人为的、与日常生活截然不同的原因之一。在日常生活中，很少有环境具有如此高度的人为清晰度。游戏的这些独特特征游戏带来了奇妙而独特的游戏体验。但体验将在后面的章节中发挥作用：让我们回到规则上来。
If you think all of this talk about fixed and authoritative rules makes games seem a bit constraining, you are right. Out of all of the possible forms of play, from casual Frisbee-tossing to playful lovemaking, there is something slightly stuffy about games. A completely open-ended game, where rules are constantly invented (such as the example of invulnerable pawns above) is probably not a game by our definition. Although game play can be freewheeling and highly spontaneous, there are other forms of play more improvisational than the play typically found in games. But there is a special kind of lucidity and intelligibility about games. “Real life” is full of ambiguities and partially known information, but that is one of the reasons why games as designed systems are artificial and distinct from daily existence. In ordinary life it is rare to inhabit a context with such a high degree of artificial clarity. These peculiar characteristics of games give rise to the wonderfully unique qualities of game experience. But experience comes into play in later chapters: let us return to rules.
从正式的、基于规则的角度来看，参与游戏意味着什么？要玩某个游戏，玩家必须自愿参与游戏；他们将自己的行为限制在游戏规则规定的特定限制内。一旦游戏开始，玩家就被封闭在游戏的人造环境（魔法圈）中，必须遵守规则才能参与。如果你在玩 Candyland，谁会在乎哪个塑料块先到达最后一个空间？当然，其他玩家会在乎。他们和你一样，已经踏入了游戏的魔法圈，即由规则创建的共享游戏空间。
From a formal, rules-based point of view, what does it mean to take part in a game? To play a particular game, players voluntarily submit to the game; they limit their behaviors to the specific restrictions imposed by the game rules. Once play begins, players are enclosed within the artificial context of a game—its magic circle—and must adhere to the rules in order to participate. If you are playing Candyland, who cares which plastic piece reaches the final space first? The other players do, of course. They are the ones who, like yourself, have stepped into the game’s magic circle, a shared space of play created by the rules.
Candyland 的规则与游戏体验之间存在巨大差距。在《规则》的其余章节中，我们将开始跨越这一差距，研究规则集如何成为游戏系统。许多不同的游戏设计模式将有助于完成这项任务，因为我们将游戏视为涌现、不确定性、信息、反馈、决策和冲突的系统。我们甚至将游戏视为需要打破的规则系统。但在深入研究这些模式之前，有必要了解规则本身，即正式系统。在接下来的两章中，我们将为理解规则到底是什么（包括数字游戏的规则）奠定更具体的基础。
There is a vast gap between the rules of Candyland and the experience of the game in play. In the rest of the chapters within RULES, we begin to cross that gap by looking at how sets of rules become systems of play. A number of different game design schemas will assist in this task, as we consider games as systems of emergence, uncertainty, information, feedback, decision making, and conflict. We even consider games as systems of rules to be broken. But before leaping into these schemas, it is necessary to understand rules in and of themselves, as formal systems. In the next two chapters, we build a more concrete foundation for understanding exactly what rules are, including the rules of digital games.
定义规则
概括
•规则构成了游戏的内在形式结构。所有游戏都有规则，规则是游戏的决定性特征之一。
• Rules constitute the inner, formal structure of games. All games have rules, and rules are one of the defining qualities of games.
• 规则不是游戏体验。可以对游戏进行体验性更改（例如更改一副牌中四种花色的名称），而无需更改游戏规则或正式结构。
• Rules are not the experience of play. It is possible to make experiential changes to a game (such as changing the names of the four suits in a deck of cards) without changing the rules or formal structures of a game.
•规则初级模式中的游戏规则与策略规则不同。策略“经验规则”可帮助玩家玩游戏，但无法定义游戏的正式身份。
• Game rules as considered under the Primary Schema of RULES are different than rules of strategy. Strategic “rules of thumb” help players to play a game, but do not define the formal identity of a game.
• 游戏规则不同于礼仪、法律、战争或其他社会规则。游戏本质上是人为的，与“现实世界”背景无关，而这些其他形式的规则与日常生活并不分离。
• Game rules are different than the rules of etiquette, law, war, or other social rules. Games are intrinsically artificial and separate from “real-world” contexts, whereas these other forms of rules are not separate from ordinary life.
• 以下是所有游戏规则共有的一般特征：
• Following are the general characteristics that all game rules share:
•规则限制玩家行动
• Rules limit player action
•规则明确无误
• Rules are explicit and unambiguous
•所有玩家共享规则
• Rules are shared by all players
•规则是固定的
• Rules are fixed
•规则具有约束力
• Rules are binding
•规则可重复
• Rules are repeatable
虽然有些游戏质疑甚至违背了这些特点，但从严格的形式角度考虑，这些都是游戏规则的共同特征。
Although some games question and violate these characteristics, these are the common traits of game rules considered from a strictly formal point of view.
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三个层面的规则
RULES ON THREE LEVELS
构成规则
constituative rules
操作规则
operational rules
隐含规则
implicit rules
正式身份
formal identity
特异性
specificity
优雅的规则
elegant rules
我和小伙伴们打的“休闲”网球实际上是基于一套极其复杂的“规则”——假设、传统和惯例——它们支配着我们在球场上的行为（无论我们是否有意识地意识到这一点）。——斯蒂芬·斯奈德曼，《不成文的规则》
The “casual” game of tennis that my buddies and I play is really based on an enormously complex set of “rules”—assumptions, traditions, and conventions—that govern our behavior on the court (whether we are consciously aware of it or not).—Stephen Sniderman, “Unwritten Rules”
以国际象棋游戏为例。通常，国际象棋游戏是在由黑白方格组成的棋盘上使用一组国际象棋棋子进行的。我想，我们都可以同意，这些棋子确实是现实世界中的物体。此外，游戏还涉及一套规则，规定棋子如何移动、棋盘上的合法位置是什么、一个棋子如何吃掉另一个棋子等等。这是国际象棋游戏的现实世界版本。但还有另一个版本，一个纯粹存在于符号和语法（即形式系统）世界中的版本，这个版本完全反映了我们通常看到的现实世界游戏……国际象棋游戏实际上是一组抽象符号（黑白棋子）与另一组抽象符号（棋盘上的方格）之间的关系。简而言之，就游戏的本质而言，这些符号的物质体现并不重要。——约翰·L·卡斯蒂 (John L. Casti)，《复杂化》
Consider the game of Chess. Typically it’s played with a collection of Chess pieces on a chessboard consisting of black and white squares. We can all agree, I think, that these are indeed real-world objects. Moreover, the game involves a set of rules specifying how the pieces can move, what constitutes a legal position on the board, how one piece captures another and so forth. This is the real-world version of the game of Chess. But there is another version, one existing purely in the world of symbols and syntax (i.e., formal systems), and this version mirrors exactly the real-world game we normally see . . . the game of Chess is really a relationship between one set of abstract symbols (the black and white pieces) and another set of abstract symbols (the squares on the board). In short, there is nothing crucial about the material embodiment of these symbols insofar as the essentials of the game are concerned.—John L. Casti, Complexification
井字游戏什么？
Tic-Tac-What?
到目前为止，我们已经以相对直接的方式讨论了规则。例如，我们研究了井字游戏的规则，就像它们出现在说明书中一样，并认为这些规则完全构成了游戏规则，即井字游戏的完整形式结构。下面再来看一下这些规则：
So far we have discussed rules in a relatively straightforward way. For example, we looked at the rules of Tic-Tac-Toe as they might appear in an instructions manual and argued that these rules fully constitute the rules of the game, the complete formal structure of Tic-Tac-Toe. Here are those rules one more time:
1. 游戏在一个 3×3 的网格上进行，网格上有 9 个空方格。
1. Play occurs on a 3 by 3 grid of 9 empty squares.
2. 两名玩家轮流标记空格，第一位玩家标记 X，第二位玩家标记 O。
2. Two players alternate marking empty squares, the first player marking Xs and the second player marking Os.
3. 如果一个玩家连续放置三个相同的标记，则该玩家获胜。
3. If one player places three of the same marks in a row, that player wins.
4. 如果所有空格都被填满，并且没有获胜者，则游戏以平局结束。
4. If the spaces are all filled and there is no winner, the game ends in a draw.
这四条规则是否构成了井字游戏的完整形式系统？虽然这些规则确实向玩家描述了他们需要知道哪些内容才能玩游戏，但井字游戏形式系统的某些方面并未包括在这里。具体来说，有两种形式结构是这四条规则没有完全涵盖的：游戏的底层数学结构和游戏礼仪的隐含规则。
Do these four rules constitute the complete formal system of Tic-Tac-Toe? Although these rules do describe to players what they need to know in order to play, there are aspects of the formal system of Tic-Tac-Toe that are not included here. Specifically, there are two kinds of formal structures that these four rules do not completely cover: the underlying mathematical structures of the game and the implied rules of game etiquette.
引擎盖下
Under the Hood
让我们逐一探讨这两种形式结构。首先，井字游戏规则背后有一个基础形式结构。这样的结构存在吗？它与规定的游戏规则不同吗？事实上，每个游戏都包含一个核心数学逻辑，但它不一定直接体现在玩家必须学习的游戏规则中。要理解这一点，请看一下 Marc LeBlanc 的游戏思想实验。这个游戏叫做 3-to-15。1
Let us explore these two kinds of formal structures one at a time. First, there is the foundational formal structure that lies “under the hood” of the rules of Tic-Tac-Toe. Does such a structure exist? Is it different than the stated rules of play? There is, in fact, a core mathematical logic that is part of every game but that is not necessarily expressed directly in the stated rules of the game that a player must learn. To understand this point, take a look at a game thought experiment by Marc LeBlanc. The game is called 3-to-15.1
3 至 15 的规则：
Rules for 3-to-15:
1. 两名玩家轮流进行游戏。
1. Two players alternate turns.
2. 轮到您时，从 1 到 9 中选择一个数字。
2. On your turn, pick a number from 1 to 9.
3. 您不能选择任何一位玩家已经选过的数字。如果您有一组恰好 3 个数字，且总和为 15，您就赢了。
3. You may not pick a number that has already been picked by either player. If you have a set of exactly 3 numbers that sum to 15, you win.
这款游戏和井字游戏有什么关系？乍一看，3 到 15 似乎与井字游戏完全不同。玩家不是画 X 和 O，而是选择数字。游戏甚至没有提到网格。然而，这款游戏的“妙语”是 3 到 15 实际上是一种井字游戏。如果您认为自己已经明白了，请查看页面上的图表。
What does this game have to do with Tic-Tac-Toe? At first glance, 3-to-15 doesn’t seem anything like Tic-Tac-Toe. Instead of making Xs and Os, players are picking numbers. There is not even mention of a grid. However, the “punch line” of the game is that 3-to-15 is in fact a kind of Tic-Tac-Toe. If you think you have it figured out, look at the diagram across the page.
3-to-15 是一个“魔方”谜题，其中任何水平、垂直或对角线上的数字加起来都是 15。通过按照规则规定的方式从魔方中挑选数字，玩家实际上是在玩井字游戏。或者说，是吗？这两个游戏有什么共同之处？井字游戏和3-to-15 的基本规则如下：
3-to-15 is a “magic square” puzzle, in which the numbers in any horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row add up to 15. By picking numbers from the magic square in the fashion proscribed by the rules, players are actually playing a game of Tic-Tac-Toe. Or are they? What do the two games have in common? The underlying rules found in both Tic-Tac-Toe and 3-to-15 look something like this:
• 两名玩家轮流从 3×3 个单位的网格阵列中做出唯一选择。
• Two players alternate making a unique selection from a grid array of 3 by 3 units.
• 第一个选择水平、垂直或对角线行中的三个单位的玩家获胜。
• The first player to select three units in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row is the winner.
• 如果没有玩家能够做出选择且没有获胜者，则游戏以平局结束。
• If no player can make a selection and there is no winner, then the game ends in a draw.
这些“规则”与井字游戏和 3-to-15 的规则相似，但也有一些显著的不同。例如，规则没有提到玩家如何从一系列选择中进行选择，也没有提到如何记录玩家的行为。上述规则是对这两种游戏的一种抽象。
These “rules” resemble both the rules of Tic-Tac-Toe and 3-to-15, with some significant differences. For example, the rules don’t mention how the player makes a selection from the array of choices, or how to record a player’s action. The rules above are a kind of abstraction of both games.
问题仍然存在：3-to-15 是井字游戏的变体还是完全不同的游戏？如果它是不同的游戏，它与井字游戏有哪些共同之处？所有这些对井字游戏的“规则”有何启示？我们将在本章后面回答这些问题。目前，只需注意，井字游戏等游戏的正式方面实际上隐藏在所述的“游戏规则”之下。
Questions remain: is 3-to-15 a variant of Tic-Tac-Toe or a different game entirely? If it is a different game, what does it share with Tic-Tac-Toe? What does all of this say about the “rules” of Tic-Tac-Toe? We answer these questions later in this chapter. For the time being, just note that there are in fact formal aspects of games such as Tic-Tac-Toe that lie underneath the stated “rules of play.”
成为优秀的运动员
Being a Good Sport
如果游戏的正式系统有某些方面是向玩家表达的规则的基础，那么游戏也有超出或超出既定规则的方面。这些规则是游戏中隐含但通常不明确说明的行为规则。再看看井字游戏的四条“规则”。
If there are aspects of the formal systems of games that underlie the rules as they are expressed to players, there are also aspects of a game that lie beyond or outside the stated rules. These rules are rules of behavior that are implied but usually not explicitly stated in a game. Take a look again at the four “rules” of Tic-Tac-Toe.
1. 游戏在一个 3×3 的网格上进行，网格上有 9 个空方格。
1. Play occurs on a 3 by 3 grid of 9 empty squares.
2. 两名玩家轮流标记空格，第一位玩家标记 X，第二位玩家标记 O。
2. Two players alternate marking empty squares, the first player marking Xs and the second player marking Os.
3. 如果一个玩家连续放置三个相同的标记，则该玩家获胜。
3. If one player places three of the same marks in a row, that player wins.
4. 如果所有空格都被填满，并且没有获胜者，则游戏以平局结束。
4. If the spaces are all filled and there is no winner, the game ends in a draw.
这真的涵盖了井字游戏行为的所有可能规则吗？并非如此。玩家还遵守其他规则。斯蒂芬·斯奈德曼 (Stephen Sniderman) 在他的文章《游戏人生》中指出了其中一条规则：井字游戏中回合之间的隐含时间限制：
Does that really cover every possible rule of Tic-Tac-Toe behavior? Not really. There are other rules that players observe as well. In his essay “Life of Games,” Stephen Sniderman points out one of these rules: the implied time limit between turns in Tic-Tac-Toe:
动作之间有时间限制吗？通常情况下，我们都“明白”有时间限制，我们都“知道”我们的动作应该在“合理”的时间内完成，比如 20 秒。如果我们其中一人花费的时间更长，另一人就会开始坐立不安或表现出无聊，甚至可能做出不那么微妙的评论，最终威胁要退出。虽然没有说出来，但我们接受了默认的时间限制。而且由于我们没有说出来，所以它相当灵活且非常实用。
Is there a time limit between moves? Normally, we both “understand” that there is, and we both “know” that our moves should be made within a “reasonable” time, say 20 seconds. If one of us takes longer, the other starts to fidget or act bored, maybe even make not-so-subtle comments, and eventually threatens to quit. Without having stated it, we have accepted a tacit time limit. And because we haven’t stated it, it is fairly flexible and very functional.
假设轮到我了，无论我怎么做，你都会在下一步中获胜。难道我不能通过拒绝游戏来阻止这种情况的发生，在规定的规则范围内吗？规则中没有任何内容强迫我在特定时间内移动，所以我只是不进行下一步。我不是遵守了规则并避免了失败吗？然而，如果你曾经玩过游戏，你就会知道这种策略几乎从未被使用过，而且是完全不可接受的。任何认真诉诸这种策略的人都会被认为是幼稚的、没有体育精神的或社会上不受欢迎的，并且很可能不会被邀请参加未来游戏。这种行为似乎违反了游戏中一些基本但很少被提及的原则，而我们中没有人需要讨论它。2
Suppose it is my turn and, no matter what I do, you will win on your next move. Couldn’t I prevent that from happening, within the rules stated, by simply refusing to play? Nothing in the rules forces me to move within a particular amount of time, so I simply do not make my next move. Haven’t I followed the rules and avoided losing? And yet, if you’ve ever played a game, you know that this strategy is almost never employed and would be completely unacceptable. Anybody who seriously resorted to such a tactic would be considered childish or unsportsmanlike or socially undesirable and would probably not be asked to play in the future. This behavior seems to violate some fundamental but rarely stated principle of the game without any of us ever having to discuss it.2
除了自己设定的回合时间限制外，还有许多其他“不成文的规则”。例如，人们普遍认为，玩家会以一种让他们能轻松画出 X 和 O 的方式玩井字游戏。这就是为什么大多数游戏都是通过在纸上做记号而不是从一大片土地上拔出草叶，或者在危险的繁忙高速公路的柏油路上用粉笔做记号来进行的——在这些情况下，游戏条件会使游戏几乎不可能进行。其他不成文的规则假设玩家不会互相挠痒痒、隐藏游戏板或采取其他行动阻止对手轮流。这些规则以某种方式隐含在四条规定的“规则”中。但如果必须列出所有可能的隐含规则，那么列表将是无穷无尽的。
There are plenty of other “unwritten rules” besides the self-imposed time limit on turns. For example, it is generally agreed that players will play Tic-Tac-Toe in a way that allows them to easily make Xs and Os. This is why most games take place by marking a piece of paper instead of picking blades of grass out of a large section of land, or making chalk marks on the asphalt of a dangerously busy superhighway—the conditions of play in these cases would make for a nearly impossible game. Other unwritten rules assume that players will not tickle each other, hide the gameboard, or take other actions that prevent their opponents from taking a turn. These rules are implicit in some way in the four stated “rules.” But if every possible implicit rule had to be listed, the list would be infinite.
三种规则
Three Kinds of Rules
正如井字游戏的例子所示，为了充分理解游戏的正式运作，我们需要将对游戏规则的理解复杂化。我们提出了一个由三部分组成的系统来理解游戏规则是什么以及它们如何运作。
As the example of Tic-Tac-Toe demonstrates, in order to fully understand the formal operation of a game, we need to complexify our understanding of game rules. We propose a three-part system for understanding what game rules are and how they operate.
操作规则是游戏的“游戏规则”。它们就是我们通常所认为的规则：玩家玩游戏所需的指导方针。操作规则通常与棋盘游戏和其他非数字游戏附带的书面“规则”同义。井字游戏的操作规则就是我们最初提出的四条规则。
Operational rules are the “rules of play” of a game. They are what we normally think of as rules: the guidelines players require in order to play. The operational rules are usually synonymous with the written-out “rules” that accompany board games and other non-digital games. The operational rules of Tic-Tac-Toe are the four rules we initially presented.
构成规则
Constituative Rules
游戏的构成规则是存在于呈现给玩家的规则“表面之下”的底层形式结构。这些形式结构是逻辑和数学的。就井字游戏而言，构成规则是井字游戏与 3-to-15 游戏共享的底层数学逻辑。
The constituative rules of a game are the underlying formal structures that exist “below the surface” of the rules presented to players. These formal structures are logical and mathematical. In the case of Tic-Tac-Toe, the constituative rules are the underlying mathematical logic that Tic-Tac-Toe shares with the game 3-to-15.
隐含规则
Implicit Rules
隐含规则是游戏的“不成文规则”。这些规则涉及礼仪、良好的体育精神和其他适当的游戏行为的隐含规则。井字游戏的隐含规则数量庞大，无法全部列出。井字游戏的隐含规则与其他回合制游戏（如国际象棋）的隐含规则相似。但是，隐含规则可能因游戏和环境而异。例如，您可能会让一个小孩在国际象棋游戏中“收回”愚蠢的举动，但您可能不会让对手在激烈的恩怨比赛中做同样的事情。
Implicit rules are the “unwritten rules” of a game. These rules concern etiquette, good sportsmanship, and other implied rules of proper game behavior. The number of implicit rules of Tic-Tac-Toe is vast and cannot be completely listed. The implicit rules of Tic-Tac-Toe are similar to the implicit rules of other turn-based games such as Chess. However, implicit rules can change from game to game and from context to context. For example, you might let a young child “take back” a foolish move in a game of Chess, but you probably wouldn’t let your opponent do the same in a hotly contested grudge match.
滑梯和梯子的规则
The Rules of Chutes and Ladders
规则的简单性就说这么多。现在我们仔细研究了井字游戏的形式结构，很明显，游戏规则的现象比最初看起来要复杂得多。让我们继续研究三种规则，转向棋盘游戏“蛇梯棋”。游戏的印刷规则如下：
So much for the simplicity of rules. Now that we have taken a closer look at the formal structure of Tic-Tac-Toe, it is clear that the phenomenon of game rules is more complex than it initially appeared. Let us continue our investigation of three kinds of rules by turning to the board game Chutes and Ladders. The printed rules of the game read as follows:
怎么玩：
How to Play:
1. 每个人都转动转盘。数字最大的玩家先开始。游戏从左边开始。
1. Everyone spins the spinner. The player with the highest number goes first. Play proceeds to the left.
2.轮到您时该做什么：轮到您时，旋转转盘并逐格移动棋子，移动的格数与转盘上显示的数字相同。例如，在您的第一轮，如果您旋转出 5，则移动到棋盘上的 #5。移动棋子后，您的轮次就结束了。
2. What to Do on Your Turn: On your turn, spin the spinner and move your pawn, square by square, the number shown on the spinner. For example, on your first turn, if you spin a 5, move to #5 on the board. Once you move your pawn, your turn is over.
3. 两个或多个棋子可以同时位于同一位置。
3. Two or more pawns may be on the same space at the same time.
4.沿滑槽或梯子上下移动：任何时候，棋子在梯子底部的图形方块上结束移动，该棋子就必须爬上梯子顶部的图形方块......滑槽：任何时候，棋子在滑槽顶部的图形方块上结束移动，该棋子就必须沿滑槽滑下滑到滑槽底部的图形方块。
4. Going Up or Down a Chute or Ladder: Any time a pawn ends its move on a picture square at the bottom of a ladder, that pawn must climb up to the picture square at the top of the ladder . . . . Chutes: Any time a pawn ends its move on a picture square at the top of a chute, that pawn must slide down the chute to the picture square at the bottom of the chute.
5. 如果你的棋子在下列任意一个位置结束其回合，则你的回合结束：
5. If your pawn ends its turn on any of the following spaces, your turn is over:
• 没有图片的正方形
• a square with no picture
• 没有图片且只有箭头的正方形
• a square with no picture and just an arrow
• 梯子或溜槽刚好可以通过的正方形
• a square that a ladder or chute just passes through
• 梯子顶部的一个图片方块
• a picture square at the top of the ladder
• 滑槽底部的方形图片
• a picture square at the bottom of a chute
赢得比赛：
Winning the Game:
第一个到达蓝丝带方格 #100 的玩家获胜。您可以通过两种方式到达那里：
The first player to reach the Blue Ribbon square #100 wins the game. You can get there two ways:
1. 按准确计数到达那里。如果您的旋转会带您越过第 100 格，请不要移动。在下一轮中再试一次。
1. Land there by exact count. If your spin would take you past square #100, don’t move. Try again on your next turn.
2. 通过在梯子方格#803 上结束移动来爬到那里。
2. Climb there by ending your move on ladder square #803.
虽然这些不是随游戏一起提供的完整的印刷规则（官方规则包括叙述性介绍和设置部分），但它们为我们提供了进行形式分析所需的信息。这些印刷规则与游戏的操作规则、构成规则和隐含规则有何关系？
Although these aren’t the complete printed rules that accompany the game (the official rules include a narrative introduction and a Setup section), they give us the information that we need for our formal analysis. How do these printed rules relate to the operational, constituative, and implicit rules of the game?
滑梯和梯子：操作规则
Chutes and Ladders: Operational Rules
和大多数以书面形式向玩家说明的规则一样，《蛇梯棋》的印刷规则主要由操作规则组成。操作规则是指导玩家行为的明确说明。例如，《如何玩》规则二告诉玩家：“轮到你时，旋转转盘并逐格移动棋子，移动的格数等于转盘上显示的数字。”
Like most rules that are written out as instructions for players, the printed rules of Chutes and Ladders consist primarily of operational rules. The operational rules are explicit instructions that guide the behavior of players. How to Play rule number two, for example, tells players: “On your turn, spin the spinner and move your pawn, square by square, the number shown on the spinner.”
这是直接与游戏材料相关的公开指令。由于棋盘游戏的物理材料允许玩家与游戏系统互动，因此操作规则必须准确描述玩家如何操纵和解释游戏对象。规则提到了棋盘的旋转器、棋子和方块，用一句话概括了游戏的核心机制。
This is an overt instruction that engages directly with the materials of the game. Because the physical materials of a board game allow players to interact with the game system, it is important for the operational rules to delineate precisely how a player is to manipulate and interpret the objects of a game. The rule mentions the spinner, pawn, and squares of the board, outlining in a single statement the core mechanism of play.
滑梯和梯子：构成规则
Chutes and Ladders: Constituative Rules
游戏的操作规则主要关注的是引导玩家的行为。相比之下，游戏的构成规则（底层数学结构）独立于玩家而存在。操作规则是具体的，描述了玩家将采取的具体行动，而构成规则则是抽象的。构成规则是一组逻辑关系，不一定以物质形式或玩家的行为准则的形式体现出来。构成规则实际上有自己的逻辑，并没有明确说明玩家将如何使用它们。
The primary concern of the operational rules of a game is guiding the behavior of players. In contrast, the constituative rules of a game—the underlying mathematical structure—exist independently from the player. Whereas operational rules are concrete and describe specific actions that players will take, the constituative rules are abstract. Constituative rules are sets of logical relationships that are not necessarily embodied in a material form or in a set of behavioral guidelines for the player. Constituative rules literally have their own logic, which does not explicitly state how a player will make use of them.
滑梯游戏的构成规则是什么？它们可能看起来像这样：
What are the constituative rules of Chutes and Ladders? They might look something like this:
1. 所有玩家的起始值均为零。
1. Players all begin with a value of zero.
2. 玩家轮流将 1 至 6 之间的随机数添加到其当前值中。
2. Players alternate turns adding a random number of 1–6 to their current value.
3. 第一个达到正好 100 的玩家获胜（如果将随机数添加到玩家总数中会导致总数超过 100，则此回合不要添加随机数）。
3. The first player to reach a value of exactly 100 wins (if adding the random number to a player’s total would make the total exceed 100, do not add the random number this turn).
4. 当玩家的总数恰好达到某些数字时，总数会发生变化。例如，如果玩家恰好达到 9，她的总数将变为 31。如果玩家恰好达到 49，她的总数将变为 11。（此规则涵盖了游戏中的“滑道”和“梯子”。对于真正的构成规则集，必须扩展此规则以包括特定游戏版本的所有可能的“滑道”和“梯子”数字调整。）
4. When a player’s total exactly reaches certain numbers, the total changes. For example, if a player reaches exactly 9, her total becomes 31. If a player reaches exactly 49, her total becomes 11. (This rule covers the “chutes” and “ladders” the game. For a true set of constituative rules, this rule would have to be expanded to include all of the possible “chute” and “ladder” number adjustments for the particular edition of the game.)
请注意，这些规则中没有提到旋转器、棋盘或棋子。也没有提到玩家应该如何生成随机数或在游戏过程中跟踪他们的数字。这些机制涉及特定的材料和行为，是游戏操作规则的一部分。
Notice that in these rules, there is no mention of a spinner, a board, or pawns. There is no mention of how players are supposed to generate random numbers or to keep track of their numbers during the game. These mechanisms, which involve particular materials and behaviors, are part of the operational rules of the game.
构成规则与操作规则有何关系？是否存在一一对应关系？作为一个思想实验，我们可以使用这四条构成规则来发明不同于标准 Chutes and Ladders 游戏的新操作规则集。假设我们只想改变玩家在轮到自己时生成随机数的方式以及他们跟踪进度的方式。以下是我们可以重新设计游戏的众多不同方法中的几种：
How do the constituative rules relate to the operational rules? Is there a one-to-one relationship? As a thought experiment, we could use these same four constituative rules to invent new sets of operational rules that differ from the standard Chutes and Ladders game. Say that we wanted to change only the way that players generated the random number on their turn and the way that they kept track of their progress. Here are a few of the many different ways we could redesign the game:
•骰子和记分表。玩家通过在记分表上写数字来记录他们的总分，并掷骰子来生成随机数。
• Die and Scoresheet. Players keep track of their total by writing numbers on a scoresheet and roll a die to generate a random number.
•纸牌和筹码。玩家从中央池中取出筹码来记录他们的总数，然后从一组六张洗好的纸牌中挑选一个来生成一个随机数。
• Cards and Chips. Players keep track of their total by taking chips from a central pool and they pick from a set of six shuffled cards to generate a random number.
•旋转器和桩。玩家沿着直线轨道移动桩，使用棋子保持原位。玩家使用旋转器生成随机数。
• Spinner and Pegs. Players move pegs along a linear track, using pawns to keep their place. Players use a spinner to generate a random number.
这三款游戏都有各自的一套操作规则，与《滑梯与梯子》的原始规则有些相似，但规则必须进行调整，以适应我们引入的新材料和行为。对于每款游戏，我们都必须为玩家提供一张信息表，以追踪所有向前和向后的跳跃，在原始游戏中，这些跳跃以“滑梯”和“梯子”的形式在棋盘上以图形方式描绘出来。
Each of these three games would have its own set of operational rules, which would vaguely resemble the original rules of Chutes and Ladders, but the rules would have to be adjusted to take into account the new materials and behaviors we introduced. For each game, we would have to provide an informational sheet for players to track all of the forward and backward jumps, which in the original game take the form of “chutes” and “ladders” graphically depicted on the board.
这三款游戏都要求玩家采取不同的行为。每款游戏都会为玩家带来不同的体验：掷骰子和抽牌是不同的动作。尽管存在这些差异，但它们仍然共享同一套底层构成规则。因此，游戏的操作规则和构成规则之间没有内在关系。同一套构成规则可以用许多不同的操作形式来表达。
These three games all require players to behave differently. Each one creates a different experience for players: rolling a die is a different action than drawing a card. Despite these differences, they all still share the same set of underlying constituative rules. There is not, therefore, an intrinsic relationship between a game’s operational and constituative rules. The same set of constituative rules can be expressed in many different operational forms.
滑梯和梯子：隐含规则
Chutes and Ladders: Implicit Rules
让我们来看看第三种规则，即游戏的隐性规则。《蛇梯棋》有很多隐性规则。例如，我们在《井字游戏》中指出的有关玩家在回合之间应花费的时间的隐性规则也适用于此。但《蛇梯棋》还有其他隐性规则。其中一些甚至包含在印刷的游戏规则中。以下是游戏规则手册中的设置部分：
Let us turn to our third kind of rules, the implicit rules of a game. There are many implicit rules of Chutes and Ladders. For example, the implicit rule we pointed out in Tic-Tac-Toe relating to the time players should take between turns also applies here. But there are other implicit rules of Chutes and Ladders too. Some of them are even included in the printed game rules. Below is the Setup section from the game’s rule booklet:
1. 调整游戏板的位置，使得所有玩家都可以轻松地将他们的棋子从一个方格移动到另一个方格。
1. Position the gameboard so that all the players can easily move their pawns from square to square.
2.关于方格：看一下游戏板。方格编号从 1 到 100。玩家的棋子将在棋盘上来回移动，按照数字向上移动 - 从方格 1 开始，向右移动到方格 10，然后向上移动到方格 11，向左移动到方格 20，等等。当然，您也可以通过爬梯子移动，但不幸的是，也会从滑槽上滑下来。稍后会详细介绍。
2. All About the Squares: Take a peek at the gameboard. The squares are numbered from 1 to 100. Players’ pawns will move back and forth across the board, following the numbers upward—starting at square #1 and moving right toward square #10, then up to square #11 and left toward square #20, etc. Of course, you can also move by climbing ladders and unfortunately fall down, too, by sliding down chutes. More about that later.
3. 每个人都选择一个棋子来玩。多余的棋子将无法使用。选定的棋子将放置在棋盘外靠近 1 号方格的位置。现在准备好享受乐趣吧！4
3. Everyone chooses a pawn to play. Any extra pawns are out of play. Chosen pawns are placed off the board near square #1. Now get ready for the fun!4
虽然这些规则可能看起来很明显，但它们有助于说明《蛇梯棋》中的一些隐含规则。设置规则 1 是隐含规则的典型示例，这里在印刷文本中明确说明。游戏板必须放置在每个人都可以访问的位置 - 换句话说，每个人都必须能够从物理和逻辑上执行操作规则。设置规则指示玩家将多余的棋子移出游戏（将它们留在游戏之外），这是另一条通常是隐含的规则，但恰好在这里写出来了。
Although these rules might seem obvious, they help illustrate some of the implicit rules of Chutes and Ladders. Setup rule number 1 is a classic example of an implicit rule, here made explicit in the printed text. The gameboard must be positioned so that everyone can access it—in other words, it is necessary that everyone be able to physically and logistically enact the operational rules. The Setup rule that instructs players to put extra pawns out of play (leaving them outside the game) is another rule that is usually implicit, but happens to be written out here.
就这两条规则而言，通常隐含的规则通过列在游戏附带的规则中而成为明确陈述的操作规则。对于《Chutes and Ladders》的年轻玩家，游戏设计师似乎认为在这些情况下有必要阐明通常隐含的内容。而且由于隐含规则的潜在数量是无限的，因此还有许多其他隐含规则可能被陈述。在为游戏编写说明、手册或帮助部分时，应该包括哪些内容？这完全取决于您的受众以及您希望参与者拥有的体验类型。最终，规则和说明集需要像游戏的其他方面一样进行设计、分析、测试和修订。
In the case of these two rules, a normally implicit rule is made an explicitly stated, operational rule through its listing in the rules that come with the game. For Chutes and Ladders’ audience of young players, the game designers seemed to think that it was necessary in these cases to spell out what is usually implicit. And because the potential number of implicit rules is infinite, there are many other implicit rules that might be stated as well. Which ones should you include when you are writing instructions, manuals, or help sections for a game? It all depends on your audience and the kind of experience you want the participants to have. Ultimately, sets of rules and instructions need to be designed, analyzed, tested, and revised just as other aspects of a game.
就我们进行形式分析的目的而言，将这些书面规则称为“隐含规则”意味着什么？如果规则是明确写出来的，怎么可能是隐含的呢？操作规则和隐含规则之间的界限可能相当模糊。通常，“规则”根据上下文，“比赛规则”可以从隐含转变为可操作。回到我们之前废弃场地棒球比赛的例子，关于树干（而不是树枝或树根）是二垒的规则对于一群在树木作为垒的地方打棒球有着许多共同经验的孩子来说可能是一个隐含规则。然而，新玩家可能需要明确说明这个隐含规则，此时它将成为一条明确的可操作规则。
For the purposes of our formal analysis, what does it mean to call these written rules “implicit rules”? If a rule is explicitly written out, how can it possibly be implicit? The boundary between operational and implicit rules can be quite fuzzy. Often, a “rule of play” can shift from implicit to operational, depending on the context. To return to our earlier example of the abandoned lot baseball game, the rule about the tree trunk (and not the branches or roots) being second base could be an implicit rule for a group of kids that have a lot of common experience playing baseball in places where trees are used as bases. However, a newer player might need this implicit rule spelled out, at which point it would become an explicit, operational rule.
这个由三部分组成的规则模型的价值不在于能够明确地确定任何给定规则是构成性的、操作性的还是隐含的。总会有一些游戏和游戏环境不能完全符合我们的模型。与本书中的所有概念一样，这三种理解规则的方式并不是作为一种明确的解释类型学来呈现的：它是一种框架，用于识别、分析和解决游戏中出现的设计问题。
The value of this three-part rules model is not in being able to definitively decide whether any given rule is constituative, operational, or implicit. There will always be some games and game contexts that don’t neatly fit into our model. Like all of the concepts in this book, these three ways of understanding rules is not presented as a definitive explanatory typology: it is offered as a framework for identifying, analyzing, and solving design problems as they arise in your game.
游戏的身份
The Identity of a Game
“每款游戏都有自己的规则，”胡伊津哈在《游戏人》中说道。但我们可以更进一步说，“每款游戏都有自己的规则”，因为规则定义了游戏。——大卫·帕莱特，《牛津棋盘游戏史》
Every game has its rules,” says Huizinga in Homo Ludens. But we may go further, and say, “Every game is its rules,” for they are what define it.—David Parlett, The Oxford History of Board Games
现在，我们已经掌握了《蛇梯棋》的构成规则、操作规则和隐含规则。问题是：这些规则中哪一套才是真正的《蛇梯棋》规则？哪一套规则才是真正的游戏规则？答案并不明显。在研究《蛇梯棋》时，我们确定了构成规则，但这些规则也可用于制作其他游戏，例如骰子和记分表游戏。操作规则似乎是《蛇梯棋》独有的，但它们难道不是更基本的构成规则的表达吗？隐含规则似乎根本不是《蛇梯棋》独有的（它们与其他棋盘游戏共享），但同时，一些隐含规则写在游戏随附的说明中。那么不属于规则的游戏元素呢：游戏名称、材料的视觉设计、棋盘上发生的惩罚和奖励的小叙述、游戏开发的历史、玩家的人口统计资料？蛇梯棋的这些属性对游戏的形式特征有影响吗？
By now we have a grasp on the constituative, operational, and implicit rules of Chutes and Ladders. Here is a question: which of these sets of rules are really the rules of Chutes and Ladders? Which set of rules are the true rules of the game? The answer is not obvious. In looking at Chutes and Ladders, we identified the constituative rules, but these rules can also be used to make other games, such as the Die and Scoresheet game. The operational rules seem unique to Chutes and Ladders, but aren’t they only an expression of the more fundamental constituative rules? The implicit rules do not seem unique to Chutes and Ladders at all (they are shared with other board games), but at the same time, some of the implicit rules are written out in the instructions that come with the game. And what about game elements that aren’t part of the rules: the name of the game, the visual design of the materials, the mini-narratives of punishment and reward that happen on the board, the history of the game’s development, the demographic profile of its players? Do any of these attributes of Chutes and Ladders have a bearing on the game’s formal identity?
我们先从最后一个问题开始。我们可以用许多种方式来定义游戏。然而，在有关规则的章节中，重点并不在于游戏的视觉设计、叙事内容、文化历史或社会用途。相反，重点在于游戏规则：游戏的形式结构。在决定哪些规则是游戏的“真正”规则时，我们可以排除《蛇梯棋》中所有这些非规则方面。相反，我们必须只看这三种规则，并从形式的角度来决定什么构成了《蛇梯棋》的实际“规则”。什么规则赋予了《蛇梯棋》独特的形式身份？
We start with the last question first. We can define a game in many ways. In the chapters concerning RULES, however, the focus is not on the visual design, narrative content, cultural history, or social use of games. Instead, it is on game rules: the formal structures of a game. When it comes to deciding which rules are the “real” rules of the game, we can eliminate all of these non-rule aspects of Chutes and Ladders. Instead, we must look only at the three kinds of rules and decide, from a formal point of view, what constitutes the actual “rules” of Chutes and Ladders. What set of rules gives Chutes and Ladders its unique formal identity?
我们可以立即排除隐含规则作为可能的答案。尽管《蛇梯棋》的隐含规则对于理解游戏的运作方式至关重要，但总的来说，游戏的隐含规则与其他游戏的隐含规则相似。即使我们能够以某种方式列出游戏的所有隐含规则，也无法让我们更接近找到《蛇梯棋》独特的形式身份。
We can immediately eliminate implicit rules as a possible answer. Although the implicit rules of Chutes and Ladders are crucial to understanding how the game functions, by and large the implicit rules of the game are similar to the implicit rules of other games. Even if we were somehow able to list all of the game’s implicit rules, it would not get us any closer to locating the unique formal identity of Chutes and Ladders.
这样就剩下另外两类：操作规则和构成规则。事实证明，这两类规则对于确定游戏的独特性都很重要。《蛇梯棋》（或任何游戏）形式系统的“真实而独特的身份”源于这两组规则之间的相互作用。乍一看，游戏的构成规则似乎是游戏规则的“核心”或“本质”，而操作规则仅仅描述了访问构成规则的方式。事实上，事实并非如此。游戏的构成规则和操作规则协同作用，产生了游戏的形式“意义”。游戏的逻辑和构成核心中并没有包含游戏的“本质”。
This leaves the other two categories: operational and constituative rules. It turns out that these two kinds of rules are both important in determining a game’s uniqueness. The “true and unique identity” of the formal system of Chutes and Ladders (or any game) emerges from the interaction between these two sets of rules. At first glance, it might seem like the constituative rules of a game are the “core” or “essence” of the game rules and the operational rules merely describe ways of accessing the constituative rules. In fact, this is not the case. The constituative and operational rules of a game work in concert to generate the formal “meaning” of a game. There is no “essence” of a game wrapped up in its logical, constituative core.
我们确定吗？回想一下具有相同构成规则的《蛇梯棋》变体。那些其他游戏变体感觉不像《蛇梯棋》——因为它们不是《蛇梯棋》。游戏的形式身份与其构成逻辑息息相关，而玩家体验该逻辑的物质方式（如操作规则所规定）也同样重要。玩家掷骰子和在棋盘上移动棋子这一事实与这些行为所表达的数学逻辑一样，都是《蛇梯棋》的一部分。
Are we sure about this? Think back to the variations on Chutes and Ladders that shared the same constituative rules. Those other game variations just did not feel like Chutes and Ladders—because they were not Chutes and Ladders. As much as the formal identity of a game is tied to its constituative logic, the material way that players experience that logic, as proscribed by the operational rules, is equally important. The fact that players are rolling a die and moving pieces on a board is as much a part of Chutes and Ladders as the mathematical logic that those behaviors express.
如果游戏板和其他材料很重要，那么它们不是游戏正式身份的一部分吗？如果我们删除男孩和女孩的可爱插图，会发生什么？如果我们用指向玩家应该去的空间的抽象箭头替换滑道和梯子的插图，会发生什么？游戏还是滑道和梯子吗？从体验式、基于游戏的角度来看，不是。从游戏中删除这些元素会改变玩家的体验——参与游戏的玩家甚至可能不会意识到这是一个“精简版”的滑道和梯子。然而，即使玩家可能没有意识到这一点，从正式的角度来看，他们还是在玩滑道和梯子。正式地，即使删除了所有的插图，游戏规则仍将保持不变。在定义游戏的正式身份时，只有规则才重要。
If the gameboard and other materials are important, are they not part of the formal identity of the game? What happens if we remove the cute illustrations of boys and girls? What if we replace the illustrations of chutes and ladders with abstract arrows that point at the space where the player is supposed to go? Would the game still be Chutes and Ladders? From an experiential, play-based point of view, no. Removing these elements from the game changes the players’ experience—players taking part in the game might not even recognize it as a “stripped down” version of Chutes and Ladders. However, even though the players might not realize it, from a formal point of view, they would be playing Chutes and Ladders. Formally, even with all of the illustrative graphics taken out, the rules of the game would remain the same. When it comes to defining the formal identity of a game, only the rules matter.
规则的特殊性
Specificity of Rules
让我们再看看构成规则和操作规则之间的复杂交集。对于任何给定的游戏，真的存在一套构成规则吗？或者，我们可能会将多套构成规则应用于同一款游戏吗？如果《蛇梯棋》的构成规则以以下方式简化，结果会怎样？
Let us take another look at the complex intersection of constituative and operational rules. Is it really true that for any given game, there exists a single set of constituative rules? Or are there many sets of constituative rules we might apply to the same game? What if the constituative rules of Chutes and Ladders were simplified in the following manner:
1. 所有玩家的起始值均为零。
1. Players all begin with a value of zero.
2. 玩家轮流生成一个数字并将其添加到他们的值中。
2. Players alternate turns generating a number and adding it to their value.
3. 第一个达到 100 值的玩家获胜。
3. The first player to reach a value of 100 wins.
或者进一步简化：
Or simplified even further:
1. 玩家以零值开始。
1. Players begin with a value of zero.
2. 第一个达到 100 值的玩家获胜。
2. The first player to reach a value of 100 wins.
甚至更进一步：
Or even further:
1. 最先满足胜利条件的玩家即为胜利者。
1. The first player to satisfy the victory conditions is the winner.
这些构成规则的连续简化是怎么回事？随着每次风格化，我们不仅离“滑梯”越来越远，而且我们也离一套可以包含在一组特定的操作规则中的构成规则越来越远。
What is going on with these successive simplifications of the constituative rules? With each stylization, we not only move farther away from Chutes and Ladders, but we also move farther away from a set of constituative rules that could be contained within a particular set of operational rules.
因为操作规则和构成规则共同构成了游戏的正式身份，所以它们必须体现我们在上一章中确定的规则的特质：明确无歧义，以及共享、固定、约束和可重复。上面列出的模糊构成规则集不符合这些标准：它们太笼统了。可以为《蛇梯棋》创建一组类似的模糊操作规则，例如告诉玩家在棋盘上移动，但不具体说明他们应该如何移动。正如我们从前面的例子中知道的那样，操作规则的模糊性会导致分歧，必须在游戏继续之前解决分歧。
Because the operational and constituative rules together create the formal identity of a game, they must embody the qualities of rules we identified in the previous chapter: explicit and unambiguous, as well as shared, fixed, binding, and repeatable. The vague sets of constituative rules listed above don’t meet these criteria: they are simply too general. A similar set of ambiguous operational rules could be created for Chutes and Ladders, such as by telling players to move on the board but not specifying exactly how they are supposed to move. As we know from earlier examples, ambiguity in operational rules leads to disagreements, which must be resolved before play can continue.
任何游戏规则的特殊性都使我们能够识别游戏，即游戏是由这套规则而不是那套规则定义的。没有绝对的衡量标准来衡量一个游戏的身份何时结束，另一个游戏何时开始。但游戏的身份通常是不言而喻的。那么，如果身份是不言而喻的，我们为什么要费尽心机去确定它呢？因为游戏的形式身份来自于其构成规则和操作规则的交汇，所以了解它的运作方式将有助于我们理解规则如何构建游戏。
The specificity of the rules for any game allows us to identify the game, by saying that it is defined by this set of rules and not that set of rules. There is no absolute measure for the moment when the identity of one game ends and another begins. But the identity of the game is usually self-evident. So if identity is self-evident, why are we going through such trouble to pin it down? Because the formal identity of a game emerges from the intersection of its constituative and operational rules, understanding how it operates will help us understand how rules construct a game.
操作规则不仅仅是游戏构成规则的一种表达。这种关系更像是一条双向的街道。操作规则是具体的、现实世界的规则。构成规则是抽象的、逻辑的规则。它们非常不同，但每个游戏都凭借其独特的身份将它们紧密联系在一起。这两种规则之间的关系是什么？数学家约翰·卡斯蒂 (John Casti) 对这个问题进行了一些阐述：
The operational rules are not merely an expression of the constituative rules of a game. The relationship is more of a two-way street. Operational rules are concrete, real-world rules. Constituative rules are abstract, logical rules. They are very different, but every game ties them together tightly by virtue of its unique identity. What is the relationship between these two kinds of rules? Mathematician John Casti sheds some light on the problem:
给定一种特定的数学结构，我们必须编造一本字典，将形式系统的抽象符号和规则翻译（即解释）为该结构的对象。通过这个字典构建步骤，我们为形式系统的符号和字符串的抽象、纯句法结构赋予意义。此后，形式系统的所有定理都可以解释为关于相关现实世界对象的真实陈述。5
Given a particular kind of mathematical structure, we have to make up a dictionary to translate (i.e., interpret) the abstract symbols and rules of the formal system into the objects of that structure. By this dictionary-construction step, we attach a meaning to the abstract, purely syntactic structure of the symbols and strings of the formal system. Thereafter, all of the theorems of the formal system can be interpreted as true statements about the associated real-world objects.5
卡斯蒂并不是在谈论游戏（他在讨论纯粹的形式系统（如数学）与这些形式系统命名和操纵的对象之间的关系）。但他的思想与此相关。在他描述的系统中，结构的两个层次之间存在解释，这种解释在层次之间发生翻译时产生了意义。同样的过程发生在游戏规则的所有三个层次上。游戏的形式意义取决于相互交织的构成规则、操作规则和隐含规则。我们如何理解游戏依赖于它们的相互作用，因为一种规则形式允许表达其他规则。规则作为一种表达系统的重要性源于其各部分的相互依赖性。在游戏的魔法圈中，形式结构凭借这些相互关系获得意义。
Casti is not talking about games (he is discussing the relationships between purely formal systems such as math and the objects that those formal systems name and manipulate). But his thinking is relevant here. In the kinds of systems he describes, there is interpretation between the two levels of a structure, an interpretation that produces meaning as translation occurs between the levels. This same process occurs across all three levels of a game’s rules. The formal meaning of a game is dependent on the intertwined constituative, operational, and implicit rules. How we make sense of a game relies on their interaction, as one form of rules allows for the expression of the others. The significance of rules as a system of expression arises out of the interdependence of its parts. Within the magic circle of a game, formal structures acquire meaning by virtue of these interrelationships.
设计优雅的规则
Designing Elegant Rules
有趣的是，当玩家沿着轨道移动棋子或令牌时（如在《蛇梯棋》中），他们的行为实际上只是记分的另一种方式。相反，任何玩家显示或记录数字分数的游戏也可以实现为赛车游戏，其中玩家沿着轨道移动。为什么游戏要选择一种操作形式而不是另一种？如果《蛇梯棋》也可以以其他方式玩，为什么它要在棋盘上玩？我们可以使用游戏规则框架来帮助做出此类设计决策吗？
It is curious to realize that when players move pawns or tokens along a track (as in Chutes and Ladders) their action is really just a different way of keeping score. Conversely, any game in which players display or record a numerical score could also be realized as a race game, with representations of the players moving along a track. Why should a game choose one operational form over another? Why should Chutes and Ladders be played on a board if it could also be played in other ways? Can we use the framework of game rules to help make these kinds of design decisions?
作为游戏设计师，您通常希望玩家专注于游戏体验，而不是理解规则。设计规则的一个重要方面是创造体验，让优雅的规则设计保持适当的玩家注意力。
As a game designer you generally want players focused on the experience of play, rather than on making sense of the rules. One important aspect of designing rules is creating experiences where elegant rule design maintains proper player focus.
设计过程中的规则
Rules in the Design Process
规则和设计有什么关系？我们是否提倡游戏设计师在设计游戏时，明确考虑构成性规则、操作性规则和隐含规则？
What do rules have to do with design? Are we advocating that game designers create their games by thinking explicitly in terms of constituative, operational, and implicit rules?
首先，设计有意义的游戏并没有什么神奇的公式。有多少游戏设计师就有多少种游戏创作方法。作为一名游戏设计师，你可能会被探索故事叙述、视觉美学、社交互动、新技术甚至新形式规则的欲望所驱使。
First of all, there is no magic formula for designing meaningful play. There are as many approaches to creating games as there are game designers. As a game designer, you might be driven by a desire to explore storytelling, visual aesthetics, social interaction, new technologies—or even new kinds of formal rules.
尽管存在所有这些可能的方法，但游戏本质上还是具有结构性的。即使你不专注于将规则作为游戏设计过程的创意灵感，你仍然需要创建一套规则来设计你的游戏。这意味着，从形式上看待游戏——将其视为一套规则——最终将成为了解游戏如何运作的重要部分。了解游戏的形式特质与了解游戏的体验和文化方面同样重要。
Despite all of these possible approaches, there is something intrinsically structural about games. Even if you are not focused on rules as the creative inspiration for your game design process, you are still going to have to create a set of rules in order to design your game. This means that looking at games formally—as a system of rules—will ultimately be an important part of knowing how your game works. Understanding the formal qualities of games is just as important as understanding their experiential and cultural aspects.
这三种规则不仅仅是一种游戏设计程序，它还提供了一个理解规则如何运作的框架。作为一名游戏设计师，你通过游戏设计的迭代过程构建的系统将以规则作为其原材料之一。设计和重新设计游戏系统在某种程度上意味着修改规则。了解规则如何运作可以让设计有意义的游戏变得更加容易。
More than a procedure for designing games, the three kinds of rules provide a framework for understanding how rules operate. As a game designer, the systems you’re building through the iterative process of game design will have rules as one of their raw materials. Designing and re-designing game systems means, on some level, tinkering with rules. Understanding how rules operate makes it much easier to design meaningful play.
在《蛇梯棋》中，游戏之所以在棋盘上进行，有很多原因，比如玩家移动棋子，而不是在纸上记分。其中一个原因是游戏的受众。孩子们用方格来帮助他们计数。他们不用在纸上把 6 加到 57，而是可以简单地数出六个方格，就能到达棋盘上的新位置。
In Chutes and Ladders, there are many reasons why the game takes place on a board, with players moving pawns, instead of, for example, players keeping score on a piece of paper. One reason is the game’s audience. Children use the squares to help them count. Instead of adding 6 to 57 on a sheet of paper, they can simply count up six squares to arrive at their new location on the board.
然而，更重要的是，棋盘处理了令人讨厌的构成规则 4，即体现“攀爬”和“滑动”的规则。如果玩家在纸上记分，则必须将所有上下跳跃记录在单独的纸上以供参考。游戏板的优雅之处在于它结合了这两种操作功能，既是进度的标记，又是攀爬和滑动的参考。这带来了成功的游戏体验。有意义的游戏源自动作和结果的紧密结合：可辨别的综合结果。在生成随机数、记录进度以及查看您的令牌是攀爬还是滑动的过程中使用游戏板有助于通过多种方式强调游戏的意义：
More importantly, however, the board takes care of that pesky constituative rule number four, the rule that embodies “climbing” and “sliding.” If the players are keeping score on paper, all of the jumps up and down have to be recorded on a separate sheet for reference. The elegance of the gameboard is that it combines these two operational functions, at once the marker for progress as well as the reference for climbing and sliding. This makes for a successful game experience. Meaningful play emerges from a tight coupling of action and outcome: a discernable and integrated outcome. The use of a gameboard in the process of generating a random number, recording progress, and seeing whether or not your token climbs or slides, helps emphasize the meaning of the game in a number of ways:
• 棋盘上同时包含游戏信息的所有方面——朝向终点空间的进度以及攀爬和滑动。
• The board contains all aspects of the game information—progress toward the end space as well as climbing and sliding—at once.
• 玩家（他们的代币）的代表都在同一个“空间”中，这使得相对位置的比较变得直接而直观。
• The representations of the players (their tokens) are all in the same “space,” making comparison of relative positions immediate and intuitive.
• 玩家可以清楚地看到自己动作的后果，无论是转弯时正常移动，攀爬还是滑行。
• Players can clearly see the consequences of their actions, whether it is moving normally during a turn, climbing, or sliding.
人们很容易将《Chutes and Ladders》等游戏的优雅性视为理所当然。将它与操作规则使游戏更难玩的游戏进行比较。还记得 Marc LeBlanc 的井字游戏变体 3-to-15 吗？3-to-15 的问题在于，通过选择数字而不是做标记，玩家无法看到其行为的含义。除非玩家能够在脑海中清晰地记住魔方拼图的画面（以及记住游戏的所有过去动作），否则他们将无法使用我们在玩井字游戏时通常考虑的策略。3-to-15 变成了一款关于记忆和数学的游戏，而不是像井字游戏那样非常简单的领土冲突。如果记忆和数学是设计师想要强调的，那么很好。但如果你的目的是让玩家在玩游戏时在网格上策略性地规划他们的动作，那么井字游戏的操作规则要比 3 到 15 的规则优越得多。
It is easy to take the elegance of a game such as Chutes and Ladders for granted. Compare it with a game in which the operational rules make the game more difficult to play. Remember Marc LeBlanc’s Tic-Tac-Toe variant 3-to-15? The problem with 3-to-15 is that by picking numbers instead of making marks, players cannot see the implications of their actions. Unless players are able to keep a crystal-clear picture of the magic square puzzle in their heads (as well as remember all of the past moves of the game), they will not be able to use the kind of strategies we normally think about when playing Tic-Tac-Toe. 3-to-15 becomes a game about memory and math, instead of the very simple territorial conflict that is Tic-Tac-Toe. If memory and math were what the designer intended to emphasize, then fine. But if your intention is to have players strategically plot their moves on a grid as they play, the operational rules of Tic-Tac-Toe are far superior to those of 3-to-15.
通过清晰实现优雅的理念对于《蛇梯棋》来说是可行的，因为它的受众是年幼的孩子，他们的注意力和数学技能有限，而且游戏的操作规则创造了一种整体体验。然而，很容易想到，在游戏中，同样的信息清晰度可能会毁掉游戏。例如，想象一下《刺客》游戏，其中所有玩家都知道彼此的一切，比如他们住在哪里，谁被分配了哪些目标。《刺客》是一款需要保密、混乱和隐藏信息的游戏。信息太多会破坏这些元素，使信息清晰度成为游戏玩法中不受欢迎的品质。然而，玩家学习游戏本身的方式——如何进入保密、混乱和隐藏信息的系统——必须清晰。规则本身最终必须是明确的。
The idea of elegance through clarity works for Chutes and Ladders given its audience of young children, their limited attention and math skills, and the way that the operational rules of the game create an overall experience. However, it is easy to think of games in which the same kind of clarity of information could destroy the game. Imagine, for example, a game of Assassin in which all of the players know everything about each other, such as where they live and who has been assigned to which targets. Assassin is a game that requires secrecy, confusion, and hidden information. Having too much information destroys these elements, making clarity of information an undesirable quality of game play. However, the ways that players learn the game itself—how to enter the system of secrecy, confusion, and hidden information—has to be clear. Rules themselves must ultimately be unambiguous.
当游戏产生模糊性时，它总是在一个更大的框架内，这个框架清晰地表达并被所有玩家所共享。创建清晰的规则集并将其与真正有意义的游戏的行动和结果联系起来是理解整个游戏设计过程的一种方式。了解构成性、操作性和隐性规则如何在游戏中协同工作是这一过程的关键要素。
When a game creates ambiguity, it is always within some larger frame that is clearly articulated and shared by all players. Creating that clear ruleset and tying it to the actions and outcomes of genuinely meaningful play is one way of understanding the entire process of game design. Understanding how constituative, operational, and implicit rules work together in your game is a key element of this process.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
《游戏人生》作者：史蒂芬·斯尼德曼
“The Life of Games,” by Stephen Sniderman
在这篇在线文章中，斯奈德曼从哲学角度审视了游戏的“不成文”规则。这篇文章是我们理解隐性规则的依据，斯奈德曼在文章中将游戏玩法、礼仪和更广泛的文化行为概念联系在一起。该文章可在网上找到：< www.gamepuzzles.com/tlog/tlog2.htm >。
In this online essay, Sniderman takes a philosophical look at the “unwritten” rules of games. This is the essay from which we derive our understanding of implicit rules, and in it Sniderman makes a number of strong connections between game play, etiquette, and larger notions of cultural behavior. It can be found online at: <www.gamepuzzles.com/tlog/tlog2.htm>.
笔记
Notes
1. Marc LeBlanc，2000 年游戏开发者大会。
1. Marc LeBlanc, Game Developers Conference 2000.
2. Stephen Sniderman，《游戏人生》。< www.gamepuzzles.com/tlog/tlog2.htm >。
2. Stephen Sniderman, “The Life of Games.” <www.gamepuzzles.com/tlog/tlog2.htm>.
3. 米尔顿·布拉德利（Milton Bradley），《蛇梯棋》。
3. Milton Bradley, Chutes and Ladders.
4.同上。
4. Ibid.
5.约翰·卡斯蒂，《复杂化：通过惊奇科学解释一个矛盾的世界》（纽约：哈珀柯林斯出版社，1994 年），第 123 页。
5. John Casti, Complexification: Explaining a Paradoxical World Through the Science of Surprise (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994), p. 123.
三层规则
概括
• 任何游戏的规则都存在于三个相关的层面：构成规则、操作规则和隐性规则。
• The rules of any game exist on three related levels: constituative rules, operational rules, and implicit rules.
•构成规则是游戏抽象的核心数学规则。虽然它们包含基本的游戏逻辑，但它们并未明确指示玩家应如何制定这些规则。
• Constituative rules are the abstract, core mathematical rules of a game. Although they contain the essential game logic, they do not explicitly indicate how players should enact these rules.
•操作规则是玩家在玩游戏时遵守的“游戏规则”。操作规则指导玩家的行为，通常是印在游戏说明和规则手册中的规则。
• Operational rules are the “rules of play” that players follow when they are playing a game. Operational rules direct the players’ behavior and are usually the kinds of rules printed out in instructions and rulebooks for games.
•隐性规则是游戏过程中通常不言而喻的礼仪和行为“不成文规则”。类似的隐性规则适用于许多不同的游戏。
• Implicit rules are the “unwritten rules” of etiquette and behavior that usually go unstated when a game is played. Similar implicit rules apply to many different games.
• 任何特定游戏的操作规则都直接建立在该游戏的构成规则之上。然而，任何给定的构成规则集都可以用许多不同的操作形式来表达。
• The operational rules for any particular game build directly on that game’s constituative rules. However, any given set of constituative rules can be expressed in many different operational forms.
• 操作规则和隐含规则之间的界限很模糊。例如，有时游戏设计师可能会将某些隐含规则明确化，将其包含在游戏的印刷规则中。
• There is a fuzzy boundary between operational and implicit rules. For example, sometimes a game designer may make certain implicit rules explicit by including them in the printed rules of a game.
•游戏的形式身份使我们能够将游戏从形式上区分为独特且不同于其他游戏。这种身份源于游戏的构成规则和操作规则之间的关系。
• The formal identity of a game allows us to distinguish a game as formally unique and distinct from other games. This identity emerges from the relationship between the game’s constituative rules and operational rules.
• 建立游戏正式身份的关键是规则的特殊性。构成规则和操作规则的精确性和明确性使得游戏可以成为这个游戏而不是那个游戏。
• Key in establishing the formal identity of a game is the specificity of the rules. The exact and unambiguous nature of the constituative and operational rules allow a game to be this game and not that game.
•游戏的构成规则、操作规则和隐含规则之间存在着一种转化。魔法圈就是这种转化的背景。游戏的形式意义是通过一个连接游戏所有三个规则层次的过程而产生的。
• There is a translation that occurs among the constituative, operational, and implicit rules of a game. The magic circle is the context for this translation. The formal meaning of a game emerges through a process that bridges all three levels of rules in a game.
•精致的规则让玩家专注于游戏体验，而不是规则的逻辑。设计有意义的游戏涉及在游戏规则的各个层面上建立可辨别的、综合的行动与结果关系。
• Elegant rules allow players to focus on the experience of play rather than on the logic of the rules. Designing meaningful play involves building discernable and integrated relationships between action and outcome into all levels of the rules of a game.
十三
13
数字游戏的规则
THE RULES OF DIGITAL GAMES
规则和规范
rules and code
内部事件
internal events
外部事件
external events
软件层
software layers
所有新媒体对象，无论是在计算机上从头创建的还是从模拟媒体源转换而来的，都是由数字代码组成的；它们是数值表示……新媒体对象可以用形式（数学）来描述。——莱夫·马诺维奇，《新媒体语言》
All new media objects, whether created from scratch on computers or converted from analog media sources, are composed of digital code; they are numerical representations . . . . A new media object can be described formally (mathematically).—Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media
到目前为止，在本单元中，我们从非数字游戏的规则中得出了大多数示例。尽管我们计划研究数字和非数字媒体上的游戏，以了解它们的共同点，但这并不意味着没有一些重要的区别。事实上，在形式层面上，数字游戏和非数字游戏之间存在一些最明显的差异。
So far in this unit, we have drawn most of the examples from the rules of non-digital games. Even though we have an agenda to look at games across digital and non-digital media to understand what is common to all of them, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some important distinctions to make. It is, in fact, on a formal level that some of the most pronounced differences between digital and non-digital games occur.
在《游戏定义》中，我们研究了数字游戏的特殊性质。在本节中，我们将单独研究数字游戏的形式系统，以了解我们的三部分规则模型如何应用。
In Defining Games, we examined the particular qualities of digital games. In this section, we take a separate look at the formal systems of digital games to see how our three-part model of rules apply.
规则整体
Rules as a Whole
如果所有游戏都有规则，那么数字游戏也有规则也是有道理的。数字游戏的规则是什么？答案之一是，数字游戏的规则与组成游戏的编程代码是一回事。乍一看，这种观点似乎很有道理。程序代码具有高度的结构性，就像游戏规则一样，而且与规则一样，代码似乎确实决定了玩家在游戏环境中可以做什么和不能做什么。
If all games have rules, then it makes sense that digital games have rules too. What are the rules of a digital game? One answer is that the rules of a digital game are the same thing as the programming code that makes up the game. At first glance, this point of view seems to make sense. Program code is highly structural, like the rules of a game, and like rules, the code does seem to determine what a player can and cannot do in the context of a game.
举个例子，以您在计算机上玩的井字游戏为例。在某种程度上，这种数字版井字游戏的规则必须与非计算机版游戏的规则相似。两种游戏的操作方式大致相同，允许玩家轮流在空格中放置 X 或 O。同时，计算机版游戏中的代码还执行许多其他任务。代码必须管理程序的输入和输出（屏幕和鼠标）；代码必须与计算机的操作系统和内存交互。代码的这些部分也是规则的一部分吗？
As an example, take a Tic-Tac-Toe game that you play on a computer. On some level, the rules of this digital version of Tic-Tac-Toe have to be similar to the rules of the non-computer version of the game. Both games operate in the same general fashion, allowing players to alternate turns placing an X or an O in an empty square. At the same time, there are many other tasks that the code performs in the computer version of the game. The code has to manage the program’s inputs and outputs (screen and mouse); the code has to interface with the operating system and memory of the computer. Are these sections of the code part of the rules as well?
答案是否定的。计算机游戏的代码与其规则并不完全相同。计算机代码是体现游戏的媒介的一部分，就像《蛇梯棋》的书面规则体现在纸上的印刷油墨媒介中一样。但与非数字游戏的规则一样，其中规则的各个方面可以在构成层面上“隐藏”，或者在隐含层面上不言而喻，数字游戏的规则有多种不同的形式。这意味着，尽管游戏程序的代码与程序所实现的游戏规则之间存在一些重叠，但它们之间并不是一一对应的。
The answer is no. The code of a computer game is not the exact same thing as its rules. The computer code is part of the medium that embodies the game, just like the written-out rules of Chutes and Ladders are embodied in the medium of printed ink on paper. But as with the rules of a non-digital game, in which aspects of the rules can be hidden “under the hood” on the constituative level, or pass unspoken on the implicit level, the rules of a digital game take a number of different forms. This means that although there is some overlap between the code of a game program and the rules of the game that the program makes possible, there is not a one-to-one correspondence between them.
那么规则是什么？
So What Are the Rules?
快速回顾一下游戏规则的性质将会有所帮助。从定义规则中，我们知道规则：
A quick review of the qualities of game rules will be helpful. From Defining Rules, we know that rules:
• 限制玩家行动
• limit player action
• 明确无误
• are explicit and unambiguous
• 由所有玩家共享
• are shared by all players
• 是固定的
• are fixed
• 具有约束力
• are binding
• 可重复
• are repeatable
这些特性中的许多特性似乎是计算机的内在特性。例如，计算机代码是明确和无歧义的这一观点是正确的。代码非常精确：冒号变成分号，或零变成一，都会导致程序无法运行。计算机代码也是共享和可重复的：在商店购买游戏的所有玩家通常都会购买相同的代码，除了制造缺陷。玩家当然不会都有相同的游戏体验，但从形式的角度来看，每个玩家遵循的规则是相同的。
Many of these qualities seem to be intrinsic qualities of the computer. For example, the idea that computer code is explicit and unambiguous is true. Code is quite precise: a colon turned into a semicolon, or a zero into a one, can render a program inoperable. Computer code is also shared and repeatable: all players who buy a game in a store generally buy the same code, minus manufacturing defects. Players certainly won’t all have the same game experience, but from a formal point of view, the rules each player will follow are the same.
规则既具有约束力又具有固定性，这一观点对于数字游戏和非数字游戏都同样适用。从传统意义上讲，游戏规则在游戏过程中不会改变。当然，游戏中存在大量黑客、作弊和复活节彩蛋的情况，但这些干预只能凸显一个事实，即总体而言，数字游戏的规则确实是固定的和具有约束力的。
The idea that rules are binding, as well as fixed is as true for digital games as it is for non-digital ones. In a classical sense, the rules of the game don’t change while the game is being played. Of course, there are plenty of cases of hacking, cheats, and Easter eggs in games, but these interventions only serve to highlight the fact that as a whole, the rules of digital games are indeed fixed and binding.
哪些特征有助于识别数字游戏规则的特殊品质？规则的第一个特征是限制玩家行动，这个特征非常有用。规则用于限制和规范玩家的行动。数字游戏规则与塑造玩家行为直接相关，这很有道理。数字游戏玩家如何采取行动？当玩家做出选择时，游戏如何响应？游戏为玩家提供什么样的决策环境？解决这些问题的游戏代码元素有助于构建数字游戏规则 - 这些规则构成了允许做出选择的结构系统。例如，管理内存使用的代码部分不直接涉及玩家，也不是核心“游戏规则”的一部分。
What characteristics help identify the special qualities of the rules of digital games? The first characteristic of rules, that they limit player action, is extremely useful. Rules serve to restrict and stylize players’ actions. It makes sense that the rules of a digital game are those aspects directly related to shaping player behavior. How does the player of a digital game take action? How does the game respond when a player makes a choice? What kind of context does the game provide for the player to make decisions? The elements of the game code that address these concerns help construct the rules of a digital game—the rules constitute the structural system that allows choice-making to occur. The parts of the code that manage the use of memory storage, for instance, do not directly involve the player and are not part of the core “rules of the game.”
例如，当您在 PC 上玩俄罗斯方块时，键盘上移动或旋转当前棋子的操作与计算机的反应之间的关系是游戏规则的一部分：规则定义了玩家可以采取的可能操作以及该操作从游戏系统中引发的结果。俄罗斯方块还有其他规则：消除方块线的规则、得分规则、失败规则、确定游戏节奏和加速度的规则。所有这些都有助于确定游戏的结构，并且都是其形式系统的一部分。
For example, when you are playing Tetris on a PC, the relationship between an action on the keyboard to move or rotate your current piece and the reaction from the computer is part of the rules of the game: the rules define the possible action that a player can take and the outcome that the action elicits from the game system. There are other rules to Tetris as well: the rules for eliminating lines of blocks, the rules for scoring, the rules for losing, the rules that determine the pacing and acceleration of the game. All of these help determine the structure of the game and all are part of its formal system.
俄罗斯方块的规则
The Rules of Tetris
考虑到这一点，我们可以列出俄罗斯方块的“规则”。由于俄罗斯方块在不同平台上有所不同，我们将规则保持得比较通用（这些规则基于 Game Boy Color 版本的游戏）。为了简单起见，我们将游戏限制在基本的单人版本（“马拉松”）上，忽略难度级别和音频选择等元素。
With this in mind, we can list the “rules” of Tetris. Because Tetris varies from platform to platform, we will keep the rules somewhat general (these rules are based on the Game Boy Color version of the game). To keep things simple, we limit ourselves to the basic single-player version of the game (“Marathon”), leaving out elements such as difficulty level and audio selection.
• 游戏在 19×10 的方格网格上进行。
• Play takes place on a grid of 19 by 10 squares.
• 屏幕顶部中央会出现七种配置中的一种方块。这些配置由四个网格方块组成，包含以下部分：
• Blocks in one of seven configurations appear at the top center of the screen. These configurations are made up out of four grid squares and consist of the following pieces:
• 方块出现在屏幕的顶部中央，并随着时间的流逝以一定速率逐格落到屏幕的底部。
• Blocks appear at the top center of the screen and fall square by square to the bottom of the screen at a set rate that increases over time.
• 玩家可以通过点击方向键的左键和右键将当前下落的方块向左和向右移动一个网格。如果玩家按住方向键的左键或右键，经过设定的暂停后，方块将以设定的速率向该方向快速移动。
• The player can move the currently falling block left and right one grid square by tapping left and right on the directional pad. If the player presses and holds left or right on the directional pad, after a set pause the block will move quickly in that direction at a set rapid rate.
• 块不能移出网格的左边界或右边界。
• Blocks cannot be moved off the left or right borders of the grid.
• 方向键上的向上方向没有效果。
• The up-direction on the directional pad has no effect.
• 玩家可以使用 A 或 B 按钮旋转当前下落的方块。A 按钮将方块顺时针旋转 90 度，B 按钮将方块逆时针旋转 90 度。方块围绕其中心轴旋转。
• The player can rotate the currently falling block using the A or B button. The A button rotates the block 90 degrees clockwise and the B button rotates the block 90 degrees counterclockwise. The block rotates on its center axis.
• 当方块的一部分碰到网格底部或另一个方块时，下降的方块会停止下落。
• When a portion of a block hits the bottom of the grid or another block, the descending block stops falling.
• 如果当方块停止下落时，网格的一行或多行已完全被方块填满，则这些方块部分将消失。消失的行或多行上方的任何方块部分都将向下掉落，直到它们碰到网格底部或另一个方块部分。
• If, when a block stops falling, one or more rows of the grid are completely filled in with blocks, those rows of block sections disappear. Any sections of blocks that are above the row or rows that disappeared fall downward until they hit the bottom of the grid or another block section.
• 一旦下降的块停止移动（或者如果行消失，一旦上部行完全掉落），一个新的随机选择的块就会出现在屏幕的顶部中心。
• As soon as the descending block stops moving (or if rows disappeared, as soon as the upper rows finish falling down), a new randomly selected block appears at the top center of the screen.
• 如果方块在网格上堆积，使得下一个下降的方块无法完全进入网格，则游戏结束。
• If blocks accumulate on the grid so that the next descending block cannot completely enter onto the grid, the game is over.
• 玩家每消失一行都会获得积分，根据方案，一次移除更多行（最多四行）比移除更少行获得更多积分。移除行的具体积分取决于玩家选择的难度级别。此外，当玩家使用向下控制来加速方块的下降时，玩家会通过这种方式让方块每下降一个网格格子获得一分。
• The player receives points for each row that disappeared, according to a scheme in which removing more rows at once (up to four) gives more points than removing fewer rows. The exact points for removing rows depends on the difficulty level selected by the player. Also, when a player uses the down-control to accelerate a block’s descent, a player receives one point per grid square that the block descended in this way.
为了简洁起见，我们省略了一些精确的细节（例如得分、计时、速度、方块旋转的确切程序等），但总的来说，这些是游戏运行的规则。这些规则看起来比你预期的更简单还是更复杂？
There are a few precise details that we left out for brevity’s sake (such as scoring, timing, speed, the exact procedure by which blocks rotate, and so on) but in general, these are the rules by which the game operates. Do the rules seem simpler or more complicated than you expected?
结构中的一些方面似乎与玩家行为无关，例如俄罗斯方块游戏会随机确定玩家接下来将收到哪种方块，但这些方面都被列为游戏正式结构的一部分。方块类型的随机化类似于棋盘游戏中在特定时刻随机掷骰子的方式，这显然是规则的一部分。要理解俄罗斯方块的这一方面如何成为设计正式结构的一部分，请想象一下在俄罗斯方块中选择棋子的其他正式方案，例如按常规顺序循环遍历所有五种形状、在整个游戏中为玩家提供单一形状、让玩家选择接下来使用五种形状中的哪一种，等等。与其他可能的方案相比，随机为玩家提供方块的决定肯定会影响游戏进行的形式结构；因此，这是规则的一部分。我们可以对上面列出的每条规则使用类似的过程，考虑规则的更改将如何影响游戏的运行。
Some aspects of the structure that may seem remote from player action, such as the fact that the game of Tetris randomly determines which kind of block a player is going to receive next, are listed as part of the formal structure of a game. The randomizing of the block type is similar to the way that a random die roll could be called for at a particular moment in a board game, and is clearly part of the rules. To understand how this aspect of Tetris is part of the designed formal structure, imagine other formal schemes for selecting a piece in Tetris, such as cycling through all five shapes in a regular order, giving a player a single kind of shape for an entire game, letting a player pick which of the five shapes to use next, and so on. The decision to randomly give the player a block as opposed to other possible schemes certainly has an affect on the formal structure of how the game proceeds; it is therefore part of the rules. We could use a similar process with each of the rules listed above, considering how changes to the rules would impact the functioning of the game.
规则与非规则
Rules and Not Rules
组成数字游戏的大部分或全部程序代码都会直接或间接地影响游戏体验。但正如我们所提到的，这并不意味着代码与规则完全相同。与非数字游戏一样，程序中不涉及游戏正式动态结构的方面（例如视觉和音频美学）不属于游戏规则的一部分。在上面列出的俄罗斯方块规则中，没有提到砖块上的图案或伴随游戏事件的声音。这就是为什么数字游戏通常使用“占位符”图形和音频制作原型的原因之一 - 这些元素不会传达最终游戏的预期外观和感觉，而只是在测试其基本交互功能时将系统可视化。这与在匆忙潦草的索引卡上制作新纸牌游戏原型的过程相同。
Most or all of the program code that makes up a digital game directly or indirectly affects the experience of the game. But as we have mentioned, that doesn’t mean that the code is self-identical to the rules. As with non-digital games, aspects of the program that are not involved in the formal dynamic structure of the game, such as visual and audio aesthetics, are not part of the game rules. In the rules of Tetris listed above, there is no mention of the patterns on the bricks or the sounds that accompany game events. This is one reason why digital games are often prototyped with “placeholder” graphics and audio—elements that do not communicate the intended look and feel of the final game, but instead serve only to visualize the system as is necessary to test its base interactive functioning. This is the same kind of process as prototyping new card games on hastily scrawled index cards.
有时很难确定我们是否应该将某些代码元素视为规则的一部分。例如，在 3D 游戏中使水池表面反光的代码不是游戏规则的一部分：它只是处理体验各个方面的视觉表现的代码的一部分。这并不意味着反光的水不会影响游戏体验，只是它不是游戏规则的一部分。另一方面，如果水的反射率是让玩家知道这个水池是一个具有特殊游戏属性的魔法水池的重要线索，那么确定反射率存在与否的代码实际上就是游戏规则的一部分。
It is sometimes difficult to determine whether we should consider certain elements of the code to belong to the rules. For example, the code that makes the surface of a pool reflective in a 3D game is not part of the game rules: it is merely part of the code that handles the visual representation of aspects of the experience. This doesn’t mean that the reflective water doesn’t affect the game experience, just that it is not part of the game rules. On the other hand, if the water’s reflectivity is a vital clue that lets players know that the pool is a magical pool with special game properties, then the code that determines the presence or absence of reflectivity would in fact be part of the rules of the game.
Game Boy Game and Watch Gallery游戏系列提供了一个有用的例子。这些游戏基于 20 世纪 80 年代早期的 Nintendo Game and Watch LCD 游戏。在这些游戏的 Game Boy 版本中，玩家可以从两种不同的游戏模式中进行选择：“经典”和“现代”。每个游戏的经典版本都是原始 LCD 图形和声音的再现。每个游戏的现代版本都使用更现代的基于精灵的图形和 Game Boy 声音，添加了更丰富的背景元素、角色动画、音乐和音效。虽然版本的外观和声音非常不同，但两个版本的玩家控制和游戏结构是相同的。这两个版本共享相同的游戏规则，这些规则规范了游戏逻辑、玩家动作和结果、计分系统、游戏空间的结构安排等。图形和音频不是游戏这些形式品质所固有的，因此可以在保持形式结构不变的情况下进行更改。
The Game Boy Game and Watch Gallery game series provides a useful example. These games are based on the Nintendo Game and Watch LCD games from the early 1980s. In the Game Boy versions of these games, players choose from two different play modes: “Classic” and “Modern.” The Classic version of each game is a reproduction of the original LCD graphics and sound. The Modern version of each game makes use of more contemporary sprite-based graphics and Game Boy sounds, adding richer background elements, character animations, music, and sound effects. Although the versions look and sound very different, the player controls and game structure of the two versions are identical. The two versions share the same game rules, which regulate the game logic, player action and outcome, scoring system, structural arrangement of the game space, and so on. The graphics and audio are not intrinsic to these formal qualities of the games and therefore can be changed while keeping the formal structure the same.
另一方面，如果视觉表现对游戏的形式结构有影响，那么它就是规则的一部分。在 2D 街机游戏中，玩家需要避免碰到敌人和障碍物，例如 Berzerk，角色精灵的大小绝对是游戏规则的一部分：角色越大，越难避开危险。但是，精灵的视觉特征（例如颜色）不属于规则的一部分（除非它变得不可见或难以看到）。同样，国际象棋棋子的特定视觉设计不是游戏形式系统的一部分，除了每个棋子必须能够明确地占据单个网格方块、能够被玩家移动以及每种类型的棋子都需要易于与其他棋子区分开来。
On the other hand, if visual representation has an impact on the formal structure of the game, it is part of the rules. In a 2D arcade game where you are trying to avoid touching enemies and obstacles, such as Berzerk, the size of your character’s sprite is definitely a part of the game rules: the larger you are, the more difficult it is to avoid hazards. However, the visual identity of your sprite, such as its color, is not part of the rules (unless it becomes invisible or difficult to see). Similarly, the particular visual design of a Chess piece is not part of the formal system of a game, except for the fact that each piece has to be able to unambiguously occupy a single grid square, be able to be moved by players, and each type of piece needs to be easily distinguished from the others.
Game and Watch Gallery Donkey Kong, Classic mode
数字游戏《神偷》中出现了一个关于视觉代码和规则的更微妙的例子。在这个游戏中，游戏代码允许计算机对手在阴影中潜行，并在远处隐藏在玩家视线之外，这些方面是游戏规则的一部分。《神偷》的游戏玩法涉及隐秘的移动和大量的隐藏，这样你就不会让计算机控制的代理发现你的存在。因此，决定你能看到多少信息以及角色如何隐藏在阴影中的规则是游戏规则的一部分。关于视觉表现的规则有助于区分私人信息（对玩家隐藏的信息）和公共信息（玩家知道的信息）。这些信息直接影响玩家的战略选择，因此是游戏形式结构的一部分。有时，游戏中通常不被视为规则一部分的方面（例如视觉组件）实际上可能是形式结构的关键部分。
A subtler example regarding visual code and rules appears in the digital game Thief. In this game, the aspects of the game code that allow computer opponents to creep about in shadows and be hidden from a player at a distance are part of the game rules. The game play of Thief involves stealthy movement and a good deal of hiding so that you don’t alert the computer-controlled agents to your presence. For this reason, the rules that determine how much information you see and the way that characters can be concealed in shadow are part of the game rules. The rules regarding visual representation help distinguish between private information (information hidden from the player) and public information (information known to the player). This information has a direct impact on a player’s strategic choice-making and is therefore part of the formal structure of the game. Sometimes, aspects of a game that are normally not considered part of the rules (such as the visual component) can in fact be key parts of the formal structure.
游戏和观看画廊大金刚，现代模式
Game and Watch Gallery Donkey Kong, Modern mode
轮中之轮
Wheels Within Wheels
如果数字游戏的规则是程序中与玩家行为有关的方面，那么规则在哪里结束呢？例如，与俄罗斯方块游戏交互以移动和旋转下落的方块就是与游戏交互。但是玩家选择游戏难度级别和音乐的选项屏幕又如何呢？游戏结束时玩家必须经过的“游戏结束”屏幕又如何呢？游戏开始时玩家看到的主菜单屏幕又如何呢？玩家也在与程序的这些方面进行交互。控制玩家与程序这些部分交互的代码是否也游戏规则的一部分？有可能。这取决于互动的框架，就像非数字游戏一样。未使用的棋子和 Chutes and Ladders 的游戏盒是印刷规则需要解决的问题吗？通常不需要，但如前所述，Chutes and Ladders 的书面规则使与这些游戏元素的互动变得明确。
If the rules of a digital game are those aspects of the program that have to do with the behavior of the player, where do the rules end? For example, interacting with the game of Tetris to move and rotate falling blocks is interacting with the game. But what about the options screen where the player selects the difficulty level and music for the game? What about the “game over” screen that the player has to move through when a game is finished? What about the main menu screen that a player sees when the game is turned on? The player is interacting with these aspects of the program, too. Is the code that governs the player’s interaction with these portions of the program also part of the game rules? Possibly. It depends on how the interaction is framed, just as with non-digital games. Are the unused pawns and the game box of Chutes and Ladders something that the printed rules need to address? Normally not, but as indicated earlier, the written-out rules of Chutes and Ladders make the interaction with these game elements explicit.
为了更精确地阐明我们在制定数字游戏规则时可能划定的界限，我们回到构成性、操作性和隐性游戏规则的三部分模型。
In order to more precisely clarify the kinds of lines that we might draw in framing the rules of a digital game, we return to our three-part model of constituative, operational, and implicit game rules.
计算机机械的运行可以在多个层次上进行描述。其中“最低”的层次是硬件的电子学……描述是因果的和物理的：电子、电流、电压。第二层次是数字逻辑。硬件电子学旨在表示逻辑或数学运算，如“与”或二进制数字或“位”的加法……描述是逻辑的，而非物理的，但它们仍然与硬件本身相关，硬件的结构决定了每个操作如何影响其后继操作。第三个层次是“运行”在特定机器上的程序的“机器语言”。机器语言由程序指令的二进制表示组成——机器本身“说”的语言。1
The operation of computer machinery can be described at a number of levels. The “lowest” of these is the electronics of hardware . . . Descriptions are causal and physical: electrons, currents, voltages. The second level is digital logic. The hardware electronics are designed to represent logical or mathematical operations, such as “AND” or the addition of binary digits or “bits” . . . . Descriptions are logical, not physical, but they are still tied to the hardware itself, whose structure determines how each operation affects its successor. At a third level lies the “machine language” of the programs that “run” on a particular machine. Machine language consists of the binary representation of program instructions—the language the machine itself “speaks.”1
理解规则在数字游戏中的应用最棘手的方面之一是数字游戏的结构非常复杂。正如理论家保罗·爱德华兹 (Paul Edwards) 指出的那样，计算机软件以多层方式运行，其中机器语言代码与较低级别的二进制信息交互，而后者最终来自电子信号。层次结构也可以向上延伸：机器级代码与更高级别的操作系统（如 Windows XP 或 Mac OS X）交互，而后者又与实际程序应用程序和文件交互。这些软件层及其为玩家创造体验的方式因平台、程序和游戏而异。
One of the trickiest aspects to understanding rules as they apply to digital games is that digital games are structurally very complex. As theorist Paul Edwards points out, computer software operates in a multi-layer fashion, where machine language code interacts with lower-level binary information, which ultimately is derived from electronic signals. The hierarchy could continue upwards as well: machine-level code interacts with a higher-level operating system (such as Windows XP or Mac OS X), which in turn interacts with actual program applications and files. These layers of software and the way that they function to produce an experience for a player vary from platform to platform, program to program, and game to game.
尽管构成性规则、操作性规则和隐含规则的框架与计算机设备运行的软件代码层之间存在一些相似之处，但我们仍犹豫是否将三部分规则模型直接应用于计算机程序的实际运行。我们的模型并非旨在直接促进游戏程序的技术生产，而是提供一个概念框架来塑造游戏设计思维。话虽如此，我们如何将数字游戏与三类规则并列起来？
Although there are some similarities between the framework of constituative, operational, and implicit rules and the layers of software code by which computer devices operate, we hesitate to apply the three-part model of rules directly to the actual functioning of a computer program. Our model is not meant to directly facilitate technical production of a game program, but to offer a conceptual framework to shape game design thinking. With that said, how might we juxtapose digital games and the three categories of rules?
构成性
Constituative
数字游戏的构成规则与非数字游戏的构成规则非常相似。例如，再来看看井字游戏的构成规则：
The constituative rules of a digital game are remarkably similar to those of a non-digital game. For example, take another look at the constituative rules of Tic-Tac-Toe:
1. 两名玩家轮流从 3×3 个单位的网格阵列中做出独特的选择。
1. Two players alternate making a unique selection from a grid array of 3 by 3 units.
2. 第一个选择水平、垂直或对角线行中的三个单位的玩家获胜。
2. The first player to select three units in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row is the winner.
3. 若没有玩家能够做出选择，且没有获胜者，则游戏以平局结束。
3. If no player can make a selection and there is no winner, then the game ends in a draw.
这些规则也必须成为数字井字游戏的基础。请注意，玩家采取的行动、向玩家呈现这些行动的方式，甚至一方或双方是人类还是由程序控制，没有指定。构成规则仅与游戏逻辑的内部运作有关。使用我们在交互性中建立的术语，构成规则与内部事件（与选择处理相关的事件）有关，而不与外部事件（与选择表示相关的事件）有关。
These rules would have to be the foundation of a digital game of Tic-Tac-Toe as well. Note that the actions the players take, the way that these actions are represented to the players, and even whether one or both players are human or program-controlled, are not specified. Constituative rules are concerned only with the internal functioning of the game logic. To use the terms that we established in Interactivity, constituative rules are concerned with internal events (events related to the processing of a choice) and not with external events (events relating to the representation of a choice).
操作
Operational
数字游戏的操作规则是那些与玩家的行为和与游戏的互动直接相关的规则。由于操作规则直接与游戏互动的材料相关，因此数字游戏的操作规则包括使用鼠标和键盘或游戏控制器等输入设备。与非数字游戏一样，可以从任何给定的构成规则集制定出许多不同的操作规则集。以下是一组数字井字游戏的操作规则，该游戏专为计算机上的两个人类玩家设计：
The operational rules of a digital game are those rules that relate directly to a player’s behavior and interaction with the game. Because operational rules directly engage with the materials of the game interaction, the operational rules of a digital game include the use of input devices such as the mouse and keyboard or a game controller. Just as with non-digital games, there are many different sets of operational rules that could be formulated from any given set of constituative rules. Below is one set of operational rules for a digital Tic-Tac-Toe game, designed for two human players on a computer:
1. 游戏从屏幕上一个 3×3 的空网格开始。
1. A game begins with an empty 3 by 3 grid on the screen.
2. 屏幕在网格的一侧显示一个 X 或 O，以指示哪个玩家将下一步行动。第一个玩家始终是 X。
2. The screen displays an X or an O to one side of the grid to indicate which player will move next. The first player is always X.
3. 玩家轮流行动，使用鼠标点击网格上的空格。当玩家点击空格时，当前符号将显示在该格中。同时，将播放“X”或“O”的声音效果（声音将与当前符号相对应）。同时，指示当前轮到哪个玩家的符号将闪烁两次，然后切换到另一个符号。
3. Players alternate turns, using the mouse to click on an empty square of the grid. When a player clicks on an empty square, the current symbol will be displayed in that square. At the same time, a sound effect of a voice saying “X” or “O” will play (the sound will correspond to the current symbol). Also at that time, the symbol indicating which player is currently taking a turn will flash on and off twice and then switch to the other symbol.
4. 如果玩家尝试点击屏幕上空白方块以外的任何其他位置，则不会产生任何效果。
4. If a player attempts to click anywhere else on the screen besides an empty square, there is no effect.
5. 如果玩家放置 X 或 O，从而在水平、垂直或对角线上形成三个符号，则排成一行的三个符号将开始闪烁。同时，将播放“X 获胜”或“O 获胜”的音效，具体取决于哪个符号赢得了游戏。如果玩家放置符号且没有获胜者且没有空方块，则将播放“抽奖”的音效。
5. If a player places an X or O and thereby creates three symbols in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row, the three symbols that are in a row will begin flashing. At the same time, a sound effect of a voice saying “X wins” or “ O wins” will play, depending on which symbol won the game. If a player places a symbol and there is no winner and no empty squares, a sound effect of a voice saying “draw” will play.
6. 获胜或平局后，如果玩家点击屏幕上的任意位置，游戏将重置回开始位置，并呈现一个空的 3×3 网格。
6. After a win or a draw, if the player clicks anywhere on the screen, the game will reset back to the beginning with an empty 3 by 3 grid.
请注意，在描述游戏的操作规则时，我们仅详细介绍了影响玩家互动性和正式游戏事件的外部或表征事件。我们没有包括与规则无关的游戏美学、体验组件。例如，我们没有描述“X”和“O”的字体或画外音的个性。但是，由于语音音频向玩家传达了正式的游戏事件，因此它属于操作规则的一部分。加入语音提示是绝对必要的吗？可能不是。但什么是游戏的“官方规则”，什么不是，这是一个设计决定。作为游戏设计师，您需要以适当且有用的方式来制定游戏规则。
Note that in describing the operational rules of the game, we only went into detail about the external or representational events that impact player interactivity and formal game events. We did not include the aesthetic, experiential components of the game that did not relate to the rules. We did not describe, for example, the typeface of the “X” and “O” or the personality of the voice-over. But because the voice audio communicates a formal game event to the player, it is part of the operational rules. Is the inclusion of the voice cues absolutely necessary? Probably not. But what is and what is not an “official rule” of a game is a design decision. As a game designer, it is up to you to frame the game’s rules in a way that is appropriate and useful.
显然，在计算机上构建井字游戏操作规则的方法还有很多。在我们的例子中，声音与闪烁的符号相结合表示获胜。但是是否也应该出现一个视觉元素让玩家知道谁赢了？是否应该使用文本消息来更清楚地表明哪个玩家正在轮流？进入和退出游戏怎么样？上面列出的版本没有退出或退出功能，因此推测它是为计算机环境设计的，玩家可以通过关闭程序窗口或使用标准“退出”键命令退出程序。这些是游戏的最佳设计决策吗？游戏测试和仔细考虑你的受众将有助于回答这些问题。
There are obviously many other ways to construct the operational rules of Tic-Tac-Toe on a computer. In our example, a sound paired with flashing symbols indicates winning. But should a visual element also appear that lets the players know who won? Should a text message be used to more clearly indicate which player is currently taking a turn? What about getting into and out of the game? The version listed above has no exit or quit function, so presumably it is designed for a computer context where a player would exit the program by closing the program window or by using a standard “quit” key command. Are these the best design decisions for the game? Playtesting and careful consideration of your audience will help answer these questions.
数字游戏和非数字游戏都有许多隐含规则。如果您在电脑上与朋友玩井字游戏，那么关于轮到您时要花“合理”时间的相同隐含规则仍然适用。此外，数字游戏还具有独有的隐含规则，其中大多数规则在为同一技术平台设计的游戏中都相似。以下是数字井字游戏隐含规则的几个示例：
Many implicit rules are common to digital and non-digital games. If you are playing Tic-Tac-Toe with your friend on a computer, the same implicit rule about taking a “reasonable” amount of time on your turn still applies. In addition, there are implicit rules that are unique to digital games, most of them similar across games designed for the same technological platform. Below are a few examples of implicit rules of the digital Tic-Tac-Toe game:
1. 当你移动鼠标时，屏幕上的光标与鼠标的移动相对应。
1. When you move the mouse, the cursor on the screen corresponds to the mouse movement.
2、井字游戏程序可以像其他程序文件一样进行启动、停止、复制、删除、重命名等操作。
2. The Tic-Tac-Toe game program can be started, stopped, copied, deleted, renamed, etc., like other program files.
3. 玩游戏不会对您的计算机造成任何永久性影响。
3. Playing the game will not affect your computer in any permanent way.
尽管这些隐含规则似乎是显而易见的假设，但隐含规则的本质就是它们通常被视为理所当然。但是，通过“玩”计算机交互的隐含规则来设计一款让玩家感到惊讶的游戏可能会很有趣。例如，如果在游戏过程中光标不直接对应于鼠标移动会怎样？或者，如果你在在线多人游戏中与另一位玩家聊天时输入文字，出现在其他玩家屏幕上的文本与你输入的内容不完全对应会怎样？质疑隐含规则可以成为设计灵感的强大来源。
Although these implicit rules may seem like obvious assumptions, it is the nature of implicit rules that they are usually taken for granted. But it might be interesting to design a game that surprised players by “playing” with the implicit rules of computer interaction. For example, what if during a game the cursor did not correspond directly to mouse movement? Or what if when you typed in chat to another player in an online multiplayer game, the text that appeared on the other player’s screen did not correspond exactly to what you typed? Questioning implicit rules can be a powerful source for design ideas.
为什么要有规则？
Why Rules?
理解数字游戏的规则是一件棘手的事情，软件操作也十分复杂。在非数字游戏中，游戏规则通常具体体现在说明书或游戏材料的结构中。但在数字游戏中，规则隐藏在层层程序代码中，通常很难识别。
Understanding the rules of a digital game is a tricky business, compounded by the complexities of software operation. In a non-digital game, the rules of a game are generally something that is concretely manifest in an instruction book or in the structure of the game materials. But with a digital game, the rules are buried in layers of program code and are often difficult to identify.
为什么费尽心思去理解数字游戏的规则很重要？我们应该强调的是，我们并不期望任何人在设计数字游戏时列出其所有规则。最终，能够准确区分什么是特定游戏的规则、什么不是特定游戏的规则，或者规则属于我们三个类别中的哪一类并不重要。可以用多种方式构建相同的形式系统，但结果却不同。
Why is it important to go through the trouble of understanding the rules of digital games? We should emphasize that we do not expect anyone to list every rule of a digital game as it is being designed. It is ultimately not important to be able to distinguish exactly what is and is not a rule of a particular game, or to which of our three categories a rule belongs. It is possible to frame the same formal system in many ways with different results.
作为游戏设计师，能够识别您正在设计的任何游戏的正式结构非常重要。如果您无法识别您希望创建的数字游戏的核心规则，那么您就与自己的设计脱节了。另一方面，如果您可以规划出游戏规则，就像我们在俄罗斯方块中所做的那样，那么您几乎能够描述可编程原型的规范。一旦游戏版本开始成型，您对规则结构的了解将使您能够在改进玩家体验时更轻松地修改规则。
As a game designer, it is extremely important to be able to identify the formal structure of any game you are designing. If you can’t identify the core rules of a digital game you are hoping to create, you are out of touch with your own design. On the other hand, if you can plot out the rules of a game, as we did with Tetris, you are close to being able to describe specifications for a programmable prototype. Once a version of the game begins to take shape, your knowledge of the rule structure will allow you to more easily modify the rules as you refine the player experience.
本书的目的是提供有用的框架来理解游戏的运作方式。到目前为止，规则的讨论已经对游戏的形式性质有了一般性的理解。在接下来的几章中，我们将提供形式模式，提供更具体的工具来理解游戏设计的元素。
The goal of this book is to offer useful frameworks for understanding how games function. Up to this point the discussion of rules has created a general understanding of the formal nature of games. In the next several chapters, we provide formal schemas that present even more specific tools for understanding elements of game design.
笔记
Notes
1. Paul N. Edwards，《封闭的世界》（剑桥：麻省理工学院出版社，1996 年），第 246 页。
1. Paul N. Edwards, The Closed World (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996), p. 246.
数字游戏的规则
概括
• 数字游戏的规则与程序代码相关，但它们与程序代码不是一回事。规则是思考游戏形式结构的抽象工具，不一定以代码的形式体现出来。
• The rules of a digital game are related to the program code, but they are not the same thing as the program code. Rules are abstract tools for thinking about the formal structure of a game and are not necessarily literally manifest in code.
• 从一般意义上讲，数字游戏的规则与非数字游戏的规则相同：它们直接与玩家采取的行动及其结果相关。因此，游戏程序中构建和接受玩家输入并确定游戏输出的方面就是构成游戏规则的方面。
• In a general sense, the rules of a digital game are the same as the rules of a non-digital game: they are directly concerned with the actions players take and the outcome of those actions. Therefore, the aspects of a game program that structure and take in player input and determine the game’s output are those aspects that constitute the game’s rules.
• 正式游戏逻辑的内部运作（例如程序选择俄罗斯方块中出现的下一个方块的方式）也是数字游戏规则的一部分。
• The internal functioning of formal game logic (such as the way a program selects the next block to appear in Tetris) is also part of the rules of a digital game.
• 数字游戏中视觉和音频的具体表现通常不属于游戏的形式结构。但是，有些情况下，这些元素会影响游戏的形式结构，应被视为规则的一部分。
• The specific manifestations of the visuals and audio in a digital game are usually not part of the formal structure of the game. However, there are cases where these elements impact the formal structure of a game and should be considered part of the rules.
•数字游戏和非数字游戏的构成规则非常相似。数字游戏的构成规则是游戏的核心逻辑，通常以某种方式直接包含在代码中。数字游戏的构成规则处理游戏的内部事件。
• The constituative rules of digital and non-digital games are quite similar. The constituative rules of a digital game serve as the core logic of the game and are usually contained directly in the code in some fashion. The constituative rules of a digital game handle the game’s internal events.
•数字游戏的操作规则不仅与游戏的内部事件有关，还与游戏的外部事件有关——玩家输入和游戏输出，向玩家表达选择和结果。与非数字游戏一样，数字游戏的操作规则和隐含规则之间的界限很模糊。
• The operational rules of digital games are not only concerned with the internal events, but also the external events of a game—player input and game output, expressing choices and outcomes to the player. As with non-digital games, there is a fuzzy line between the operational and implicit rules of digital games.
• 数字游戏与非数字游戏有许多共同的隐含规则。此外，它们还有自己的隐含规则，其中包括游戏平台未说明的假设。利用这些隐含规则可以成为创新设计理念的源泉。
• Digital games share many implicit rules with non-digital games. In addition, they have their own kinds of implicit rules, which include the unstated assumptions of the game’s platform. Playing with these implicit rules can be the source of innovative design ideas.
• 由于游戏程序是多层次的复杂对象，因此，确定游戏程序的哪些方面属于每种类型的规则并不总是很清楚。然而，三部分规则框架的价值不在于游戏开发或程序设计，而在于更好地理解游戏的抽象形式系统及其如何发挥作用以产生有意义的游戏。
• Because game programs are multi-layered, complex objects, determining exactly which aspects of a game program belong to each type of rules is not always clear. However, the value of the three-part rules framework is not for game development or program design, but instead to understand better the abstract formal system of a game and how it functions to produce meaningful play.
14
14
游戏作为新兴系统
GAMES AS EMERGENT SYSTEMS
系统
systems
复杂
complexity
紧急情况
emergence
自下而上
bottom-up
引擎
engines
二阶设计
second-order design
想象一张台球桌上摆满了半智能的、机动化的台球，这些台球经过编程可以探索桌面空间，并根据与其他球的特定交互改变它们的运动模式。在大多数情况下，桌子处于永久运动中，球不断碰撞，每秒切换方向和速度……这样的系统将定义最基本的复杂行为形式：一个具有多个代理的系统，它们以多种方式动态交互，遵循局部规则，并且忽略任何更高级的指令。但只有当这些局部相互作用导致某种可辨别的宏观行为时，它才会真正被认为是突现的。假设球遵循的局部行为规则最终将桌面分成偶数球和奇数球两簇。这标志着突现的开始，即从局部代理之间并行复杂的交互中产生的更高级的模式。球并没有被明确编程为聚集成两组；它们被编程为遵循更加随机的规则：与纯色球相撞时向左转弯；与三号球接触后加速；与八号球碰撞时停止前进；等等。然而，从这些低级例程中，出现了一个连贯的形状。——史蒂文·约翰逊，《涌现》
Imagine a billiard table populated by semi-intelligent, motorized billiard balls that have been programmed to explore the space of the table and alter their movement patterns based on specific interactions with other balls. For the most part, the table is in permanent motion, with balls colliding constantly, switching directions and speed every second . . . . Such a system would define the most elemental form of complex behavior: a system with multiple agents dynamically interacting in multiple ways, following local rules and oblivious to any higher-level instructions. But it wouldn’t truly be considered emergent until those local interactions resulted in some kind of discernable macro behavior. Say the local rules of behavior followed by the balls ended up dividing the table into two clusters of even-numbered and odd-numbered balls. That would mark the beginnings of emergence, a higher-level pattern arising out of parallel complex interactions between local agents. The balls aren’t programmed explicitly to cluster in two groups; they’re programmed to follow much more random rules: swerve left when they collide with a solid-colored; accelerate after contact with the three ball; stop dead in their tracks when they hit the eight ball; and so on. Yet out of those low-level routines, a coherent shape emerges.—Steven Johnson, Emergence
引入新兴系统
Introducing Emergent Systems
欢迎来到第一个游戏设计模式，游戏作为新兴系统。前面的章节定义了一些与游戏、设计和规则有关的核心概念。本章提供了一些不同的东西。模式是一个概念框架，侧重于游戏设计的某个方面。任何特定的模式都会突出游戏的某些方面，而淡化其他方面。虽然给定的游戏设计模式可以应用于任何游戏，但有些模式对于解决某些设计问题更有用，而对其他问题则不太有用。游戏设计模式的目的是促进有意义的游戏设计。
Welcome to the first game design schema, Games as Emergent Systems. The preceding chapters have defined some of the core concepts relating to games, design, and rules. This chapter offers something a bit different. A schema is a conceptual framework that focuses on a particular aspect of game design. Any particular schema will highlight certain aspects of games and de-emphasize other aspects. Although a given game design schema can be applied to any game, some schemas are more useful for solving certain design problems and less useful for others. The purpose of a game design schema is to facilitate the design of meaningful play.
“游戏作为新兴系统”这一模式直接建立在第 4 章对系统的讨论之上。作为一个系统，游戏是一组相互关联、形成整体的部分。能够识别和分析系统的每个部分、其属性及其与系统其他部分的关系有助于理解游戏系统如何带来更广泛的游戏体验。在这个模式中，我们通过从复杂性和新兴性的角度看待游戏，加深了对游戏系统的理解。正如史蒂文·约翰逊在本章开头的引文中所说，新兴性源于复杂性。它是系统内部出现的无计划模式的现象。新兴性是游戏的一个重要方面，将游戏的内在系统性与可能性空间和有意义的游戏联系起来。
The schema Games as Emergent Systems builds directly on the discussion of systems in chapter 4. As a system, a game is a set of parts that interrelate to form a whole. Being able to identify and analyze each part of a system, its attributes, and its relations to other parts of the system assists in understanding how a game system adds up to a larger experience of play. In this schema, we deepen our appreciation of games as systems by looking at them in terms of complexity and emergence. As Steven Johnson illustrates in the quote that opens this chapter, emergence arises out of complexity. It is the phenomenon of unplanned patterns appearing from within a system. Emergence is a crucial aspect of games, linking their intrinsically systemic nature to the space of possibility and meaningful play.
复杂
Complexity
作为理解涌现和系统的初步步骤，我们从复杂性的概念开始。复杂性研究源自经典系统理论，现已成为一门跨学科领域。复杂性研究人员研究许多不同类型的系统，从纯信息的计算系统到细胞和生物体等生物系统，再到自然生态系统和人类社会。复杂系统的研究倾向于研究“自组织、复制、学习和自适应”的系统。1在我们对复杂性的简短研究中，我们诚然只是略微触及了这个迷人领域的表面，也许是以一种非常规的方式。
As a preliminary step to understanding emergence and systems, we begin with the concept of complexity. Growing out of classical systems theory, the study of complexity has become its own interdisciplinary field. Researchers in complexity study many different kinds of systems, from computational systems of pure information to biological systems such as cells and organisms to natural ecosystems and human society. The study of complex systems tends to look at systems that are “self-organizing, replicating, learning, and adaptive.”1 In our own brief investigation of complexity, we will admittedly just skim the surface of this fascinating field, perhaps in quite an unconventional way.
首先，让我们来澄清一下“复杂性”这个术语。杰里米·坎贝尔在他的著作《语法人》中，将系统理论的许多元素交织在一起，以研究信息、语言和 DNA 之间的关系。他对复杂性有这样的看法：
Let us begin by clarifying the term “complexity.” In his book Grammatical Man, Jeremy Campbell weaves together many elements of systems theory to look at relationships between information, language, and DNA. He has this to say about complexity:
在生物体甚至机器中，都存在着“复杂性障碍”。在这个障碍之外，当系统具有极高的复杂性时，就会出现全新的原理。
In living organisms, and even in machines, there exists a “complexity barrier.” Beyond this barrier, where systems are of a very high complexity, entirely new principles come into play.
复杂性并不仅仅指一个系统拥有许多以非简单方式相互关联的部分。相反，它本身就是一种特殊属性，它使复杂系统在性质上不同于简单系统，使它们能够做我们可能未曾料到的事情。2
Complexity is not just a matter of a system having a lot of parts which are related to one another in nonsimple ways. Instead, it turns out to be a special property in its own right, and it makes complex systems different in kind from simple ones, enabling them to do things and be things we might not have expected.2
坎贝尔并没有对复杂性给出一个精确的定义，但上面的段落确实对这一概念进行了有用的描述。复杂性是系统的一个属性，根据坎贝尔的说法，并非所有系统都是复杂的：只有其中一些系统达到了他所谓的“复杂性障碍”。在复杂系统中，系统元素之间的内部关系变得错综复杂，极其复杂。
Campbell doesn’t offer a precise definition of complexity, but the passage above does present a useful picture of the concept. Complexity is a property of a system, and according to Campbell, not all systems are complex: only some of them reach what he calls a “complexity barrier.” In a complex system, the internal relationships between elements of the system become intricately compounded and extraordinarily complex.
虽然确实存在精确定义“复杂性障碍”的数学模型，但就我们的目的而言，简单系统和复杂系统之间的区别更多的是概念上的，而不是数字上的。一个简单的系统，比如一张木桌，确实有相互关联形成一个整体的部件（四条腿和一个桌面），而整体大于各部件之和，因为一张完整的桌子可以发挥孤立部件无法发挥的功能。但它显然是一个简单的系统，因为各部件之间的关系是固定的，而且完全可以预测。
Although mathematical models for precisely defining the “complexity barrier” do exist, for our purposes the difference between a simple system and a complex system is more conceptual than numerical. A simple system such as a wooden table does have parts (four legs and a tabletop) that interrelate to form a whole, and the whole is more than the sum of the parts, since a complete table can serve functions that the isolated pieces cannot. But it is clearly a simple system, as the relationships between parts are fixed and entirely predictable.
作为一个系统，桌子比最基本的游戏还要简单得多。在井字游戏中，各部分之间的关系、玩家行动的不可预测性、系统随时间动态变化、结果的不确定性，都增加了游戏的复杂性，这种复杂性与表格所展示的完全不同。正如 Campbell 所指出的，这种复杂性“本身就是一种特殊属性”，而对于游戏而言，其特殊的复杂性带来了有意义的游戏。如果游戏中不存在复杂性，就不可能产生有意义的游戏。
The table, as a system, is much simpler than even the most elementary game. In Tic-Tac-Toe, the relationships among the parts, the unpredictability of the player’s actions, the dynamic shifting of the system over time, the uncertain outcome, all contribute to the complexity of the game, a kind of complexity that is fundamentally different than that demonstrated by a table. As Campbell points out, this complexity is “a special property in its own right,” and in the case of games, their special kind of complexity leads to meaningful play. If complexity is not present in a game, meaningful play cannot occur.
信使和建筑物
Messengers and Buildings
为了将我们对复杂性的讨论与对游戏的分析区分开来，让我们看一个非游戏系统的例子。我们的示例系统是一个通信网络，一个虚构的城市，信使必须在建筑物之间传递信息。在这个系统最简单的版本中，只有两座建筑物。每座建筑物都会生成发往另一座建筑物的信息；信使必须在两座建筑物之间奔波。
To separate our discussion of complexity from an analysis of games, let’s look at an example of a system that is not a game. Our sample system is a communications network, a fictional city where a messenger has to deliver messages between buildings. In the most straightforward version of this system, there are only two buildings. Each building generates messages that are addressed to the other building; the messenger has to run between them.
总体而言，这不是一个复杂的系统。尽管信使的移动和建筑物状态的变化使其比我们的桌子示例更复杂，但系统的行为是固定的、可预测的模式。信使会在两座建筑物之间来回摆动。即使两座建筑物以随机间隔生成消息，使信使永远不知道下一条消息何时何地出现，这也不会为整个系统增加实质性的新状态。
On the whole, this is not a complex system. Although the movement of the messenger and the changing states of the buildings makes it is more complicated than our example of a table, the behavior of the system is set in a fixed, predictable pattern. The messenger will oscillate back and forth between the two buildings. Even if the two buildings generate messages at random intervals, so that the messenger never knows when and where the next message will appear, this does not add substantial new states for the system as a whole.
如果我们添加新的元素和关系，使系统变得更加复杂，会发生什么情况？想象一下，现在有 10 个信使试图在 50 座建筑物之间传递信息，这些建筑物随机分布在网格上。建筑物之间的不同距离决定了信使的行程距离。这一点很重要，因为我们试图最大限度地提高效率：如果一条消息长时间未送达，则通信系统无法正常运行。随着这些元素的增加，系统的复杂性突然大幅增加。
What happens if we add new elements and relationships that push the system toward a higher degree of complexity? Imagine that there are now 10 messengers trying to deliver messages between 50 buildings, randomly positioned on a grid. The different distances between the buildings determine how long the messengers travel. This is important, because we are trying to maximize efficiency: if a message goes undelivered for too long, the communication system has failed to function properly. With the addition of these elements, the system suddenly increases substantially in complexity.
要理解增加的复杂性，可以考虑编写一个计算机程序来管理信使的行为。在双楼系统中，程序非常简单，只需在两座建筑物之间往返单个信使即可。但是，如果有 10 个信使和 50 座建筑物，那么任务将变得更加复杂。如果信使在某座建筑物中传递了最后一条消息，并且没有新的消息可接收，那么她下一步该去哪里？这一决定应部分基于哪些建筑物离信使最近，但也应考虑其他信使最近访问过哪些建筑物；最近没有访问过的建筑物最有可能有未传递的消息。
To appreciate the added complexity, consider writing a computer program to manage the behavior of the messengers. In the two-building system, the program would be very simple, merely shuttling the single messenger between the two buildings. But with 10 messengers and 50 buildings, it becomes a more complex task. If a messenger delivers her last message at a building and there isn’t a new message to pick up, where does she go next? This decision should be based partially on which buildings are closest to the messenger, but it should also take into account which buildings other messengers have recently visited; buildings that haven’t been visited recently are most likely to have an undelivered message.
或者考虑一下当一个信使拿起几封需要寄往城市不同地方的建筑物的邮件时会发生什么。决定如何传递信息的逻辑是什么？如果信使有能力信使们如何在建筑物之间“会面”以便交换信息，从而更有效地工作？信使们将如何、何时、在何处会面？通过交换信息将货物集中到同一栋建筑物可能会使系统更有效率，但如果信使们会面过于频繁，系统的整体效率可能会下降。通信系统的运作不再是两种状态之间简单、可预测的振荡。它已经实现了全新程度的复杂、复合的相互关系。
Or consider what should happen when a messenger picks up several pieces of mail that need to go to buildings in different parts of the city. What is the logic that determines how to deliver the messages? What if the messengers have the ability to “meet” in-between buildings so that they can swap messages to work more efficiently? How, when, and where will the messengers rendezvous? Consolidating deliveries to the same building by swapping messages may make the system more efficient, but if messengers meet too often, the overall efficiency of the system might go down. The functioning of the communication system is no longer a simple, predictable oscillation between two states. It has achieved a fundamentally new degree of complex, compounded interrelationships.
如果这种情况还不够复杂，我们可以添加其他变量。例如，如果某些建筑物与其他建筑物有特殊关系（它们之间有很多邮件往来），并且这些关系会随着时间而改变，该怎么办？或者也许信使不是在“建筑物”之间投递邮件，而是向“公司”投递邮件。这些公司不断更改其建筑物地址，因此他们在城市网格中的实际位置不断变化。或者也许信使从未鸟瞰过整个城市，而只能从自己的经验和与其他信使分享信息中获取有关城市布局和行为的信息。
And if that scenario isn’t complex enough, we could add additional variables. For instance, what if some buildings have special relationships with other buildings (a lot of mail passes between the two of them) and that these relationships change over time? Or perhaps the messengers aren’t delivering mail between “buildings,” but instead they are delivering to “companies.” The companies keep changing their building address, so that their physical locations in the grid of the city constantly shift. Or perhaps messengers never have a bird’s-eye view of the entire city, but only gain information about the layout and behavior of the city from their own experience and by sharing information with other messengers.
编写计算机程序来模拟所有这些情况比我们的第一个场景更具挑战性。事实上，示例系统突出了复杂性研究中建模的一些信息传输和社会行为问题。是什么让我们的通信系统变得复杂？各部分之间许多动态和偶然的相互关系推动着系统跨越坎贝尔所描述的“复杂性障碍”。相比之下，该系统的初始版本（有两座建筑和一名信使）是原始和机械的。但我们城市的更复杂版本类似于一个充满智能代理的生态系统。我们将在后面的例子中进一步阐明简单系统和复杂系统之间的概念区别。
Writing a computer program to simulate all of this would be more challenging than our first scenario. In fact, the sample system highlights some of the problems of information transmission and social behavior modeled in complexity research. What makes our communication system complex? The many dynamic and contingent interrelationships among the parts push the system across the “complexity barrier” Campbell describes. The initial version of the system, with two buildings and one messenger, was primitive and mechanistic by comparison. But the more complex versions of our city resemble an ecosystem filled with intelligent agents. We articulate this conceptual distinction between a simple and a complex system further in the examples that follow.
简单复杂
Simple Complexity
在信使城的案例中，系统最终变得复杂，因为我们在其中加载了大量复杂的关系和意外事件。但有时复杂性可能会突然而出乎意料地从少数简单元素中产生。以下是程序员兼数学家约翰·卡斯蒂 (John Casti) 提供的有关行星物理学的一个例子：
In the case of the messenger city, the system eventually became complex because we loaded lots of complex relationships and contingencies into it. But sometimes complexity can arise quite suddenly and unexpectedly from a handful of simple elements. Here is an example that comes to us from programmer and mathematician John Casti, concerning planetary physics:
众所周知，两个行星相互绕转的行为可以完全以封闭形式写下来。然而，事实证明，不可能将三个二体问题的解结合起来来确定三体系统是否稳定。因此，三体问题的本质在某种程度上在于三个天体之间的联系……因此，这是一个由于相对简单的子系统之间的相互作用而产生复杂行为的情况。3
It’s known that the behavior of two planetary bodies orbiting each other can be written down completely in closed form. Nevertheless, it turns out to be impossible to combine the solutions of three two-body problems to determine whether a three-body system is stable. Thus, the essence of the Three-Body Problem resides somehow in the linkages between all three bodies . . . . So here is a case in which complicated behavior arises as a result of the interactions between relatively simple subsystems.3
卡斯蒂指的是，在行星运动研究中，具有两个行星体的系统（例如一颗恒星和一颗围绕其旋转的行星）可以用数学表达，以精确预测两个天体在太空中的运动。但是一旦将第三个元素添加到系统中，每个行星体的引力都会影响其他两个行星体，从而大大复杂化决定它们相对运动的数学因素。
Casti is referring to the fact that in the study of planetary motion, systems with two planetary bodies (such as a star and a single planet orbiting it) can be mathematically articulated to precisely predict the motion of the two bodies in space. But once a third element is added to the system, gravity from each planetary body affects the other two, drastically complicating the mathematical factors determining their relative motion.
在这个系统中增加第三个行星改变了一切：系统跨越了坎贝尔的“复杂性障碍”，成为一个真正复杂的系统。系统中元素之间的关系变得如此复杂，以至于由此产生的动态尚未得到数学解决。这个例子的惊人之处在于系统包含的元素数量很少。两个行星之间的关系很简单；在系统中增加一个元素就带来了完全不同级别的复杂性。
The addition of a third planetary body into this system changes everything: the system crosses Campbell’s “complexity barrier” to become a genuinely complex system. The relationships among the elements in the system become intertwined in such a complex fashion that the resulting dynamics have yet to be mathematically resolved. What is striking about this example is the low number of elements the system contains. Two planetary bodies have a simple relationship; the addition of just one more element into the system introduces complexity of a completely different order.
有许多例子表明，看似简单的系统实际上非常复杂。例如，一次对话可能只有两个人在互动。当所有认知、社会、感知、语言和语境因素都被考虑在内，然而，很明显，即使是简单的对话也是一个极其复杂的过程。
There are many examples of seemingly simple systems that in reality are staggeringly complex. A conversation, for example, might only have two people interacting with each other. When all of the cognitive, social, perceptual, linguistic, and contextual factors are taken into account, however, it is clear that even a simple conversation is an exceedingly complex process.
复杂性不是什么
What Complexity Is Not
什么是复杂性？当然，有序系统（其中每个时间和空间点看起来都与其他点一样）并不复杂。此外，当系统是随机的，并且空间中的每个点都是完整的，与任何其他点都不相关时，谈论复杂性是没有意义的。— Per Bak，《自然如何运作》
What is complexity? Certainly ordered systems where every point in time and space looks like every other point are not complex. Also, it does not make sense to talk about complexity when the system is random, and each point in space is complete, uncorrelated with any other point.—Per Bak, How Nature Works
探索复杂性概念的一种方法是研究什么不是复杂性。物理学家 Per Bak 认为，复杂系统不可能过于有序，即系统每时每刻的行为都相同。同时，系统也不可能完全混乱，即系统运行的每个时刻都只是随机地对应于下一个时刻。当 Bak 提到系统的时间和空间点时，他指的是系统随时间组织的方式。观察系统中的关系如何随时变化可以帮助确定系统是否表现出复杂行为。
One way of exploring the concept of complexity is to examine what complexity is not. According to physicist Per Bak, a complex system can’t be too orderly, where the system has the same behavior from moment to moment. At the same time, a system can’t be completely chaotic, where each moment of the system’s operation only randomly corresponds to the next moment. When Bak refers to the points in time and space of a system, he is talking about the way that the system is organized over time. Looking at how the relationships in the system change from moment to moment can help determine whether the system is exhibiting complex behavior.
例如，将非复杂情况想象成电视屏幕。没有接收电源或任何信号的电视屏幕将完全是黑色的。每个像素从一刻到另一刻都是完全相同的黑色（“时间和空间中的每个点看起来都一样”）。另一方面，充满随机静态的屏幕将完全混乱，某一时刻点的颜色与下一时刻该点的颜色或其他任何点的颜色都无关（“每个点……与任何其他点都不相关”）。
For example, imagine the non-complex cases as a television screen. A television that is not receiving power or a signal of any kind would have a completely black screen. Every pixel would be identically black from moment to moment (“every point in time and space looks like every other point”). On the other hand, a screen that is full of random static would be completely chaotic, with the color of a dot at one moment having nothing to do with the color of that dot at the next moment, or the color of any other dots (“each point . . . uncorrelated with any other point”).
相比之下，想象一下信使通信系统的图解显示。屏幕将显示一些静态元素（建筑物），但信使会在建筑物之间移动，收发邮件，并在建筑物之间会面交换信息，从而在屏幕上从一个点移动到另一个点。与完全固定或完全随机的点集不同，显示将具有逻辑和节奏，因为信使在空间中以模式移动。这些复杂行为序列不可预测但有模式的可视化将反映出真正复杂的底层系统。
In contrast, imagine a diagrammatic display of the messenger communication system. The screen would display some static elements (the buildings), but the messengers would move from point to point on the screen as they navigate between the buildings, picking up and dropping off mail, and meeting between buildings to swap messages. Unlike a completely fixed or completely random set of points, the display would have a logic and rhythm, as the messengers moved in patterns through the space. The unpredictable but patterned visualization of these complex behavioral sequences would be a reflection of the genuinely complex system underneath.
四种系统
Four Kinds of Systems
在讨论复杂性和游戏之前，让我们先来回顾一下。我们已经研究了几个系统示例，其中一些很复杂，一些则不复杂。这些不同程度的复杂性之间有何关系？人工智能数学先驱克里斯托弗·兰顿 (Christopher Langton) 提供了四种理解系统复杂性的方法。4
Before moving into a discussion of complexity and games, let us take stock. We have looked at several examples of systems, some of them complex and some of them not. How do these differing degrees of complexity relate to each other? Christopher Langton, pioneering mathematician of artificial life, provides four ways of understanding the level of complexity of a system.4
图表中的每个类别代表系统中可能出现的不同复杂程度。
Each category in the chart refers to a different degree of complexity that can appear in a system.
• 最左边是固定不变的系统。其元素之间的关系始终不变。黑色、不变的电视屏幕是此类系统的一个很好的形象。
• On the far left are fixed systems that remain unchanging. The relationships between their elements are always the same. The black, unchanging TV screen is a good image for this kind of system.
• 图表中固定系统右侧是周期系统。周期系统是简单系统，会不断重复相同的模式。信使系统的简单双楼版本（其中单个信使来回振荡）是周期系统。
• To the right of fixed systems in the chart are periodic ones. Periodic systems are simple systems that repeat the same patterns endlessly. The simple two-building version of the messenger system, where a single messenger oscillates back and forth, is a periodic system.
• 图表最右边是混沌系统。在混沌系统中，元素不断运动，但它们的状态和关系是随机的，就像充满静电的电视屏幕一样。
• On the far right of the chart are chaotic systems. In a chaotic system, the elements are constantly in motion, but their states and relationships are random, like a TV screen full of static.
• 最后一个类别是我们最感兴趣的：复杂系统。这些系统比周期系统更复杂、更难以预测，但动态关系并不那么丰富，最终也不会变成一片混乱的静态系统。
• The final category is the one that interests us the most: complex systems. These systems are more complicated and unpredictable than a periodic system, but not so full of dynamic relationships that they end up as a chaotic haze of static.
考虑到所有可能存在的系统类型，复杂系统存在于一个狭窄的范围内。复杂系统存在的条件类似于行星维持生命的条件：在宇宙中存在的所有行星中，只有一小部分具有适合生命出现的温度、大气和化学成分组合。哪些特殊条件可以让系统变得复杂，尤其是在游戏的情况下？
Considering all of the possible kinds of systems that might exist, complex systems inhabit a narrow band. The conditions that allow a complex system to exist are something like the conditions that allow a planet to support life: among all of the planets that exist in the universe, only a small subset have the right combination of temperature, atmosphere, and chemical composition to allow life to emerge. What are the special conditions that allow systems to become complex, especially in the case of games?
两场糟糕的比赛
Two Horrible Games
最后，我们对复杂性的讨论将我们带入了游戏设计领域。我们知道游戏是系统，但要使游戏成为一个复杂系统需要什么呢？之前，我们研究了不复杂的系统，以帮助识别复杂系统的特征。接下来我们使用类似的策略，发明了一些无法实现复杂性的游戏。作为游戏，它们非常糟糕，但像所有糟糕的游戏一样，它们可以教会我们一些东西。第一个游戏叫做 Heads or Tails：
At last our discussion of complexity brings us into the realm of game design. We know that games are systems, but what would it take to make a game a complex system? Earlier, we looked at systems that weren’t complex, to help identify characteristics of complex systems. We use a similar strategy next, inventing a couple of games that don’t manage to achieve complexity. As games, they are pretty horrible, but like all bad games, they can teach us something. The first game is called Heads or Tails:
正面或反面，双人游戏：一名玩家在另一名玩家看不见的地方抛掷一枚硬币。另一名玩家猜测硬币是正面还是反面。如果猜测者猜对了，则猜者获胜。否则，抛硬币的玩家获胜。
Heads or Tails, a game for two players: One player flips a penny out of sight of the other player. The other player guesses whether or not the penny landed on heads or tails. If the guesser is correct, the guesser wins. Otherwise, the player that flipped the penny wins.
这个游戏听起来绝对没什么意思。想象一下只玩一次：作为抛硬币的玩家，你抛硬币，等待答案，然后看看你是赢了还是输了。即使你一遍又一遍地玩这个游戏，它仍然是一个抛硬币和猜测的练习。这个游戏似乎太简单了，永远不会变得真正复杂。第二个糟糕游戏的例子并不那么简单，但它也未能实现复杂性：
This game definitely doesn’t sound like much fun. Imagine playing it just one time: as the coin-flipping player, you flip the coin, wait for the answer, and then find out if you won or lost. Even if you played the game over and over, it would still be an exercise in flipping and guessing. The game seems too simple to ever become genuinely complex. The second example of a horrible game isn’t nearly as simple, but it too fails to achieve complexity:
网格，一款双人游戏：游戏在 100 x 100 格的网格上进行。每位玩家有十个相同的棋子，游戏开始时随机放置在棋盘上。一个棋子占据网格上的一个格子，但棋子可以堆叠，因此任何一位玩家的任意数量的棋子都可以占据一个网格格子。玩家轮流移动所有 10 个棋子，每轮一次。移动棋子意味着以水平、垂直或对角线移动的任意组合将其移动 1-1000 个格子。棋子之间不会以任何方式影响彼此。
The Grid, a game for two players: Play takes place on a grid of 100 squares by 100 squares. Each player has ten identical game pieces, placed randomly on the board at the beginning of the game. A piece occupies one square on a grid, although the pieces stack, so any number of pieces from either player can occupy a single grid square. Players take turns moving all 10 of their pieces once each turn. Moving a piece means moving it 1–1000 spaces in any combination of horizontal, vertical, or diagonal movements. Pieces do not affect each other in any way.
这个游戏听起来也不怎么好玩。玩家会轮流费力地在棋盘上移动棋子，但由于玩家之间无法互相影响，游戏会一直进行下去，没有人会赢。玩家可能会在棋盘上创造棋子的图案，但最终这些图案对于赢得游戏毫无意义。就像静态一样，棋子会不断运动，但它们永远不会形成连贯的战略模式，其中的点之间没有任何有意义的关系（正如巴克所说，棋子将是“不相关的点”）。
This game also doesn’t sound like much fun. The players would take turns, laboriously pushing their pieces around the board, but because players cannot affect each other, the game would go on forever and no one would win. Players might create patterns of pieces on the board, but ultimately those patterns would be meaningless in terms of making progress toward winning the game. Like static, the pieces would be constantly in motion, but they would never form coherent strategic patterns where the points had any meaningful relationship to each other (as Bak put it, the pieces would be “uncorrelated points”).
Heads and Tails 和 The Grid 都缺乏复杂性。它们也是非常不同的游戏。它们有什么共同点，使它们无法达到复杂性？为了回答这个问题，我们回到有意义的游戏的核心概念。
Both Heads and Tails and The Grid lack complexity. They are also very different games. What do they have in common that keeps them from attaining complexity? To answer this question, we return to our core concept of meaningful play.
游戏中有意义的玩法源自玩家行为与系统结果之间的关系；这是一个玩家在游戏设计好的系统中采取行动，系统对行动作出反应。行动的意义在于行动与结果之间的关系。
Meaningful play in a game emerges from the relationship between player action and system outcome; it is the process by which a player takes action within the designed system of a game and the system responds to the action. The meaning of an action resides in the relationship between action and outcome.
从有意义的玩法角度来思考这两款游戏，很明显，这两款游戏都没有在玩家行为和系统结果之间建立有意义的关系——即玩家所做的决定和游戏中这些决定的结果之间的关系。在《Heads and Tails》中，游戏由一个随机事件组成，该事件决定了游戏的结果，而玩家对此无法控制。第二款游戏《The Grid》以另一种方式缺乏有意义的玩法：与《Heads and Tails》不同，这款游戏完全没有随机性，玩家在移动棋子时每回合都会做出许多决定。但由于这些决定无法产生有意义的游戏结果，因此《The Grid》最终也缺乏有意义的玩法。
Thinking about the two games in the context of meaningful play, it is clear that neither one was forging meaningful relationships between player action and system outcome—between the decisions that the player was making and the results of those decisions in the game. In the case of Heads and Tails, the game consists of a single random event that determines the outcome of the game and over which the players have no control. The second game, The Grid, lacks meaningful play in a different way: unlike Heads and Tails, there is no randomness at all and the players make many decisions every turn as they move their pieces. But because there is no way for those decisions to have meaningful game outcomes, The Grid also ultimately lacks meaningful play.
如果这两款游戏都缺乏复杂性，也都缺乏有意义的玩法，那么这是否意味着有意义的玩法和复杂性是一回事呢？完全不是。有意义的玩法和复杂性涉及游戏的两个不同方面。有意义的玩法涉及决策与结果之间的关系，而复杂性涉及系统中各部分之间的关系。尽管存在这种区别，但这两个概念是密切相关的。在存在有意义玩法的游戏中，游戏系统的某些方面会很复杂。复杂性可能以正式的战略复杂性、复杂的社会关系、丰富的叙事结构、下注现实世界金钱的心理复杂性或其他方式出现，但复杂性是有意义玩法的先决条件。没有复杂性，游戏的可能性空间就不足以支持有意义的玩法。
If both of these games lack complexity, and they both lack meaningful play, does that mean that meaningful play and complexity are the same thing? Not at all. Meaningful play and complexity address two different aspects of games. Meaningful play concerns the relationship between decision and outcome, and complexity concerns the way that parts relate to each other in a system. Despite this distinction, the two concepts are closely related. In games where meaningful play does exist, some aspect of the game system will be complex. The complexity might come in the form of formal strategic intricacy, complex social relationships, a rich narrative structure, the psychological complexity of betting real-world money, or in other ways, but complexity is a prerequisite of meaningful play. Without complexity, the space of possibility of a game is not large enough to support meaningful play.
如何才能将《Heads and Tails》变成一款支持有意义玩法的游戏？我们可以对规则系统进行简单的调整，看看它会带来哪些变化：
What would it take to turn Heads and Tails into a game that did support meaningful play? We can make a simple adjustment to the system of rules and see how it changes things:
正面和反面：决策变体。抛硬币者不是随机抛硬币，而是决定哪一面朝上。另一位玩家猜测抛硬币者选择了哪一面。如果猜测者猜对了，则猜者获胜。否则，抛硬币的玩家获胜。
Heads and Tails: The Decision Variant. Instead of randomly flipping the penny, the flipper gets to decide which side is facing up. The other player guesses which side the flipper selected. If the guesser is correct, the guesser wins. Otherwise, the player that flipped the penny wins.
在这个版本的“正面和反面”游戏中，猜谜者试图确定其他玩家的决定，而不是猜测随机事件的结果。这是否为游戏带来了有意义的玩法？是否使游戏变得更加复杂？嗯，这确实使游戏不再像是一个随机事件：一个玩家试图“迷惑”其他玩家并猜测他的意图。但尽管如此，玩一次决策变体不会让游戏变得复杂。为什么不呢？游戏仍然感觉很随意。即使抛硬币者可以确定硬币的哪一面朝上，游戏的整体结果感觉还是随机的。随意玩法，即动作似乎彼此无关，与有意义的玩法相反。另一个重要因素是游戏持续时间不够长，无法形成任何轨迹或更大的背景来整合玩家的决定。考虑一款游戏，玩家只需重复规则一次，然后游戏就会结束，他们的决定没有任何机会以有意义的方式影响未来的结果。
In this version of Heads and Tails, the guesser is trying to determine the other player’s decision instead of trying to guess the outcome of a random event. Does this bring meaningful play into the game? Does it make the game more complex? Well, it does make the game less of a random event: one player is trying to “psyche out” the other player and guess at his intentions. But despite this fact, playing the Decision Variant just one time would not push the game into the realm of complexity. Why not? The game still feels arbitrary. Even though the flipper can determine which side of the penny faces up, the overall outcome of the game feels random. Arbitrary play, in which actions seem unrelated to each other, is the opposite of meaningful play. Another important factor is that the game does not last long enough to have any kind of trajectory or larger context into which the player’s decisions are integrated. Considering a single game, players would iterate the rules just once and then the game would be over, without any opportunity for their decisions to affect future outcomes in a meaningful way.
无论翻转是随机的还是预先确定的，单场“正面反面”游戏都缺乏复杂性，因为它缺乏有意义的玩法。正如我们指出的那样，有意义的玩法和复杂性并不是一回事：它们指的是游戏的不同方面。但复杂性是有意义玩法的必要先决条件。以下是“正面反面”的一些其他变体，强调了这一点。游戏的每个版本都会进行一些规则修改，这些修改会影响玩家动作和系统结果的整合。虽然每个变体只添加了一些新规则，但每个规则都会推动游戏系统的运行超越复杂性障碍，进入有意义的玩法。
Whether the flip is random or predetermined, a single game of Heads and Tails lacks complexity because it lacks meaningful play. As we pointed out, meaningful play and complexity are not the same thing: they refer to different aspects of games. But complexity is a necessary prerequisite of meaningful play. Below are a few additional variations to Heads and Tails that underscore this point. Each version of the game makes a few rules modifications that affect the integration of player action and system outcome. Although each variation only adds a few new rules, each one pushes the operation of the game system beyond the complexity barrier and into meaningful play.
谈话变体。在这个版本的游戏中，抛硬币者决定硬币的哪一面朝上。但在猜硬币者猜测之前，两位玩家有十分钟的时间来讨论抛硬币者做出的决定。抛硬币者可能会撒谎哪一面朝上，说真话，或者尝试一些复杂的双重心理战术。如果猜测正确，猜测者获胜，如果猜测错误，则翻转者获胜。
The Talking Variant. In this version of the game, the flipper decides which side of the coin is up. But before the guesser guesses, the two players have ten minutes to discuss the decision the flipper made. The flipper might lie about which side is up, tell the truth, or try some complex double-psychology tactic. The guesser wins if the guess is correct and the flipper wins if the guess is incorrect.
为什么它更有意义：在 Talking Variant 中，随之而来的丰富社交互动将游戏提升到了有意义的游戏领域。投掷者必须选择一种欺骗策略，而猜测者则试图击败该策略。猜测者做出的最终猜测是做出决定之前整个对话的一个组成部分。
Why it is more meaningful: In the Talking Variant, the rich social interaction that ensues elevates the game into the realm of meaningful play. The flipper has to select a strategy of deception, which the guesser tries to defeat. The final guess that the guesser makes is an integrated part of the entire conversation leading up to the decision.
重复猜测变体。在这个变体中，抛硬币者仍然决定硬币的哪一面朝上。不允许讨论，但玩家玩 21 次游戏。每次猜测者猜对，他或她都会得到一分。每次猜测者猜错，抛硬币者都会得到一分。游戏结束时，得分最高的玩家获胜。
The Repeating Guess Variant. In this variant, the flipper still decides which side of the coin is up. No discussion is allowed, but the players play the game 21 times. Each time the guesser guesses right, he or she gets a point. Each time the guesser guesses wrong, the flipper gets a point. At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins.
为什么更有意义：重复猜测与决策变体非常相似。不同之处在于，由于游戏玩了很多次，所以模式有机会出现。与石头剪刀布一样，两位玩家试图猜透对方并发现对方行为的模式。每个选择都融入了两位玩家过去做出的决定中。
Why it is more meaningful: The Repeating Guess is very similar to the Decision Variant. The difference is that because the game is played many times, there is a chance for patterns to emerge. As with Rock-Paper-Scissors, the two players are trying to outguess each other and detect patterns in the other’s behavior. Each choice is integrated into past decisions made by both players.
风险递增变体：在此游戏中，玩家轮流扮演猜测者和抛硬币者的角色。每轮，当前猜测者尝试猜测随机抛硬币的结果。如果猜测者猜对了，则猜者获得 1 分，并可以选择抛硬币再次猜测。如果猜测者第二次猜对了，则获得的分数加倍（从 1 加到 2）。只要猜测者抛硬币正确，猜测者就可以继续猜测并尝试将当轮获得的分数加倍，从 1 加到 2、4 加到 8，等等。但一次错误的猜测将消除当轮获得的所有分数，并且两个玩家交换角色。第一个获得 25 分的玩家获胜。
The Increasing Risk Variant: In this game, players alternate the roles of guesser and flipper. Each turn, the current guesser tries to guess the result of a random flip. If the guesser is correct, the guesser earns 1 point and may choose to have the coin flipped to guess again. If the guesser is correct a second time, the points earned double (from 1 to 2). As long as the guesser is correct about the flip, the guesser can continue to guess and try to double the points earned that turn, from 1 to 2 to 4 to 8, etc. But a single wrong guess eliminates all of the points earned that turn and the two players switch roles. The first player to 25 points wins.
为什么它更有意义：尽管这款游戏仍然使用随机抛硬币，但玩家会做出有意义的“碰运气”式选择，这些选择可以奖励或惩罚风险。每个游戏动作都融入特定回合的决策以及整个游戏。例如，如果你的对手即将获胜，你可能会被迫承担更多风险。
Why it is more meaningful: Even though this game still uses a random coin flip, the players make meaningful “press your luck” kinds of choices that can reward or punish risk. Every game action is integrated into the decisions of a particular turn, as well as the game as a whole. For example, if your opponent is about to win, you might be forced to take more risks.
每种 Heads and Tails 游戏变体都提供了有意义的玩法，它们在决策和结果之间提供了额外的关系，并将这些互动时刻整合到更大的游戏结构中。最初的 Heads and Tails 是一个简单的概率练习。但无法预测其中一种变体会如何发展。在 Talking Variant 中，对话会是什么样的？在 Repeating Guess Variant 中会出现什么模式？在 Increasing Risk Variant 中，玩家愿意冒多大的风险？从这些变体中产生的游戏体验会出奇地复杂，比它们非常简单的规则集可能让你相信的还要复杂。这种现象——系统从简单的规则中生成复杂且不可预测的行为模式——称为涌现。
Each Heads and Tails game variant offers meaningful play by providing additional relationships between decision and outcome and integrating these moments of interactivity into a larger game structure. The original Heads and Tails was a simple exercise in probability. But it is impossible to predict how one of the variations might play out. What would the conversation be like in the Talking Variant? What patterns would arise in the Repeating Guess Variant? How much would players be willing to risk in the Increasing Risk Variant? The game experiences that would emerge from within these variations would be surprisingly complex, more so than their very simple sets of rules might lead you to believe. This phenomenon—systems generating complex and unpredictable patterns of behavior from simple rules—is called emergence.
紧急情况
Emergence
少量规则反复应用于有限的对象集合，会产生多样性、新颖性和惊喜。人们可以描述所有规则，但不一定能描述规则的所有产物——不是所有整数的集合，不是语言中的每个句子，不是所有可能从进化中产生的生物。——杰里米·坎贝尔，《语法人》
A modest number of rules applied again and again to a limited collection of objects leads to variety, novelty, and surprise. One can describe all the rules, but not necessarily all the products of the rules—not the set of all whole numbers, not every sentence in a language, not all the organisms which may arise from evolution.— Jeremy Campbell, Grammatical Man
涌现是理解游戏系统如何对玩家有意义的一个关键方面。在上面的引言中，杰里米·坎贝尔描述了涌现是如何从复杂性中产生的。坎贝尔的第一句话指出了涌现的关键特征：将一组简单的规则应用于系统中有限的一组对象会导致不可预测的结果。这正是三种正面和反面变体中发生的情况。Talking Variant 可能发挥的不同方式几乎是无限的。但游戏本身非常简单！这是游戏中出现的关键：复杂的可能性是一套简单规则的结果。
Emergence is a crucial facet of understanding how the system of a game becomes meaningful for players. In the quote above, Jeremy Campbell describes how emergence arises from complexity. Campbell’s first sentence points to the key features of emergence: that a simple set of rules applied to a limited set of objects in a system leads to unpredictable results. This is precisely what happens in the three Heads and Tails variants. The number of different ways that the Talking Variant might play out is virtually infinite. But the game itself is so simple! This is the key to emergence in games: complex possibilities are the result of a simple set of rules.
大多数游戏都具有这些特点。Pong 的规则相对简单，但如果你想象一下游戏可以进行的所有方式，从一名玩家占主导地位的速胜比赛，到长时间的戏剧性结局，很明显 Pong 的系统展示了涌现性。即使是规则复杂得多的游戏，如魔兽争霸 II，也包含涌现性。虽然这款游戏与 Pong 相比似乎非常复杂，但本质上魔兽争霸 II 只有几十种不同的元素，它们可以互动的方式非常有限。如果两个敌方单位相遇，他们不会开始交谈或开始一起跳舞 - 他们要么打架，要么不打架。尽管代码很复杂，但仍可以说有“适度数量的规则”应用于“有限的对象集合”。游戏系统在运行时会产生不可预测的涌现模式。
Most games share these features. The rules of Pong are relatively simple, but if you imagine all of the ways that a game can play out, from a quick-win match where one player dominates, to an extended, dramatic finish, it is clear that the system of Pong demonstrates emergence. Even a game with a much more complicated ruleset, such as Warcraft II, contains emergence. Although the game seems very complex compared to Pong, in essence Warcraft II only has a few dozen different kinds of elements, and the ways that they can interact are quite limited. If two enemy units meet, they won’t strike up a conversation or start to dance together—they will either fight or not fight. Despite the complexity of the code, there is still arguably a “modest number of rules” applied to a “limited collection of objects” The system of the game, when it plays out, results in unpredictable patterns of emergence.
在将如此广泛的游戏现象归入涌现这一范畴时，我们承认自己偏离了正统的复杂性理论。涌现理论家经常区分“弱”涌现和“强”涌现——例如，除非乒乓球是一个自主的、自适应的智能体，学会了避开或跟随球拍，否则游戏就不会被视为“强”涌现的情况。然而，为了我们的目的，我们打破了这些区别，从更一般的意义上考虑涌现。涌现可以通过模拟自适应智能体和系统的复杂编程机制实现，但它也可以发生在体验层面，其中极其简单的规则会引起玩家之间复杂的社会或心理关系。
In including such a wide range of game phenomena under the heading of emergence, we are admittedly diverging from orthodox complexity theory. Theorists of emergence often make a distinction between “weak” and “strong” emergence—for example, unless the Pong ball was an autonomous, adaptive agent that learned to avoid or follow the paddles, the game would not be considered a case of “strong” emergence. For our purposes, however, we collapse these distinctions to consider emergence in a more general sense. Emergence can come about through complex programmed mechanisms that simulate adaptive agents and systems, but it can also happen on an experiential level, where extremely simple rules give rise to complex social or psychological relationships among players.
部分与整体
Parts and the Whole
无论我们如何构建它，所有这些涌现的例子都具有某些共同的特征：
Regardless of how we frame it, all of these instances of emergence share certain characteristics:
涌现首先是耦合的、与环境相关的相互作用的产物。从技术上讲，这些相互作用以及由此产生的系统是非线性的：整个系统的行为不能通过将其组成部分的行为相加来获得。我们无法通过汇编棋子移动的统计数据来真正理解棋盘游戏中的策略，就像我们无法通过平均值来理解蚁群的行为一样。在这些条件下，整体确实大于其各部分之和。5
Emergence is above all a product of coupled, context-dependent interactions. Technically these interactions, and the resulting system, are nonlinear: The behavior of the overall system cannot be obtained by summing the behaviors of its constituent parts. We can no more truly understand strategies in a board game by compiling statistics of the movements of its pieces than we can understand the behavior of an ant colony in terms of averages. Under these conditions, the whole is indeed more than the sum of its parts.5
计算机科学家约翰·霍兰德的这段选文包含了关于涌现的极其丰富的思想。由于霍兰德从具体到一般，我们将逐行解读文本，从最后的陈述回到开头。在最后一句话中，霍兰德告诉我们，当涌现运行时，“整体确实大于部分之和”。这符合我们对系统的一般理解，即各部分相互关联形成一个整体。在涌现系统中，部分和整体之间存在着特殊的关系。由于涌现系统将以不可预测的方式发挥作用，因此整个游戏大于各部分之和。
This selection from computer scientist John Holland contains an extremely rich cluster of ideas about emergence. Because Holland moves from the specific to the general, we are going to interpret the text line by line, working from the final statement back to the beginning. In the last sentence Holland tells us that when emergence is in operation, “the whole is indeed more than the sum of its parts.” This fits into our general understanding of systems, in which the parts interrelate to form a whole. In an emergent system, there is a special relationship between the parts and the whole. Because an emergent system will play out in unpredictable ways, the whole of the game is more than the sum of the parts.
霍兰德的这句话是什么意思呢？请看前面的一句话：“我们无法通过汇编棋子移动的统计数据来真正理解棋盘游戏中的策略，就像我们无法通过平均值来理解蚁群的行为一样。”霍兰德以棋盘游戏和蚁群作为涌现的例子，指出这些系统不能仅仅通过对系统中独立对象的行为取平均值来理解。这个概念非常接近坎贝尔提到的一个观点，即“人们可以描述所有规则，但不一定能描述规则的所有产物——不是所有整数的集合，不是语言中的每个句子，不是所有可能从进化中产生的生物。”坎贝尔指出，在一个涌现系统中，我们可能知道所有初始规则，但我们无法描述规则在付诸实施时将如何发挥作用的所有方式。他提供了数学、语言和进化等各种例子。以语言为例，我们无法描述一种语言中可能说出的每一句话，即使我们可能知道该语言中的所有单词以及组织这些单词的语法规则。
What does Holland mean by this? Look one sentence earlier: “We can no more truly understand strategies in a board game by compiling statistics of the movements of its pieces than we can understand the behavior of an ant colony in terms of averages.” Holland uses board games and an ant colony as examples of emergence, pointing out that these systems cannot be understood merely by taking averages of the behavior of independent objects in the system. This notion is very close to one of the ideas that Campbell mentioned, that “One can describe all the rules, but not necessarily all the products of the rules—not the set of all whole numbers, not every sentence in a language, not all the organisms which may arise from evolution.” Campbell is pointing out that in an emergent system, we might know all of the initial rules, but we cannot describe all of the ways that the rules will play out when they are set into motion. He provides the diverse examples of math, language, and evolution. In the case of language, for example, we cannot describe every statement that might be uttered in a language even though we might know all of the words in that language along with the rules of grammar that organize them.
坎贝尔和霍兰德都说了同一件事：一个系统之所以会产生，是因为系统的规则和这些规则的运行方式之间存在着特殊的脱节。尽管规则可能简洁易懂，但这些规则在系统中运行的行为会产生规则本身所不包含的模式和结果，这些结果包含着“多样性、新颖性和惊喜”。语法规则也许能告诉我们如何将单词组织成句子，但它们无法解释《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》、《美国宪法》和布兰妮的“哎呀！我又犯了错”的歌词。通过使用语言而产生的语法规则突破了复杂性的障碍，产生了突发结果，而这些结果是仅仅通过考虑规则本身是无法预测的。
Campbell and Holland are both saying the same thing: what makes a system emergent is that there is a special disconnect between the rules of the system and the ways those rules play out. Although the rules might be concise and knowable, the behavior of those rules set into motion in the system creates patterns and results not contained within the rules themselves, results that contain “variety, novelty, and surprise.” The rules of grammar might tell us how to organize words into sentences, but they can’t account for Huckleberry Finn, The U.S. Constitution, and the lyrics to Britney Spears’” Oops! I Did It Again.” The grammatical rules, set into motion through the use of language, exceed the complexity barrier to produce emergent results, which could never have been predicted by a mere consideration of the rules by themselves.
这就是霍兰德所说的“整个系统的行为不能通过将其组成部分的行为相加来获得”的意思。仅仅将所有规则合并到一个列表中无法解释新兴系统行为的多样性。当他提到“从技术上讲，这些相互作用以及由此产生的系统是非线性的”时，他指的是数学意义上的非线性。他说系统中的对象相互作用产生复杂性的方式不仅是加法，而且是几何级数增加的。这就是三行星系统示例中所见的复杂性。在方程式中添加第三颗行星不仅使系统的复杂性增加了三分之一：它还增加了新复杂性的数量级。
This is what Holland means by “The behavior of the overall system cannot be obtained by summing the behaviors of its constituent parts.” Merely consolidating all of the rules together in a list can’t account for the diverse variety in the behavior of an emergent system. When he mentions that, “Technically these interactions, and the resulting system, are nonlinear,” he means nonlinear in the mathematical sense. He is saying that the ways that the objects in the system interact to produce complexity are not just additive, but increase geometrically. This is the kind of complexity seen in the example of the three-planet system. Adding a third planet to the equation did not just increase the complexity of the system by a third: it added orders of magnitude of new complexity.
对象交互
Object Interactions
现在我们来到了霍兰德名言的第一句：“涌现首先是耦合的、与环境相关的相互作用的产物。”到目前为止，我们已经研究了系统中可能出现的一般涌现类型。但是，系统有什么可以跨越复杂性障碍并真正涌现出来呢？关键在于“耦合”和“与环境相关的”这两个术语。当霍兰德说涌现是这两种相互作用形式的产物时，他指的是系统内对象之间的相互作用。
We have now arrived at the first line of Holland’s quote: “Emergence is above all a product of coupled, context-dependent interactions.” So far we have looked at the general kinds of emergence that can come out of a system. But what is it about a system that allows it to cross the complexity barrier and become truly emergent? The key is in the terms “coupled” and “context-dependent.” When Holland says that emergence is a product of these two forms of interaction, he means interactions between objects within a system.
回想一下 Littlejohn 在《系统》中提出的系统四要素：对象、属性、内部关系和环境。当一个新兴系统的规则开始发挥作用时，对象之间的内部关系开始改变元素的属性。然后，这些转换会影响对象内部关系的变化，进一步改变它们的属性，从而产生循环和行为模式。因此，复杂系统的相互作用是耦合的，这意味着系统的元素是递归链接的。就像蚁群中的蚂蚁一样，系统中的对象一起行动，以单个对象无法做到的方式执行。由于对象相互关联，系统中的一个变化会引起另一个变化，而这又会引起另一个变化，从而产生系统空间的模式。这些相互作用是上下文相关的，这意味着每次发生的变化并不相同。相反，转换的确切性质取决于系统中在任何特定时刻发生的其他事情。耦合相互作用有助于在整个系统中产生全局模式；上下文相关的相互作用确保这些模式的确切排列会随着时间的推移而动态变化。
Recall from Systems Littlejohn’s four elements of a system: objects, attributes, internal relationships, and environment. When the rules of an emergent system are set into motion, the internal relationships between the objects begin to transform the attributes of the elements. These transformations then affect change in the objects’ internal relationships, further altering their attributes, resulting in loops and patterns of behavior. Thus, the interactions of a complex system are coupled, meaning that the elements of the system are linked recursively. Like ants in a colony, the objects in the system act together to perform in ways that single objects cannot. Because the objects are linked to each other, one change in the system creates another change, which creates another change, giving rise to patterns over the space of the system. These interactions are context-dependent, which means that the changes that occur are not the same every time. Instead, the exact nature of the transformations depends on what else is happening in the system at any given moment. Coupled interactions help produce global patterns across a system; context-dependent interactions ensure that the exact arrangement of these patterns are dynamically changing over time.
在信使通信系统示例中，对象（信使和建筑物）具有属性，并且彼此之间也存在关系。如果信使从建筑物中取走邮件，则建筑物的属性（是否有未送达的邮件？）和信使的属性（信使是否有邮件要送？下一个目的地是哪里？）会随之发生变化。在系统运行时，系统的对象会以系统规则确定的方式相互交互。如果系统是真正涌现的，对象的行为中就会出现意想不到的模式，规则本身不包含的行为。例如，假设我们决定将任何没有等待接收的消息的建筑物涂成蓝色。蓝色建筑物的图案可能会在整个系统中有规律地纵向循环。这些图案不是系统规则的一部分，但却是系统在运作过程中产生的图案。这正是史蒂文·约翰逊在本章开头的引文中用机动台球的奇特例子描述的那种涌现模式。在这两种情况下，系统元素之间耦合的、依赖于上下文的相互作用是导致涌现现象的原因。
In the messenger communication system example, the objects (messengers and buildings) have attributes and also have relationships to each other. If a messenger picks up mail from a building, the attributes of the building (Does it have undelivered mail or not?) and the attributes of the messenger (Does the messenger have mail to deliver? What is the next destination?) change as a result. As the system runs, the objects of the system interact with each other in ways determined by the rules of the system. If the system were truly emergent, unexpected patterns would arise in the behaviors of the objects, behaviors not contained in the rules themselves. For example, imagine that we decided to color blue any building that didn’t have any messages waiting to be picked up. It could be that patterns of blue buildings would cycle regularly lengthwise across the system. These patterns are not part of any of the system’s rules but are patterns that nevertheless arise out of the system as it functions. This is precisely the kind of emergent pattern that Steven Johnson described in his fanciful example of motorized billiard balls in the quote at the beginning of this chapter. In both cases, the coupled, context-dependent interactions among elements of the system are responsible for the emergent phenomena.
生活，游戏
Life, the Game
在复杂性理论领域，最著名的例子可能来自对细胞自动机的数学研究。细胞自动机是一种基于网格的系统，与游戏板有点相似。在任何时候，网格方块都可以被占用或未被占用。一组规则决定了细胞的行为方式以及它们的状态如何随时间变化。“细胞自动机”这个名字来自于被称为“细胞”的方格网格，以及一旦系统启动，规则就会推动系统向前发展，使其“自主”运行，而无需来自外部的进一步输入。
In the field of complexity theory, perhaps the most well-known examples come from the mathematical study of cellular automata. Cellular automata are grid-based systems that vaguely resemble game boards. At any moment, a grid square can either be occupied or unoccupied. A set of rules dictates how the cells behave and how their states change over time. The name “cellular automata” comes from the grid of squares, called “cells,” and the fact that once the system is set into motion, the rules move the system forward so that it runs “autonomously,” without further input from the outside.
并非所有细胞自动机系统都会自动产生涌现。这一切都取决于控制细胞行为的规则。例如，如果我们想在细胞自动机网格中复制空白电视屏幕，我们可以创建以下规则：
Not all cellular automata systems automatically create emergence. It all depends on the rules that govern the behavior of the cells. For example, if we wanted to replicate a blank TV screen in a cellular automata grid, we could create the following rules:
1. 首先，所有单元格都是空的。
1. To begin, all of the cells are unoccupied.
2. 细胞状态没有改变。
2. The state of the cells does not change.
这些规则将导致空白、空旷的固定系统。如果我们想复制一个会导致纯粹混乱的细胞自动机系统，我们可以创建以下规则：
These rules would result in the fixed system of a blank, empty field. If we wanted to replicate a cellular automata system that would result in pure chaos, we could create the following rules:
1. 首先，一半的单元格被占用，另一半单元格未被占用，这是随机确定的。
1. To begin, half of the cells are occupied and half are unoccupied, determined randomly.
2. 每隔三十分之一秒，就会有一半细胞被占用，这是随机确定的。
2. Every thirtieth of a second, a new set of half of the cells is occupied, randomly determined.
这些规则将导致电视静电产生不断变化但无图案的点状光泽。
These rules would result in the ever-changing but patternless sheen of dots that make up television static.
细胞自动机最初是由数学家约翰·冯·诺依曼和斯坦尼斯拉夫·乌拉姆在 20 世纪 30 年代和 40 年代开发的系统。但最著名的应用来自约翰·康威。他的细胞自动机系统“生命游戏”，或简称为“生命”，在 1970 年马丁·加德纳在《科学美国人》上以谜题形式发表后广为人知。
Cellular automata were systems originally developed by the mathematicians John Von Neumann and Stanislaw Ulam in the 1930s and 1940s. But the most famous application comes from John Conway. His cellular automata system, The Game of Life, or more simply, Life, was popularized when Martin Gardener published it as a puzzle in Scientific American in 1970.
有很多种有趣的方式可以观察生命游戏。生命之所以让我们感兴趣，并不是因为它是人工生命的早期形式，甚至不是因为它被称为游戏（根据我们的定义，它不是游戏），而是因为它是涌现和复杂性原则的一个绝佳例子。生命发生在无限网格上；网格的单元由一组简单的规则控制，史蒂文·利维在《人工生命》中总结如下：
There are many fascinating ways to look at The Game of Life. What interests us about Life is not that it is an early form of artificial life, or even that it is called a game (it isn’t a game by our definition), but instead that it is a wonderful example of the principles of emergence and complexity. Life takes place on an infinite grid; the cells of the grid are governed by a simple set of rules, summarized here by Steven Levy in Artificial Life:
生命发生在虚拟棋盘上。棋盘上的方格称为细胞。它们有两种状态：活着或死去。每个细胞都有八个可能的邻居，即与其边或角接触的细胞。
Life occurs on a virtual checkerboard. The squares are called cells. They are in one of two states: alive or dead. Each cell has eight possible neighbors, the cells which touch its sides or its corners.
如果棋盘上的一个细胞是活的，那么如果有两个或三个邻居也活着，它将在下一个时间步骤（或世代）中存活下来。如果有三个以上活着的邻居，它将因过度拥挤而死亡，如果少于两个，它将因暴露而死亡。
If a cell on the checkerboard is alive, it will survive in the next time step (or generation) if there are either two or three neighbors also alive. It will die of overcrowding if there are more than three live neighbors, and it will die of exposure if there are fewer than two.
如果棋盘上的一个细胞死了，那么它在下一代中也会继续死亡，除非它的八个邻居中恰好有三个还活着。在这种情况下，这个细胞将在下一代“诞生”。6
If a cell on the checkerboard is dead, it will remain dead in the next generation unless exactly three of its eight neighbors are alive. In that case, the cell will be “born” in the next generation.6
尽管康威的“生命”最初不是在计算机上创建的，但它如今通常以计算机软件的形式出现。生命总是从一些细胞满而一些细胞空开始，无论是预定的还是随机的模式。当程序运行时，网格会逐步更新，每一步都会根据网格上的当前配置迭代规则。从视觉上看，随着网格细胞的死亡和复活，生命表现为一组动态、不断变化的几何图案。
Although Conway’s Life was not originally created on a computer, it is commonly manifest today as computer software. Life always begins with some of the cells full and some empty, either in predetermined or random patterns. When the program is run, the grid is updated in steps, each step iterating the rules according to the current configuration on the grid. Visually, Life manifests as a set of dynamic, shifting geometric patterns as grid cells die and come to life.
生命游戏中的一些三胞胎历史
Some triplet histories in the Game of Life
生命的惊人之处在于，这些极其简单的规则会产生出乎意料的模式。有些形状会迅速消亡并从网格中消失。其他形状会达到稳定和固定的模式，或者永远在两种状态之间振荡。还有一些形状会稳定地在网格上移动（例如著名的“滑翔机”形状），而其他形状则表现出更复杂的行为（例如“滑翔机枪”，每 30 代就会产生一个新的滑翔机）。
The startling thing about Life is that from these extremely simple rules, strikingly unexpected patterns result. Some shapes die out quickly and disappear from the grid. Others reach stable and fixed patterns, or oscillate forever between two states. Still others move steadily across the grid (like the famous “glider” shape), and yet others exhibit even more complex behavior (such as the “glider gun,” which produces a new glider every 30 generations).
通过结合这些不同的模式和意想不到的行为，生命的爱好者们制作出了各种各样的东西，从丰富的视觉模式到功能计算器，再到使用网格上的单元运行的其他“虚拟机”。生命是一个复杂的系统，它从一组简单的规则中表现出突发行为。以生命为例，我们可以清楚地知道为什么突发事件是由系统元素之间耦合和上下文相关的相互作用形成的：
By combining these different patterns and unexpected behaviors, fans of Life have made everything from rich visual patterns to functional calculators and other “virtual machines” that operate using the cells on the grid. Life is a complex system that exhibits emergent behavior from a simple set of rules. Using Life as a case study, it becomes clear why emergence is formed from coupled and context-dependent interactions between the elements of a system:
耦合：在生命中，任何两个对象之间的相互作用都不是孤立的关系。相反，这些关系依赖于一组耦合关系。生命中一个细胞是活着还是死去取决于相邻细胞的位置；这些细胞的生死也取决于它们所有相邻的细胞。这些相互关联的关系创造了互锁的形式，并在整个空间中成倍增加，产生了令人惊讶的模式。
Coupled: In Life, the interaction between any two objects is not an isolated relationship. Instead, the relationships depend on a set of coupled relationships. Whether or not a cell is alive or dead in Life is dependent on the positions of the adjacent cells; the life and death of those cells are also dependent on all of their adjacent cells. These linked relationships create interlocking forms that multiply across the space as a whole, giving rise to surprising patterns.
上下文相关：随着时间的推移，随着系统中对象的上下文发生变化，它与其他对象的关系也会发生变化，从而引起系统的整体转变。系统。在生命的情况下，任何给定细胞的背景都是其八个邻居。在每个时间步骤中，此背景都会发生变化，从而在整个系统中传播动态行为。正如耦合交互在网格空间中回荡一样，随着系统空间的转变并为系统对象创建新的背景，依赖于上下文的交互会随着时间的推移而扩散。
Context-dependent: Over time, as the context of an object in a system changes, its relationships to other objects change, giving rise to global transformations in the system. In the case of Life, the context of any given cell is its eight neighbors. At each time step, this context shifts, propagating dynamic behavior across the system. Just as coupled interactions reverberate across the space of the grid, context-dependent interactions ripple out over time as the space of the system transforms and creates new contexts for the system objects.
自下而上的行为
Bottom-Up Behaviors
生命游戏的惊人之处在于，其耦合且依赖于上下文的相互作用源自一套非常简单的规则。看看我们可以多么简单地总结细胞的行为：
The striking thing about The Game of Life is that its coupled and context-dependent interactions emerge from a very simple set of rules. Look at how simply we can summarize the behavior of the cells:
• 如果一个活细胞的两个或三个邻居还活着，那么这个活细胞在下一代中也会活着。
• A living cell will be alive in the next generation if two or three of its neighbors are alive.
• 如果一个死亡细胞的三个邻居还活着，那么这个细胞在下一代中就会活着。
• A dead cell will be alive in the next generation if three of its neighbors are alive.
• 否则，细胞就会死亡。
• Otherwise, a cell will be dead.
这些简单的规则可以产生从滑翔枪到可用计算器的一切，这一事实令人震惊。上述三条规则中没有描述滑翔枪。但矛盾的是，它们确实存在于由这三条规则定义的可能性空间中。所有可能的细胞模式、生命网格上曾经构建的所有虚拟机、生命游戏中发现的所有多种“生命”形式都以某种方式存在，并嵌入在这三条规则中。
The fact that these simple rules can produce everything from glider guns to working calculators is astonishing. Glider guns are nowhere described in the three rules listed above. But paradoxically, they do exist in the space of possibility defined by the three rules. All of the possible patterns of cells, all of the virtual machines that have ever been built on the Life grid, all of the many forms of “life” that have been discovered in The Game of Life exist somehow, embedded within those three rules.
生命证明了在新兴系统中，简单的局部相互作用如何导致更大、更复杂的模式。复杂性理论家经常使用“自下而上”一词来概括这一现象。理论家史蒂文·约翰逊描述了蚁群、城市空间和自适应软件等系统中自下而上的过程：
Life demonstrates how, within emergent systems, simple local interactions lead to larger, more complex patterns. Complexity theorists often use the phrase bottom-up to summarize this phenomenon. Theorist Steven Johnson describes the bottom-up processes in systems such as ant colonies, urban spaces, and adaptive software:
所有这些系统都有哪些共同的特征？……它们是自下而上的系统，而不是自上而下的系统。它们的智慧来自下层……在这些系统中，处于一个尺度上的代理开始产生高于它们一个尺度的行为：蚂蚁创建了殖民地；城市居民创建了社区；简单的模式识别软件学会了如何推荐新书。从低级规则到高级复杂性的转变就是我们所说的涌现。7
What features do all these systems share? . . . They are bottom-up systems, not top-down. They get their smarts from below . . . . In these systems, agents residing on one scale start producing behavior that lies one scale above them: ants create colonies; urbanites create neighborhoods; simple pattern-recognition software learns how to recommend new books. The movement from low-level rules to higher-level sophistication is what we call emergence.7
除了约翰逊描述的系统类型之外，还有另一类重要的系统，其中自下而上地涌现：游戏。游戏会产生复杂的涌现行为，因为规则的正式结构促进了游戏的不可预测体验。就像生活规则中包含滑翔枪的可能性一样，曾经进行过的所有棒球比赛、所有获胜策略、比赛产生的所有球队和球员统计数据都包含在棒球规则的某个地方。
In addition to the kinds of systems Johnson describes, there is another important class of system where bottom-up emergence occurs: games. Games generate complex emergent behavior, as the formal structures of rules facilitate the unpredictable experience of play. Like the possibility of glider guns contained in the rules of Life, all of the Baseball games that have ever been played, all of the strategies for winning, all of the team and player statistics that the game has produced, are somewhere contained within the rules of Baseball.
自下而上的涌现是游戏的固有特征，并不局限于游戏的形式复杂性。任何游戏中的涌现都会在规则、玩法或文化层面以不同的方式发生。我们在本章中重点介绍涌现的形式属性，但从某种意义上说，本书的其余部分延续了我们在这里开始的轨迹，探讨了有意义的玩法从游戏中涌现的多种方式。
Bottom-up emergence is intrinsic to games and is not limited to the formal complexities of a game. Emergence occurs in different ways on the level of rules, play, or culture in any game. We are focusing in this chapter on the formal properties of emergence, but in a sense the rest of this book continues the trajectory we begin here, examining the many ways that meaningful play can emerge from a game.
游戏中的涌现
Emergence in Games
许多关于涌现的研究都着眼于诸如“生命游戏”之类的系统，这些系统是自主的，不需要人类积极参与即可运行。但生命并不是真正的游戏。它不仅缺乏可量化的目标，而且也不是一个或多个玩家参与的冲突系统。用户确实可以设置初始单元格集，这些单元格可以打开或关闭。但一旦游戏开始，生命就会自行运行。一旦程序开始运行，生命的行为就与人类互动脱节了。
Many studies of emergence look at systems such as The Game of Life, which are autonomous and do not require active human participation in order to function. But Life is not really a game. Not only does it lack a quantifiable goal, but it is not a system of conflict in which one or more players participate. It is true that a user can set up the initial set of cells, which are either on or off. But once the game begins, Life runs all by itself. The behavior of Life, once the program is in motion, is divorced from human interaction.
游戏完全不是这样的。游戏需要玩家，玩家做出的决定推动游戏向前发展。例如，有意义的游戏概念的前提是玩家行为与游戏结果之间存在可感知的关系。游戏的参与性使其成为难以研究的系统，因为与人生的“游戏”不同，真正的游戏总是会包括一个或多个在系统内做出决定的玩家。在游戏中，涌现是通过正式游戏系统与玩家做出的决定之间的互动而产生的。这种涌现的一个很好的例子就是扑克中的虚张声势。虚张声势的策略——假装手牌比实际更好——是游戏的一个关键组成部分。但它并没有在游戏规则中明确描述。虚张声势只是游戏中发生的一种突发行为，由下注程序、玩家手牌隐藏的事实以及玩家赢得游戏冲突的愿望促成。虚张声势就像生命游戏中的滑翔枪，存在于可能性空间中，尽管规则中从未明确说明。
Games are not like this at all. Games require players, and those players make decisions that move the game forward. The concept of meaningful play, for example, is premised on the idea that there are perceivable relationships between player action and game outcome. The participatory nature of games makes them tricky systems to examine, because unlike the “game” of Life, a true game will always include one or more players inside the system making decisions. In games, emergence arises through the interaction of the formal game system and decisions made by players. A wonderful example of this kind of emergence is bluffing in Poker. The strategy of bluffing—pretending to have a better hand than you actually do—is a key component of the game. But it is not explicitly described in the game rules. Bluffing is simply an emergent behavior that occurs in the game, facilitated by the betting procedure, the fact that players’ hands are hidden, and the desire for players to win the conflict of the game. Bluffing is like the glider guns in The Game of Life, present in the space of possibility, though never explicitly stated in the rules.
即使是最简单的游戏也能产生大量意想不到的行为。约翰·霍兰德在讨论棋盘游戏时明确指出了这一点：
Even the simplest of games can generate vast and unexpected behaviors. John Holland makes this clear in a discussion of board games:
棋盘游戏是从简单规则或法则中产生巨大复杂性的简单例子。即使是传统的 3×3 井字游戏，不同的合法配置数量也超过 50,000 种，而且获胜方式并不明显。4×4×4 三维井字游戏的玩法足以让成年人感到惊喜。国际象棋和围棋具有足够多的新兴特性，经过几个世纪的研究，它们仍然吸引着我们，并为我们带来新的发现。而且不仅仅是可能性的数量。经过多年的研究，游戏的路线和规律不断涌现，足以让本世纪的大师轻松击败上个世纪的大师。8
Board games are a simple example of the emergence of great complexity from simple rules or laws. Even in traditional 3-by-3 Tic-Tac-Toe, the number of distinct legal configurations exceeds 50,000 and the ways of winning are not immediately obvious. The play of 4-by-4-by-4, three-dimensional Tic-Tac-Toe, offers surprises enough to challenge an adult. Chess and Go have enough emergent properties that they continue to intrigue us and offer new discoveries after centuries of study. And it is not just the sheer number of possibilities. There are lines of play and regularities that continue to emerge after years of study, enough so that a master of this century would handily beat a master of the previous century.8
即便是简单的规则集也能够创造出巨大的复杂性。这种复杂性的表现方式并不总是直观地遵循规则。例如，比较一下霍兰德提到的两种游戏，国际象棋和围棋。它们是世界上最古老、最复杂的游戏，并且在许多方面相似。两者都是双人回合制策略游戏，棋子在棋盘网格上进行。哪种游戏更复杂——至少从形式和数学的角度来看？从规则来看，国际象棋似乎是更复杂的游戏。国际象棋有六种不同的棋子，每种棋子在棋盘上的移动方式都独一无二。还有许多“特殊”规则，如兵的开局、兵后移和王车易位。相比之下，围棋的规则要简单得多。它只有一种棋子，并且一旦放置在棋盘上，棋子就不会在网格上移动。
Even simple rule sets can create tremendous amounts of emergent complexity. The way that this complexity manifests does not always intuitively follow from the rules. For example, compare two of the games that Holland mentions, Chess and Go. They are among the world’s most ancient and sophisticated games, and they are similar in many respects. Both are two-player, turn-based strategy games played with pieces on a gameboard grid. Which game is more complex—at least from a formal, mathematical point of view? Looking at the rules, Chess would appear to be the more complex game. In Chess, there are six different pieces, each with unique ways of moving about the board. There are also numerous “special” rules, such as a pawn’s opening move, queening a pawn, and castling a king. In contrast, Go has much simpler rules. There is only one kind of piece, and once placed on the board, a piece does not move on the grid.
尽管围棋的规则比较简单，但从数学角度看，它却是一种更为复杂的游戏。人工智能计算机程序的开发就是一个例证。为围棋和国际象棋编写软件对手是长期存在的计算机科学问题，在过去几十年中，它受到了来自世界各地的学术界和商业游戏开发商的关注。尽管围棋研究的重点一直集中在围棋更为流行的亚洲，但对这两种游戏的人工智能编程的关注程度大致相当。几年前，当加里·卡斯帕罗夫在快棋比赛中输给 IBM 的“深蓝”时，计算机可以说已经超越了人类对国际象棋的掌握。但尚未编写出可以挑战高级棋手的围棋程序。
Despite Go’s simpler set of rules, however, it is a mathematically more complex game. One demonstration of this is the development of artificial intelligence computer programs to play the games. Programming software opponents for both Go and Chess are long-standing computer science problems that have received attention around the world from both academics and commercial game developers over the last few decades. Although the focus of Go research has been in Asia, where the game is more common, the amount of attention given to programming AI for the two games is roughly equivalent. A few years ago, when Gary Kasparov lost to IBM’s Deep Blue in Speed Chess, computers arguably exceeded human mastery of Chess. But a Go program has yet to be written that can challenge an advanced player of the game.
为什么会有这种差异？围棋表现出更高程度的涌现复杂性，这是由棋子之间的耦合相互作用产生的。就像细胞自主细胞一样，围棋中的每个棋子都会与相邻的棋子和空白处形成关系。当这些简单的关系在围棋中成倍增加时，游戏板的网格（比国际象棋的网格大），棋子之间的相互关联性增加到一定的复杂程度，在原始的数字可能性上超过了国际象棋。
Why the discrepancy? Go demonstrates a higher degree of emergent complexity, arising out of the coupled interactions between game pieces. Like a cellular autonoma, each piece in Go forms relationships with neighboring pieces and empty spaces. When these simple relationships are multiplied across the grid of the gameboard (which is larger than a Chess grid), the linked interrelationships of the pieces adds up to a degree of complexity that exceeds Chess in raw numerical possibilities.
这种比较的目的不是要确定哪种游戏更胜一筹。国际象棋和围棋都是游戏玩家的高尚消遣，玩好其中任何一种都需要很高的智力。这里的教训是，规则越复杂并不一定意味着系统越复杂。矛盾的是，围棋规则越简单，产生的复杂性就越高。
The point of this comparison is not to identify which game is a superior game. Chess and Go are both noble pastimes for game players, and playing either one well is a demanding intellectual pursuit. The lesson here is that more complex rules do not necessarily equal more complexity in the system. Paradoxically enough, the simpler rules of Go generate a higher degree of emergent complexity.
设计惊喜
Designing Surprise
复杂性和涌现性的概念与游戏设计有何关系？显然，游戏是系统，复杂性和涌现性会影响有意义的游戏。但是，涌现性和复杂性如何影响设计过程？将游戏理解为复杂系统如何有助于制作游戏？
How do the concepts of complexity and emergence relate to game design? It is clear that games are systems and that complexity and emergence affect meaningful play. But how do emergence and complexity impact the process of design? How can understanding games as complex systems assist in making games?
复杂性与有意义的游戏有着内在联系。玩游戏就等同于探索游戏的可能性空间。如果一个系统是固定的、周期性的或混乱的，它就无法提供足够大或足够灵活的可能性空间，让玩家通过有意义的游戏来居住和探索。另一方面，如果一个系统是新兴的，探索游戏元素之间可能的关系就会持续吸引玩家。如果体验中的某些东西不断以“多样性、新颖性和惊喜”吸引玩家，玩家就会一次又一次地玩游戏。在在线内容开发业务中，众所周知，好的游戏是“最有粘性”的内容。动画网络系列的粉丝可能会观看最新一集两三遍，但沉迷于游戏的人会玩几十、几百或几千次。新兴系统产生的无限可能性是鼓励重复游戏的关键设计策略。随着玩家探索系统行为的排列组合，成功的新兴游戏系统将继续提供新的体验。
Complexity is intrinsically linked to meaningful play. Playing a game is synonymous with exploring a game’s space of possibility. If a system is fixed, periodic, or chaotic, it does not provide a space of possibility large or flexible enough for players to inhabit and explore through meaningful play. On the other hand, if a system is emergent, exploring possible relationships among game elements is continually engaging. Players will play a game again and again if something about the experience continues to engage them with “variety, novelty, and surprise.” In the business of online content development, it is well-known that a good game is the “stickiest” kind of content available. A fan of an animated web series might watch the latest episode two or three times, but someone addicted to a game will play it dozens, hundreds, or thousands of times. The infinite possibility that arises out of an emergent system is a key design strategy to encourage repeat play. A successfully emergent game system will continue to offer new experiences, as players explore the permutations of the system’s behavior.
Peter Molyneaux 的《Populous: The Beginning》是游戏涌现的一个很好的例子。游戏设计师 Rollings 和 Morris 生动地说明了复杂的游戏系统如何出乎意料地创造出新的游戏可能性：
Peter Molyneaux’s Populous: The Beginning offers a great example of game emergence. Game designers Rollings and Morris vividly illustrate how a complex game system unexpectedly creates new play possibilities:
在《Populous: The Beginning》中，当敌方战士跑向你的传教士角色时，他们会在传教士开始吟诵时停在很短的距离内。他们会坐着听一会儿。如果这个过程没有被打断，他们就会转而投奔传教士一方。
In Populous: The Beginning, when enemy warriors run up to one of your preacher characters, they will stop at a short distance as the preacher starts chanting. For a while, they sit listening. If the process is not interrupted, they will then convert to the preacher’s side.
这是一条规则。另一条规则是，如果敌方战士已经开始战斗，传教士就不能劝服他们。
That’s one rule. Another is that if enemy warriors have started fighting, a preacher cannot convert them.
这在实践中意味着你可以让你的传教士在你的定居点周围进行周界防御。第一波敌方战士将被转化。这是自动的，玩家可以自由地继续做其他事情。但现在考虑第二波敌方战士。他们跑上来，他们遇到的第一件事不是传教士的转化半径，而是最后一批被转化的战士的攻击半径。战士群体之间爆发了一场战斗，传教士无法干预转化第二波。
What this means in practice is that you can leave your preachers in a perimeter defense around your settlement. The first wave of enemy warriors will be converted. This is automatic, and the player is free to get on with other things. But now consider the second wave of enemy warriors. They come running up, and the first thing they encounter is not the preacher’s conversion radius but the attack radius of the last lot of warriors to be converted. A fight breaks out between the groups of warriors, and the preachers cannot intervene to convert the second wave.
出现的特征是，你不能让你的防御不受管理。不时地，你需要在你的定居点周围滚动，并将新皈依的战士移到传教士后面。
The feature that emerges is that you cannot leave your defenses unmanaged. From time to time, you need to scroll around your settlement and move newly converted warriors behind the preachers.
我不知道这是否是设计师的本意。很可能是。然而，这是一个很好的涌现例子，因为并不是立刻就能看出这两条规则会产生这个功能。9
I have no idea whether this was what the designer intended or not. Very possibly it was. However, it is a good example of emergence because it is not immediately obvious that those two rules would give rise to this feature.9
根据罗林斯和莫里斯的说法，《Populous》中的涌现发生在两个层面：在游戏单位之间互动的局部背景下，以及在玩家行为的更大层面上。玩家控制的传教士和闯入的敌方战士之间的局部互动产生了与环境相关的结果。这些游戏元素之间的第一次互动——没有皈依的战士在场——使敌方战士。但是，如果第二波敌方战士出现，包含转化战士的改变环境将创造一种全新的情况，从而引发一场战斗。决定这些单位行为的规则相对简单：传教士在一定半径范围内转化敌方战士。但是，由于战士有自己的简单行为（他们与敌方战士战斗，并且在战斗时不受转化影响），这些简单规则的交集产生了突发行为，这些行为会根据它们所处的环境而变化。
According to Rollings and Morris, emergence in Populous occurs on two levels: within the local context of interaction between game units, as well as on the larger level of player behavior. The local interactions between player-controlled preachers and interloping enemy warriors produced context-dependent results. The first interaction between these game elements—with no converted warriors present—converts the enemy warriors. But if a second wave of enemy warriors appears, the altered context containing converted warriors creates a new situation entirely, in which a battle ensues. The rules determining the behavior of these units are relatively simple: preachers convert enemy warriors within a certain radius. But because warriors have their own simple behaviors (they fight enemy warriors and are immune to conversion while fighting), the intersection of these simple rules produces emergent behaviors, which change according to the context in which they are placed.
涌现还发生在第二个层面：玩家在游戏中的更大行为。正如罗林斯和莫里斯指出的那样，玩家需要定期“在 [他的] 定居点周围滚动，并将新皈依的战士移到传教士后面”，在整个游戏过程中管理这些涌现的关系。传教士/战士互动的影响会向外扩散，从单纯的局部行为发展到融入整个游戏的更大结构中。
Emergence occurs on a second level as well: the player’s larger behavior within the game. As Rollings and Morris point out, a player needs periodically to “scroll around [his] settlement and move newly converted warriors behind the preachers,” managing these emergent relationships throughout the play of a game. The effect of the preacher/warrior interaction ripples outwards, growing from merely local behavior to become incorporated into the larger fabric of the overall play.
从这个例子中可以学到的一个教训是，设计元素之间的关系时需要特别注意。Rollings 和 Morris 观察到的突发行为之所以可能，是因为传教士和战士单位具有非常特殊的属性。传教士可以在多大范围内转化敌方战士？转化需要多长时间？敌方战士可以在多大范围内注意到传教士，反之亦然？敌方战士的移动速度有多快？他们什么时候不会转化？游戏单位的属性需要小心平衡。如果敌方战士移动得太快，或者转化过程花费的时间太长，那么敌方战士可能会在传教士转化他们之前到达传教士并杀死该单位。如果战斗战士不能免于转化，那么第二波敌方战士就会转化，从而减少玩家监视定居点传教士的需要。只有在 Populous 设计中仔细注意游戏规则，这些行为才会出现。
One lesson to learn from this example is the specificity with which relationships between elements need to be designed. The emergent behaviors Rollings and Morris observed were only possible because of exactingly particular attributes of the preacher and warrior units. What is the radius within which the preachers can convert enemy warriors? How long does conversion take? What is the range at which enemy warriors can notice preachers, and vice-versa? How fast do the enemy warriors travel? When are they immune to conversion? The attributes of the game units are in a careful balance. If enemy warriors travel too quickly, or if the conversion process takes too long, then enemy warriors might reach the preacher and slay the unit before there is time for the preacher to convert them. If fighting warriors were not immune to conversion, then the second wave of enemy warriors would be converted, thus reducing the player’s need to monitor the settlement’s preachers. It was only through careful attention to game rules in the design of Populous that these behaviors emerged.
引擎调校
Engine Tuning
制定能够成功产生突发行为的游戏规则集需要经历一个困难且通常耗时的设计过程。它只能通过第2 章中概述的迭代设计来完成。《生命游戏》的规则看似简单而优雅，但约翰·康威花了两年时间进行测试和改进，才最终定稿。
Arriving at sets of game rules that produce successfully emergent behavior involves a difficult and often time-consuming design process. It can only be completed through the kind of iterative design outlined in chapter 2. The rules for The Game of Life seem simple and elegant, but it took John Conway two years of testing and refinement to arrive at their final form.
在 Populous: The Beginning 的例子中，突发行为是游戏设计师 Marc LeBlanc 所称的游戏调整的结果：反复调整、测试和完善游戏规则，以创造丰富的游戏体验。游戏调整也用于 PC 游戏 Gearheads 的设计过程。在该游戏中，一两个玩家将发条玩具送过游戏场，试图将尽可能多的玩具送过屏幕的另一端。玩家等待释放玩具的时间越长，玩具的能量就越大，玩具飞得越远。玩具一旦被释放，玩家就无法控制它，因此任何玩家都可以使用它来得分。有些玩具是缓慢、沉重的推动玩具，如发条推土机 Big Al，或快速轻便的玩具，如机械蟑螂 Ziggy。有些玩具会摧毁其他玩具，如 Walking Time Bomb；还有一些玩具可以改变它们的运动方向，如 Deadhead，一个喋喋不休的骷髅，它会吓到玩具并改变它们面对的方向。游戏中的十二个玩具均具有特殊能力，并且玩具在游戏场上移动时之间的互动是游戏设计的一个关键方面。
In the example from Populous: The Beginning, emergent behaviors were the result of what game designer Marc LeBlanc calls game tuning: iterative tweaking, testing, and refinement of game rules in order to create a rich play experience. Game tuning was also used in the design process for the PC game Gearheads. In that game, one or two players send wind-up toys across a playfield, trying to get as many toys as possible across to the other end of the screen. The longer a player waits to release a toy, the more energy it has and the further it will travel. Once a toy is released, a player has no control over it, so either player can use it to score. Some of the toys are slow, heavy, pushing toys like Big Al the wind-up bulldozer, or quick and light toys like Ziggy the mechanical cockroach. Some toys destroy other toys, like the Walking Time Bomb; still others can change their direction of movement, like Deadhead, a chattering skull that scares toys and reverses the direction they are facing. Each of the game’s twelve toys has special abilities, and the interactions between the toys as they move across the playfield is a key aspect of the game’s design.
在设计过程的早期，设计师创建了一个可玩的原型，以便设计师创建新的玩具类型并调整其属性。游戏应用程序内有下拉菜单，其中包含每种玩具的统计数据网格。随着每种玩具属性的改变，更改会立即在游戏中生效，因此即使在游戏中期，设计师也可以轻松进行调整并查看更改如何影响整体游戏玩法。在 18 个月的开发过程中进行的迭代游戏测试有助于创建一款平衡的游戏。
Very early in the design process, a playable prototype was created that allowed the designers to create new kinds of toys and tune their attributes. Inside the game application were pulldown menus with grids of statistics for each toy. As the attributes of each type of toy were altered, the changes immediately took effect in the game, so that even in the middle of a game the designers could easily make adjustments and see how the changes affected the overall game play. The iterative playtesting that took place throughout the 18-month development process helped create a balanced game.
在开发过程中，设计师发现了玩具的新组合。他们发现，尽管玩具可以作为单独的游戏单元使用，但 Gearheads 的真正丰富性来自于将玩具相互配合使用。他们发现的玩具组合往往非常令人惊讶。设计师 Frank Lantz 和 Eric Zimmerman 创造了引擎一词来描述这些玩具组合：就像机械引擎一样，玩具组合是一组相互关联的部件，它们共同作用以实现更大的效果。我们在下面列出了系统中发现的众多引擎的几个示例：
During development, the designers discovered emergent combinations of toys. They found that although toys could be used as individual game units, the real richness of Gearheads arose from using toys in concert with each other. Often the toy combinations they discovered were highly surprising. Designers Frank Lantz and Eric Zimmerman coined the term engine to describe these toy combinations: like a mechanical engine, toy combinations were a set of interlocking parts that worked together to achieve a larger effect. We list a few examples of the many engines discovered in the system below:
拳击蟑螂。虽然 Ziggy 这只会发条的蟑螂是游戏中速度最快的玩具，但它的动作却很不稳定；当它撞到另一个玩具时，它会翻身仰面朝天（第二次遇到玩具时它会再次翻身站立）。另一个玩具 Kanga 是一个拳击袋鼠角色，它会向前击打它遇到的任何玩具。一个简单的引擎是快速将许多 Ziggy 释放到板上，其中大多数最终都会仰面朝天。随后释放的一两个 Kanga 玩具会击打轻型 Ziggy，将它们射向屏幕的另一侧以得分。
Punching Roaches. Although Ziggy the wind-up cockroach is the fastest toy in the game, his movement is erratic; when he bumps into another toy, he flips onto his back (a second encounter with a toy will flip him onto his feet again). Another toy, Kanga, is a punching kangaroo character that punches forward any toy it encounters. One simple engine is to release many Ziggys quickly onto the board, most of which end up on their backs. One or two Kanga toys released afterwards punch the light Ziggys, shooting them across the opposite side of the screen to score points.
炸弹盾。游戏中两种破坏力较大的玩具是 Disasteroid 和行走定时炸弹。Disasteroid 是一种移动速度非常慢的巨型机器人，它会朝前发射激光，消灭遇到的任何玩具。行走定时炸弹是一种强力且速度中等的玩具，但当它耗尽能量时会爆炸，消灭所有附近的玩具——除了 Disasteroid，这是炸弹无法摧毁的唯一玩具。一种结合使用这些玩具的引擎是释放 Disasteroid，紧接着释放行走定时炸弹。炸弹从后面推动，加速通常速度较慢的 Disasteroid，它会用激光轰炸挡路的任何玩具，为两个玩具扫清得分道路。即使行走定时炸弹在它们到达屏幕远端之前爆炸，Disasteroid 仍然能经受住爆炸，并可能独自得分。
Bomb Shield. Two of the more destructive toys in the game are Disasteroid and the Walking Time Bomb. Disasteroid, a very slow-moving giant robot, shoots its forward-facing lasers at any toy it encounters, eliminating it. The Walking Time Bomb is a strong and medium-fast toy, but when it runs out of energy it explodes, eliminating all nearby toys—except for Disasteroid, which is the only one that the bomb can’t destroy. One engine that uses these toys in combination is to release a Disasteroid, followed immediately behind by a Walking Time Bomb. Pushing from behind, the bomb speeds up the normally slow Disasteroid, which laser-blasts any toys that stand in its way, clearing a path for both toys to score. Even if the Walking Time Bomb explodes before the pair can reach the far side of the screen, Disasteroid still survives the blast and can possibly score on its own.
永动机。更复杂的引擎利用了玩具 Handy 和 Crush Kringle。Crush Kringle 是一个专业摔跤圣诞老人玩具，它在游戏场上稳步移动，定期停下来踩踏地面。当他跺脚时，所有附近的玩具都会从左向右切换方向。Handy 是一只行走的白手套，它的特殊能力是当它在游戏场上遇到玩具时，它会重新上弦，补充能量。虽然 Crush Kringle 是一个强大的玩具，但它的速度很慢，这意味着玩家必须花很长时间来给它上弦。然而，游戏引擎提供了一种绕过这一限制的捷径。首先，玩家释放一个受伤很轻的 Crush Kringle，然后释放一个 Handy，然后释放另一个受伤很轻的 Crush Kringle，所有这些都在游戏场的同一行上。速度更快的 Handy 会撞到第一个 Crush Kringle，补充能量。然后 Crush Kringle 踩踏，反转 Handy 的方向，Handy 向后跑向第二个 Crush Kringle，然后它也被卷起来。第二个 Crush Kringle 玩具最终踩踏，将 Handy 送回第一个玩具。就这样，三个玩具穿过了游戏场，Handy 玩具在两个 Crush Kringle 之间来回奔跑。
Perpetual Motion. A more complex engine makes use of the toys Handy and Crush Kringle. Crush Kringle is a professional wrestling Santa Claus toy that moves steadily across the playfield, periodically pausing to stomp the ground. When he stomps, all nearby toys switch directions from left to right. Handy is a walking white glove, and its special ability is that when it encounters a toy on the playfield, it winds it back up, replenishing its energy. Although Crush Kringle is a powerful toy, it is very slow, which means that the player has to spend a long time winding it. However, a game engine provides a shortcut around this limitation. First, players release a very lightly wound Crush Kringle, followed by a Handy, followed by another lightly wound Crush Kringle, all on the same row of the playfield. The faster Handy bumps into the first Crush Kringle, replenishing its energy. The Crush Kringle then stomps, reversing the direction of the Handy, which runs backwards into the second Crush Kringle, which it then winds up as well. The second Crush Kringle toy eventually stomps, sending the Handy back to the first toy. In this way, the trio of toys make their way across the playfield, the Handy toy running back and forth between the two Crush Kringles.
玩具组合引擎并非直接设计在 Gearheads 规则中。它们是从定义每个玩具的更简单属性集合中产生的新兴游戏模式。在某些情况下，玩具属性经过改进，以便实现特定的引擎 - 但大多数时候，引擎是在游戏进行和开发过程中发现的。
The toy-combination engines were not something designed directly into the rules of Gearheads. They were emergent patterns of play that arose out of the more simple set of attributes that defined each individual toy. In some cases, the toy attributes were refined in order to make a particular engine possible—but most of the time, engines were discovered as the game was played and developed.
和 Populous: The Beginning 中的例子一样，Gearheads 中的涌现同时体现在多个层面。玩具之间意想不到的局部互动在游戏场上创造了更大的模式。玩家自己的决策过程也是玩具组合的结果，因为玩家会调整自己的行为来利用突发组合。通过在比赛开始前选择有限数量的玩具，鼓励玩家从突发性的角度进行思考：经验丰富的玩家在为游戏挑选的四五种玩具类型中包括一两种引擎。这些引擎进入游戏开发的另一种方式是人工智能编程。在设计计算机对手时，包括基于引擎的启发式方法，以便程序能够了解有利的玩具组合并经常使用引擎来对抗玩家。一些 Gearheads 玩家只需观察人工智能的行为即可了解某些引擎。
As with the example from Populous: The Beginning, emergence in Gearheads manifests on many levels at once. The unexpected local interactions between toys creates larger patterns on the playfield. The player’s own decision-making process is also a pattern that emerges as a result of the toy combinations, as players adjust their behavior to take advantage of emergent combinations. Players are encouraged to think in terms of emergence by selecting a limited number of toys before a match starts: experienced players include an engine or two in the four or five toy types they pick for a game. Another way that these engines entered into game development was the AI programming. In designing the computer opponent, engine-based heuristics were included, so that the program was aware of advantageous toy combinations and often used engines against the player. Some Gearheads players learn about certain engines simply by observing the behavior of the AI.
二阶设计
Second-Order Design
此类引擎也出现在非数字游戏中。像《万智牌：聚会》这样的纸牌游戏拥有数千种不同类型的纸牌，是涌现的温床，专门设计用于帮助玩家创建纸牌组合引擎。在《万智牌：聚会》或《Gearheads》中，游戏元素的组合使用创造了丰富的可能性空间。《Gearheads》中的玩具或《万智牌》中的纸牌是语言的简单元素。通过以不同的组合使用它们，玩家可以在玩游戏的过程中创造自己的意义。单位组合和引擎并不是在游戏中创造涌现效果的唯一方式；如果您的游戏确实包含多种不同类型的对象，请将它们设计为相互组合，以便可能性空间的广度可以成倍增加。
Engines such as these occur in non-digital games as well. A card game such as Magic: The Gathering, with its thousands of different cards types, is a hothouse of emergence, designed specifically to facilitate the creation of card-combination engines by its players. In Magic: The Gathering or in Gearheads, the use of game elements in combination with one another facilitates a rich space of possibility. The toys of Gearheads or the cards of Magic are the simple elements of a language. By using them in different combinations, the player makes his or her own meanings through the play of the game. Unit combinations and engines are not the only way to create emergent effects in a game; if your game does contain a number of different kinds of objects, design them to work in combination with each other, so that the breadth of your space of possibility can increase exponentially.
设计一个能够从一组简单规则中生成有意义的复杂性的新兴游戏系统是一项挑战。为什么这么难？作为游戏设计师，你永远不会直接设计玩家的行为。相反，你只是在设计系统规则。由于游戏是新兴的，所以并不总是能够预测规则将如何发挥作用。作为游戏设计师，你正在解决二阶设计问题。成功的游戏设计的目标是有意义的游戏，但游戏是从规则的运作中产生的。作为游戏设计师，你永远无法直接设计游戏。你只能设计产生游戏的规则。游戏设计师创造体验，但只是间接的。
Designing an emergent game system that generates meaningful complexity from a simple set of rules is challenging. Why is it so difficult? As a game designer, you are never directly designing the behavior of your players. Instead, you are only designing the rules of the system. Because games are emergent, it is not always possible to anticipate how the rules will play out. As a game designer, you are tackling a second-order design problem. The goal of successful game design is meaningful play, but play is something that emerges from the functioning of the rules. As a game designer, you can never directly design play. You can only design the rules that give rise to it. Game designers create experience, but only indirectly.
在一个复杂的新兴系统中，每个元素都凭借其与其他元素的可能关系获得其身份。当一个元素发生变化时，其余的关系都会受到影响。迭代过程的关键是能够将游戏视为系统，分析其运作方式，了解游戏系统何时、为何以及如何无法产生有意义的游戏。每项规则调整都会导致游戏玩法发生变化，你永远无法测试所有可能的规则变化，甚至其中的一小部分。这就是为什么预测游戏形式结构的变化如何影响游戏玩法是游戏设计师必须培养的核心技能之一。随着时间的推移，游戏设计师会获得一种结构性的“第六感”，了解游戏中什么会起作用，什么不会起作用，了解系统某一部分的改变可能会如何影响整个体验。同时，人们无法预测所有的影响。作为一名游戏设计师，最大的乐趣之一就是看到你的游戏以你从未预料到的方式进行，看到玩家探索你从未知道存在的可能性空间的角落和缝隙。了解涌现的工作原理并创建鼓励涌现的设计是你的游戏为你带来这种乐趣的一种方式。
In a complex emergent system, every element gains its identity by virtue of its possible relationships with other elements. When one element changes, the rest of the relationships are all affected in turn. Key to the iterative process is the ability to think of games as systems, to analyze the way that they function, to know when, why, and how a game system fails to generate meaningful play. Every rule adjustment results in a change to the play of the game, and you will never be able to test out every possible rule variation, or even a tiny fraction of them. That is why anticipating how changes to the formal structure of a game affect its play is one of the core skills that game designers must develop. Over time, game designers acquire a structural “sixth sense” of what will and will not work in a game, of how changes to one part of the system are likely to play out in the experience as a whole. At the same time, one cannot anticipate every effect. One of the great pleasures of being a game designer is seeing your game played in ways that you never anticipated, seeing players explore nooks and crannies of the space of possibility that you never knew existed. Understanding how emergence works and creating a design that encourages emergence is one way your games can bring you this pleasure.
虽然基于规则的方法不是理解游戏的唯一方法，但它是游戏设计师概念工具集中不可或缺的一部分。通过定义规则并将游戏定义为新兴系统，我们为从结构角度思考游戏奠定了基础。以下游戏设计模式都提供了更具体的思考和设计游戏作为正式系统的方法。
Although a rules-based approach is not the only way to understand games, it is an indispensable part of a game designer’s conceptual toolset. By defining rules and framing games as emergent systems, we have laid the groundwork for thinking about games in structural terms. The game design schemas that follow all offer more specific ways of thinking about and designing games as formal systems.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
复杂化，作者：John Casti
Complexification, by John Casti
这本关于复杂性科学的书由数学家约翰·卡斯蒂撰写，虽然不是技术性的，但对这一主题却非常精妙。本书涵盖的主题非常广泛，包括从分形和涌现到奇异吸引子和图灵测试等所有内容，为复杂系统的研究提供了强有力的介绍。
This book on the science of complexity written by mathematician John Casti is a non-technical but nevertheless sophisticated approach to the topic. The wide-ranging subject matter, including everything from fractals and emergence to strange attractors and the Turing Test offers a strong introduction to the study of complex systems.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第一章：简单与复杂
Chapter 1: The Simple and the Complex
第 6 章：新兴事物
Chapter 6: The Emergent
涌现：从混乱到秩序，作者：约翰·霍兰德
Emergence: From Chaos to Order, by John Holland
约翰·霍兰德 (John Holland) 被誉为“遗传算法之父”，是一位数学家和计算机科学家。虽然后面的章节有些技术性，但前面的章节对博弈论和细胞自主神经系统进行了扎实的介绍。书中提出的许多问题都与游戏规则和游戏 AI 有关。
Known as the “father of genetic algorithms,” John Holland is a mathematician and computer scientist. Although the later chapters become somewhat technical, the earlier ones provide a solid introduction to game theory and cellular autonoma. Many of the problems presented in the book relate specifically to game rules and game AI.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第 2 章：游戏和数字
Chapter 2: Games and Numbers
第 3 章：地图、博弈论和基于计算机的
Chapter 3: Maps, Game Theory, and Computer-Based
造型
Modeling
《涌现》，作者：斯蒂芬·约翰逊
Emergence, by Stephen Johnson
在《涌现》一书中，数字文化专家斯蒂芬·约翰逊对新兴系统和复杂性进行了通俗介绍，报告了各种新兴现象，从蚁群到城市规划再到电脑游戏。
A popular introduction to emergent systems and complexity, in Emergence, digital culture maven Stephen Johnson reports on a variety of emergent phenomena, from ant colonies to urban planning to computer games.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第一章：蚁后的神话
Chapter 1: The Myth of the Ant Queen
第 5 章：控制艺术家
Chapter 5: Control Artist
语法人，作者：杰里米·坎贝尔
Grammatical Man, by Jeremy Campbell
《语法人》是一本内容广泛的新闻性书籍，介绍了复杂性理论、系统理论、信息论、博弈论、遗传学以及科学和工程领域的相关发展。作为对这些不同领域如何整合的一般介绍，它是一本宝贵的资源。
Grammatical Man is a wide-ranging, journalistic account of the development of complexity theory, systems theory, information theory, game theory, genetics, and related developments in science and engineering. As a general introduction to the way that these diverse fields integrate, it is a valuable resource.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第一部分：建立信息理论
Part One: Establishing the Theory of Information
第二部分：自然作为一个信息过程
Part Two: Nature as an Information Process
海龟、白蚁和交通堵塞，作者：米切尔·雷斯尼克
Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams, by Mitchel Resnick
米切尔·雷斯尼克 (Mitchel Resnick) 是西摩·帕普特 (Seymour Papert) 的学生，也是麻省理工学院媒体实验室的教员，他的研究小组负责 LEGO Mindstorms 等项目。《海龟、白蚁和交通堵塞》是一本关于分散系统的通俗易懂的书。本书既包括对该主题的一般介绍，也详细介绍了雷斯尼克自己在该领域与 StarLogo 合作的工作。
A student of Seymour Papert, Mitchel Resnick is a faculty member at the MIT Media Lab, and his research group is responsible for, among other things, LEGO Mindstorms. Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams is a highly accessible book about decentralized systems. The volume includes both a general introduction to the subject as well as detailed accounts of Resnick’s own work in the field with StarLogo.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第一章：基础
Chapter 1: Foundations
笔记
Notes
1. Jeremy Campbell，《语法人：信息、熵、语言和生命》（纽约：西蒙与舒斯特出版社，1982 年），第 105 页。
1. Jeremy Campbell, Grammatical Man: Information, Entropy, Language, and Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982), p. 105.
2.同上，第102页。
2. Ibid, p. 102.
3.约翰·卡斯蒂，《复杂化：通过惊奇科学解释一个矛盾的世界》（纽约：哈珀柯林斯出版社，1994 年），第 40-41 页。
3. John Casti, Complexification: Explaining a Paradoxical World Through the Science of Surprise (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994), p. 40–41.
4. Christopher Langton，《人工智能：概述》（剑桥：麻省理工学院出版社，1995 年），第 112 页。
4. Christopher Langton, Artificial Life: An Overview (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995), p. 112.
5.约翰·霍兰（John Holland），《Emergence》（宾夕法尼亚州雷丁：Helix Books，1998 年），第 121-122 页。
5. John Holland, Emergence (Reading, PA: Helix Books, 1998), p. 121–122.
6. Langton，《人工智能》，第 52 页。
6. Langton, Artificial Life, p. 52.
7. Steven Johnson，《涌现：蚂蚁、大脑、城市和软件的互联生活》（纽约：斯克里布纳出版社，2001 年），第 18 页。
7. Steven Johnson, Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software (New York: Scribner, 2001), p. 18.
8 . Holland，《Emergence》，第 22-23 页。
8. Holland, Emergence, p. 22–23.
9. Andrew Rollings 和 Dave Morris，《游戏架构与设计》（斯科茨代尔：Coriolis Group，1999 年），第 26 页。
9. Andrew Rollings and Dave Morris, Game Architecture and Design (Scottsdale: Coriolis Group, 1999), p. 26.
游戏作为新兴系统
概括
• 系统可以达到一定复杂程度，从而跨越“复杂性障碍”。跨越此障碍的系统是复杂系统，并表现出特殊行为。
• Systems can reach a level of complexity where a “complexity barrier” is crossed. The systems that cross this barrier are complex systems and exhibit special behaviors.
• Christopher Langton 确定了代表复杂性类型的四类系统：
• Christopher Langton identifies four categories of systems that represent types of complexity:
•固定系统永远保持不变，其元素之间的关系永远不会改变。
• Fixed systems remain the same forever, the relationships between their elements never changing.
•周期系统是不断重复相同模式的简单系统。
• Periodic systems are simple systems that repeat the same patterns endlessly.
•复杂系统介于周期系统和混沌系统之间，表现出比周期系统重复更复杂的行为模式。
• Complex systems lie between periodic and chaotic systems, exhibiting patterns of behavior more complex than the repetition of periodic systems.
•混沌系统的行为方式完全随机。
• Chaotic systems behave in a completely random fashion.
• 复杂系统可能是许多相互关联且复杂的元素的结果。然而，有时复杂系统可能只包含几个以非常复杂的方式相互关联的元素。
• Complex systems can be the result of many complex interrelated elements. However, sometimes a complex system can contain just a few elements that relate to each other in very intricate ways.
• 当游戏缺乏复杂性时，它也缺乏有意义的玩法。当游戏中存在有意义的玩法时，游戏的某些方面就实现了复杂性。复杂性确保游戏的可能性空间足够大，以支持有意义的玩法。
• When a game lacks complexity, it also lacks meaningful play. When meaningful play is present in a game, some aspect of the game has achieved complexity. Complexity ensures that the space of possibility of a game is large enough to support meaningful play.
•新兴系统从一组有限的规则中产生不可预测的复杂模式。在新兴系统中，整体大于部分之和。例如，有限的语法规则集无法解释语言中可能出现的所有语句。
• Systems that are emergent systems generate unpredictable patterns of complexity from a limited set of rules. In an emergent system, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. For example, the limited set of the rules of grammar cannot account for all of the possible statements that might be made in a language.
• 在新兴系统中，系统中对象之间的交互是耦合的且依赖于上下文的。耦合交互影响系统的整体空间和模式，因为每个交互都与其他交互相关联，而这些交互又与其他交互相关联。依赖于上下文的交互会根据系统其他部分的情况随时变化，从而创建随时间动态变化的模式。
• In an emergent system, the interactions between objects in the system are coupled and context-dependent. Coupled interactions affect the overall space and pattern of a system as each interaction links to others, which in turn link to others. Context-dependent interactions change from moment to moment depending on what is happening in other parts of the system, creating patterns that change dynamically over time.
•新兴系统中的自下而上行为是指新兴行为从系统的局部规则中产生，并在整个系统中传播，形成全球模式的方式。例如，《生命游戏》是一个自下而上的系统，它产生了滑翔枪等现象，这些现象在系统规则中没有明确描述，但它们是其简单规则自下而上运作产生的模式。
• Bottom-up behavior in an emergent system refers to the ways that emergent behaviors arise from the local rules of a system to spread up through the system, creating global patterns. For example, The Game of Life is a bottom-up system that produces phenomena such as glider guns, which are not explicitly described in the rules of the system, but which are patterns produced by the bottom-up functioning of its simple rules.
• 游戏中的涌现源自玩家使用的游戏正式系统。例如，扑克游戏中的虚张声势并没有在游戏规则中明确规定，但它是游戏中涌现出来的玩家行为模式。
• Emergence in games results from the formal system of the game put to use by players. Bluffing in Poker, for example, is not explicitly stated in the rules of the game, but it is a pattern of player behavior that emerges from the game.
• 游戏中涌现的方式并不总是能从规则中直观地看出。围棋的规则比国际象棋简单得多，但由于涌现，它是一种数学排列数量较多的游戏。
• The way that emergence arises in a game cannot always be intuited from the rules. Go has much simpler rules than Chess, but due to emergence, it is a game with a higher number of mathematical permutations.
• 如果一款游戏是突发性的，那么它的可能性空间就足够大，可以奖励玩家探索所有可能的游戏方式。例如，在有不同种类单位或物体的游戏中，玩家可以通过以意想不到的组合使用单位来创建引擎。设计一款可以支持这些引擎的游戏可以产生丰富的突发性并增加游戏的可能性空间。
• If a game is emergent, it has a space of possibility large enough to reward players for exploring all of the possible ways to play the game. For example, in games with different kinds of units or objects, players can create engines by using units in unexpected combinations. Designing a game that can support these kinds of engines generates rich emergence and increases the game’s space of possibility.
•游戏设计是二阶设计问题。游戏设计师直接设计游戏规则，但只是间接设计玩家的体验。对游戏运作方式的系统理解可以大大提高游戏设计师预测游戏规则结构的变化将如何影响游戏体验的能力。
• Game design is a second-order design problem. A game designer designs the rules of the game directly but designs the player’s experience only indirectly. A system-based understanding of how games function can greatly improve a game designer’s ability to anticipate how changes in a game’s rule-structure will ramify into a play experience.
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游戏作为不确定性系统
GAMES AS SYSTEMS OF UNCERTAINTY
可能性
probability
确定性与不确定性
certainty vs. Uncertainty
风险
risk
宏观和微观的不确定性
macro-and micro-uncertainty
随机性
randomness
确实，骰子的作用的每个方面都值得怀疑：骰子本身、骰子表面的形状和质地、掷骰子的人。如果我们将分析推向极端，我们甚至可能怀疑机会与骰子有什么关系。骰子的轨迹和反弹都不依赖于机会；它们受理性力学的严格决定论支配。台球基于同样的原理，它从未被认为是一种机会游戏。所以归根结底，机会在于掷骰者的笨拙、缺乏经验或天真——或者在于观察者的眼光……
It is true that every aspect of the role of dice may be suspect: the dice themselves, the form and texture of the surface, the person throwing them. If we push the analysis to its extreme, we may even wonder what chance has to do with it at all. Neither the course of the dice nor their rebounds rely on chance; they are governed by the strict determinism of rational mechanics. Billiards is based on the same principles, and it has never been considered a game of chance. So in the final analysis, chance lies in the clumsiness, the inexperience, or the naiveté of the thrower—or in the eye of the observer . . . .
至于台球，只需倾斜桌子，装上可以让球反弹和偏转的螺柱，并将六个口袋放在桌子底部或其他位置，这样球就必然会落入其中一个口袋，它就可以轻松地变成一种机会游戏。由于我们不打算偏向技巧，因此会有一个机械触发器，玩家可以用或多或少的力量拉动弹簧，将球射上斜坡。这种机械台球游戏的随机性并不比传统骰子差。——伊瓦尔·埃克兰，《破碎的骰子》
As for billiards, it can easily be transformed into a game of chance by simply tilting the table, outfitting it with studs that would cause the balls to rebound and swerve, and by placing the six pockets at the bottom of the table, or at other points, so that the ball would necessarily fall into one of them. Since we’re not trying to favor skill, there would be a mechanical trigger and the ball would be shot up the slope by a spring that the player would pull with more or less force. This game of mechanical billiards is no less random than traditional dice.—Ivar Ekeland, The Broken Dice
引入不确定性
Introducing Uncertainty
想象一下，如果在比赛开始前，你就已经被宣布为获胜者，你会感到多么不完整。想象一下，比赛会让人感到多么没有目的。——伯纳德·德科文，《玩得好的游戏》
Imagine how incomplete you would feel if, before the game, you were already declared the winner. Imagine how purposeless the game would feel.—Bernard DeKoven, The Well-Played Game
不确定性是每款游戏的核心特征。没错，每款游戏都是如此。正如游戏设计师兼哲学家 Bernard DeKoven 指出的那样，游戏结果的不确定性是让游戏具有目的感的必要因素。换句话说，不确定性是有意义的游戏的关键组成部分。
Uncertainty is a central feature of every game. That’s right: every single game. As game designer and philosopher Bernard DeKoven points out, uncertainty about the outcome of a game is a necessary ingredient in giving a game a feeling of purpose. Uncertainty, in other words, is a key component of meaningful play.
在本章中，我们将游戏视为一种不确定性系统。游戏在两个层面上表达不确定性：宏观层面与游戏的整体结果有关，微观层面与设计系统内的特定机会操作有关。尽管所有游戏在宏观层面上都具有不确定性，但并非所有游戏在微观层面上都正式具有不确定性元素。正如我们将看到的，玩家的不确定性体验并不总是与游戏中实际的数学机会量一致。探索这些关系，将宏观和微观不确定性相互关联，并了解它们如何影响有意义的游戏设计，是我们在本模型中的主要关注点。
In this chapter, we explore games as Systems of Uncertainty. Games express uncertainty on two levels: on a macro-level relating to the overall outcome of a game, and on a micro-level relating to specific operations of chance within the designed system. Although all games possess uncertainty on a macro-level, not all games formally possess elements of uncertainty on a micro-level. As we will see, a player’s experience of uncertainty is not always congruent with the actual amount of mathematical chance in a game. Exploring these relationships, linking macroand micro-uncertainty to each other, and understanding how both of them impact the design of meaningful play, is our primary focus in this schema.
每场游戏真的都具有不确定性吗？“不确定性”一词让人联想到机会和随机性。但游戏不一定需要掷骰子或随机算法才能包含不确定性元素。如果您在玩《光晕》多人游戏时，与能力大致相当的玩家对战，游戏结果将是不确定的，尽管游戏是技巧游戏，而不是机会游戏。当我们说不确定性是每场游戏的核心特征时，我们是在呼应上面引用的 DeKoven：玩家不知道游戏将如何进行，这一点至关重要。想想看：如果您在比赛开始前就知道谁会赢，您还会愿意玩吗？电视体育比赛几乎总是现场直播，这是有原因的：没有不确定结果的戏剧性，它们无法引起我们的兴趣。
Does every game really possess uncertainty? The word uncertainty brings to mind ideas of chance and randomness. But a game does not have to have a die roll or random algorithm to contain an element of uncertainty. If you are playing a multiplayer session of Halo against players of roughly equivalent ability, the outcome of the game is uncertain, even though the game is a game of skill, not chance. When we say that uncertainty is a central feature of every game, we are echoing DeKoven in the quote above: it is crucial in a game that players don’t know exactly how it will play out. Think about it: if you knew who was going to win a game before it started, would you even bother to play? There is a reason why televised sports are almost always aired live: robbed of the drama of uncertain outcome, they fail to hold our interest.
理解游戏为何需要不确定性的一个方法是，如果游戏结果是预先确定的，那么游戏体验就无法提供有意义的游戏体验。如果游戏没有不确定性——如果游戏结果完全预先确定——那么玩家做出的任何选择都是毫无意义的，因为它们不会影响游戏的进行方式。有意义的游戏源于有意义的选择。如果玩家的选择在游戏中毫无意义，那么玩游戏就毫无意义。
One way to understand why games need uncertainty is that if the outcome of a game is predetermined, the experience cannot provide meaningful play. If a game has no uncertainty—if the outcome of the game is completely predetermined—then any choices a player makes are meaningless, because they do not impact the way that the game plays out. Meaningful play arises from meaningful choices. If a player’s choices have no meaning in the game, there really is no reason to play.
不确定性和有意义的游戏之间存在着内在联系。人们通常认为不确定性会剥夺玩家的选择感和主动性，但矛盾的是，游戏的不确定结果却让玩家觉得他们的决定会对游戏产生影响。我们知道，有意义的游戏就是从这种决策-结果关系中产生的。
There is an intrinsic connection between uncertainty and meaningful play. Uncertainty is usually thought of as something that disempowers players by removing a sense of choice and agency, yet paradoxically, it is the uncertain outcome of a game that allows players to feel like their decisions have an impact on the game. Meaningful play, as we know, emerges from these kinds of decision-outcome relationships.
在整个游戏系统中，这种不确定结果的宏观概念与游戏中微观层面的不确定性相关。结合随机性和偶然性的不确定性的具体机制（无论是通过轮盘赌的旋转还是游戏程序中随机数的生成）与与游戏结果相关的宏观不确定性同样重要。从这两个层面的相互作用中，产生了有意义的不确定性游戏。
Throughout a game system, this larger notion of an uncertain outcome is linked to the micro-level of uncertainty within a game. The specific mechanisms of uncertainty that incorporate randomness and chance, whether through the spin of a Roulette wheel or the generation of a random number in a game program, are just as important as the larger feeling of uncertainty linked to a game’s outcome. From the interaction between these two levels, the meaningful play of uncertainty arises.
确定性、不确定性和风险
Certainty, Uncertainty, and Risk
赌博现象的本质是决策。决策行为包括从一组可接受的策略中选择一个行动方案或策略。一个特定的决策可能表明要打出的牌、要支持的马、在给定的游戏间隔内要冒险的财富份额……决策可以根据行动和结果之间的具体关系进行分类。——理查德·爱泼斯坦，《赌博理论与统计逻辑》
The essence of the phenomenon of gambling is decision making. The act of making a decision consists of selecting one course of action, or strategy, from among the set of admissible strategies. A particular decision might indicate the card to be played, a horse to be backed, the fraction of a fortune to be hazarded over a given interval of play . . . . Decisions can be categorized according to the specific relationship between action and outcome.—Richard Epstein, The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic
在《赌博理论与统计逻辑》一书中，数学家理查德·爱泼斯坦研究了赌博中不确定性的数学原理。然而，他的研究可以应用于各种游戏。爱泼斯坦强调决策以及行动与结果之间的关系，这与我们的一些核心思想相呼应。
In The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic, mathematician Richard Epstein investigates the mathematics of uncertainty in gambling. His research, however, can be applied to all kinds of games. In his emphasis on decision making and the relationship between action and outcome, Epstein echoes some of our own core ideas.
在书中，爱泼斯坦确定了三种决策结果关系，从而得出三个程度的不确定性：不确定性、风险和确定性。每种类别都对应一种不同的决策结果关系和游戏体验。完全确定的游戏根本不能算是游戏，当然也没什么趣味。这就像抛一枚正面朝上的硬币：毫无疑问最终结果会是什么。有时，确定性与环境有关。两个完全熟悉游戏逻辑的人玩井字游戏，游戏的结果肯定是平局：游戏总是以平局结束。虽然玩家的具体决定尚不确定，但游戏的整体结果却是确定的。在完全确定的游戏中，不可能进行有意义的游戏。
In his book, Epstein identifies three types of decision-outcome relationships, leading to three degrees of uncertainty: uncertainty, risk, and certainty. Each category corresponds to a different kind of decision-outcome relationship and game experience. A game that is completely certain is hardly a game at all, and certainly not much fun to play. It is like flipping a two-headed coin: there is no doubt what the end result will be. Sometimes, certainty is contextual. A game of Tic-Tac-Toe between two people that are completely familiar with the logic of the game play has a certain outcome: the game will always end in a draw. Although the specific decisions of the players aren’t certain, the overall result of the game will be. In a game that is completely certain, meaningful play is impossible.
爱泼斯坦的另外两个类别描述了我们通常认为的游戏中的不确定性。风险是指存在一些不确定性但游戏玩家事先知道不确定性性质的情况。例如，玩轮盘赌游戏需要对旋转的可能结果下注，然后旋转轮盘以获得随机结果。轮盘旋转存在一些不确定性，但可以精确计算出特定结果发生的百分比概率以及由此导致的赌注损失或收益。在轮盘赌上的 31 个数字中，15 个是红色，15 个是黑色，其中一个（零）既不是红色也不是黑色。如果你押注红色，你有 31 次机会中的 15 次（或 48.39%）获胜并加倍下注。换句话说，在纯风险游戏中，你可以完全确定游戏结果的不确定程度。
Epstein’s other two categories describe what we normally think of as uncertainty in games. Risk refers to a situation in which there is some uncertainty but the game’s players know the nature of the uncertainty in advance. For example, playing a game of Roulette involves placing bets on the possible outcome of a spin and then spinning the roulette wheel to get a random result. There is some uncertainty in the spin of the wheel, but the percentage chance for a particular result occurring and the resulting loss or gain on the bet can be calculated precisely. Of the thirty-one numbers on the Roulette wheel, 15 are red,15 are black and one of them (the zero) is neither red nor black. If you bet on red, you have 15 out of 31 chances (or 48.39%) to win and double your bet. In other words, in a game of pure risk, you can be completely certain about the degree of uncertainty in the outcome of the game.
爱泼斯坦的不确定性类别描述了玩家不知道游戏结果的情况。例如，假设你是一个中等水平的国际象棋玩家，你去一个在线游戏网站与你随机选择的对手下棋。你不知道你的对手是谁。对手可能是国际象棋大师，他很可能会打败你，也可能是初学下棋的人，你很可能会打败他。你无法预测游戏的结果。相反，如果你正在与一个你之前玩过很多次的朋友对弈，并且你知道你通常会赢四局中的三局，那么你对结果很有把握。但如果不了解你的对手，你就无法做出这样的猜测。
Epstein’s category of uncertainty describes a situation in which players have no idea about the outcome of the game. For example, imagine that you are a moderately skilled Chess player and you go to an online game site to play a game of Chess with an opponent that you select at random. You have no idea who you are going to play against. It might be a Chess master, who will most likely beat you, or it might be someone learning to play for the first time, who you will most likely beat. There is no way for you to predict the outcome of the game. If, in contrast, you are playing a friend that you have played many times before and you know that you usually win three out of four games, you have a good sense of the outcome. But without knowing your opponent, you can’t make that kind of guess.
虽然纯粹确定性的游戏极其罕见（而且没什么乐趣），但纯粹风险的游戏和纯粹不确定性的游戏也相当罕见。大多数游戏都兼具风险和不确定性。即使你知道战胜朋友的一般概率，你肯定无法绝对确定自己获胜的概率。虽然你每次在轮盘赌上投注时都知道确切的风险，但一晚上游戏的总体损失或收益就更加不确定了。
Although games of pure certainty are extremely rare (and not much fun to boot), games of pure risk and games of pure uncertainty are also quite rare. Most games possess some combination of risk and uncertainty. Even though you know something about the general chances of winning against your friend, you certainly don’t have absolute mathematical certainty about your chances of winning. And although you know the exact risk each time you make a bet on the Roulette wheel, your overall loss or winnings over an evening of play is much more uncertain.
随机的感觉
The Feeling of Randomness
轮盘赌和国际象棋指出了不确定性的一个非常重要的方面。通常，游戏中的机会程度与游戏系统的实际数学关系不大，而与玩家的游戏体验如何构建关系更大。当我们只看一轮轮盘赌时，游戏是一种纯粹的风险体验。但当我们将其定义为多轮游戏中的金钱收益和损失时，整体结果更加不确定。同样，在没有正式机会元素的游戏中也有可能产生不确定性的感觉。以下是两个示例：
Roulette and Chess point to a very important aspect of uncertainty. Often, the degree of chance in a game has less to do with the actual mathematics of the game system and more to do with how the player’s experience of the game is framed. When we look at only a single round of Roulette, the game is an experience of pure risk. But when we frame it as the gain and loss of money over many rounds, the overall outcome is more uncertain. Similarly, it is possible to produce a feeling of uncertainty in games that do not formally possess an element of chance. Below are two examples:
中国跳棋。当四、五或六名玩家玩这个游戏时，感觉相当随机。随着游戏的展开和玩家移动棋子，棋盘中央变得拥挤不堪，棋子排列看似随机。尽管棋盘上的每一步都是玩家对下一步在哪里进行的战略选择的结果，但情况确实如此。
Chinese Checkers. When four, five, or six players play this game, it can feel quite random. As the game unfolds and players move their pieces, the center of the board becomes crowded with a seemingly random arrangement of pieces. This is true even though every single move on the board is the result of a player making a strategic choice about where to play next.
如果你闭上眼睛，只在轮到你移动时才睁开，你可能会觉得棋盘只是在重新洗牌，尤其是在游戏的中期，当中心区域最拥挤时。然而，这种随机感只是一种幻觉，因为游戏中没有正式的机会机制。完全有逻辑的玩家（只存在于假设的例子中）不会感觉到任何随机性：他们可以看着棋盘，立即将每一步追溯到一系列战略决策。
If you closed your eyes and opened them only when it is your turn to move, it might seem like the board is merely reshuffling itself, particularly in the middle period of the game, when the center area is most crowded. This feeling of randomness is only an illusion, however, as there is no formal chance mechanism in the game. Perfectly logical players (who only exist in hypothetical examples) wouldn’t feel any randomness: they could look at the board and immediately trace every move back to a series of strategic decisions.
然而，对于人类玩家来说，这种随机感是让游戏变得有趣的重要因素。虽然并非所有游戏都是如此，但就中国跳棋而言，随机感创造了一种无限可能的感觉，玩家会因为利用棋盘上的机会配置而获得奖励。允许玩家通过多次跳过其他棋子来移动棋子的规则旨在强调棋盘看似随机的排列。看到一种模式从混乱中浮现出来，让你可以在整个棋盘上来回跳跃棋子，这是一个非常有意义的游戏时刻。
However, for human players, this feeling of randomness is an important part of what makes the game fun to play. Although it is not true of every game, in the case of Chinese Checkers, the feeling of randomness creates a sense of open-ended possibility and players are rewarded for taking advantage of chance configurations on the board. The rule that lets players move their pieces by jumping multiple times over other pieces is designed to emphasize the seemingly random arrangement of the board. Seeing a pattern emerge out the chaos that allows you to jump a piece back and forth all the way across the entire length of the gameboard is a moment of wonderfully meaningful play.
SiSSYFiGHT 2000。在强调社交互动的多人游戏中，可能会出现类似的随机幻觉。在 SiSSYFiGHT 2000 中，由于有许多玩家有自己的议程和策略，游戏玩法往往看起来是随机的。然而，与中国跳棋一样，游戏中没有真正的随机元素：逻辑，而不是机会决定了玩家决策的结果。
SiSSYFiGHT 2000. In a multiplayer game that emphasizes social interaction, there can be a similar illusion of randomness. In SiSSYFiGHT 2000, because there are many players with their own agendas and strategies, game play often seems random. However, as with Chinese Checkers, there are no genuinely random elements to the game: logic, not chance determines the outcomes of player decisions.
然而，每轮发生的不可预测事件组合也是游戏乐趣的一部分。两个玩家可能会偶然同时攻击第三个玩家，给人一种他们是同盟的印象。他们真的在一起合作吗？如果不是，那么偶然事件会促使他们在未来的轮次中结成联盟吗？还有人注意到吗？可能性的复杂性导致了高度的不确定性。
However, the unpredictable combination of events that occurs each round is part of the game’s fun. Two players might by chance both attack a third player, creating the impression that they are allies working in concert. Are they actually working together? If not, will the chance event cause them to form an alliance for future rounds? And did anyone else notice? The complexity of possibilities leads to a high degree of uncertainty.
要消除这种随机感，不仅需要玩家完全理性，还需要玩家拥有特殊的心灵感应能力，让他们能够洞察其他玩家的内心，完全理解策略、对抗、情绪以及导致他们做出决定的其他因素。但谁会想玩呢？如果以这种方式剥离其逻辑核心，SiSSYFiGHT 2000 显然会失去很多吸引力。
Eliminating this feeling of randomness would require not only perfectly rational players, but players with special psychic powers that allowed them to look into the minds of other players and understand completely the strategies, rivalries, emotions, and other factors that led to their decisions. But who would want to play? Stripped to its logical core in this way, SiSSYFiGHT 2000 would obviously lose much of its appeal.
这两种游戏都给人一种随机的体验，尽管这两种游戏的规则系统都不包含基于机会的机制。这种“随机感”有点自相矛盾和神秘。国际象棋游戏是否具有从棋子之间复杂关系中产生的随机感？也许吧。但它的随机感可能不如中国跳棋游戏，而且绝对不如 Pick-Up Sticks 游戏的随机感。
Both games produce an experience of randomness, even though neither game contains chance-based mechanisms as part of the rule system. This “feeling of randomness” is somewhat paradoxical and mysterious. Does a game of Chess have a feeling of randomness that emerges out of the complexity of relationships between the pieces? Perhaps. But it probably has less of a feeling of randomness than a game of Chinese Checkers, and it most definitely has less of a feeling of randomness than a game of Pick-Up Sticks.
关键在于，随机感比随机性本身更重要。你应该在游戏中加入多少随机性？对于游戏中“随机感”的程度或实际随机性的程度，并没有神奇的公式。然而，随机性的存在与否确实会将游戏推向一个方向或另一个方向。没有任何随机感的游戏可能会让人感觉非常枯燥，而且通常比有随机元素的游戏更具竞争性。另一方面，完全随机的游戏会让人感觉混乱和无序。在这两种情况下，目标都是在更大的游戏系统中为玩家提供有意义的选择。只要玩家有公平的机会击败对手，非随机的竞争性游戏就可以是有意义的。如果玩家在探索游戏系统、碰碰运气和冒险时做出有趣的选择，那么完全随机的游戏也可以是有意义的。
The key point is that the feeling of randomness is more important than randomness itself. How much randomness should you put into your game? There is no magic formula regarding the degree of “feeling of randomness” or the degree of actual randomness in a game. However, the presence or absence of randomness does tend to move a game in one direction or another. A game that doesn’t have any feeling of randomness is likely to feel very dry, and generally more intensely competitive than a game that does have an element of randomness. On the other hand, a game that is completely random can feel chaotic and unstructured. In both cases, the goal is to give players meaningful choices within the larger game system. A nonrandom, competitive game can be meaningful as long as the players have a fair opportunity to best their opponents. A completely random game can also be meaningful, if the players are making interesting choices as they explore the game’s system, pushing their luck and taking risks.
游戏中的概率
Probability in Games
到目前为止，本章的重点是所有游戏中固有的宏观不确定性。现在我们来更具体地研究一下机会的微观运作。数学不确定性的研究称为概率。根据理查德·爱泼斯坦的说法，“‘概率’一词源于拉丁语probabilis，意为‘类似于真相’；因此，这个词本身确实会引起语义误解。”1爱泼斯坦所说的“语义误解”是指，如果某事物“类似于真相”，那么它实际上就不是真实的；同时，真相正是该事物所类似于的东西。
The focus of this chapter so far has been on the macro-level of uncertainty inherent in all games. Now we turn to a more specific examination of the micro-operations of chance. The study of mathematical uncertainty is called probability. According to Richard Epstein, “The word ‘probability’ stems from the Latin probabilis, meaning ‘truth-resembling’; thus the word itself literally invites semantic misinterpretation.”1 What Epstein means by “semantic misinterpretation” is that if something is “truth-resembling,” then it isn’t actually truthful; at the same time, the truth is exactly what the something does resemble.
概率的词源具有如此矛盾的含义，这是很恰当的。我们已经看到，宏观不确定性有其自身的悖论，例如当形式随机性不存在时，会产生随机感。以概率形式呈现的微观不确定性研究也有其自身的悖论。例如，概率在游戏中可以发挥双重作用。一方面，游戏中的机会元素会引入随机性和混乱，从而导致不确定性。另一方面，对概率数学的深入研究会将未知数减少为已知风险值，从而提高游戏的整体确定性。
It is appropriate that probability would have at its etymological roots such a paradoxical meaning. We have seen that macro-uncertainty has its own paradoxes, such as a feeling of randomness when formal randomness does not exist. The micro-study of uncertainty—exhibited in the form of probability—has its own paradoxes as well. For example, the role that probability can play in a game is twofold. On the one hand, chance elements in a game introduce randomness and chaos, leading to uncertainty. On the other hand, a thorough study of the mathematics of probability reduces wild unknowns to known risk values, increasing the overall certainty of a game.
数学中概率研究的起源恰如其分，它起源于游戏。17 世纪，法国贵族德梅雷骑士（在当代社会中，他可能被视为职业赌徒）向数学家朋友布莱斯·帕斯卡提出了一个问题。德梅雷想知道在骰子游戏中，当游戏在完成之前必须终止时，如何合理地分配赌注。在解决这个问题的过程中，帕斯卡发展了数学的一个新分支——概率论。德梅雷的问题在于确定在游戏的给定阶段，每个玩家获胜的概率。2
Appropriately enough, the mathematical study of probability has its origin in games. In the Seventeenth Century, a French nobleman, the Chevalier de Méré (who in contemporary society might be considered a professional gambler), brought a problem to his friend Blaise Pascal, the mathematician. De Méré wanted to know a logical way to divide the stakes in a dice game when the game had to be terminated before it was completed. In working out the solution to this problem, Pascal developed a new branch of mathematics, the theory of probability. De Méré’s problem amounted to determining the probability that each player had of winning the game, at a given stage in the game.2
概率研究已经发展成为数学的一个重要领域，其范围远远超出了简单的百分比和投注赔率。事实上，对于数学爱好者来说，爱泼斯坦的书对该领域进行了精彩的概述。然而，为了本书的目的，我们将使数学变得非常简单和直接。
The study of probability has evolved into an important field of mathematics that goes far beyond simple percentages and betting odds. In fact, for the mathematically inclined, Epstein’s book offers a wonderful overview of the field. However, for the purposes of this volume, we will keep the math extremely simple and straightforward.
骰子概率
Dice Probability
另一本以完全不同的方式探讨游戏概率的书是游戏设计师 Reiner Knizia 所著的《骰子游戏正确解释》。除了提供大量骰子游戏库外，本书还包含一章，提供骰子数学的非技术模型作为理解概率的基础。根据您对数学的经验和热爱程度，以下部分可能看起来非常浅显或枯燥。但在这个框架中，建立一些基本概念来理解游戏中的概率非常重要。
Another book that explores probability in games in a completely different manner is Dice Games Properly Explained, by game designer Reiner Knizia. In addition to providing an extensive library of dice games, the book contains a chapter that offers a non-technical model of dice mathematics as a foundation for understanding probability. Depending on your experience with and love for mathematics, the following sections might seem ridiculously facile or excruciatingly dry. But it is important in this schema to establish a few basic concepts for understanding what probability in games is all about.
作为概率的第一个例子，考虑一个标准骰子，它有六个面，每个面显示从 1 到 6 的数字。Knizia 将数字 1 到 6 称为掷骰子的基本结果。每次掷骰子时，每个基本结果出现的概率为 1/6 或 16.67%。如果将所有基本结果的概率加起来，它们的总和为 1 或 100%。
As the first example of probability, consider a single, standard die which has six sides, each side displaying a number from one to six. Knizia calls the numbers one to six the basic outcomes of throwing a die. Each time you throw a die, each basic outcome has a 1/6 or 16.67 percent chance of appearing. If you add up all of the chances of basic outcomes, they total to 1 or 100 percent.
Knizia 列出了骰子基本结果的三个特征：
Knizia lists three qualities of any basic outcome on a die:
• 所有基本结果都有同等可能性。
• All basic outcomes are equally likely.
• 过程总会生成一个基本结果。
• The process always produces one of the basic outcomes.
• 所有基本结果的概率加起来为1。3
• The probabilities of all basic outcomes add up to 1.3
组合结果是将多个基本结果组合在一起的结果。要确定组合结果，请将基本结果相加。例如，在单个骰子上掷出偶数意味着掷出 2、4 或 6。这三个基本结果加起来为 3/6，因此掷出偶数的组合结果是 50%。Knizia 将掷出组合结果称为“事件”，并得出结论：“任何事件的概率都是通过将期望的基本结果的数量相加并除以所有可能的基本结果的数量来计算的。”4
A combined outcome is a result that puts together more than one basic outcome. To determine a combined outcome, add the basic outcomes. For example, rolling an even number on a single die means rolling a 2, 4, or 6. These three basic outcomes add up to 3/6, so the combined outcome of rolling an even number is 50 percent. Knizia calls rolling a combined outcome an “event” and concludes that, “the probability of any event is calculated by adding up the number of the desired basic outcomes and dividing by the number of all possible basic outcomes.”4
如果掷出多个骰子，确定结果会变得更加复杂。对于两个骰子，Knizia 将基本结果表示为 3~4 的形式，其中第一个数字是第一个骰子掷出的数字，第二个数字是第二个骰子掷出的数字。表 1显示了两个骰子的所有基本结果可能性的图表。
If you roll more than one die, determining outcomes becomes more complex. With two dice, Knizia notates the basic outcomes in the form of 3~4, where the first number is the number rolled on the first die and the second number is the number rolled on the second die. A chart of all of the possibilities of basic outcomes for two dice are shown in Table 1.
请注意，2~5 和 5~2 等对称结果都出现在图表中，因为它们代表不同的可能基本结果。两个骰子有 36 种基本结果，因此出现任何一种结果的概率为 1/36。在游戏中投掷两个骰子时，游戏使用两个骰子的总和，而不是每个骰子上的单独结果。我们可以采用与单个骰子相同的方式确定掷出等于特定数字的组合结果的概率：将基本结果相加。要确定掷出 5 的概率，计算加起来为 5 的基本结果：1~4、2~3、3~2、4~1。这是四个基本结果，4/36 = 1/9 或 11.11%。
Note that symmetrical outcomes such as 2~5 and 5~2 both appear on the chart, as they represent different possible basic outcomes. There are 36 basic outcomes with two dice, so the chance of any one outcome appearing is 1/36. When two dice are thrown in a game, instead of the individual results on each die, the game uses the combined total of both dice. We can determine the chance of rolling a combined outcome equal to a particular number in the same way as with a single die: by adding up the basic outcomes. To determine the chance of rolling a 5, count the basic outcomes that add up to 5:1~4, 2~3, 3~2, 4~1. This is four basic outcomes, and 4/36 = 1/9 or 11.11 percent.
掷出双倍的概率是多少？掷出双倍的基本结果有六种：1~1、2~2、3~3、4~4、5~5、6~6。这是六种结果，6/36 = 1/6 或 16.67%。
What is the chance of rolling doubles? There are six basic outcomes that are doubles: 1~1, 2~2, 3~3, 4~4, 5~5, 6~6. This is six outcomes, and 6/36 = 1/6 or 16.67 percent.
将所有两个骰子的结果放在一张图表上，我们得到表 2中的数字。请注意，掷出最高和最低数字的概率分布极不均衡，而不是掷出范围中间的数字。
Putting all of the two-die outcomes on one chart, we get the figures in Table 2. Notice the radically unequal distribution of probabilities for rolling the highest and lowest numbers, as opposed to rolling numbers in the middle of the range.
我们可以将 Knizia 阐述的基本原则应用于各种各样的游戏设计情况。例如，如果您的游戏要求玩家抛硬币，那么您可以将两个基本结果确定为正面和反面，每个结果的概率为 50%。或者，您可能正在设计一款计算机模拟游戏，该游戏使用大量随机数来确定事件发生的频率，或者设计一副特殊的纸牌，其中某些纸牌在每轮中出现的特定概率是特定的。在任何一种情况下，一般原则都保持不变。如果玩家抛三枚硬币，它们全都出现正面的可能性有多大？手上有五张完全相同的牌的概率是多少？
We can apply the same basic principles Knizia articulates to a wide variety of game design situations. For example, if your game requires players to flip a coin, you can determine the two basic outcomes as heads and tails, with a 50 percent chance of achieving each outcome. Or you might be designing a computer simulation game that uses lots of random numbers to determine the frequency of events, or a special deck of cards with a particular chance of certain cards appearing each turn. In any of these cases, the general principles remain the same. If players are flipping three coins, how likely is it that they will all come up heads? What is the chance of having a hand of five cards that are all the same?
如果您正在设计一款涉及掷骰子、洗牌或其他形式的随机数生成的游戏，那么了解所涉及概率的基本原理非常重要。但是，仅凭数学原理并不能引导您设计出有意义的游戏。与游戏的其他方面一样，关键在于了解概率与玩家决策和结果之间的关系。例如，在设计诸如《大富翁》之类的棋盘游戏时，玩家的棋子在轨道上绕着棋盘旋转，您将如何确定棋盘上的空格数？在《大富翁》中，棋盘有四十个空格。由于两个骰子的平均总结果是 7，因此平均需要投掷六次才能绕棋盘一圈。这意味着到第七回合左右，一些玩家可能已经开始了他们的第二轮，并开始落在彼此的财产上。如果您正在创建具有类似结构的游戏，请设计棋盘和骰子的使用，以实现适合您游戏的事件节奏。
If you are designing a game that involves dice-rolling, card-shuffling, or other forms of random number generation, it is important that you understand the basic principles of the probabilities involved. However, mathematical principles alone won’t lead you to design meaningful play. The key, as with other aspects of games, is in understanding how probability relates to player decisions and outcomes. For example, in designing a board game such as Monopoly, in which players’ pieces circle the board on a track, how will you determine the number of spaces on the board? In Monopoly, the board has forty spaces. Because the average combined outcome of a two-die roll is 7, it takes on average six throws to get around the board. This means that by about turn seven, some of the players will likely have already started their second loop, and will begin to land on each other’s properties. If you are creating a game with a similar structure, design the board and the use of dice to achieve a pacing of events appropriate for your game.
机会与游戏
Chance and Game Play
机会和游戏玩法之间存在着一种奇妙的关系。一种定义机会的方式，尤其是纯机会游戏，就是玩家完全放弃控制权，必须被动地接受游戏结果。正如人类学家罗杰·凯洛伊斯在他的著作《人、游戏和游戏》中所写，机会“意味着并揭示了命运的恩惠。玩家完全是被动的：他没有部署自己的资源、技能、体力和智慧。他所需要做的就是满怀希望和战栗地等待骰子掷出。”5
There is a curious relationship between chance and game play. One way of framing chance, especially a game of pure chance, is that players completely give up control and have to passively accept the results of the game as they occur. As anthropologist Roger Caillois writes in his book Man, Play, and Games, chance “signifies and reveals the favor of destiny. The player is entirely passive: he does not deploy his resources, skill, muscles, intelligence. All he need do is await, in hope and trembling, the cast of the die.”5
尽管我们非常尊重 Caillois 的观点，但我们完全不同意他的观点。Caillois 的描述可能确实准确地描述了一些玩家在玩碰运气游戏时的情绪，但确实有很多碰运气的游戏为玩家提供了决策和有意义的游戏。即使是在纯碰运气的游戏中，精心设计的游戏也会不断为玩家提供选择的机会。有意义的游戏要求玩家在某种程度上对游戏有积极和投入的关系，并做出有意义的选择。一个什么都不做，只是“满怀希望和颤抖地等待骰子掷出”的玩家不可能参与有意义的游戏。
With all due respect to Caillois, we wholeheartedly disagree. What Caillois describes may in fact be an accurate depiction of the emotions of some players during a game of chance, but there are plenty of chance-based games that do offer player decision and meaningful play. Even in a game of pure chance, a well-designed game continually offers players moments of choice. Meaningful play requires that at some level a player has an active and engaged relationship to the game and is making choices with meaningful outcomes. A player that does nothing but “await, in hope and trembling, the cast of the die” cannot be engaged in meaningful play.
让我们再来看看我们都非常熟悉的游戏——《蛇梯棋》。从形式上讲，这是一款纯粹的机会游戏。轮到你时，你要掷骰子，适当地移动你的筹码，然后将骰子传递给下一位玩家。玩家在游戏过程中不会做出任何战略决策。然而，《蛇梯棋》可以是一款有趣的游戏。即使不考虑游戏可能提供的社交、叙事和文化形式的乐趣，《蛇梯棋》也有许多方式通过游戏玩法的形式方面提供乐趣：
Let us look again at a game with which we are all too familiar, Chutes and Ladders. Formally, it is a game of pure chance. On your turn, you roll the die, move your token appropriately, and then pass the die to the next player. Players do not make any strategic decisions in the course of play. However, Chutes and Ladders can be a fun game. Even without considering the social, narrative, and cultural forms of pleasure the game might provide, there are any number of ways that Chutes and Ladders provides pleasure through formal aspects of its game play:
• 融入游戏系统并通过掷骰子、计算空格和移动令牌来帮助系统向前发展的机械乐趣。
• The mechanistic pleasure of inhabiting a game system and helping that system move forward by rolling dice, counting spaces, and moving your token.
• 不确定谁会获胜，并努力争取第一名。
• The uncertainty of knowing who will win and the struggle to finish first.
• 滑梯和梯子本身，强化了前两种乐趣。一方面，滑梯和梯子产生的不规则运动使机械系统本身更加丰富，也更有趣。它们还允许意外的命运逆转，增加了谁将首先完成的戏剧性潜力。
• The chutes and ladders themselves, which reinforce both of the previous pleasures. On the one hand, with the erratic swoops of movement they produce, the chutes and ladders make the mechanistic system itself richer and more fun to inhabit. They also allow for unexpected reversals of fortune, increasing the dramatic potential of who will finish first.
尽管几乎所有游戏都具备前两个特质，但要将这两种乐趣用于有意义的游戏始终具有挑战性。在《滑梯与梯子》中，滑梯和梯子本身是正式游戏结构的核心特征，可以带来趣味性。想象一下没有滑梯和梯子的游戏：掷骰子、移动令牌并首先到达最后一个空格。作为一款游戏，这将是一次完全平淡的体验。滑梯和梯子创造了一种结构，即使没有任何真正的选择，也能带来更有意义的游戏体验。
Although it is true that almost any game will possess the first two qualities, it is always challenging to harness these two pleasures in the service of meaningful play. In Chutes and Ladders, it is the chutes and ladders themselves that serve as the central feature in the formal game structure to provide interest. Imagine the game without the chutes and ladders: rolling a die, moving a token, and getting to the last space first. As a game, it would be a completely flat experience. The chutes and ladders create a structure that results in more meaningful play, even without any real choices to make.
这是怎么发生的？考虑一下游戏的正式流程。如果没有梯子和滑道的起伏，玩家的得分将以大致相同的速度缓慢累积。玩家可能会领先或落后，但游戏模式将保持相当平稳，每个玩家每回合向前移动一到六个空格。事实上，如果玩家确实比其他玩家领先或落后很多，那么他或她平均更有可能停留在那里，从而进一步减少戏剧性的不确定性。滑道和梯子提供的位置变化大于掷骰子相对适度的 1-6 调整。这些跳跃破坏了原本平坦的获胜机会。
How does this happen? Consider the formal flow of the game play. Without the ups and downs of the ladders and the chutes, players’ scores would slowly accumulate at a roughly equivalent rate. A player might pull ahead or fall behind, but the pattern of the game would remain fairly flat, with each player moving ahead from one to six spaces each turn. In fact, if a player does move substantially ahead or behind of the rest of the players, he or she is on average more likely to stay there, further reducing dramatic uncertainty. The chutes and ladders provide changes of position greater than the die roll’s relatively modest adjustment of 1–6. These leaps disrupt the otherwise flattened chances of winning.
纯机会游戏的第二个非常不同的例子是彩票游戏。彩票游戏的基本玩法非常简单：选择一个数字或一系列数字，然后等待看你的数字是否被选中。同样，乍一看，很难想象如此简单的游戏怎么会如此引人注目。然而，尽管彩票是一种纯机会游戏，玩家在很多时候都会做出选择：选择玩哪种彩票游戏，选择一个数字或一组数字，选择参加给定彩票的次数，甚至（对于普通玩家）选择一段时间内的游戏模式。许多彩票游戏提供额外的选择，例如选择彩票卡上的“刮刮卡”空间。每个选择时刻都是一个可能产生有意义游戏的事件。彩票玩家经常使用复杂的系统来帮助他们选择数字，这些系统基于过去的中奖号码、他们的生日、随机直觉或其他数字推测。当玩家探索各种可能选项时，选择投注哪个数字这一简单选择就变得意义非凡。当然，赢钱的机会无疑是彩票游戏吸引力的重要组成部分。然而，这并不是让游戏变得有意义的唯一方面。玩家有机会决定如何驾驭机会系统，这些决定让玩家能够反抗纯粹的命运，保持获胜的希望，并帮助赋予游戏意义。
A second and very different example of pure chance games are lottery-based games. The basic game play of a lottery game is incredibly simple: pick a number or series of numbers and then wait to see if your number or numbers were picked. Again, at first glance, it is difficult to imagine how such a simple game could be so compelling. Yet even though a lottery is a game of pure chance, there are many moments at which players make choices: selecting the kind of lottery game to play, selecting a number or set of numbers, selecting the number of times to enter a given lottery, and even (for regular players) selecting a pattern of play over time. Many lottery games offer additional choices, such as a selection of “scratch-off” spaces on a lottery card. Each moment of choice is an event with the potential for meaningful play. Lottery players often use elaborate systems to help them select numbers, based on past winning numbers, their birthdays, random hunches, or other numerological speculations. The simple choice of what number to play becomes infused with meaning as players explore the space of possible options. Of course, the chance to win money is undeniably an essential part of the appeal of lottery games. However, it is not the only aspect of the game that makes its play meaningful. The opportunities for players to decide how to navigate the system of chance are the decisions that let players rail against pure fate, keep hope alive for winning, and help give the game its meaning.
从成功的纯运气游戏（如蛇梯棋或彩票游戏）中可以学到的教训是，有意义的游戏可以在没有实际战略决策的系统中发生。在纯运气游戏中，玩家与游戏系统的关系需要精心设计。在他们接触系统的每一刻，都应该梳理和强调有意义的游戏的可能性。
The lesson learned from successful games of pure chance such as Chutes and Ladders or a lottery game is that meaningful play can occur in systems in which there are no actual strategic decisions to make. In games of pure chance, the players’ relation to the game system needs to be carefully designed. At every moment that they come into contact with the system, the possibilities for meaningful play should be teased out and emphasized.
案例研究一：雷雨
Case Study One: Thunderstorm
尽管《骰子游戏正确解释》有一整章关于骰子概率论的内容，但本书的大部分内容都提供了对一百多种骰子游戏的描述和分析。这些游戏从简单的儿童游戏到复杂的赌博和虚张声势游戏，应有尽有。其中一些是 Knizia 自己设计的，但大多数都是传统游戏。以下是《骰子游戏正确解释》中的两个简单游戏示例，它们清楚地说明了如何成功地将机会融入游戏玩法中。
Although Dice Games Properly Explained has an entire chapter on dice probability theory, most of the book offers descriptions and analyses of more than one hundred dice games. The games range from simple children’s games to complex betting and bluffing games. Some of them are of Knizia’s own design, but most of them are traditional games. Following are two simple game examples from Dice games Properly Explained that clearly illustrate the successful integration of chance into game play.
这是德国流行的家庭游戏，称为 Gewitter。击中所需的目标数字，或看着雷雨靠近，直到闪电最终袭来。任何数量的玩家都可以参与，最好是 4 到 8 人。您需要六个骰子和一个记事本。
This is a popular family game in Germany, there called Gewitter. Hit the required target number, or watch the thunderstorm move close, until lightning finally strikes. Any numbers of players can participate, best with four to eight. You need six dice and a notepad.
目的。游戏的目标是在每一轮中至少产生一个 1，成为游戏中剩下的最后一个玩家。
Object. The aim of the game is to produce at least one 1 on each turn to become the last remaining player in the game.
游戏。一名玩家开始，然后游戏按顺时针方向进行。第一位玩家掷出所有六个骰子。后面的玩家可能只有更少的骰子可用，甚至只有一个。
Play. One player begins, then play progresses clockwise. The first player throws all six dice. Later players may have fewer dice available, even only one.
• 如果您掷出的骰子至少有一个 1，则没问题。将所有 1 放在一边，并将剩余的骰子传递给下一位玩家。如果您掷出的骰子全是 1，则收回所有六个骰子并将它们传递给下一位玩家。
• If your throw contains at least one 1, you are fine. Set aside all 1s and pass the remaining dice to the next player. If you roll nothing but 1s, recover all six dice and pass them to the next player.
• 如果您掷出的骰子不包含任何 1，则您失败并将骰子传递给下一位玩家。
• If your throw does not contain any 1s, you fail and pass the dice to the next player.
游戏过程中，会为每个玩家画一个六线的房子。每次失败，你的房子就会增加一条线。当你的房子完成后，你再次失败，你的房子就会被闪电击中，你就出局了。
In the course of the game, a six-line house is drawn for each player. Each time you fail, a line is added to your house. When your house is complete and you fail again, your house is struck by lightning and you are out of the game.
游戏持续进行，直到只剩下一名玩家。该玩家获胜。6
The game continues until only one player remains. This player wins.6
雷暴和蛇梯棋一样，是一款纯粹靠运气的游戏。玩家无需做出任何战略或战术决策。然而，这是一款引人入胜的游戏，因为游戏设计在多个层面上精心安排了有意义的选择和结果。从掷骰子到绘制房子，信息都得到了完美的转化。图表提供了清晰的比较记录，显示了玩家在游戏中的相对位置。
Thunderstorm, like Chutes and Ladders, is a game of pure chance. The player makes no strategic or tactical decisions. However, it is an engaging game because the design choreographs meaningful choice and outcome on many levels. There is a wonderful translation of information from the die rolls to the drawing of the house. The diagrams offer a clear comparative record that displays the relative positions of the players in the game.
尽管《雷暴》是一款纯靠运气的游戏，但玩家面临的运气类型在每一轮中都会发生变化。如果你掷六个骰子，那么你的掷法相对安全，而且很有可能掷出 1。另一方面，如果前一个玩家只给你一个骰子，那么你掷出 1 的几率就会低得多。最初，玩家的掷法相对安全，一次掷出多个骰子。偶尔，玩家会运气不好，掷不出 1，但在前几次掷出四个、五个或六个骰子时，他们掷出 1 的几率超过 50%。随着 1 的出现，这些骰子从掷骰子组中被剥离，紧张感逐渐增加，游戏速度也随着掷出 1 的几率降低而加快。一个骰子可能在很长一段时间内都没有人掷出 1。然后突然有人掷出 1，避免在自己的房子上画一条线，下一个玩家又开始掷出所有六个骰子。
Even though Thunderstorm is a game of pure chance, the kind of chance that a player faces changes from turn to turn. If you are rolling six dice, you have a relatively safe roll and are quite likely to roll a 1. On the other hand, if the previous player hands you just a single die, your chances of rolling a 1 are much lower. Initially, players are making relatively safe rolls, rolling many dice at once. Occasionally a player will get unlucky and miss rolling a 1, but chances are better than 50 percent that for the first few rolls with four, five, or six dice, they will roll a 1. As 1s appear and these dice are stripped away from the group of rolling dice, the tension mounts and the game accelerates as the chance for rolling a 1 decreases. A single die might be passed for quite some time without anyone rolling a 1. Then suddenly someone rolls a 1, avoids drawing a line on his or her house, and the next player begins the pattern again by rolling all six dice.
作为一名玩家，你对这种进展有两种感受。看到其他玩家只掷一个骰子，而不是掷出 1，并在他们的房子上加一行，这真是太棒了。另一方面，当骰子在玩家圈中向你靠近时，你会希望另一个玩家掷出 1，因为这意味着下一个玩家会掷出所有六个骰子，这使得你很可能在轮到你时有更多的骰子可以掷。这种不确定性的正式结构使游戏具有引人入胜的戏剧性节奏，这种节奏发生在多个重叠的循环中：
As a player, you feel two ways about this progression. It is great to see the other players rolling a single die, not rolling 1s, and adding a line to their houses. On the other hand, as the die approaches you around the circle of players, you would love for another player to roll a 1 because it means that the next player rolls all six dice, making it likely that you will have more dice to roll on your turn. This formal structure of uncertainty results in a game with a compelling dramatic rhythm, which takes place in a number of overlapping cycles:
• 每次玩家掷骰子，建立游戏的规律节奏。
• Every turn a player throws the dice, establishing a regular pace to the game.
• 在此节奏的基础上，骰子数量从六个减少到一个，然后再减少回六个，形成了一个持续很多轮的循环，并且在一场游戏中重复多次。
• On top of this rhythm, the reduction of the number of dice from six to one and then back to six again sets up a cycle that lasts for many turns and repeats itself a number of times within a single game.
• 每个玩家还设定了房屋建造的线性进程。尽管建造房屋的元素对所有玩家来说都是以相同的顺序发生的，但每个玩家的建造速度都不同。
• Each player also sets up a linear progression of housebuilding. Although the elements of this construction occur in the same sequence for all players, it happens at a different pace for each player.
• 第四个循环发生在接近尾声时，玩家开始退出游戏，圆圈关闭，直到只剩下一座房子，即属于获胜者的房子。
• The fourth cycle happens near the end, as players begin to drop out of the game and the circle closes until there is only one house left standing, the house belonging to the winner.
总体而言，这款游戏非常刺激，具有戏剧性的必然性——除了一栋房子之外，其他所有房子都会被摧毁，这已经成为一种可怕的必然。《雷暴》的惊人之处在于（没有双关语的意思），所有这些复杂性都源自一款纯粹的机会游戏——而且没有赌注。《雷暴》就是一个例子，它为玩家提供了一个丰富的机会系统，可以产生出人意料的有意义的游戏体验。
The overall result is an exciting game with a sense of dramatic inevitability—the destruction of all of the houses but one becomes a dreadful certainty. What is striking about Thunderstorm (no pun intended) is that all of this complexity arises out of a simple game of pure chance—and no betting. Thunderstorm is an example of a game that provides players with a rich chance-based system that generates surprisingly meaningful play.
案例研究二：猪
Case Study Two: Pig
Pig 游戏与 Thunderstorm 的不同之处在于，它在机会游戏的背景下提供了选择。与 Thunderstorm 一样，Pig 展示了如何在具有大量不确定性的系统中设计有意义的游戏。Dice Games Properly Explained的描述如下：
The game of Pig differs from Thunderstorm in that it offers choice within the context of a game of chance. Like Thunderstorm, Pig demonstrates how meaningful play can be designed into a system with a great deal of uncertainty. The description from Dice Games Properly Explained is as follows:
猪
Pig
这是基于一个非常简单的理念的有趣家庭游戏。你掷一个骰子并不断增加你的总数。如果你在掷出 1 之前不停止，一切都会丢失。。。。任何数量的玩家都可以玩，最好是三到五个。你需要一个骰子和一个记事本。
This is an amusing family game based on a very simple idea. You throw one die and keep adding to your total. If you do not stop before you roll a 1, everything is lost . . . . Any number of players can play, best is for three to five. You need one die and a notepad.
目的。游戏的目标是避免掷出 1，并成为第一个达到 100 分或以上的玩家。
Object. The aim of the game is to avoid rolling 1s and to be the first player who reaches 100 points or more.
开始游戏。由一名玩家开始游戏，然后游戏按顺时针方向进行。轮到你时，掷骰子：
Play. One player begins, then play progresses clockwise. On your turn, throw the die:
• 如果您掷出 1，您将失去回合并且不会得分。
• If you roll a 1, you lose your turn and do not score.
• 如果您掷出任何其他数字，您将获得相应的分数。
• If you roll any other number, you receive the corresponding points.
只要你获得积分，你就可以反复投掷。宣布你累积的积分，以便每个人都能轻松跟上你的回合。你可以随意投掷。你的回合以以下两种方式之一结束：
As long as you receive points you can throw again, and again. Announce your accumulated points so that everybody can easily follow your turn. You may throw as often as you wish. Your turn ends in one of two ways:
• 如果您决定在掷出 1 之前结束回合，请在记事本上记录您累积的分数。这些分数现在对于游戏的其余部分来说是安全的。
• If you decide to finish your turn before you roll a 1, score your accumulated points on the notepad. These points are now safe for the rest of the game.
• 如果您掷出 1，您将失去该回合并失去累积的积分。
• If you roll a 1, you lose your turn and your accumulated points.
将所有得分记录在记事本上，并记录每个玩家的累计得分。第一个得分达到 100 分或以上的玩家获胜。7
Record all scores on the notepad and keep running totals for each player. The first player to reach 100 points or more is the winner.7
关于《Pig》，首先要注意的是它如何从非常简单的结构中创造出有趣的游戏选择。游戏的核心要素——避免掷出 1——实际上是《Thunderstorm》的正式要求的反面，在《Thunderstorm》中，玩家试图掷出 1。在《Pig》中，玩家必须在继续掷骰子并积累更高分数的愿望与掷出 1 的风险之间取得平衡，而玩家每次选择再次掷骰子时，掷出 1 的可能性都会越来越大。
The first thing to note about Pig is how it creates interesting game choices from a very simple structure. A core component of the game—to avoid rolling 1s—is actually an inverse of the formal demands of Thunderstorm, where the players attempt to roll 1s. In Pig, the player has to balance the desire to keep on rolling and accumulate a higher score with the risk of rolling a 1, which becomes more and more likely each time the player chooses to roll again.
我们可以用数学来分析这个游戏。从概率的角度来看，六种基本结果中有一种对玩家来说意味着灾难：掷出 1。这意味着每次掷骰子都有 5/6 或 83.33% 的概率安全掷出，或者反过来说，掷出 1 的概率是 1/6 或 16.66%。但是，即使单独考虑每次掷骰子的概率相同，但您决定掷骰子的次数越多，最终掷出 1 的可能性就越大。如果您事先决定要掷两次骰子，那么轮到您掷出 1 的概率就是 2 次掷骰子的结果之和。在 36 种可能的 2 次掷骰子中，有 11 种方法可以掷出 1（1~1、1~2、1~3、1~4、1~5、1~6、2~1、3~1、4~1、5~1、6~1）。这样，两次掷骰子中掷出 1 的概率加起来就是 11/36 或 30.56%。
We can analyze the game mathematically. From a probability point of view, one out of the six basic outcomes spells disaster for the player: rolling a 1. This means there is a 5/6 or 83.33 percent chance of rolling safely each time you roll—or conversely, a 1/6 or 16.66 percent chance of rolling a 1. However, even though the chances are the same for every roll considered in isolation, the more that you decide to roll, the more likely it is that you will eventually roll a 1. If you decide in advance that you are going to roll twice, the chances of rolling a 1 on your turn is the combined outcome of a 2-die roll. In the 36 possible 2-die rolls, there are 11 ways you can roll a 1 (1~1, 1~2, 1~3, 1~4, 1~5, 1~6, 2~1, 3~1, 4~1, 5~1, 6~1). This adds up to 11/36 or 30.56 percent chance to roll a 1 in two rolls.
每次再次掷骰子时，掷出 1 的总概率都会增加，一旦掷出 1，该回合累积的分数将全部清零。掷骰子还是不掷骰子的戏剧性之处在于，每次掷骰子时，获得更多分数的概率都会增加，失败的概率也会增加。但是因为您可以控制多次掷骰子的决定，所以您知道风险的程度。Knizia在上表中绘制了连续掷骰子掷出 1 的概率。他还计算了您在一定次数的掷骰子中可能获得的平均分数，将 4 作为每次掷骰子的平均分数（因为您可能获得的分数为 2、3、4、5 或 6）。见表3。
Each time you roll again, your overall chance of rolling a 1 increases, and as soon as you roll a 1, your entire accumulated points for that turn are erased. The drama of the decision to roll or not to roll is that each time you roll the die, you increase your chances of getting more points, as well as increasing your chances to fail. But because you have control over your decision to roll more than once, you know the degree of risk. Knizia plots out the chances of rolling a 1 with successive rolls in the table above. He also calculates the average points you are likely to earn with a certain number of rolls, using 4 as the average number of points per roll (as your possible earnings are 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6). See Table 3.
Knizia 认为，最佳的 Pig 策略是一旦获得 20 分或更多，就停止掷骰子。但是，他也承认，优秀的玩家也会考虑其他玩家的进度。玩 Pig 的正式策略有两个方面。一方面，单个玩家与机会对抗，试图最大化每轮获得的分数。但这种即时决策过程也发生在其他玩家得分的大背景下。换句话说，如果你落后，你可能想碰碰运气，试图赶上来；但如果你失败了，你将不得不冒更大的风险来收复失地。如果你领先，也许你应该玩得更保守。但这样其他玩家可能更容易赶上你。
Knizia suggests that the best Pig strategy is to stop rolling once you have 20 points or more. However, he also acknowledges that a good player takes into account the progress of the other players as well. There are two sides to the formal strategy of playing Pig. On the one hand, there is the aspect of a single player playing against chance, trying to maximize points earned each turn. But this moment-to-moment decision-making process also takes place within the larger context of the other players’ scores. In other words, if you are falling behind, you may want to press your luck to try and catch up; but if you fail, you will have to risk even more to regain ground. If you are in the lead, perhaps you should play more conservatively. But then it might be easier for other players to catch up to you.
Pig 是一款优雅的游戏设计，因为玩家的简单选择是掷骰子还是不掷骰子，而这个决定是游戏意义的多个交叉向量的结合点。结果就是游戏非常简单，具有战略深度，而且越来越具有戏剧性。Pig 是一个很好的例子，它展示了如何通过简单的选择来利用纯粹的机会，并将其转化为有意义的游戏。你能说你的游戏中的决策和 Pig 中的掷骰子决定一样有意义吗？
Pig is an elegant game design because the player’s simple choice to roll or not to roll is a decision that sits at the nexus of many intersecting vectors of game play meaning. The result is a game that is astonishingly simple, strategically deep, and increasingly dramatic. Pig is a great example of how pure chance can be harnessed through simple choices and transformed into meaningful play. Can you say that the decisions in your game are as meaningful the decision to roll in Pig?
不确定性的崩溃
Breakdowns in Uncertainty
运气是命运最后的希望。它是最后一次机会的游戏。它是每个人的游戏……从这个意义上讲，将机会游戏视为命运不可逆转的模型，也是幻想中的命运，是有益的。——布赖恩·萨顿-史密斯，《游戏的模糊性》
Luck is very much fate’s last hope. It is the play of the last chance. It is the play of everyman . . . . In this sense it is useful to think of games of chance not only as models of the irrevocability of fate but also as fate fantasized.—Brian Sutton-Smith, The Ambiguity of Play
至此，我们对经典概率运算的简短介绍性研究就结束了。但在完全离开这个主题之前，我们想讨论一下概率未能按照我们认为的正确方式运作的几种方式。正如我们之前讨论的“随机感”所表明的那样，概率的实际运作并不总是与玩家体验或解释它的方式相匹配。对于有意义的游戏设计，了解玩家的观点至关重要。接下来的几节将涉及概率的三个问题背景：计算机上的随机性、对机会过程的战略操纵以及关于不确定性的普遍谬误。
That ends our brief introductory investigation into the classical operations of probability. But before departing from this subject altogether, we would like to discuss a few ways that probability fails to operate in exactly the way that we think it should. As the “feeling of randomness” we discussed earlier demonstrates, the actual operation of probability does not always match up with the way that players experience or interpret it. For the design of meaningful play, understanding the player’s point of view is paramount. The next few sections touch on three problematic contexts for probability: randomness on a computer, strategic manipulation of chance processes, and commonly held fallacies about uncertainty.
问题一：计算机随机性
Breakdown 1: Computer Randomness
如果您正在设计数字游戏，那么了解计算机程序如何生成随机数非常重要。数字游戏广泛使用随机算法，无论是确定哪个玩家先出局，还是生成游戏关卡的背景纹理，或者随机化游戏内代理的行为。讽刺的是，计算机无法生成随机数。它们可以执行导致看似随机的结果的算法，但它们无法产生纯粹的随机性。为什么会这样？约翰·卡斯蒂 (John Casti) 给出了这样的解释：
If you are designing digital games, it is important to have a sense of how computer programs generate random numbers. Digital games make extensive use of random algorithms, whether to determine which player goes first, to generate the background texture of a game level, or to randomize the behavior of an in-game agent. Ironically, computers cannot produce random numbers. They can execute algorithms that result in random-seeming results, but they are not capable of producing pure randomness. Why is this so? John Casti offers an explanation:
在计算机的早期，生成随机数序列的最流行的方法之一是采用以下方案：
Back in the early days of computers, one of the more popular methods of generating a sequence of random numbers was to employ the following scheme:
1. 选择一个 0 到 1 之间的起始数字。
1. Choose a starting number between 0 and 1.
2. 将起始数字乘以 4（“拉伸”它）。
2. Multiply the starting number by 4 (“stretch” it).
3. 从步骤 2 中获得的数量中减去起始数字的平方的 4 倍（将间隔“折叠”回去以使最终结果保持在同一范围内）。
3. Subtract 4 times the square of the starting number from the quantity obtained in step 2 (“fold” the interval back on itself in order to keep the final result in the same range).
给定一个介于 0 和 1 之间的起始数字，我们可以使用该程序（通常称为逻辑规则）来生成一个数字序列，该序列从表面上看是完全随机的。例如，在这样的序列中，0 到 9 这十个数字中的每一个都以相同的频率出现，并且数字组之间的统计相关性为零。但请注意，此序列的成员由起始数字以完全确定的方式指定。因此，该序列肯定不是日常意义上的不可预测的随机序列；一旦我们知道起始数字以及从其前身计算序列元素的规则，我们就可以完全有信心地预测序列中的每个元素是什么。8
Given a starting number between 0 and 1, we can use the procedure—often termed the logistic rule—to generate a sequence of numbers that to all appearance is completely random. For example, in such a sequence each of the ten digits 0 through 9 appears with equal frequency and the statistical correlation between groups of digits is zero. Note, however, that the members of this sequence are specified in a completely deterministic way by the starting number. So the sequence is certainly not random in the everyday sense of being unpredictable; once we know the starting number and the rule for calculating an element of the sequence from its predecessor, we can predict with complete confidence what every element in the sequence will be.8
尽管卡斯蒂举的是历史例子，但如今计算机程序生成随机数的方式并没有根本区别。计算机永远无法计算出纯随机数，因为它们提供的数字始终是算法的结果。计算机程序可以在内部“抛硬币”来确定计算机控制的角色是否以相同的概率向左或向右转，但程序正在迭代一个确定性公式，该公式与随机抛硬币的操作只是表面上相似。随机数的生成是计算机科学中一个老生常谈的问题。我们不会在这里详细讨论它，只是指出它仍然是一个具有挑战性的难题。不过，对于大多数游戏设计目的而言，计算机可以生成的随机性已经足够随机了。
Although Casti uses a historical example, the ways that computer programs generate random numbers today are not fundamentally different. Computers can never compute purely random numbers, because the numbers they provide are always the result of algorithms. A computer program can “flip a coin” internally to determine whether a computer-controlled character will turn left or right with equal probability, but the program is iterating a deterministic formula that only superficially resembles the operation of a random coin flip. The generation of random numbers is a well-heeled problem in computer science. We won’t go into detail about it here, except to point out that it remains a challenging dilemma. Still, for most game design purposes, the randomness that computers can generate is sufficiently random.
通常，游戏设计师不需要深入了解计算机如何计算随机数。但你永远不应该忘记，随机函数并非万无一失。埃里克曾经开发过一款游戏原型，游戏内容是流体环境中成群的微生物（游戏从未发布过）。微生物会生长、生育和死亡，成群结队地在环境中寻找食物。尽管它们表现出复杂的行为，但微生物这样做的原因或多或少是清楚的。然而，游戏的一个方面令人费解。微生物总是倾向于寻找 2D 环境的左上角。设计师最初以为他们偶然发现了一种真正出现的行为模式，但却无法弄清楚是什么原因造成的。这与食物的繁殖方式有关吗？还是与玩家操作鼠标的方式有关？与此同时，微生物不可避免的普遍漂移破坏了游戏玩法，使整体行为变得太可预测。
Usually, an intimate understanding of how computers compute random numbers is not part of what a game designer needs to know. But you should never forget that random functions are not infallible. Eric was once working on a game prototype about swarming microbe-like creatures in a fluid environment (the game was never published). The microbes would grow, give birth, and die, flocking together to seek out food in their environment. Although they exhibited complex behavior, it was more or less clear why the microbes were doing what they were doing. However, one aspect of the game was puzzling. The microbes always tended to seek out the upper left corner of their 2D environment. The designers first thought they had stumbled upon a genuinely emergent behavioral pattern, but couldn’t for the life of them figure out what was causing it. Did it have to do with the way the food multiplied? Or the way a player was handling the mouse? At the same time, the inevitable and universal drift of the microbes was ruining the game play by making the overall behavior too predictable.
最终，他们发现，这种突发行为是由于随机化函数中的错误而产生的。每个计时步骤中，微生物都会朝 16 个方向之一移动。尽管它们能够感知周围环境并相应地移动（朝向食物并远离危险），但程序总是用随机输入来衡量它们的决定。问题在于，由于编程疏忽，程序开始在左上角计数，然后在最后再次计数该角，这使得随机化器选择左上角的概率是其他位置的两倍。尽管由于系统的复杂性，这个错误增加的额外概率很小，但突发效应相当强烈。一旦修复了随机化器，角漂移就会停止。教训是什么？即使您不是计算机程序员，也要了解随机性在游戏程序中的运作方式。
Eventually, they discovered that the emergent behavior was coming from an error in a randomizing function. Each timed step, a microbe would move in one of sixteen directions. Even though they could sense their immediate surroundings and moved accordingly (towards food and away from danger), the program always weighted their decision with a random input. The problem was that because of a programming oversight, the program began counting in the upper left corner, and then counted that corner again at the end, giving the randomizer twice as much chance of picking the upper left than any other position. Even though the degree of additional chance this error added was very small, because of the complexity of the system, the emergent effects were quite strong. Once the randomizer was fixed, the corner drift ceased. The lesson? Even if you are not a computer programmer, understand how randomness operates in your game’s program.
Breakdown 2: Strategizing Chance
第二个关于机会的意外性的例子是，当机会的使用成为一种策略时，玩家在游戏中操纵不确定性本身。你的玩家真的会把随机性当做表面价值吗？还是他们会想方设法把机会变成策略？在《游戏研究》的一篇文章《数数策略》中，民俗学家肯尼斯·戈德斯坦研究了 1967 年费城西北部 4 至 14 岁的儿童如何秘密而熟练地操纵机会的运作。他的研究重点是“数数”，即孩子们用来决定谁将成为“它”的“eenie-meenie-miney-moe”之类的操作，在传统的社区游戏如踢罐子游戏中。
The second example of the unexpected nature of chance is when the use of chance becomes strategic, when players manipulate uncertainty itself during a game. Will your players really take randomness at face value, or will they scheme to turn chance into strategy? In “Strategies in Counting Out,” an essay in The Study of Games, folklorist Kenneth Goldstein looks at the ways that children aged four to fourteen in northwest Philadelphia in 1967 secretly and expertly manipulated the operation of chance. His study focuses on “counting-out,” operations such as “eenie-meenie-miney-moe” that kids use to determine who will be “It” in a traditional neighborhood game like Kick the Can.
通常，算牌不被视为游戏：它是一种有助于确定未来游戏中角色的程序。但是，根据我们的定义，我们可以将其视为一个简单的机会游戏。在算牌中，玩家指定自己为算牌者；游戏的目标是避免被选为“它”。可量化的结果要求一名玩家被选为失败者。算牌程序的前提是它们是随机选择玩家的计数模式。事实上，这就是研究中的儿童在采访 Goldstein 时向他描述算牌行为的方式。然而，他的文章的结论是，尽管儿童将算牌描述为纯粹的机会操作，但他们使用了复杂而微妙的战略方法来实现他们想要的结果。
Counting Out is not usually considered a game: it is a procedure that helps determine roles in a future game. However, by our definition, we can consider it as a simple game of chance. In Counting Out, a player appoints himself or herself the counter; the goal of the game is to avoid being selected as “It.” The quantifiable outcome requires that one player is selected as the loser. The premise of counting-out procedures is that they are patterns of counting that randomly select a player. This is, in fact, the way that the children in the study described the act of counting-out to Goldstein when he interviewed them. However, his essay’s conclusion is that despite the fact that the children described Counting Out as a purely chance operation, they used complex and subtle strategic methods to achieve the results they desired.
以下是 Goldstein 观察到的六种常用操纵方法。其中许多方法需要复杂的数学技能，才能在参与者人数不断变化的群体中操作。9
Following are the six general methods of manipulation that Goldstein observed in use. Many of them represent techniques that would require sophisticated mathematical skills to operate in a group with changing numbers of participants.9
特定押韵曲目：这种简单的策略要求计数器选择特定长度的押韵，以达到预期的效果。
Specific Rhyme Repertory: This straightforward strategy requires the counter to select a rhyme of a specific length that will achieve the desired result.
韵律的延伸：计数韵律是模块化和可扩展的，并且如果韵律即将在计数者不想被选中的人身上结束时，计数者可以自发地添加适当长度的短语或韵律来达到不同的结果。
Extension of Rhyme: The counting-out rhymes are modular and extendable, and if the rhyme is about to end on someone that the counter does not want to be selected, the counter can spontaneously add an additional phrase or rhyme of the proper length to achieve a different result.
跳过常规计数：如果即将被选中，计数者会在绕圈时跳过自己。虽然这是最流行的技术，但也是最明显的，也是最令人不悦的技术。
Skipping Regular Counts: The counter simply skips himself or herself when going around the circle, if the counter is about to be selected. Although this was the most popular technique employed, it was also the most obvious, and the one most frowned upon.
停止或继续：因为大多数押韵诗没有指定选定的玩家是否是“它”或者选定的玩家是否“被淘汰”并且不会成为“它”，所以计数者可以在选出第一个玩家后决定选择的意义。
Stopping or Continuing: Because most rhymes do not specify whether the selected player is “It” or whether the selected player is “counted out” and is safe from becoming “It,” the counter can decide the significance of the selection after the first player has been picked.
改变位置：这种数学密集型策略需要计数者巧妙地移动到圈内的新位置，以便被选为下一个被“出局”的玩家。
Changing Positions: This mathematically intensive strategy entails the counter subtly switching to a new spot in the circle in order to be selected as the next player counted “out.”
喊叫以求得喘息：在这种明显的回避策略中，玩家只需喊出“安全”或“自由”，即可免于当前回合的计数。允许使用这种技巧的团体确实对其施加了限制，例如每轮计数中只有一名玩家能够喊出“安全”。
Respite by Calling Out: In this blatant strategy of avoidance, a player will simply call “safe” or “free” and be exempt from counting in the current round. The groups that allowed this technique did place restrictions on it, such as having only one player be able to call “safe” per counting round.
Counting Out 的悖论在于，尽管玩家将其描述为一种机会游戏，但它却是一款具有丰富战略成分的游戏，经验丰富的玩家可以在其中实现他们想要的结果。这个例子的意义在于，就像软件中的机会操作一样，它表明有时随机性和非随机性之间的差异比表面上看起来更微妙。当你设计游戏时，要密切关注用于确定随机性的程序，并确保它们以你希望的方式运行。你的意图。当然，这个例子指出的更大问题是，当你设计一款游戏时，这款游戏总是会被特定的玩家在特定的环境中使用。在我们关于打破规则和游戏作为社交游戏的模式中，以及在主要模式文化中的许多章节中，我们更详细地探讨了这个复杂的例子所提出的一些经验和背景问题。
The paradox of Counting Out is that even though players describe it as a game of chance, it is a game with a rich strategic component, in which experienced players can achieve the results they desire. The point of this example, as with the operation of chance in software, is to demonstrate that sometimes the differences between randomness and non-randomness are more subtle than they appear. When you are designing a game, pay close attention to the procedures used to determine randomness and make sure that they operate in the manner that you intend. Of course, the bigger issues to which this example points is that when you design a game, that game is always going to be used in a particular context by particular players. In our schemas on Breaking the Rules and Games as Social Play, and in many of the chapters within the primary schema CULTURE, we explore in more detail some of the experiential and contextual issues raised by this complex example.
细分 3：概率谬误
Breakdown 3: Probability Fallacies
第三个关于概率问题的例子与计算机软件、策略和机会无关，而是与玩家概念化和理解随机性本身的方式有关。你可能创造了一款包含非常具体类型的概率的游戏，甚至可能将这些概率传达给玩家。但这绝不意味着你的玩家会准确理解游戏中机会的运作方式。
A third example regarding the problems of probability does not concern computer software or strategy and chance, but the ways that players conceptualize and understand randomness itself. You may have created a game that contains very specific kinds of probabilities, and you may even communicate these to players. But this in no way means that your players will accurately understand the way that chance operates in your game.
游戏玩家很少会像你一样了解游戏系统的随机功能。游戏玩家和公众在涉及机会操作时往往会遭受许多谬误和误解。以下列表是从爱泼斯坦在《赌博理论与统计逻辑》中列出的更长的谬误列表中摘录的。10
Game players will rarely have the same grasp of the random functions of your game system that you do. Game players and the public tend to suffer from a number of fallacies and misunderstandings when it comes to the operations of chance. The following list is a paraphrased sampling from Epstein’s longer list of fallacies in The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic.10
•高估风险。游戏玩家倾向于高估获得高收益的概率较低的“风险”赌注，而低估获得低收益的概率较高的“安全”赌注。
• Overvaluing the long shot. Game players have a tendency to overvalue “long-shot” bets that have a low probability of achieving a high gain, in contrast to “safe” bets that have a higher probability of achieving a low gain.
•倾向于将连续的偶然事件视为累加事件。例如，用一个骰子掷出 1 的概率是 1/6 或 16.67%。用两个骰子掷出 1 的概率并不是您乍一看可能认为的 2/6 或 33.33%。根据概率论，我们知道，概率是 11/36 或 30.56%。在这个例子中，这个差异可能看起来很小，但随着连续迭代，实际概率和假定概率之间的差异可能会非常大。
• The tendency to think of successive chance events as additive. For example, the chance of rolling a 1 on one die is 1/6 or 16.67 percent. The chance of rolling a 1 with two dice is not 2/6 or 33.33 percent, as you might think at first glance. As we know from probability theory, the chances are 11/36 or 30.56 percent. This difference might seem small in this example, but with successive iterations, the differences between the actual probability and the presumed one can be quite large.
•蒙特卡罗综合症。这指的是人们倾向于认为在经历了一系列失败之后，成功的可能性就很大，反之亦然。换句话说，如果轮盘赌刚刚落在一个黑色数字上，那么下一个数字是红色的可能性并不大。
• The Monte Carlo Syndrome. This refers to the tendency to think that after a run of failures, a success is likely, and vice versa. In other words, if the Roulette wheel has just landed on a black number, it is not more likely that the next number will be red.
•过分强调好的结果。如果出现极不可能出现的负面结果和极不可能出现的正面结果，人们往往会过分强调好的结果。爱泼斯坦举了中彩票和次年死于车祸的例子。尽管大多数人认为中彩票的可能性更大，但两者发生的概率大致相同（1/10,000）。
• Overemphasis on good outcomes. Given a very unlikely negative outcome and a very unlikely positive outcome, people tend to overemphasize the good one. Epstein uses the example of winning the lottery and being killed in a car accident in the next year. Both have about the same chance of occurring (1 in 10,000), even though most believe that the lottery win is more likely.
•闪电击中两次。与前一个谬论相关，人们倾向于相信极不可能发生的负面事件不会重演（例如被闪电击中两次），但极不可能发生的正面事件会再次发生（例如在老虎机上赢得最高奖金）。事实上，随机事件发生的概率与过去发生的频率无关。
• Lightning striking twice. Related to the previous fallacy, people tend to believe that highly unlikely negative events will not repeat themselves (such as getting struck twice by lighting), but that highly unlikely positive events will happen again (such as winning the top jackpot on a slot machine). In fact, the chance of a random event occurring is not related to the frequency of past occurrences.
•运气。从纯数学的角度来看，运气是不存在的。人不会幸运，骰子不会幸运，护身符不会幸运，日历日期也不会幸运。然而，人们普遍相信运气，即使是经验丰富的游戏玩家也是如此。
• Luck. From a purely mathematical point of view, there is no such thing as luck. People aren’t lucky, dice aren’t lucky, charms aren’t lucky, calendar dates aren’t lucky. However, widespread belief in luck persists, even among experienced game players.
这些谬误中的每一个都对游戏设计有重要影响。例如，想想长线谬误。如果你的游戏允许玩家在长线和稳妥选择之间做出选择，你应该预料到大多数玩家会选择长线，并相应地平衡你的正式系统。过分强调好结果和两次雷击谬误可以帮助玩家在具有很大机会元素的游戏中保持乐观。即使玩家经历了很多坏运气，这些谬误也会让玩家对转机的希望保持下去。
Each of these fallacies has important implications for game design. For example, think about the long shot fallacy. If your game allows players a choice between a long shot and safe bet, you should expect most players to take the long shot and balance your formal system accordingly. Overemphasis on good outcomes and the lightning striking twice fallacies can help keep players optimistic in a game with a large chance element. Even if a player has seen a lot of bad luck, these fallacies keep hope for a turnaround alive.
更大的教训是，当你设计一款带有随机元素的游戏时，不仅要了解机会的概率机制，还要了解玩家解释或误解这些机制的方式。机会的这三种“分解”凸显了游戏设计中应避免的常见陷阱。另一方面，严格形式化的机会运作中的任何这些小问题都可以被积极地利用，作为游戏设计的起点：
The larger lesson is that when you design a game with a random element, it is important to understand not just the probabilistic mechanisms of chance, but also the way that players will interpret or misinterpret these mechanisms. All three “breakdowns” of chance highlight common pitfalls to avoid in game design. On the other hand, any of these hiccups in the strictly formal operation of chance could be used positively, as the starting point for a game design:
• 计算机可能无法产生真正的随机性。为什么不制作一款故意让随机性失衡的数字游戏呢？也许看似随机生成的数字串实际上是需要解密的秘密代码。或者在游戏世界的某些地方，玩家可以将机会操作转变为自己的优势。
• It may be true that a computer cannot generate true randomness. Why not make a digital game in which the operation of randomness is intentionally out of balance? Perhaps what seems to be a randomly generated string of numbers is really a secret code that needs to be deciphered. Or in certain locations of the game-world, the player can shift the operation of chance to his or her advantage.
• 机会操作在竞争性玩家手中可能确实会成为战略要素。你可以设计一款游戏，让玩家可以合法地构建或修改游戏中的“随机”元素，例如花费游戏币来影响掷骰子的结果，或者让玩家能够战略性地堆叠一副牌。
• It may be true that chance operations become strategic elements in the hands of competitive players. You might design a game in which players can legally construct or modify the “random” component of a game, such as spending game money to affect the outcome of a die roll or giving players the ability to strategically stack a deck of cards.
• 玩家可能确实会犯概率谬误。围绕其中一种谬误设计一款游戏。围绕运气设计一款游戏，玩家可以自己挑选幸运数字和不幸数字，掷骰子并尽量避免不幸数字并选出幸运数字。
• It may be true that players suffer from probability fallacies. Design a game around one of them. Build a game around luck, in which players pick lucky and unlucky numbers for themselves, rolling dice and trying to avoid unlucky numbers and score the lucky ones.
任何你能想到的游戏设计“规则”都可能被打破，正如我们将在《打破规则》中发现的那样，打破设计规则往往可以带来创新的游戏设计理念。
Any “rule” of game design that you might think of can be broken, and as we will discover in Breaking the Rules, broken design rules can often lead to innovative game design ideas.
有意义的机会
Meaningful Chance
但游戏中的运气从来都不是确定的。这正是游戏的有趣之处。不仅有可能，尽管我们获胜的几率很小，但我们冒的风险会得到回报。还有一种可能性是，尽管玩家表面上信心十足，但这手牌看起来价值不高，但实际上可能是最好的。我的两张王牌可能会让我赢得比赛。这就是信心游戏的意义所在。它们为你展示自我以及你很好地应对运气的能力提供了机会和奖励——它们要求你控制自己，也要求你控制游戏。——伯纳德·德科文，《玩得好的游戏》
But [chance in a game] is never sure. That’s what makes the game interesting. Not only is there a possibility that, despite the odds against us, the chance we take will pay off. There is also the further possibility that, despite the apparent confidence of the players, this hand, which seems to be of markedly unimpressive value, might be, in fact, the best of all. My two kings might win the game for me. That’s what confidence games are all about. They provide the opportunity and reward for your display of self as well as for your ability to play well with chance—they call for control over yourself as well as control over the game.—Bernard DeKoven, The Well-Played Game
在将游戏视为不确定性系统时，我们研究了机会运作的微观层面以及游戏整体不确定性的宏观层面。我们可以将一个重要见解应用于这两个层面，那就是，纯粹的不确定性数学功能不足以理解游戏机制中机会的丰富性。
In thinking about games as systems of uncertainty, we have looked at the micro-level of chance operation as well as the macro-level of the uncertainty of the game as a whole. One important insight we can apply to both of these levels is that the purely mathematical functioning of uncertainty is insufficient to understand the richness of chance within the mechanisms of a game.
正如 DeKoven 所观察到的，玩家确实会与游戏系统互动，承担风险、下注并计算赔率。与此同时，该系统也在与玩家互动，提出要求、奖励和惩罚，并要求玩家做出信心的飞跃。在将游戏视为形式系统时，我们最终无法将游戏的形式系统与玩家操纵和融入系统的方式分开。这对于机会的运作和复杂性的出现同样适用。不确定性存在于旁观者的眼中，或者也许存在于玩家的游戏中。
As DeKoven observes, it is true that a player interacts with the system of a game, taking risks, placing bets, and calculating the odds. At the same time, that system is also playing with the player, making demands, rewarding and punishing, and asking for leaps of faith. In thinking about games as formal systems, we cannot ultimately divorce the formal system of a game from the ways that players manipulate and inhabit the system. This is as true for the operation of chance as it was for the emergence of complexity. Uncertainty is in the eye of the beholder, or perhaps, in the play of the player.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
破碎的骰子和其他数学概率游戏，作者：Ivar Ekeland
The Broken Dice and Other Mathematical Games of Chance, by Ivar Ekeland
《破碎的骰子》是一本独特的书，既有哲学，又有数学，还有民间传说，从多个角度探讨了机会和命运的哲学问题。埃克兰对计算机无法生成随机数的分析尤其相关。
Part philosophy, part mathematics, and part folklore, The Broken Dice is an idiosyncratic book that explores philosophical questions of chance and fate from multiple points of view. Particularly relevant is Ekeland’s analysis of the impossibility of generating random numbers on a computer.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第一章：机会
Chapter 1: Chance
第2章：命运
Chapter 2: Fate
第五章：风险
Chapter 5: Risk
骰子游戏正确解释，作者：Reiner Knizia
Dice Games Properly Explained, by Reiner Knizia
棋盘游戏设计师 Knizia 的这本书包含对一百多种骰子游戏的描述和分析，其中一些是作者的原创设计。书中还有一章关于骰子概率论的应用——这是对这一主题的很好的非技术性介绍。骰子游戏范围从纯随机到高度战略性的，是课堂游戏的良好来源。
This book by board game designer Knizia packs in descriptions and analysis of more than a hundred dice games, some of which are original designs by the author. It also contains a chapter on probability theory applied to dice—a great non-technical introduction to the subject. The dice games range from the purely random to the intensely strategic and are a good source for classroom games.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第三章：骰子理论
Chapter 3: The Theory of Dice
随机丛林：数学探险，作者：Ivars Peterson
The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari, by Ivars Peterson
Ivars Peterson 撰写了关于数学的通俗读物，在这本充满趣味的作品中，他解决了随机性和概率的棘手难题。他在整本书中经常提到游戏，下面推荐的章节包括对 Chutes and Ladders 游戏板布局的精彩分析。
Ivars Peterson writes popular books about mathematics, and in this playful work he tackles the thorny dilemmas of randomness and probability. He makes common references to games throughout, and the chapter recommended below includes a spectacular analysis of the layout of the Chutes and Ladders gameboard.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第一章：木已成舟
Chapter 1: The Die is Cast
笔记
Notes
1. Richard Epstein，《赌博理论与统计逻辑》（圣地亚哥：Academic Press，1995 年），第 43 页。
1. Richard Epstein, The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic (San Diego: Academic Press, 1995), p. 43.
2. Elliott Avedon 和 Brian Sutton-Smith，《游戏研究》（纽约：John Wiley & Sons，1971 年），第 383 页。
2. Elliott Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith, The Study of Games (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1971), p. 383.
3. Reiner Knizia，《骰子游戏正确解释》（萨里郡塔德沃思：Right Way Books，1992 年），第 62 页。
3. Reiner Knizia, Dice Games Properly Explained (Tadworth, Surrey: Right Way Books, 1992), p. 62.
4.同上，第63页。
4. Ibid. p. 63.
5. Roger Caillois，《人、游戏和游戏》（伦敦：泰晤士和哈德逊，1962 年），第 17 页。
5. Roger Caillois, Man, Play, and Games (London: Thames and Hudson, 1962), p. 17.
6 . Knizia，《骰子游戏正确解释》，第 26-27 页。
6. Knizia, Dice Games Properly Explained, p. 26–27.
7.同上，第 128-29 页。
7. Ibid. p. 128–29.
8.约翰·L·卡斯蒂，《复杂化：通过惊奇科学解释一个矛盾的世界》（纽约：哈珀柯林斯出版社，1994 年），第 93 页。
8. John L. Casti, Complexification: Explaining a Paradoxical World Through the Science of Surprise (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), p. 93.
9. Kenneth Goldstein，《算牌策略》，载于《游戏研究》，Elliott Avedon 和 Brian Sutton-Smith 编辑（纽约：John Wiley & Sons，1971 年），第 172-177 页。
9. Kenneth Goldstein, “Strategies in Counting Out” In The Study of Games, edited by Elliott Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1971), p. 172–177.
10 . Epstein, 《赌博理论与统计逻辑》，第 393-394 页。
10. Epstein, The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic, p. 393–394.
游戏作为不确定性系统
概括
•不确定性是每个游戏的关键要素。如果游戏完全预先确定，玩家的行动将不会对游戏结果产生影响，也就不可能进行有意义的游戏。
• Uncertainty is a key component of every game. If a game is completely predetermined, the player’s actions will not have an impact on the outcome of the game and meaningful play will be impossible.
• 游戏中的不确定性有两个层面。微观层面是游戏系统中孤立时刻发生的实际机会运作。宏观层面是更大的不确定性问题，与游戏的最终结果有关。
• There are two levels at which uncertainty operates in a game. On the micro-level are the actual operations of chance that occur at isolated moments in the system of a game. On the macro-level are larger questions of uncertainty, which relate to the ultimate outcome of the game.
• 游戏决策与游戏结果之间的关系可以具有三种不确定性。确定的结果是完全预先确定的。风险是已知发生概率的结果。不确定的结果对玩家来说是完全未知的。很少找到纯粹确定、风险或不确定性的游戏。大多数游戏都结合了一定程度的风险和不确定性。
• The relationship between a game decision and a game outcome can have three degrees of uncertainty. A certain outcome is completely predetermined. A risk is an outcome with a known probability of happening. An uncertain outcome is completely unknown to the player. It is rare to find a game of pure certainty, risk, or uncertainty. Most games combine some degree of risk and uncertainty.
• 即使游戏系统中没有实际的随机机制，游戏也可能具有“随机感”。这种感觉可能源于无法提前预测的战略或社交复杂性。
• It is possible for a game to possess a “feeling of randomness” even if no actual random mechanisms are present in the game system. This feeling can stem from strategic or social complexities that cannot be predicted in advance.
• 随机感极低的游戏可能会变得太枯燥或太具有竞争性。随机感太强的游戏可能会变得过于混乱，让玩家感到无能为力。游戏中应该有多少随机性并没有神奇的公式。在所有情况下，关键是创造有意义的玩法，充分利用游戏结构。
• A game that has very little feeling of randomness can become too dry or competitive. A game that has too much of a feeling of randomness can become overly chaotic, leaving the players feeling powerless. There is no magic formula for how much randomness should be present in a game. In all cases, the key is to create meaningful play that takes unique advantage of the game structure.
• 在设计带有机会元素的游戏时，了解概率的基本数学以及它们如何影响您正在设计的系统至关重要。
• When designing a game with chance elements, it is vitally important to understand the basic mathematics of probability and how they will impact the system you are designing.
• 只要玩家有机会在游戏系统内采取行动，即使是纯粹的机会游戏也能提供有意义的游戏玩法。
• Even games of pure chance can provide meaningful game play as long as players are given meaningful opportunities to take action within the game system.
• 游戏系统中不确定性的运作会以许多令人惊讶的方式“崩溃”：
• There are many surprising ways that the operation of uncertainty can “break down” in the system of a game:
• 由于计算机程序无法产生真正的随机性，游戏设计师应该对游戏中的随机数生成算法持怀疑态度。
• Because computer programs cannot generate true randomness, game designers should be skeptical about the random number-generating algorithms in a game.
• 玩家有时可以将游戏中的随机元素转变为战略活动。
• Players can sometimes take a random component of a game and turn it into a strategic activity.
• 关于机会存在许多普遍的谬误。
• There are many commonly held fallacies about chance.
16
16
游戏作为信息理论系统
GAMES AS INFORMATION THEORY SYSTEMS
信息论
information theory
信息
information
不确定
uncertainty
噪音
noise
冗余
redundancy
自由
freedom
冗余自由
redundancy freedom
生物学家和哲学家都认为，宇宙及其所包含的生命形式都是基于偶然，而不是偶然。换句话说，偶然力量和非偶然力量以互补关系共存。随机元素称为熵，是混乱的媒介，它倾向于将未混合的事物混合在一起，从而破坏意义。非随机元素是信息，它利用熵原理固有的不确定性来生成新结构，以新颖的方式告知世界。——杰里米·坎贝尔，《语法人》
Biologists as well as philosophers have suggested that the universe, and the living forms it contains, are based on chance, but not on accident. To put it another way, forces of chance and of antichance coexist in a complementary relationship. The random element is called entropy, the agent of chaos, which tends to mix up the unmixed, to destroy meaning. The nonrandom element is information, which exploits the uncertainty inherent in the entropy principle to generate new structures, to inform the world in novel ways.—Jeremy Campbell, Grammatical Man
引入“信息”
Introducing “Information”
本书中讨论的许多术语和概念都很难讨论，不仅因为它们代表了复杂的概念，还因为它们在许多不同的语境中以不同的方式使用。“信息”一词尤其难以界定。我们生活在信息时代。我们在飞机座椅口袋中接收安全信息。我们获得信息科学学位。我们在报纸上阅读有关体育和天气的统计信息。我们通过电话线和互联网电缆发送和接收信息。我们遭受信息过载之苦。
Many of the terms and concepts tackled in this book are challenging to discuss, not just because they represent complex ideas, but also because they are used in many different contexts in many different ways. The term “information” is a particularly feisty one to pin down. We live in the information age. We receive safety information in our airplane seat pockets. We get degrees in information science. We read statistical information about sports and the weather in the newspaper. We send and receive information over telephone lines and Internet cables. We suffer from information overload.
虽然我们的目标不是对“信息”一词做出最终定义，但在以下两个框架中，我们将仔细研究两种理解信息的不同方式，因为它与游戏有正式关系。《游戏作为信息理论系统》是两个“信息”框架中的第一个。在其中，我们将游戏置于信息理论的背景下，信息理论是系统理论的近亲。
Although it is not our goal to arrive at an ultimate definition for the term “information,” within the following two schemas we look closely at two different ways of understanding information, as it relates formally to games. Games as Information Theory Systems is the first of two “information” schemas. In it, we frame games within the context of information theory, a close cousin of systems theory.
信息理论研究系统（在我们的例子中是游戏系统）中信息的流动。信息如何在游戏中流动？如何通过信息的输入和输出做出有意义的选择？从形式角度来看，冗余和不确定性如何影响有意义的游戏？游戏作为通信系统的特点是什么？这些问题中的每一个都会引发更多关于游戏中信息性质的问题，我们将在本框架和下一个框架中探讨这些问题。
Information theory studies the movement of information in a system—in our case, game systems. How does information flow within a game? How are choices made meaningful through the input and output of information? How do redundancy and uncertainty affect meaningful play from a formal perspective? What are the qualities of a game as a communication system? Each of these inquiries raises yet more questions about the nature of information in games, questions that we will explore over the course of this schema and the next one.
信息论
Information Theory
信息理论领域在二战后随着新兴电信业的兴起而兴起。信息理论最初旨在研究信号传输，是一套跨学科的概念和方法，涉及数学、物理学和工程学。自 1949 年克劳德·香农和沃伦·韦弗在经典著作《通信的数学理论》中正式提出信息理论以来，信息理论已超越其在电子学和密码学中的起源，在行为科学和社会科学以及当代批判理论的一些分支中得到应用。1
The field of information theory arose after WWII in tangent with the emerging telecommunications industry. Originally intended as the study of signal transmission, information theory is an interdisciplinary set of concepts and methodologies that cuts across mathematics, physics, and engineering. Since its formalization in the classic 1949 text by Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver, The Mathematical Theory of Communication, information theory has grown beyond its origins in electronics and cryptography to find applications in behavioral and social sciences, as well as in some strands of contemporary critical theory.1
信息论定量研究信息流：发送者如何发送信息，接收者如何接收信息。它与系统论密切相关，因为信息论研究系统运作的机制——例如，系统各部分如何相互通信。游戏系统几乎总是涉及玩家之间的交流和系统元素之间的互动；信息论是理解这些过程的一种有价值的方法。
Information theory quantitatively studies information flow: how senders send information and how receivers receive it. It is closely linked with systems theory in that information theory studies the mechanics by which systems function—how, for example, the parts of a system communicate with each other. Game systems almost always involve communication among players and interaction among system elements; information theory can be a valuable way to understand these processes.
在进一步讨论之前，了解信息论中“信息”一词的含义至关重要。信息论使用这个词的方式与日常对话中不同。例如，当你说在购买汽车之前需要更多关于它的“信息”时，你使用这个词来表示知识。你需要更多关于汽车的数据才能更好地理解它。这在某种程度上与信息论中这个词的用法相反。考虑一下沃伦·韦弗对信息论理解“信息”的方式的描述：
Before going any further, it is crucial to understand what information theory means by the word “information.” Information theory does not use the word in the same way it is used in casual conversation. When you say, for example, that you need more “information” about a car before you purchase it, you are using the word to mean knowledge. You need more data about the car in order to better understand it. This is, in some ways, the opposite of how the word is used in information theory. Consider Warren Weaver’s description of the way in which information theory understands “information:”
在这个理论中，信息这个词具有特殊含义，不能与它的普通用法混淆。特别是，信息不能与意义混淆。事实上，从目前的观点来看，就信息而言，两条信息，一条信息含义丰富，另一条信息完全是胡言乱语，可以完全等同。2
The word information, in this theory, is used in a special sense that must not be confused with its ordinary usage. In particular, information must not be confused with meaning. In fact, two messages, one of which is heavily loaded with meaning and the other of which is pure nonsense, can be exactly equivalent, from the present viewpoint, as regards information.2
与基于知识的理解不同，在信息论中，“信息”与意义脱节。但这到底是什么意思呢？让我们看看通信理论家 Stephen W. Littlejohn 对“信息”的另一种描述：
Unlike a knowledge-based understanding of the word, in information theory, “information” is divorced from meaning. But what does this mean exactly? Let’s look at another description of “information” that comes from communications theorist Stephen W. Littlejohn:
信息是衡量某种情况下不确定性的标准。当某种情况完全可预测时，就不存在任何信息……信息理论家认为，信息的概念并不是指消息、事实或意义。它只是一个与某种情况下的刺激或信号的量化有关的概念。3
Information is the measure of uncertainty in a situation. When a situation is completely predictable, no information is present . . . . As used by the information theorist, the concept of information does not refer to a message, facts, or meaning. It is a concept bound only to the quantification of stimuli or signals in a situation.3
根据 Littlejohn 的说法，“信息”是一种理解信号数学内容的方式：“刺激或信号的量化”。信息论以形式化、定量思维为基础，显然它与规则的亲和力大于游戏或文化。信息论基于两个重要前提，这两个前提在 Weaver 和 Littlejohn 的引言中都有所体现：
According to Littlejohn, “information” is a way of understanding the mathematical content of a signal: the “quantification of stimuli or signals.” With its foundation in formal, quantitative thinking, it should be clear that information theory has a greater affinity to rules than to play or culture. Information theory proceeds from two important premises, both of which are evident in the quotes from Weaver and Littlejohn:
意义与信息无关。信息与消息的内容或意义无关。正如韦弗指出的那样，两串字母，其中一串具有连贯的意义，另一串则毫无意义，可能包含相同数量的信息。
Meaning is irrelevant to information. Information has nothing to do with the content or meaning of a message. As Weaver points out, two strings of letters, one of which makes coherent sense and the other of which is nonsense, could contain the same amount of information.
信息衡量不确定性。此外（这是一个很难理解的点），在信息论中，信息并不衡量消息中“内容”的数量。它并不衡量消息中包含的知识——而是衡量不确定性。正如 Littlejohn 所指出的，“当情况完全可预测时，就不存在任何信息。”
Information measures uncertainty. Furthermore (and this is a tricky point to grasp), in information theory, information does not measure the amount of “stuff” in a message. It does not measure the knowledge contained in a message—it measures uncertainty instead. As Littlejohn notes, “When a situation is completely predictable, no information is present.”
第一点，意义与信息无关，是两者中比较容易理解的一点。信息论关注信号传输——它是一种看待信号数学结构的形式化方式，而不是一种看待信号内容的符号学方式。还记得《定义规则》中改变一副牌的花色的例子吗？只要牌的数学结构保持不变，我们就可以改变花色的内容，同时仍然可以用这副牌玩纸牌游戏。信息论以类似的方式看待通信信号，强调形式结构而忽略其内容。因为信息论关注数学数据而不是意义，所以它可以应用于任何形式的通信：“书面字母或单词、音符、口头单词、交响乐或图片。”4在信息论中，数据的格式与分析无关。
The first point, meaning is irrelevant to information, is the easier of the two to digest. Information theory concerns signal transmission—it is a formal way of looking at the mathematical structure of a signal, rather than a semiotic way of looking at its content. Remember the example of changing the suits on a deck of cards in Defining Rules? As long as the mathematical structure of the cards remained the same, we could change the content of the suits and still play a card game with the deck. Information theory looks at communication signals in a similar way, highlighting the formal structure while ignoring its content. Because information theory looks at mathematical data and not at meaning, it can be applied to any form of communication: “written letters or words, or musical notes, or spoken words, or symphonic music, or pictures.”4 In information theory the format of the data is irrelevant to the analysis.
那么第二点呢：信息衡量不确定性？这个概念比较难理解。根据信息论，信息是衡量你对信号性质的确定程度的指标。完全可预测的信号信息量非常低，而可能包含任何内容的信号信息量很高。信号某些部分可预测或不可预测是什么意思？以电报信息为例。多年来，人们在发送电报时会省略“a”和“the”等非必要的单词。这些单词具有高度的确定性，因此向接收者传达的信息非常少。同样，可预测的字母有时也会被省略，例如在句子“Only informatn esentil to understand mst b tranmitd.”中。5
What about the second point: information measures uncertainty? This concept is subtler to grasp. According to information theory, information is a measure of how certain you can be about the nature of a signal. A completely predictable signal has a very low amount of information, whereas one that could contain anything has high informational content. What does it mean that parts of a signal are predictable or unpredictable? Consider telegraph messages. For years, people sent telegraph messages leaving out non-essential words such as “a” and “the.” These words had a high degree of certainty, and therefore conveyed very little information to the receiver. Similarly, predictable letters were sometimes left out as well, such as in the sentence, “Only infrmatn esentil to understandn mst b tranmitd.”5
作为一个思想实验，想象一个名叫 JL 的陌生人。如果您试图猜测 JL 今天是否吃过早餐，这个问题可能有两个答案：“是”或“否”。您会对 JL 的回答有相当程度的确定性，因为只有两种可能的信息单元可供选择——这意味着答案中包含的信息量会很低。如果您试图猜测 JL 最喜欢的颜色，您仍然只是在猜测一个单词，但可能性更多，因此您的猜测的不确定性更大。答案中的信息量会更高，因为您将从更大的可能答案集合中选择 JL 最喜欢的颜色。如果您尝试从英语中的所有单词中猜测 JL 最喜欢的单词，答案中包含的信息量甚至更高，因为对于它可能是什么存在太多的不确定性。正如韦弗所说，信息“与您所说的内容无关，而是与您能说的内容有关。”6
As a thought experiment, imagine a stranger named J.L. If you are trying to guess whether or not J.L. had eaten breakfast today, there are two possible answers to the question: “yes” or “no.” You would have a fair degree of certainty as to what J.L. might answer, because there are only two possible units of information to choose from—and that means the amount of information contained in the answer would be low. If you are trying to guess J.L.’s favorite color, you are still just guessing at a single word, but there are more possibilities and therefore there is more uncertainty in your guess. The amount of information in the answer would be higher because you would be selecting J.L.’s favorite color from a larger set of possible answers. If you try and guess J.L.’s favorite word from among all of the words in the English language, the amount of information contained in the answer is even higher still, because there is so much uncertainty about what it might be. As Weaver puts it, information “relates not so much to what you do say, as to what you could say.”6
如果您要正确猜测 JL 的早餐、最喜欢的颜色或最喜欢的单词，请考虑正确答案可以减少多少不确定性。如果您正确猜出 JL 是否吃过早餐，那么您不会减少太多不确定性，因为一开始不确定性就很少。但如果您正确猜出 JL 最喜欢的单词，不确定性就会大大减少。在此示例中，正确猜出 JL 最喜欢的单词的信号包含最多的信息，因为它也最大程度地降低了不确定性。
If you were going to make a correct guess about J.L.’s breakfast, favorite color, or favorite word, think about the amount of uncertainty that is reduced with a correct answer. If you correctly guessed whether or not J.L. had eaten breakfast, you wouldn’t be reducing much uncertainty, because there was very little to begin with. But if you correctly guessed J.L.’s favorite word, uncertainty would be greatly reduced. In this example, the signal that correctly guesses J.L.’s favorite word contains the most information, because it also reduces the highest degree of uncertainty.
另一方面，如果你已经知道 JL 的一切，包括他最喜欢的单词、最喜欢的颜色以及他今天是否吃早餐，那么对这个问题的回答实际上根本不包含任何信息。在猜测之前答案就已经确定了，因此猜测并不是真正的猜测。对或错的答案不会降低对真相的不确定性程度。
On the other hand, if you already know everything about J.L., including his favorite word, his favorite color, and whether or not he ate breakfast today, then a response to the question would actually contain no information at all. The answer is already certain before the guess takes place, and therefore the guess is not really a guess. The degree of uncertainty about the truth would not decrease as the result of a right or wrong answer.
这正是韦弗所说的“信息是衡量一个人选择某条信息时的自由度的标准”的意思。8没有猜测的自由（因为我们已经知道答案）意味着没有信息：不确定性并没有减少。如果回答是或否，那么可以传递的信息会稍微多一点，但不会太多。如果选择喜欢的颜色或喜欢的单词，那么可以给出答案的自由度就会增加，因此信息中的信息量也会增加。
This is precisely what Weaver means when he says that, “information is a measure of one’s freedom of choice when one selects a message.”8 No freedom of guessing (because we already know the answer) means no information: uncertainty has not decreased. With a simple yes or no answer, there is a little more freedom in what can be sent as a message, but not much. In moving toward picking a favorite color or picking a favorite word, the freedom of what might be offered as an answer increases, and the amount of information in the message increases as a result.
信息论中的“信息”概念与游戏有何关联？想想看：信息是决策自由度的衡量标准。游戏是为玩家提供做出有意义决策能力的环境。从某种意义上说，通信系统中的信息类似于游戏中的可能性空间。信息丰富的消息的发送者正在从许多可能有意义的选项中进行选择。在可能性空间很大的游戏中，玩家也在从许多可能的有意义的选项中选择一个动作。
How does information theory’s concept of “information” connect with games? Think about this: information is a measure of freedom in decision making. Games are contexts which provide players with the ability to make meaningful decisions. In a sense, the information in a communication system is analogous to the space of possibility in a game. The sender of an information-rich message is choosing from many potentially meaningful options. The player in a game with a large space of possibility is selecting an action from among many possible meaningful options as well.
概率与猜测
Probability and Guesswork
游戏和信息论之间的另一个重要联系是，信息是衡量不确定性的尺度。我们知道，有意义的游戏玩法需要一定程度的宏观不确定性。如果游戏的结果事先已知，那么实际上根本就不存在游戏。如果一个玩家试图通过正确猜测一枚硬币是正面朝上还是反面朝下来赢得一场简单的游戏，那么这枚硬币可能产生两种信息（正面和反面）。然而，如果两个玩家都知道这是一枚两面硬币，不确定性就会降为零。突然间，游戏就没法玩了，就像硬币无法产生任何信息一样。我们从 JL 的例子中知道了这一点：如果你已经知道他最喜欢的颜色，你的答案就不包含任何信息。
Another important connection between games and information theory is that information is a measure of uncertainty. We know that meaningful play in games requires some degree of uncertainty on the macro-level. If the outcome of a game is known in advance, there really isn’t a game at all. If one player is trying to win a simple game by correctly guessing whether a penny is heads-up or tails-down, there are two possible messages the penny can generate (heads and tails). However, if both players know that it is a two-headed coin, the amount of uncertainty drops to zero. Suddenly there is no game to be played, just as there is no information to be generated by the coin. We know this from the example of J.L.: if you already know his favorite color, your answer contains no information.
我们还可以在微观层面的不确定性上建立联系。不确定性、信息和概率都具有一组正式关系。将掷骰子视为信息论信号。如果掷一个骰子，则信息量（和结果的不确定性）要比掷两个骰子少，而掷两个骰子可能的结果集更大。掷两个骰子（更多可能性和更多不确定性）等于更多信息。由于猜谜游戏依赖于不确定性，因此它们可以成为很好的信息论案例研究。
We can also make a connection on the micro-level of uncertainty. Uncertainty, information, and probability all share a set of formal relationships. Think about a die roll as an information theory signal. If one die is rolled, there is less information (and uncertainty of the outcome) than if two are rolled, where the set of possible outcomes is greater. Two die rolls—more possibilities and more uncertainty—equals more information. Because guessing games rely on uncertainty, they make good information theory case studies.
以 Mastermind 这样的游戏为例。每轮，一名玩家尝试猜测正确答案。通过接收黑白桩形式的编码反馈，对手会告诉她猜测的正确与否。游戏的目标是在有限的回合数内得出正确答案。Mastermind 被理解为一种信息论系统，是一种将信息发挥作用的奇妙结构。每次猜测，猜测者都会缩小可能的答案范围（减少不确定性），从众多答案中挑选出一个猜测不确定度是所有可能猜测的范围。通过缩小不确定性程度，猜测者可以在所有可能的答案空间中导航，希望在为时已晚之前找到正确答案。因为答案保持不变，所以只要猜测者不犯任何逻辑错误，每个猜测就会逐渐变得更加确定。想象一下 Mastermind 的一个变体，其中猜测者的对手每次都会重新排列解决方案钉子。在这个游戏中，不获胜的猜测不会减少不确定性，因为系统每次都会“重置”。就像赌徒一遍又一遍地押注单个轮盘赌数字一样，不确定性的数量将保持不变，不会通过连续的猜测而减少。
Take a game such as Mastermind. Each turn, one player attempts to guess the correct answer. By receiving coded feedback in the form of black and white pegs, her opponent tells her how correct or incorrect her guess was. The goal of the game is to arrive at the correct answer within a limited number of turns. Understood as an information theory system, Mastermind is a wonderful structure which puts information at play. With each guess, the guesser narrows down the possible answers (decreasing uncertainty), carving out a single guess from a range of all possible guesses. By narrowing the degree of uncertainty, the guesser navigates the space of all possible answers, hopefully arriving at the correct answer before it is too late. Because the answer remains fixed, as long as the guesser doesn’t make any logical mistakes, each guess is progressively more certain. Imagine for a moment a variation on Mastermind, in which the guesser’s opponent rearranges the solution pegs each time. In this game, a non-winning guess would not reduce the amount of uncertainty, because the system is “reset” every turn. Like a gambler betting on a single Roulette number over and over again, the amount of uncertainty would remain fixed and would not be reduced by successive guesses.
甚至可以从信息论的角度来思考文化信息。以经典的猜谜游戏“二十个问题”为例，贝塔朗夫利在《一般系统理论》中将其作为例子。8在这个简单的游戏中，一个玩家有一条信息，即答案，另一个玩家试图猜测这条信息。每轮，猜谜者可以问一个是或否的问题，目标是在 20 个问题内得出正确答案。“它是蔬菜吗？” “不是。” “它是动物吗？” “是。” “它是哺乳动物吗？” “是。” “它是啮齿动物吗？” “不是。”与 Mastermind 一样，答案保持不变，而猜谜者试图通过巧妙的提问来缩小可能性。然而，在这种情况下，答案并不存在于抽象的数学系统中，而是存在于世界、语言和两个玩家共同的文化中的对象。令人惊讶的是，通过一系列是/否猜测（通常少于 20 个）可以如此迅速、如此有效地缩小可能的解决方案的广阔范围！
It is even possible to think of cultural information in information theory terms. Take the classic guessing game Twenty Questions, which Bertalanffly uses as an example in General Systems Theory.8 In this simple game, one player has a piece of information, the answer, and the other player tries to guess that piece of information. Each turn, the guesser can ask a yes or no question, and the goal is to arrive at the correct answer within 20 questions. “Is it a vegetable?” “No.” “Is it an animal?” “Yes.” “Is it a mammal?” “Yes.” “Is it a rodent?” “No.” As with Mastermind, the answer remains fixed as the guesser tries to narrow down the possibilities through clever queries. In this case, however, the answer does not reside within an abstract mathematical system, but instead is an object that exists in the world, in language, in the shared culture of the two players. It is striking that the vast realm of possible solutions can be reduced so quickly and so efficiently through a series of yes/no guesses—usually, fewer than twenty!
如果意义与信息论的“信息”概念无关，那么如何才能用信息论来看待像《二十个问题》这样的游戏呢？这种游戏的内容依赖于文化。由于信息是一种抽象的形式量，因此可以应用于任何形式的交流。就《二十个问题》而言，信息论感兴趣的不是语言、历史或文化关系，而是数学关系。如果我们真的想将游戏简化为其形式本质，我们可以绘制任何可能的《二十个问题》查询与每个可能的“是”或“否”答案之间的数学相互关系，使用无意义的语言代替语音。虽然这会清空游戏中的文化内容，但信息结构将保持不变。《二十个问题》的美妙之处在于，在玩游戏的过程中，这种简化确实会在某种程度上发生。游戏将语言悬置在信息连接的形式网络中。每次猜测都是一种演绎的姿态，它缩小了猜测者的追求焦点，直到文化的不确定性转化为一个连贯的答案，最终标志着游戏的结束。
If meaning is irrelevant to information theory’s concept of “information,” how is it possible to use information theory to look at a game such as Twenty Questions, a game that relies on culture for its content? Because information is an abstract formal quantity, it can be applied to any form of communication. In the case of Twenty Questions, it is not the linguistic, historical, or cultural relationships that interest information theory, just the mathematical ones. If we really wanted to reduce the game to its formal essence, we could plot the mathematical interrelationships between any possible Twenty Questions query and every possible yes or no answer, using a nonsense language instead of speech. Although this would empty out the cultural content from the game, the informational structure would remain the same. The beauty of Twenty Questions is that such a reduction does occur on some level as the game is played. The game suspends language in a formal web of informational connections. Each guess is a deductive gesture that narrows the focus of the guesser’s pursuit until the uncertainty of culture resolves itself into a single coherent answer that, finally, marks the end of the game.
信道中的噪声
Noise in the Channel
到目前为止，我们已经讨论了信息本身的概念。但是信息信号是如何发送和接收的呢？信息如何从一个环境传递到另一个环境？信息理论最持久的概念之一是沃伦·韦弗和克劳德·香农开发的信号传输模型。信号传输研究信号从源头出发到达目标的路径。
Up to this point, we have discussed information itself as a concept. But how are informational signals sent and received? How does information get from one context to another? One of information theory’s most enduring concepts is the model of signal transmission developed by Warren Weaver and Claude Shannon. Signal transmission looks at the path of a signal as it departs from its origin and arrives at its target.
该模型的每个元素都代表信号传输和接收过程的不同阶段。例如，如果信号是口头语言，则信号源是说话者的思维，它会激活声带，信号通过无线电波传输，由听者的耳朵接收，并在大脑中进行解释。如果我们观察驾驶员在红绿灯前的情况，信号就是视觉信号。红绿灯的定时机制是信号源，它会激活灯泡，信号以光的形式传播到驾驶员的眼睛，然后由大脑进行解释。
Each element of the model represents a different stage of the process by which a signal is transmitted and received. For example, if a signal is a spoken word, the source is the mind of the speaker, which activates the vocal cords, a signal which is carried by airwaves, received by the ears of the listener, and interpreted in the mind. If we look at the circumstance of a driver regarding a stoplight, the signal is a visual signal. The timing mechanism of the stoplight is the source, which activates a light bulb, a signal that travels as light to the driver’s eye, where is it is interpreted by the mind.
作为信息论系统，游戏充斥着信号传输和接收的例子。玩家通过语音、书面文字和手势相互交流。他们还与游戏本身的系统进行交流。在《大富翁》游戏的回合中，玩家掷骰子并接收骰子上黑点的视觉信号，将其解释为数值。信号表现为玩家之间的语音、卡片上的书面文字，甚至是视觉信息：玩家看着棋盘，以了解他们相对于房产、房屋、酒店和彼此的位置。
As information theory systems, games are rife with instances of signal transmission and reception. Players communicate with each other through speech, written words, and gesture. They also communicate with the system of the game itself. During a turn in Monopoly, players roll the dice and receive the visual signal of the black dots on the die cubes, interpreting it as a numerical value. Signals manifest as speech between players, as written text on cards, and even as visual information: players look at the board in order to see their positions relative to properties, houses, hotels, and each other.
然而，信号传输几乎从来都不是干净纯净的。香农和韦弗模型中尚未提及的一个元素——噪声，解决了通信的这一重要方面。噪声是进入传输信道的信号中的干扰。在影响传输过程时，噪声会影响消息中的信息量。
However, signal transmission is hardly ever clean and pure. The one element in Shannon and Weaver’s model not yet mentioned, noise, addresses this important aspect of communication. Noise is interference in the signal that enters into a channel of transmission. In affecting the transmission process, noise affects the amount of information in a message.
噪音如何影响信息？我们必须牢记，信息是衡量人们选择信息自由度的标准。选择自由度越大，信息量也就越大，实际选择的信息是否是某个特定信息的不确定性就越大。因此，选择自由度越大，不确定性越大，信息量也就越大。如果引入了噪音，那么接收到的信息就会包含某些扭曲、某些错误和某些无关材料，这肯定会导致人们说，由于噪音的影响，接收到的信息表现出更大的不确定性。9
How does noise affect information? Information is, we must steadily remember, a measure of one’s freedom of choice in selecting a message. The greater this freedom of choice, and hence the greater the information, the greater is the uncertainty that the message actually selected is some particular one. Thus greater freedom of choice, greater uncertainty, greater information go hand in hand. If noise is introduced, then the received message contains certain distortions, certain errors, certain extraneous material, that would certainly lead one to say that the received message exhibits, because of the effects of the noise, an increased uncertainty.9
韦弗指出，噪声会增加信息量和信息中的不确定性。以语音信号为例，强风或嘈杂的交通可能会通过引入音频噪声干扰信息从发送者到接收者的传输。以司机和红绿灯为例，噪声可能以黑暗、雾气或司机汽车挡风玻璃上的灰尘的形式出现。在所有这些例子中，噪声都会增加信号的不确定性，从而增加其包含的信息量。
Noise, as Weaver points out, increases the amount of information and uncertainty in a message. In the example of a vocal signal, strong wind or loud traffic could interfere with the transmission of the message from sender to receiver through the introduction of audio noise. With the driver and stoplight example, noise might take the form of darkness, fog, or dirt on the windshield of the driver’s car. In all of these examples, noise increases the uncertainty of the signal, and therefore the amount of information it contains.
我们也可以换一种方式来理解噪声现象。噪声与发送者选择信号的自由度直接相关。作为一门工程学科，经典信息理论通常关注的是尽可能清晰地发送和接收信息。信道中的噪声是需要最小化的，这样人们才能清晰地进行电话交谈，并观看没有静电和雪花的电视。
We can also understand the phenomenon of noise another way. Noise is directly related to the amount of freedom that the sender has in choosing a signal. Classical information theory, as an engineering discipline, was generally concerned with sending and receiving messages of the greatest possible clarity. Noise in the channel was something to be minimized, so that people could have clear telephone conversations and watch their televisions free of static and snow.
然而，如果将游戏视为一个信息系统，噪音并不一定是负面因素。有时整个游戏都以将噪音放入交流渠道为前提。以非正式的电话游戏活动为例，人们围成一圈低声传话。活动的重点和参与者的乐趣来自系统中的噪音。原始信息在从一个人传递到另一个人的过程中会接收噪音，每次都会对信息进行一点点改变。当信息到达最后一个人时，噪音已经影响了原始信号的身份。在大多数情况下，从长长的低语者链中传出的信号会发生彻底的转变——这正是游戏的乐趣所在。
If games are framed as a system of information, however, noise is not necessarily a negative element. Sometimes entire games are premised on the notion of putting noise into a channel of communication. Take the informal play activity of Telephone, in which people whisper a message around a circle. The point of the activity and the pleasure for the participants comes from the noise in the system. The original message receives noise as it passes from person to person, transforming the message a little bit each time. By the time the message reaches the last person, the noise has impacted the identity of the original signal. In most cases, the signal that emerges from the long chain of whisperers undergoes a radical transformation—and that is exactly the fun of the game.
同样，猜字谜游戏是基于信号从一种形式到另一种形式的传输。在游戏开始时，玩家写下书籍、电影和电视节目的标题，并将它们放入帽子中。然后，一名玩家将书面信号转换成一组即兴的手势，试图将信息传达给队友，同时通过队友猜测时的默默鼓励和劝阻来缩小答案的不确定性。最终，标题从书面文字转化为手势，然后再转化为口头语言，信号又回到了原点。
Similarly, Charades is based on the transmission of signals from one form to another. At the start of the game, players write the titles of books, movies, and television shows and put them into a hat. Then one player takes that written signal and transforms it into a set of improvised gestures, attempting to convey the information back to teammates, while narrowing the uncertainty of the answer through silent encouragement and discouragement as teammates guess. Ultimately, the title is transformed from written word into gesture and then back into spoken languages the signal returns full circle.
在电话游戏中，乐趣源于噪音的加入。在猜谜游戏中，玩家在试图克服沟通障碍并完成传输电路时，需要与游戏结构中固有的噪音作斗争。猜谜游戏中的哑剧手势通过其固有的模糊性将噪音引入系统。许多相互竞争和矛盾的猜测也会产生噪音。有时猜谜团队会误解线索并偏离轨道，从而引入更多噪音。在如此多的噪音机会下，信号能够传输真是奇迹！但正是这种与噪音和不确定性的斗争让猜谜游戏变得有趣。正确答案响起的那一刻——信号完整传输，噪音和不确定性终于被克服——是游戏令人深感满意的时刻。
In Telephone, pleasure emerges from the addition of noise. In Charades, the players fight against the noise inherent in the structure of the game, as they attempt to overcome communication hurdles and complete the circuit of transmission. The pantomime gestures of Charades introduce noise into the system through their inherent ambiguity. The many competing and contradictory guesses contribute noise as well. Sometimes the guessing team misinterprets a clue and gets off track, introducing yet more noise. With all of the opportunities for noise, it is a wonder that signals are transmitted at all! But it is this struggle against noise and uncertainty that makes Charades fun to play. The instant that the correct answer rings out—the signal coming full circuit, the noise and uncertainty finally overcome—is a deeply satisfying moment of play.
噪音作为游戏系统的理想组成部分这一现象是游戏态度的一种功能，游戏态度是玩家进入魔法圈玩游戏时所采取的心理状态，是接受实现游戏目标的矛盾“低效”手段的共同态度。Charades 的玩家喜欢间接交流的难度，而不是大声说出正确答案，省去猜测的麻烦，这是游戏态度在游戏体验中体现的一个很好的例子。
The phenomenon of noise as a desirable component of a game system is a function of the lusory attitude, the state of mind that players take on in order to enter the magic circle and play a game, the shared attitude that accepts the paradoxically “inefficient” means for achieving the goals of a game. The fact that Charades’ players enjoy the difficulty of indirect communication, rather than just speaking the correct answer out loud and saving themselves the trouble of guessing, is a great example of how the lusory attitude manifests in the experience of play.
系统冗余
Redundancy in the System
虽然噪声会对信号的成功传输产生负面影响，但信息理论也发现了它的反面，即噪声的平衡因素，即冗余。冗余是指在信息系统中，即使部分信号丢失，消息仍能成功传输，因为冗余信息模式可以弥补信号数据中的“漏洞”。
Whereas noise negatively impacts the successful transmission of a signal, information theory also identifies its opposite, the counterbalance to noise known as redundancy. Redundancy refers to the fact that in information systems, the message can be successfully transmitted even if some of the signal is lost, because redundant information patterns compensate for “holes” in the data of the signal.
在大多数通信系统中，例如口语，单个语句中传输的信息量远远超过传递信号所需的最低限度。正如韦弗指出的那样，“英语的冗余度仅为 50% 左右，因此我们在书写或口语中选择的字母或单词中，大约有一半是我们自由选择的，而大约有一半（尽管我们通常没有意识到这一点）实际上受语言统计结构的控制。”10
In most communication systems, such as spoken language, much more information is transmitted in a single statement than is minimally required to convey the signal. As Weaver notes, “the redundancy of English is just about 50 per cent, so that about half of the letters or words we choose in writing or speaking are under our free choice, and about half (although we are not ordinarily aware of it) are really controlled by the statistical structure of the language.”10
如果有人喊道：“马上离开房间！”而你没有听清最后一个词，你很可能能够推断出缺少的“现在”并离开房间。这个句子可能会丢失更多单词，但仍能传达其预期信号。这种冗余存在于语言的许多层面：字母也是如此。例如，即使缺少一些字母，你仍然可以读懂这个句子。
If someone shouts, “GET OUT OF THE ROOM RIGHT __!” and you don’t quite hear the final word, you will most likely be able to infer the missing “NOW” and exit the room. The sentence could lose even more words and still convey its intended signal. This kind of redundancy exists on many levels of language: it is also the case with letters. For example, you can s ill read th s sente ce even thou h som of th let ers are m ssing.
噪声和冗余共同影响着系统传输信号的能力。在游戏中，冗余是与噪声同样重要的概念。在一个充满模块化、互锁信息元素的系统中，冗余变得非常重要，因为冗余度高的系统比冗余度低的系统更灵活。例如，填字游戏就利用了冗余。与二十个问题式的单一答案猜测不同，填字游戏有许多线索，每个线索都有自己的答案。然而，答案相互重叠，系统中存在冗余，可以“填补空白”并补偿太难破译的线索。当先前的答案已经确定了一些字母时，一个鲜为人知的首都的名字就更容易弄清楚。在《通信的数学理论》一书中，沃伦·韦弗明确指出了填字游戏和冗余之间的联系：
Noise and redundancy together contribute to the ability of a system to transmit signals. In the case of games, redundancy is just as important a concept as noise. In a system filled with modular, interlocking informational elements, redundancy becomes important, because a system with a lot of redundancy is more flexible than one with less. Crossword puzzles, for example, take advantage of redundancy. Instead of the Twenty Questions-style single-answer guess, in a crossword puzzle there are many clues, each with its own answer. Yet the answers overlap with each other, and there is redundancy in the system that can “fill in the holes” and compensate for a clue that is too difficult to decipher. The name of an obscure capital city is much easier to figure out when previous answers have already determined some of the letters. In The Mathematical Theory of Communication, Warren Weaver explicitly draws the connection between crossword puzzles and redundancy:
值得注意的是，如果要构造令人满意的填字游戏，语言在字母选择方面必须具有至少 50% 的真正自由度（或负熵）。如果它具有完全的自由度，那么每个字母阵列都是一个填字游戏。如果它只有 20% 的自由度，那么就不可能构造出如此复杂和数量的填字游戏，使游戏流行起来。11
It is interesting to note that a language must have at least 50 per cent of real freedom (or negative entropy) in the choice of letters if one is to be able to construct satisfactory crossword puzzles. If it has complete freedom, then every array of letters is a crossword puzzle. If it has only 20 per cent of freedom, then it would be impossible to construct crossword puzzles in such complexity and number as would make the game popular.11
韦弗所说的 50% 冗余度是指，一个单词或语句中一半的字母可以被删除而不会影响理解。这是因为并非每个字母组合都会出现在英语中。例如，没有单词中的“G”跟在“T”后面。另一方面，字母“H”、“R”和“E”通常跟在“T”后面。当我们开始写一个带有字母“T”的单词时，我们已经删掉了可能跟在它后面的许多字母——根据韦弗的说法，大约有 50% 的字母。
By 50 percent redundancy, Weaver means that half of the letters in a word or statement could be removed without a loss of understanding. This is because not every letter combination appears in English. There are no words, for example, in which “G” follows “T.” On the other hand, letters such as “H,” “R,” and “E,” very commonly follow “T.” When we start to write a word with the letter “T,” we have already cut out many possible letters that might follow it—about 50 percent of them, according to Weaver.
正如韦弗指出的那样，如果一种语言有 100% 的自由度，那么所有可能的字母组合都会成为填字游戏。如果是这样的话，填字游戏就会变得容易得多，也更不令人满意：当我们想出一个线索并填写一个单词的字母时，我们几乎不会从与之相交的所有其他空白单词中获得任何好处。另一方面，沃伦指出，如果英语中的冗余度太低，那么根本就没有足够的灵活性来正确设计填字游戏。我们大概可以构造某种具有 100% 或 10% 冗余度的字谜游戏，但它们根本不是我们所知的填字游戏。填字游戏包含一种微妙的平衡，使其保持足够的灵活性以允许多种组合，但仍然足够严格，以至于一个正确回答的线索会引出其他线索，然后再引出其他线索，直到填字游戏被解决。
As Weaver points out, if a language had 100 percent freedom, then every possible combination of letters would be a crossword puzzle. If this were the case, crossword puzzles would be far easier and less satisfying: when we figured out a clue and filled in the letters of a word, we would gain little or no benefit from all of the other blank words that it intersects. On the other hand, Warren points out that if the redundancy in English were too low, there simply would not be enough flexibility to properly design crossword puzzles. We could presumably construct some kind of word puzzles with 100 percent or 10 percent redundancy, but they simply would not be crossword puzzles as we know them. Crossword puzzles contain a delicate balance that keeps them just flexible enough to allow for numerous combinations, but still rigid enough so that one correctly answered clue leads to others, and yet others, until the crossword puzzle is solved.
平衡技术
Balancing Act
信息、信号、噪声、冗余：游戏和信息论之间的关系提供了微妙但强大的设计思维方式。成功的信号处理需要平衡噪声和冗余。它需要调整通信系统，以便有足够的不确定性来确保有足够多的信息通过信道，但信息量又不能太多，以免信号迷失在茫茫的不确定性海洋中。这就是填字游戏相互连接的信息网格中所体现的平衡。
Information, signals, noise, redundancy: the relationships between games and information theory offer subtle but powerful ways of thinking about design. Successful signal processing requires balancing noise and redundancy. It requires tuning a communication system so that there is enough uncertainty to ensure a sufficient amount of information passing through the channel, but not too much information, so that the signal gets lost in vast oceans of uncertainty. This is the balance found in the interconnected informational grids of crossword puzzles.
信息理论研究与系统理论紧密相关，因此我们在此模式中的观察结果与“游戏作为新兴系统”有些相似也就不足为奇了。复杂的新兴系统只能存在于固定周期系统的刚性与混沌系统的超灵活性之间。结构太多，游戏就会被过度确定：玩家没有足够的不确定性或自由。结构太少，游戏就会变得混乱：不确定性太多，自由度太高，玩家不知道他们的决策应该如何从一刻到下一刻进行。
Information theory studies is closely linked to systems theory and it should be no surprise that our observations in this schema bear some resemblance to Games as Emergent Systems. A complex, emergent system can only exist somewhere between the rigidity of fixed, periodic systems and the hyperflexibility of chaotic systems. Too much structure and a game is overdetermined: there is not enough uncertainty or freedom for the players. Too little structure and the game turns chaotic: there is too much uncertainty, too much freedom, and no sense of how the player’s decisions should proceed from one moment to the next.
所有这些都让我们回到有意义的游戏。韦弗将不确定性和信息与他所谓的“自由”联系起来，这是一个人在系统中做出选择的能力，这一点很重要。在一个过于僵化的系统中，玩家没有足够的自由：有选择，但选择不够多，系统中的不确定性也不足以让玩家对结果产生怀疑。相比之下，在一个混乱的系统中，行动和结果之间不可能存在有意义的关系。系统的结果永远是不确定的，玩家所做的任何事情都不会影响它。在这两种情况下，有意义的游戏都是不可能的。
All of which leads us back to meaningful play. It is significant that Weaver links uncertainty and information to what he calls “freedom,” the ability of a person to make choices in a system. In a system with too much rigidity, a player doesn’t have enough freedom: there are choices, but not enough of them, and not enough uncertainty in the system to ever give a player doubt about the outcome. By contrast, in a system where chaos reigns, there can be no meaningful relationship between action and outcome. The system’s outcome is perpetually uncertain, and nothing the player does will affect it. In both of these cases, meaningful play is impossible.
有意义的游戏要求玩家从足够丰富的选项中选择行动，以支持大量可能性，但又足够有限，可以正确构建他们的决策。在过多和过少的自由之间找到最佳平衡点，设计出为玩家提供足够（但不是太多）挑战的限制，这是游戏设计的基本问题。信息理论是理解这些永恒设计难题的一种有用方法。
Meaningful play requires that players choose actions from among a palette rich enough to support a large space of possibility but limited enough to properly structure their decisions. Finding the sweet spot between too much and too little freedom, designing constraints that provide enough (but not too much) challenge for players, is an elemental problem of game design. Information theory is one useful way to make sense of these eternal design dilemmas.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
《语法人》，作者：Jeremy Campbell （见第 169 页）
Grammatical Man, by Jeremy Campbell (see page 169)
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第一部分：建立信息理论
Part One: Establishing the Theory of Information
第二部分：自然作为一个信息过程
Part Two: Nature as an Information Process
《通信的数学理论》，克劳德·香农和沃伦·韦弗著
The Mathematical Theory of Communication, by Claude E. Shannon and Warren Weaver
《通信的数学理论》是信息理论的基础文本。虽然香农的贡献很大程度上是数学性的，但沃伦在本书的前言中用非技术语言详细介绍了该领域的基本原则。
The Mathematical Theory of Communication is the foundational text of information theory. While much of Shannon’s contribution is highly mathematical, Warren’s introduction to the book details the basic tenants of the field in non-technical language.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
通信数学理论的一些最新贡献
Some Recent Contributions to the Mathematical Theory of Communication
人类沟通理论，作者：史蒂芬·W·利特尔约翰
Theories of Human Communication, by Stephen W. Littlejohn
Littlejohn 的这本书是一本传播学教科书，因此提供了大量信息，但深度较浅。尽管如此，他对基本系统理论、信息论和控制论的阐述为我们遇到的这些复杂领域提供了最清晰的表达。
Littlejohn’s volume is a textbook for communication studies, and as such provides a great deal of information at a somewhat shallow depth. That said, his explication of basic systems theory, information theory, and cybernetics provide the most lucid articulations of these complex fields that we have encountered.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第三章：系统理论
Chapter 3: System Theory
笔记
Notes
1. Stephen W. Littlejohn，《人类沟通理论》，第 3 版（加利福尼亚州贝尔蒙特：Wadsworth 出版公司，1989 年），第 45 页。
1. Stephen W. Littlejohn, Theories of Human Communication, 3rd Edition (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1989), p. 45.
2. Claude E. Shannon 和 Warren Weaver，《通信的数学理论》（香槟：伊利诺伊大学出版社，1963 年），第 8-9 页。
2. Claude E. Shannon and Warren Weaver, Mathematical Theory of Communication (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1963), p. 8–9.
3 . Littlejohn，《人类沟通理论》，第 46 页。
3. Littlejohn, Theories of Human Communication, p. 46.
4 . < www.lucent.com/minds/infotheory/ >。
4. <www.lucent.com/minds/infotheory/>.
5. Weaver 和 Shannon，《通信的数学理论》，第 25 页。
5. Weaver and Shannon, Mathematical Theory of Communication, p. 25.
6.同上，第8-9页。
6. Ibid. p. 8–9.
8. Ludwig von Bertalanffy，一般系统理论基础（纽约：George Braziller，1968），第 42 页。
8. Ludwig von Bertalanffy, General Systems Theory Foundations (New York: George Braziller, 1968), p.42.
9 . Shannon 和 Weaver，《通信的数学理论》，第 19 页。
9. Shannon and Weaver, Mathematical Theory of Communication, p. 19.
10.同上，第13页。
10. Ibid. p. 13.
11.同上，第14页。
11. Ibid. p. 14.
游戏作为信息理论系统
概括
•信息论是一种数学的、结构化的观察信号的方式，它不考虑消息的知识内容或含义。
• Information theory is a mathematical, structural way of looking at signals that disregards the knowledge-content or meaning of a message.
• 在信息论中，信息衡量不确定性。信息是衡量一种沟通行为可能包含的所有信息的标准。是/否问题的答案所包含的信息量（和不确定性）比关于喜欢的颜色的问题的答案要少，因为是/否问题的可能答案较少。
• In information theory, information measures uncertainty. Information is a measure of all of the possible messages an act of communication might contain. The answer to a yes/no question contains less information (and less uncertainty) than an answer to a question about a favorite color, because there are fewer possible answers to the yes/no question.
• 信息论研究信号从源到目标的传输。噪声是这一过程的一部分，即来自外部源的信号中混入了失真。噪声增加了不确定性，因此增加了消息中的信息量。
• Information Theory studies signal transmission from a source to a target. Part of this process is noise, in which distortion enters into the signal from an outside source. Noise increases the uncertainty and the therefore the amount of information in a message.
• 尽管在信号传输工程中噪音通常是不受欢迎的，但在游戏中噪音却可以成为一种富有成效的设计元素。根据游戏态度，玩家在游戏中寻找低效的活动。因此，噪音使得沟通变得更加困难和不确定，这使得诸如猜谜游戏之类的游戏成为可能，在这些游戏中，沟通困难是游戏的前提。
• Although noise in the engineering of signal transmission is usually undesirable, in games noise can be a productive design element. According to the lusory attitude, players seek out inefficient activities in a game. Thus noise, which makes communication more difficult and uncertain, makes games such as Charades possible, in which difficulty in communication is the premise of the game.
•系统中的冗余可确保消息中并非每个部分都是必需的，从而平衡噪音。作为一种交流形式，英语包含约 50% 的冗余。
• Redundancy in a system acts to balance out noise by ensuring that not every component of a message is necessary. The English language as a form of communication contains about 50 percent redundancy.
• 在信息论通信系统中，更大的选择自由、更大的不确定性和更多的信息都会同时增加。从这个意义上讲，选择的概念与可能性空间和有意义的游戏直接相关。作为一个复杂的系统，游戏设计必须在太少和太多的不确定性、灵活性和信息之间取得平衡
• In an information theory system of communication, greater freedom of choice, greater uncertainty, and greater information all increase together. The concept of choice in this sense relates directly to the space of possibility and meaningful play. As a complex system, a game design must strike a balance between too little and too much uncertainty, flexibility, and information
17
17
游戏作为信息系统
GAMES AS SYSTEMS OF INFORMATION
完美信息
perfect information
不完全信息
imperfect information
信息经济
information economy
客观信息
objective information
感知信息
perceived information
所有纸牌游戏都基于这样一个事实：一张牌有两面，其中一面显示其身份（黑桃 A、红心 Q 等），而另一面则隐藏其身份，与一副牌中任何其他牌的反面都无法区分......
All card games hinge on the fact that a card has two sides, one of which reveals its identity (Ace of spades, Queen of hearts, etc.), while the other conceals it, being indistinguishable from the reverse of any other card in the pack . . . .
这种保密因素使纸牌游戏属于“不完全信息游戏”的范畴，这与国际象棋等棋盘游戏不同，在国际象棋中，每个玩家总是确切地知道对手的资源是什么……
This element of secrecy puts cards into the category of “games of imperfect information,” by contrast with board games such as Chess, in which each player always knows exactly what his opponent’s resources are . . . .
这表明“信息”及其获取正是纸牌游戏的意义所在。—— David Parlett，《牛津纸牌游戏词典》
This suggests that “information” and its acquisition are what card games are all about.—David Parlett, The Oxford Dictionary of Card Games
引入不同类型的信息
Introducing a Different Kind of Information
我们的第二个“信息”模式，即“游戏作为信息系统”，建立在上一章开始的游戏与信息之间的联系之上。然而，在这个模式中，我们转向了一种非常不同的“信息”理解。这种转变应该相对轻松，因为我们正在摆脱信息理论的反直觉概念，转向一种更为常识的信息理解。
Our second “information” schema, Games as Systems of Information, builds on the connection between games and information begun in the previous chapter. However, within this schema we shift to a very different understanding of “information.” This shift should be relatively painless, because we are moving away from the counter-intuitive concepts of information theory and toward a much more commonsense understanding of information.
我们现在不再将“信息”视为不确定性的衡量标准，而是采取完全相反的做法。在这个架构中，“信息”是指知识，即游戏的信息内容或数据。在传统信息理论中，游戏是平衡噪声和冗余的信号处理系统。但在这个架构中，我们将游戏视为将知识或信息付诸实践的交互式系统。根据游戏的不同，信息可以被随机化、获取、转换、隐藏、重新排列、记住或遗忘。
Rather than thinking about “information” as a measure of uncertainty, we now do just the opposite.” Information,” for the purposes of this schema, means knowledge, the informational content or data of a game. Within classical information theory, games are signal-processing systems, balancing noise and redundancy. But in this schema, we consider games as interactive systems that put knowledge or information at play. Depending on the game, information can be randomized, acquired, transformed, hidden, rearranged, remembered, or forgotten.
在本章开头的引文中，大卫·帕莱特 (David Parlett) 将扑克牌描述为用于隐藏和显示信息的物体。之前，在《定义规则》中，我们指出，即使我们通过重命名花色来改变系统的“内容”，我们仍然可以玩扑克游戏。扑克也出现在我们的涌现模式中，其中虚张声势的活动在游戏过程中出现，尽管规则中没有具体说明。如果我们愿意，我们也可以把扑克看作一个不确定性系统，也许可以绘制出被发到特定手牌的百分比概率。但是，通过将游戏中的扑克视为信息系统，我们可以从游戏历史学家大卫·帕莱特 (David Parlett) 那里得到启发，将信息视为可以隐藏或共享的商品。玩家如何在他们持有的牌中隐藏信息？信息是如何隐藏、显示、伪装和推断的？
In the quote that opens this chapter, David Parlett describes playing cards as objects designed to conceal and reveal information. Earlier, in Defining Rules, we pointed out that we could still play the game of Poker even if we altered the “content” of the system by renaming the suits. Poker also came up in our schema on emergence, in which the activity of bluffing arose during play, even though it was not specified in the rules. If we had wanted to, we could have framed Poker as a system of uncertainty as well, perhaps charting the percentage chance of being dealt a particular hand. But by considering Poker within Games as Systems of Information, we can take a cue from game historian David Parlett and explore information as a commodity to be hidden or shared. How do players hide information in the cards they hold? How is information concealed, revealed, disguised, and deduced?
尽管扑克游戏的前提是操纵信息，但我们可以从类似的角度看待任何游戏。作为一种信息系统，国际象棋是一组散布在棋盘网格上的数据，双方玩家都可以公开查看。被称为“滑梯”的信息系统是由连续掷骰子产生的稳定数据流以及这些信息被记录并转化为棋盘上玩家移动的方式构建而成的。诸如《杰克与达斯特》之类的主机冒险游戏以多种复杂的方式传递信息，从玩家解锁时显示的隐藏世界部分到游戏开始时玩家未知的特殊力量和能力。
Although Poker is premised on the manipulation of information, we can consider any game along similar lines. As a system of information, Chess is an array of data spread out on the gameboard grid, in public view of both players. The system of information known as Chutes and Ladders is constructed from the steady stream of data flowing from successive die rolls, and the way that this information is recorded and transformed into player movement on the board. A console adventure game such as Jak and Daxter brokers information in many complex ways, from hidden sections of the world revealed as the player unlocks them to special powers and abilities that are unknown to the player when the game begins.
完美信息与不完美信息
Perfect and Imperfect Information
此类游戏具有完美信息：每个玩家在决定自己的行动时，必须拥有关于棋盘当前位置的完整信息（我将可能在物理上无法检测到的特性包括在“位置”中，例如玩家是否可以王车易位），或者等同于，关于棋盘的原始位置和迄今为止的所有行动。完美信息游戏的例子包括国际象棋和西洋双陆棋；像 Stratego、Kriegspiel 或最近的 Stealth Chess 这样的游戏不是完美信息游戏。— J. Mark Thompson，《定义抽象》
Such games have perfect information: Each player, when deciding his move, must have complete information about the current position of the board (I include in “position” qualities that may be physically undetectable, such as whether a player may castle), or equivalently, about the original position of the board and all moves made so far. Examples of perfect information games would include Chess and Backgammon; games like Stratego, Kriegspiel, or the recent Stealth Chess are not perfect information games.—J. Mark Thompson, “Defining the Abstract”
Parlett 将纸牌游戏描述为“不完美信息”的游戏，因为纸牌的双面性使其能够隐藏其信息价值。在上面的引言中，数学家和游戏爱好者 J. Mark Thompson1指出了相反的系统类型：“完美信息”游戏。完美信息和不完美信息指的是玩家与游戏正式系统所含信息之间的关系。
Parlett describes card games as games of “imperfect information,” due to the fact that the two-sided nature of cards permits them to hide their informational value. In the quote above, mathematician and game aficionado J. Mark Thompson1 points out the opposite kind of system: games of “perfect information.” Perfect and imperfect information refer to the relationship a player has to the information contained in the formal system of the game.
如果游戏中所有玩家始终对游戏中的每一个元素都有完整的了解，那么游戏中就存在完美信息。汤普森将国际象棋和西洋双陆棋归入这一类别。在不完美信息游戏中，一些信息可能在游戏过程中对玩家隐藏。汤普森提到了 Stratego，这是一款游戏中每个棋子的价值游戏板对每个玩家的对手都是隐藏的，这是一种不完全信息游戏。纸牌游戏也是不完全信息游戏的很好例子。虽然可以设计一款纸牌游戏，让所有纸牌在整个游戏过程中都可见，但几乎每款纸牌游戏都以某种形式具有不完全信息。
Perfect information exists in a game when all players have complete knowledge about every element in the game at all times. Thompson includes Chess and Backgammon in this category. In games of imperfect information, some of the information may be hidden from players during the game. Thompson names Stratego, a game in which the value of each piece on the gameboard is kept hidden from each player’s opponent, as a game of imperfect information. Card games are also good examples of games of imperfect information. Although it would be possible to design a card game in which all of the cards are visible for the entire game, almost every card game does feature imperfect information in some form.
完美信息游戏和不完美信息游戏都可以提供有意义的玩法，但它们以不同的方式实现。完美信息游戏往往是更具分析性的竞争性游戏，玩家直接相互对抗，每个玩家的动作和策略都对其他人可见。不完美信息游戏为游戏增添了神秘和不确定性元素。不完美信息会引发背叛、诡计和欺骗，并且可以用作旨在激发玩家之间不信任的游戏设计元素。
Games of perfect and imperfect information can both provide meaningful play, but they do so in different ways. Games of perfect information tend to be more analytically competitive games, in which players are pitted directly against each other, each player’s moves and strategies available for the other to see. Games of imperfect information add an element of mystery and uncertainty to a game. Imperfect information invites treachery, trickery, and deception, and can be used as a design element in games meant to inspire mistrust among players.
尽管不完全信息会增强游戏中的不确定性，但实际的随机性本质上并不与完全或不完全信息相关。游戏可以包含机会机制，同时仍具有完全或不完全信息。正如汤普森指出的那样，国际象棋和西洋双陆棋都是完全信息游戏，尽管西洋双陆棋每回合都会使用掷骰子。不完全信息游戏（如 Stratego）不使用任何机会机制，而扑克则以洗牌的形式使用。
Although imperfect information can heighten a feeling of uncertainty in a game, actual randomness is not intrinsically tied to either perfect or imperfect information. A game can have chance mechanisms as part of the game and still possess either perfect or imperfect information. As Thompson points out, both Chess and Backgammon are games of perfect information, even though Backgammon makes use of die rolls every turn. An imperfect information game such as Stratego does not use any kind of chance mechanism, whereas Poker does, in the form of a shuffled deck.
机会与我们对完美和不完美信息的定义无关。但游戏是否具有随机元素确实会影响游戏中存在的信息类型。在《互动书》中，设计师兼学者 Celia Pearce 提出了一种不同的类型学来理解游戏呈现信息的方式。她提出了四种情景：
Chance is not related to our definitions of perfect and imperfect information. But whether or not a game has a random element does affect the kind of information that exists in a game. In The Interactive Book, designer and scholar Celia Pearce presents a different typology for understanding the ways games manifest information. She proposes four scenarios:
•所有玩家都知道的信息：在国际象棋中，这包括游戏规则、棋盘布局和棋子移动参数。
• Information known to all players: In Chess, this would consist of the rules of the game, board layout, and piece movement parameters.
•只有一个玩家知道的信息：在 Gin 中，这就是您手中的牌。
• Information known to only one player: In Gin, this would be the cards in your hand.
•仅游戏已知的信息：在 Gin 中，这将是牌堆中未使用的牌。在 Space Invaders 中，这将是外星飞船的路径和频率。
• Information known to the game only: In Gin, this would be unused cards in deck. In Space Invaders, this would be the paths and frequency of alien space ships.
•随机生成的信息：在西洋双陆棋中，这将是掷骰子。2
• Randomly generated information: In Backgammon, this would be the roll of the dice.2
皮尔斯的分类提供了另一种描述游戏信息成分的方式。她区分了两种隐藏信息，一种是每个玩家都拥有私人信息，另一种是游戏系统本身向所有玩家隐藏信息。正如她通过金牌的例子所说明的那样，任何洗牌且每个玩家都有私人手牌的纸牌游戏都包含这两种隐藏信息。皮尔斯还将随机生成的信息指定在其自己的信息类别中。
Pearce’s categories offer another way of describing the informational component of a game. She differentiates between two kinds of hidden information, one in which each player possesses private information and another in which the game system itself hides information from all of the players. As she illustrates through her example of Gin, any card game with a shuffled deck and private hands for each player contains both kinds of hidden information. Pearce also designates randomly generated information within its own informational category.
我们对 Pearce 的类型学存在一个不同意见，即她是否将游戏规则纳入了她的信息模型。Pearce 指出，国际象棋规则应被视为所有玩家都知道的信息。尽管可以说确实如此，但我们并不认为将规则作为游戏完美信息的一部分并不是特别有用，因为在所有游戏中，部分或全部游戏规则都是所有玩家都知道的。游戏中可能存在逐渐显露的隐藏战略关系（例如特定单位组合的优势和劣势），但这些都不是规则。规则是游戏的正式基础，允许玩家操纵信息。规则通常不构成游戏过程中被操纵的信息。
One disagreement we have with Pearce’s typology regards the inclusion of the rules of a game in her information model. Pearce states that the rules of Chess should be considered information known to all players. Although this is arguably the case, we don’t feel that including rules as part of the perfect information of a game is particularly useful, since in all games, some or all of the game rules are known to all players. There may be hidden strategic relationships in a game that are gradually uncovered (like the strengths and weaknesses of particular unit combinations) but these are not rules. Rules are the formal foundation of a game that allows players to manipulate information. Rules generally do not constitute the information being manipulated during play.
她的模型还有其他一些模糊之处。例如，虽然 Gin 中的一副牌可能包含“只有游戏本身知道”的信息，但人们可以想象一副牌每回合都会重新洗牌，其功能与随机掷骰子完全相同——皮尔斯的“随机生成的信息”，也许这些之间的微妙区别两种信息的区别在于，所有玩家是否完全了解剩余牌堆的确切组成。如果是，那么牌堆的功能就像随机掷骰子一样，所有玩家都知道掷出特定数字（或抽出特定牌）的准确概率。另一方面，当玩家在 Gin 中抽牌时，面朝下的牌堆包含只有游戏玩家知道的信息。
There are other slightly ambiguous aspects of her model as well. For example, although a deck of cards in Gin might contain information “known to the game only,” one could imagine a deck of cards that is reshuffled every turn, functioning in exactly the same way as a random die roll—Pearce’s “randomly generated information”, Perhaps the subtle difference between these two types of information is whether or not the exact makeup of the remaining deck is completely known to all players. If it is, then the deck would function like a random die roll, in which the precise chance to roll a particular number (or draw a particular card) is known to all players. On the other hand, when players draw cards in Gin, the face-down deck contains information known only to the game.
尽管我们对 Pearce 的模型有所批评，但她提出的四个类别实际上非常有用。例如，信息并不总是公开或私密的，而且经常在类别之间移动。当一副面朝下的牌暴露在玩家面前时，曾经私密的信息就变成了公开和共享的信息。同样，在 Battleship 游戏中，两位玩家都试图发现隐藏在他们面前但对手知道的信息。随着 Battleship 的进行，玩家船只的位置逐渐为公众所知。
Despite our critique of Pearce’s model, the four categories she proposes are in fact quite useful. For example, information is not always either public or private, and often moves between categories. As a deck of face-down cards are exposed to players, there is movement from once-private information to information that is public and shared. Similarly, in Battleship, both players try to uncover information that is hidden from them, but known to their opponent. As Battleship proceeds, the positions of the players’ ships gradually become public knowledge.
魔法信息
Enchanted Information
无论您喜欢完美和不完美信息模型还是皮尔斯的四个类别，重要的是要考虑游戏如何操纵信息以产生有意义的游戏。考虑一下《魔法森林》这款儿童棋盘游戏，它以多种方式使用信息。游戏总结如下：
Whether you prefer a model of perfect and imperfect information or Pearce’s four categories, it is important to consider the ways that games manipulate information to generate meaningful play. Consider the game Enchanted Forest, a children’s board game that uses information in a number of ways. The game is summarized below:
在魔法森林中，玩家们正在寻找隐藏在棋盘上的一些宝藏。游戏开始时，一组树状物体被洗牌并放置在棋盘上的固定位置。每棵树的底部都有一张游戏中宝藏的图像。还有一副牌，每张牌都包含一个宝藏的图像。游戏开始时，洗牌并翻开最上面的牌。这是所有玩家最初寻找的宝藏。
In Enchanted Forest, players are seeking a number of treasures that are hidden on the board. When a game begins, a set of tree objects are shuffled and placed in set locations on the board. On the bottom of each tree is an image of one of the treasures in the game. There is also a deck of cards, each card containing the image of one of the treasures. At the start of the game, the deck is shuffled and the top card is turned over. This is the treasure that all of the players are initially seeking.
通过投掷两个骰子并在路径网络上移动，玩家可以将棋子移动到特定的树上。当玩家落在树上时，她可以私下查看树下的宝藏。如果玩家认为她知道正面卡片上所描绘的宝藏的位置，她可以在随后的回合中前往棋盘一端的城堡，拿起她认为藏有所描绘的宝藏的树。如果她猜对了，她就把树展示给其他玩家，把它放回棋盘上，保留卡片，然后翻开一张新卡片，这张新卡片将成为所有玩家要寻找的下一个宝藏。如果她猜错了，她就把树放回原处而不向其他玩家展示，并将棋子移到村庄，村庄位于棋盘上离城堡最远的一端。第一个收集三张卡片并到达城堡的玩家获胜。
By rolling two dice and moving on a network of paths, players maneuver their pieces to specific trees. When a player lands on a tree, she can privately look at the treasure under the tree. If a player thinks that she knows the location of the treasure pictured on the face-up card, she can in subsequent turns travel to the castle on one end of the board and pick up the tree where she thinks the pictured treasure is hidden. If she is correct, she shows the tree to the other players, puts it back on the board, keeps the card, and turns over a new card, which becomes the next treasure for all of the players to seek. If she is not correct, she puts the tree back without revealing it to the other players and moves her piece to the village, which is located on the far end of the board from the castle. The first player to collect three cards and get to the castle wins.
游戏中的其他特殊规则允许玩家通过落在另一名玩家的棋子上来将其击退回村庄。掷双骰允许玩家选择采取特殊行动而不是移动。特殊行动包括洗牌并抽一张新牌、查看任何一棵树下以及直接移动到城堡。
Other special rules in the game allow a player to bump another player back to the village by landing on his piece. Rolling doubles allows a player to optionally take a special action instead of moving. Special actions include shuffling the card deck and picking a new card, looking under any tree, and moving directly to the castle.
《魔法森林》以多种方式操纵游戏信息。让我们使用皮尔斯的四个类别来分析游戏中信息的使用。《魔法森林》包含所有四种信息：
Enchanted Forest manipulates game information in a variety of ways. Let’s use Pearce’s four categories to analyze the use of information in the game. Enchanted Forest contains all four kinds of information:
•所有玩家都知道的信息：《魔法森林》中有许多元素对玩家并不隐藏。例如，棋盘上的路径网络、玩家棋子的位置、每个玩家收集的卡牌以及玩家当前正在寻找的宝藏都是众所周知的信息。
• Information known to all players: There are many elements of Enchanted Forest not hidden from players. For example, the networks of paths on the boards, the locations of the players’ pieces, the cards each player has collected, and the treasure that players are currently seeking represent information known to everyone.
•仅有一名玩家知道的信息：仅有一名玩家知道的一种信息是玩家在森林中移动时秘密发现的宝藏的位置。在大多数利用私人信息的游戏中，这些信息都保存在一手牌中或隐藏的游戏组件中。然而，在《魔法森林》中，私人持有的信息是每个玩家都记住的东西，这增加了使用这些信息的挑战性。
• Information known only to one player: The one kind of information that is known only to one player is the locations of the treasures that players secretly uncover as they move about the forest. In most games that make use of private information, that information is kept in a hand of cards or an otherwise concealed collection of game components. In Enchanted Forest, however, the privately held information is something that each player keeps in memory, adding to the challenge of using the information.
•只有游戏内才知道的信息：最初，每棵树下的宝藏位置对所有玩家都是隐藏的。然而，随着游戏的进行，关于宝藏位置的隐藏信息会从这一类别巧妙地转移到其他类别。随着他们在棋盘上移动，每个玩家开始拼凑出隐藏在树下的信息的更大图景。有时，当玩家正确猜出宝藏的位置时，该信息会暂时公开。
• Information known to the game only: Initially, the locations of the treasures under each tree are kept hidden from all of the players. However, as the game proceeds, the hidden information about the treasure locations shifts subtly from this category to the others. As they move about the board, each player begins to piece together a larger picture of the information hidden under the trees. Sometimes, when a player correctly guesses the location of a treasure, the information is temporarily made public.
•随机生成的信息：《魔法森林》通过投掷两个骰子来生成随机信息。玩家在决定移动位置时分别使用每个骰子，因此投掷 4 和 5 可用于移动一个空间（向一个方向移动五个空间，然后向后翻倍四个空间）。这些灵活的移动规则为玩家提供了在游戏板上的路径网络中导航的多种可能性。移动到特定空间可以让玩家看到一棵树，进入城堡，或者撞回另一个玩家回到村庄。投掷双骰子还允许特殊动作。即使是投掷骰子所生成的原始随机信息也会在游戏中以多种方式使用。
• Randomly generated information: Enchanted Forest creates random information through a two-die roll. Players use each die separately when deciding where to move, so that rolling a 4 and a 5 can be used to move one space (moving five in one direction and then doubling back four spaces). These flexible rules of movement offer players many possibilities for navigating the network of paths on the game board. Moving onto a particular space can let a player look at a tree, enter the castle, or bump another player back to the village. Rolling doubles also allows special actions. Even the raw, randomly generated information of the die roll is used in a number of ways in the game.
魔法森林
Enchanted Forest
随着魔法森林游戏的进行，玩家逐渐发现隐藏在树下的隐藏信息，从而可以建立自己的个人信息系统和相关策略。您将如何驾驭棋盘？您是否想寻找其他玩家没有看过的树木，以便拥有信息优势？或者，也许您想跟踪其他玩家，确保没有人比您有优势。也许您应该只查看城堡附近的树木，这样如果您看到的宝藏出现在卡片上，您就可以更快地移动到那里。
As a game of Enchanted Forest proceeds, players gradually discover the hidden information stored under the trees, allowing them to build their own personal system of information and accompanying strategies. How will you navigate the board? Do you want to seek out trees that no other player has looked at, so that you have an informational advantage? Or perhaps you want to shadow other players and make sure that no one else has an advantage over you. Maybe you should just look at the trees near the castle, so that you can more quickly move there if a treasure you have seen turns up on a card.
如果允许每个玩家做笔记并存储他们收集的数据，那么游戏中隐藏信息的逐渐积累将是不可避免的。然而，由于玩家将所有这些信息都存储在记忆中，因此很容易忘记宝藏的确切位置，即使他们已经看到它。玩家必须记住每棵树下宝藏的位置，这一事实迫使他们将注意力集中在游戏上，这使得城堡中的每次猜测都有点冒险。此外，由于战略性地使用信息主导着游戏，因此除了在树下寻找之外，还有许多获取信息的方法。如果另一个玩家刚刚在树下看过，现在正朝城堡走去，是因为她刚刚看到了当前面朝上的卡片上的宝藏吗？如果你靠近城堡，你能在那里打败她并根据她的行为做出有根据的猜测吗？还是这一切都是虚张声势，让你浪费时间做出错误的猜测，这样你就会被送回村庄？
If each player were allowed to take notes and store the data they gather, then a gradual accumulation of the game’s hidden information would be inevitable. However, because players are storing all of this information in their memories, it is easy to forget exactly where a treasure is, even after they have seen it. The fact that players must memorize the locations of the treasure under each tree forces them to focus their attention on the game, making each guess in the castle a little bit risky. Furthermore, because strategic use of information dominates the game, there are many ways to acquire information, beyond looking under trees. If another player has just looked under a tree and is now heading for the castle, is it because she has just seen the treasure that is on the current face-up card? If you are closer to the castle, can you beat her there and make an educated guess based on her behavior? Or is it all a bluff to get you to waste your time making a false guess so that you will be sent back to the village?
当你掷出双骰子并可以采取特殊行动而不是移动时，你也会面临同样的困境。如果另一个玩家即将到达城堡并做出猜测，你可以洗牌并抽一张新牌。但这可能只会显示玩家已经知道的一张牌。如果你认为你知道宝藏所在的树，你可以传送到城堡旁边。或者，也许你只是想忽略其他玩家向城堡的移动，并使用你的双骰子在森林另一边的一棵树下寻找。
The same kind of dilemma confronts you when you roll doubles and can take a special action instead of moving. If another player is about to reach the castle and make a guess, you can shuffle the deck and draw a new card. But that might only reveal a card that the player already knows. If you think you know the tree where the treasure is, you can teleport next to the castle. Or perhaps you just want to ignore the other player’s movement toward the castle and use your doubles to look under a tree on the far side of the forest.
每一轮，《魔法森林》的玩家都必须做出艰难的决定，决定采取什么行动。这是有意义的游戏正在进行的好兆头。玩家在《魔法森林》中做出的每一个选择都与流畅的信息流息息相关，因为直接的知识和有根据的直觉与战略导航、具有挑战性的记忆和冒险的猜测相平衡。
Each turn, Enchanted Forest players must make tough decisions about what action to take. This is a good sign that meaningful play is taking place. Each choice a player makes in Enchanted Forest is bound up in the fluid flow of information, as direct knowledge and educated hunches are balanced with strategic navigation, challenging memorization, and risky guesswork.
信息经济
Economies of Information
《魔法森林》的另一个信息组成部分是随着游戏的进展而出现的一副牌。由于玩家知道牌堆中的每张牌都对应着一件宝物，因此随着游戏的进行，下一张牌的身份的可预测性会发生变化。一开始，某张牌出现的几率很小。但在游戏快结束时，当牌堆中只剩下两三张牌时，可能的结果的不确定性就会大大降低。这意味着，使用特殊动作重新洗牌堆中的信息，以使某张牌出现，是游戏后期更有效的策略。
The other informational component of Enchanted Forest is the deck of cards that is uncovered as the game progresses. Because players know that each card in the deck corresponds to one of the treasures, the predictability of the identity of the next card being revealed changes as the game proceeds. At the beginning, there is a low chance that a particular card might turn up. But near the end of the game, when there are only two or three cards left in the deck, there is much less uncertainty about the possible outcome. That means that using a special action to reshuffle the information in the deck, as a way of making a particular card appear, is a more effective strategy later in the game.
这种战略现象之所以发生，是因为每张卡片上包含的信息并不是孤立存在的。相反，这些信息是一个更大系统的一部分：信息经济赋予每张卡片相对价值。游戏或任何系统中的意义都源于关系身份。举一个非游戏的例子，“鸟”这个词的意义取决于更大的句子和使用的表演语境。它与其他单词和意义的关系将决定“鸟”是指长羽毛的动物、爵士音乐家查理·帕克、粗鲁竖起的中指，还是“女人”的俚语。
This strategic phenomenon occurs because the information contained on each card does not exist in isolation from the others. Instead, the information is part of a larger system: an economy of information that grants each card its relative value. Meaning in a game, or in any system, for that matter, emerges out of relational identity. To use a non-game example, the meaning of the word “bird” depends on the larger sentence and performative context of use. Its relationship to other words and meanings will determine whether “bird” references a feathered animal, the jazz musician Charlie Parker, a rudely flipped-up middle finger, or a slang term for “woman.”
在游戏中，情况也是如此：玩家所了解的信息的价值在游戏的更大系统中具有意义。此外，游戏中信息的系统性及其帮助产生有意义的游戏的方式有两个方面：系统中信息结构的实际构成，以及玩家对该信息的理解。我们将游戏的信息结构称为客观信息，将玩家对这些结构的理解称为感知信息。游戏信息的这两个方面的相互作用决定了信息在游戏系统中的运作方式。
In a game, the same holds true: the value of the information known to a player gains meaning within the larger system of the game. Furthermore, the systemic nature of information in a game and the way that it helps generate meaningful play has two facets: the actual make-up of the information structures in a system, and the apprehension of that information by players. We call a game’s information structures objective information and the player’s understanding of these structures perceived information. The interaction of these two aspects of game information determines the way that information operates within the system of a game.
例如，在尤克牌这样的吃墩游戏中，如果一轮游戏中所有的王牌都已经打出，那么曾经私密但现在公开的有关王牌位置的信息对于游戏决策就变得极为重要。任何给定的牌可以是王牌或非王牌，这是游戏客观信息的功能。但是，王牌都已打出这一系统性事实之所以有意义，是因为玩家能够将客观信息转化为感知信息并据此做出决策。优秀的尤克牌玩家不仅会追踪王牌，还会追踪游戏中打出的每张牌。这些信息决定了您手中所持牌的潜在价值，以及您认为其他玩家接下来会打出的牌，直接为您的决策过程提供信息。尤克牌包含一个紧密交织的信息系统，其中有意义的游戏不仅源自卡牌优雅构建的价值，还源自玩家对于剩下要打出的卡牌不断变化的确定性、猜测和无知。
In a trick-taking game such as Euchre, for example, if all of the trumps have already been played during a round, the onceprivate but now-public information regarding the location of the trumps becomes extremely important for making game decisions. The fact that any given card can be a trump or non-trump is a function of the objective information of the game. But the systemic fact that the trumps have all been played is only meaningful because of the player’s ability to turn the objective information into perceived information and make decisions accordingly. Good Euchre players track not only the trump cards, but every card that is played in the game. This information determines the potential value of the cards you are holding in your own hand, as well as the cards you think other players will play next, directly informing your decision-making process. Euchre contains a tightly woven system of information, in which meaningful play emerges from the elegantly architected value of the card deck, as well as from players’ shifting certainties, speculations, and ignorance about the cards left to be played.
拼字游戏还包含客观信息结构，这些信息结构在游戏过程中逐渐以感知信息的形式向玩家揭示。例如，了解字母在整体组合中的比例是您玩游戏的一部分。如果您迫切需要挑选一个 Z 字块来组成一个 7 个字母的单词并获得大奖励，您需要决定是打出一个字母，在这轮中获得一个小分数，并坚持那个 Z，还是完全放弃大单词策略。您的判断不仅涉及抽出 Z 的概率（取决于字母池的客观信息经济性），还涉及感知信息：您是否知道单个 Z 已经在棋盘上打出。字母的比例印在拼字游戏棋盘上，位于放置字母的网格旁边，这一事实表明，拼字游戏的信息系统结构是游戏玩法的核心。
The game of Scrabble also contains objective informational structures that are gradually revealed to players as perceived information over the course of play. For example, knowledge about the ratio of the letters in the overall mix is part of how you play the game. If you desperately need to pick a Z tile to make a 7-letter word and get a big bonus, you need to decide whether to play a single letter, make a small score this turn, and hold out for that Z, or else abandon the large-word strategy altogether. Your judgment will involve not only the probability of drawing a Z (dependent on the objective informational economy of the pool of letters), but also on perceived information: whether or not you know that the single Z has already been played on the board. The fact that the ratios of letters are printed on the Scrabble game board, next to the grid where letters are placed, points to the way that the structure of Scrabble’s informational system is central to the play of the game.
当你在游戏中创建信息时，它对玩家的价值来自于其目标和感知状态：它在更大的信息经济中的结构位置以及玩家对该经济的了解。塑造游戏设计的这些方面是创造有意义的游戏的关键组成部分。
When you create information in your game, its value for the players emerges from both its objective and perceived status: its structural position within a larger informational economy and the player’s knowledge about that economy. Shaping these aspects of your game’s design is a key component in creating meaningful play.
隐藏和显示系统
Hiding and Revealing Systems
通过查看一些成功将信息整合到整体游戏设计中的数字游戏示例，我们结束了关于游戏作为信息系统的讨论。这些游戏利用数字游戏以复杂方式操纵信息的能力来产生有意义的游戏：
We conclude our discussion of games as information systems by looking at some examples of digital games that successfully integrate information into the overall game design. These games take advantage of the ability of digital games to manipulate information in complex ways to engender meaningful play:
•战争迷雾：数字游戏操纵信息的一个绝妙方法是星际争霸等实时战略游戏中的“战争迷雾”功能。尽管实时战略游戏关卡可能发生在一张大地图上，但游戏只会显示玩家自己单位附近的地图信息。最初，您只知道自己所在游戏区域的局部区域。派出侦察兵和间谍来了解更多地形和敌人的位置成为游戏的重要组成部分。战略性地揭示隐藏信息为游戏体验增添了悬念和紧张感。
• The Fog of War: A wonderful method by which digital games manipulate information is the “fog of war” feature in real-time strategy games such as Starcraft. Although a real-time strategy game level might take place on a large map of terrain, the game only reveals information about the map near a player’s own units. Initially, you only know about your own local area of the playfield. Sending out scouts and spies to learn more about the terrain and the location of your enemies becomes an important part of the game. The strategic unveiling of hidden information adds suspense and tension to the game experience.
•秘密地点和隐藏动作：许多数字游戏都拥有在游戏开始时对玩家隐藏的地点和功能，并在游戏过程中慢慢揭示。在《超级马里奥 64》中，玩家不仅会慢慢获得足够的金币来解锁新的游戏世界，而且其中一些世界还包含赋予马里奥新力量和能力的物品。虽然任何基于关卡的游戏都可以被视为在游戏过程中向玩家揭示的信息系统，但《超级马里奥 64》巧妙地将这些信息的揭示融入了整个游戏空间的地理环境。这种方法创造了一种探索节奏，让玩家在整个游戏过程中都保持参与度。
• Secret Locations and Hidden Moves: Many digital games possess locations and features which are hidden to players at the beginning of a game and are slowly revealed through play. In Super Mario 64, not only does the player slowly gain enough coins to unlock new game worlds, but some of these worlds contain items that give Mario new powers and abilities. Although any level-based game could be considered a system of information revealed to players over the course of a game, Super Mario 64 masterfully integrates the uncovering of this information into the geography of the overall game space. Such an approach creates a rhythm of discovery that keeps players engaged throughout the game.
•物品经济：许多数字游戏都具有复杂的物品经济。在 LEGO Drome Racing Challenge 中，这是一款多人在线游戏，玩家可以通过购买零件来定制他们的汽车，游戏根据玩家的许可证等级限制玩家购买汽车零件的能力：随着玩家的进步，他们能够购买越来越强大的零件。但游戏并没有限制对所有零件的信息访问：玩家可以“浏览”更强大的零件，但不能获得它们。虽然这是 Super Mario 64 所采用的相反的设计策略，但它在这种特定设计的背景下效果很好。通过授予对整个零件集的访问权限信息，这种结构让玩家更好地了解可购买物品的相对价值，同时也让他们做出有意义的购买决定。玩家可以选择“攒钱”购买更昂贵的物品，而不是购买当前可获得的物品，而这些物品只有在晋升到其他许可证等级后才能购买。
• Item Economies: Many digital games feature complex economies of items. In LEGO Drome Racing Challenge, a multiplayer online game in which players customize their cars by purchasing parts, the game limits a player’s ability to purchase car parts based on their License Class: as a player progresses, they gain the ability to purchase more and more powerful parts. But the game doesn’t limit the informational access to all of the parts: players can “browse” the more powerful parts, but not acquire them. Although this is the opposite design strategy that Super Mario 64 takes, it works well in the context of this particular design. By granting access to the entire set of part information, this structure gives players a better understanding of the relative value of the items available for purchase, while also allowing them to make meaningful decisions about what to buy. Rather than purchasing a currently accessible item, a player can choose to “save up” for a more expensive item that can only be purchased once he or she has advanced to another License class.
•规则即信息：游戏系统的自动化特性，加上其操纵信息的能力，形成了一种强大的设计工具：它不仅能揭示静态信息，还能揭示动态行为和关系。在游戏《FLUID》中，玩家在游戏体验开始时几乎没有什么信息。互动包括戳、抚摸和戳触摸屏，与游戏元素互动。每个游戏元素都是一个微型生态系统的一部分；当玩家玩《FLUID》时，互动和观察揭示了系统的基本原理。在这种情况下，通过游戏逐渐揭示的隐藏信息是模拟本身的规则。《FLUID》游戏的一部分是将游戏规则作为信息来发现。
• Rules as Information: The automated nature of game systems, combined with their ability to manipulate information, forms a powerful design tool: the ability to reveal not just static information, but dynamic behaviors and relationships as well. In the game FLUID, the player has little information at the beginning of the game experience. The interaction consists of poking, stroking, and prodding a touchscreen, interacting with the elements of the game. Each game element is part of a miniature ecosystem; as the player plays with FLUID, interaction and observation reveals the underlying principles of the system. In this case, the hidden information gradually revealed through play is the rules of the simulation itself. Part of the play of FLUID is the discovery of the game rules as information.
许多数字游戏依靠大量信息奖励来促进玩家互动。巨大的世界可供探索，复杂的物品经济和隐藏的战斗动作是数字游戏设计师用来填充系统的“东西”。数字游戏设计师面临的一个挑战是不要过分依赖隐藏内容来引起玩家的兴趣。在游戏中使用信息系统需要通过玩家互动使信息变得有意义。如果信息太多，或者信息既不可辨别又不可整合，则设计无法支持有意义的游戏。相比之下，非数字游戏通常由更有限、可重玩的系统组成：不完美的信息可能是扑克的核心组成部分，但玩了 30 个小时后，你不会在牌堆中发现之前隐藏的牌。
Many digital games rely on vast sets of information rewards for player interaction. Huge worlds to explore, complex economies of items, and hidden fighting moves are the “stuff” with which digital game designers fill their systems. One challenge for digital game designers is not to rely so much on hidden content in order to generate player interest. Making use of information systems within your games requires that the information be made meaningful through player interaction. If there is too much information, or if the information is neither discernable nor integrated, the design has failed to support meaningful play. In contrast, non-digital games typically consist of more limited, replayable systems: imperfect information might be a core component of Poker, but you are not going to uncover a previously hidden card in the deck after 30 hours of play.
赛车挑战赛
Drome Racing Challenge
因此，您设计的信息系统类型取决于您想要创建的游戏类型。一个简单的游戏系统，玩家从一开始就完全了解，可以创造像俄罗斯方块一样让人着迷的游戏体验，或者创造掌握围棋的机会。另一方面，包含大量信息的游戏——战略性地揭示信息的复杂性，通过新级别、能力或叙事片段奖励进步——可以让玩家慢慢了解游戏，而不会感到不知所措。作为游戏设计师，您的挑战是确定您想要创建的体验类型，并设计一个能够找到有意义的信息游戏的适当平衡的系统。
The kind of information system you design, therefore, depends on the kind of game you want to create. A simple game system that players fully know from the start can create the obsessive play of Tetris or the opportunities for mastery of Go. On the other hand, a game that contains large amounts of information—strategically unveiling informational complexity, rewarding progress via new levels, powers, or narrative segments—can let players slowly come to know the game without feeling overwhelmed. Your challenge as a game designer is to identify the kind of experience you want to create and design a system that finds the proper balance of meaningful informational play.
笔记
Notes
1 . < http://www.flash.net/~markthom/html/game_thoughts.html >。
1. <http://www.flash.net/~markthom/html/game_thoughts.html>.
2. Celia Pearce，《互动书》（纽约： Macmillan Technical Publishing，1997 年），第 422–423 页。
2. Celia Pearce, The Interactive Book (New York: Macmillan Technical Publishing, 1997), p. 422–423.
游戏作为信息系统
概括
• 在该模式中，信息的概念是指在游戏过程中被操纵、获取、隐藏和揭示的知识或内容。
• In this schema, the concept of information refers to knowledge or content that is manipulated, acquired, hidden, and revealed during play.
• 在国际象棋或西洋双陆棋等完全信息游戏中，玩家会公开分享游戏中的所有知识。在扑克或记忆等不完全信息游戏中，部分信息对部分或所有玩家隐藏。
• In a game of perfect information such as Chess or Backgammon, players publicly share all knowledge in the game. In a game of imperfect information such as Poker or Memory, some information is hidden from some or all players.
• 完全信息游戏往往具有分析竞争力，而不完全信息游戏往往具有更多不确定性，并激发玩家之间的不信任。
• Games of perfect information tend to be analytically competitive, whereas games of imperfect information tend to have more uncertainty and inspire distrust among players.
• Celia Pearce 确定了游戏中的四种信息：所有玩家都知道的信息、只有一个玩家知道的信息、只有游戏知道的信息以及随机生成的信息。
• Celia Pearce identifies four kinds of information in a game: Information known to all players, information known to only one player, information known to the game only, and randomly generated information.
• 系统中的信息没有内在价值，而是通过与系统信息经济中其他信息单元的关系获得价值。
• Information in a system does not have an intrinsic value but instead gains its value from its relationships to other units of information in the system’s information economy.
• 信息可以通过两种方式促进有意义的游戏：客观信息，即游戏系统的内部信息结构；感知信息，即玩家通过游戏观察和获取的信息。
• Information can contribute to meaningful play in two ways: objective information, the game system’s internal informational structure; and perceived information, the information that a player observes and acquires through play.
• 数字游戏特别擅长处理复杂的信息集。由于数字游戏比非数字游戏更加自动化，因此数字游戏可以将发现隐藏的游戏规则和机制本身作为游戏体验的一部分。
• Digital games are particularly adept at manipulating complex sets of information. Because they are more automated than non-digital games, digital games can make the discovery of hidden game rules and mechanisms themselves part of the game experience.
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游戏作为控制论系统
GAMES AS CYBERNETIC SYSTEMS
控制论反馈回路
cybernetic feedback loop
正面反馈
positive feedback
负面反馈
negative feedback
动态难度调整
dynamic difficulty adjustment
控制论强调一致性。它允许改变，但改变必须有序并遵守规则。——杰里米·坎贝尔，《语法人》
Cybernetics enforces consistency. It permits change, but the change must be orderly and abide by the rules.—Jeremy Campbell, Grammatical Man
引入控制论系统
Introducing Cybernetic Systems
网络空间。赛博朋克。机器人宣言。科幻小说和技术文化已经将“控制论”一词用于表示与计算机技术相关的任何事物。事实上，控制论领域早于数字计算机的出现。数学家诺伯特·维纳 (Norbert Weiner) 在其 1948 年出版的《控制论或动物和机器的控制和通信》一书中创造了“控制论”一词。该词源于希腊语中的舵手或领航员，恰如其分的是，控制论研究系统的调节和控制。
Cyberspace. Cyberpunk. A Cyborg Manifesto. The term cybernetic has been appropriated by science fiction and technoculture to mean anything associated with computer technology. In point of fact, the field of cybernetics precedes the advent of digital computers. Mathematician Norbert Weiner coined the term “cybernetics” in his 1948 book Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. The word is derived from the Greek word for steersman or navigator, and appropriately enough, cybernetics studies the regulation and control of systems.
控制论源于系统论和信息论，与这些领域一样，控制论研究一系列主题，从机械和电气系统到社会和生物系统。在研究控制论的基本原理时，我们接触到了一个充满激烈争论和丰富历史的领域，这个领域极大地影响了当代关于计算机技术和社会的观念。
Cybernetics grew out of systems theory and information theory, and like these fields, cybernetics studies a range of subjects, from mechanical and electrical systems to social and biological systems. In looking at the basic principles of cybernetics, we are touching on a field filled with great debates and a rich history, a field that greatly influenced contemporary ideas about computer technology and society.
本章仅对控制论进行简要介绍，重点介绍动态系统随时间变化的方式以及允许这些变化发生的正式结构。监控游戏系统内变化的规则结构是什么？游戏系统如何适应随时间的变化？游戏中的反馈是什么？如何在有意义的游戏设计中使用正反馈和负反馈循环？在游戏作为控制论系统的这个架构中，我们将控制论应用于这些重要的游戏设计问题。
This chapter can only offer a brief introduction to cybernetics, focusing on the ways dynamic systems change over time and the formal structures that allow these changes to occur. What are the rule structures that monitor change within a game system? How does a game system adjust to change over time? What constitutes feedback within a game? How can positive and negative feedback loops be used in the design of meaningful play? Within this schema on Games as Cybernetic Systems, we bring cybernetics to bear on these important game design questions.
控制论系统的要素
Elements of a Cybernetic System
控制论研究系统如何衡量其效果并做出必要的调整。最简单的控制论设备由传感器、比较器和激活器组成。传感器向比较器提供反馈，比较器确定机器是否偏离了既定的规范。然后，比较器向激活器提供指导，激活器产生以某种方式影响环境的输出。输出-反馈-调整这一基本过程是控制论的基础。——斯蒂芬·利特尔约翰，《人类沟通理论》
Cybernetics deals with the ways a system gauges its effect and makes necessary adjustments. The simplest cybernetic device consists of a sensor, a comparator, and an activator. The sensor provides feedback to the comparator, which determines whether the machine is deviating from its established norm. The comparator then provides guidance to the activator, which produces an output that affects the environment in some way. This fundamental process of output-feedback-adjustment is the basis of cybernetics.—Stephen Littlejohn, Theories of Human Communication
正如通信理论家斯蒂芬·利特尔约翰所言，控制论研究的是特定类型的系统。控制论的系统概念基于输入和输出与系统内部机制的相互作用。输入是系统监控环境的方式——它们允许环境影响系统。输出是系统采取行动的方式——它们是系统影响环境的方式。通过环境和系统之间的来回交换，系统会随着时间的推移而发生变化。
As communications theorist Stephen Littlejohn makes clear, cybernetics studies particular kinds of systems. The cybernetic conception of a system is based on the interaction of inputs and outputs with the internal mechanism of a system. Inputs are how the system monitors the environment—they allow the environment to influence the system. Outputs are the ways that the system takes action—they are how the system influences the environment. Through the back-and-forth exchange between the environment and the system, the system changes over time.
控制论系统包含三个元素：传感器、比较器和激活器。传感器感知环境或系统内部状态。比较器根据传感器的读数决定是否需要对系统进行更改，而激活器则激活该更改。这三个元素共同调节系统的运行方式和随时间的变化。
A cybernetic system contains three elements: a sensor, a comparator, and an activator. The sensor senses something about the environment or the internal state of a system. The comparator decides whether or not a change to the system needs to be made as a result of the sensor’s reading, and the activator activates that change. Together, these three elements regulate how a system operates and changes over time.
控制系统的一个常见例子是恒温器。想象一下炎热的夏日，房间里有一台连接恒温器的空调。恒温器包含系统的传感器，即温度计。恒温器还包含一个比较器，可用于将房间温度与用户设定的温度进行比较。如果恒温器测量到的空气温度高于设定值，它会启动空调，即系统的启动器，从而冷却房间。
A common example of a cybernetic system is a thermostat. Imagine a hot summer day and a room with an air conditioner that is attached to a thermostat. The thermostat contains the system’s sensor, a thermometer. The thermostat also contains a comparator it can use to compare the temperature of the room to a user-set temperature. If the thermostat measures the air temperature above the set amount, it activates the air conditioner, the activator of the system, which cools down the room.
当空气开始冷却时，系统会继续监测房间温度。当房间足够凉爽，恒温器的传感器不会记录温度超过设定限值时，恒温器不再发送信号来启动空调，从而关闭冷空气。然而，炎热的夏日阳光会开始加热房间。房间再次进入恒温器。当温度升至恒温器极限以上时，空调将再次启动。系统的这种循环行为就是 Littlejohn 所描述的“输出-反馈-调整过程”。控制论系统以电路的形式运行，不断监控自身以查看条件是否得到满足，这就是控制论系统有时被称为反馈系统或反馈回路的原因。
As the air begins to cool, the system continues to monitor the room temperature. When the room is sufficiently cooled so that the thermostat’s sensor doesn’t register the temperature as being above the set limit, the thermostat no longer sends a signal to activate the air conditioner, and so shuts off the cold air. However, the hot summer sun will begin to heat up the room again. When the temperature rises above the thermostat’s limit, the air conditioner will again be activated. This cyclic behavior of the system is the “process of output-feedback-adjustment” Littlejohn describes. The fact that the cybernetic system is running as a circuit, constantly monitoring itself to see whether or not conditions have been met, is the reason why cybernetic systems are sometimes called feedback systems, or feedback loops.
负反馈空调系统
Negative feedback air conditioning system
在每个反馈回路中，有关转换或动作结果的信息都会以输入数据的形式发送回系统的输入端。对于恒温器，输入数据是有关空气温度的信息。如果这些数据导致系统继续朝同一方向移动（温度继续上升），则为正反馈。这意味着效果是累积的。另一方面，如果新数据产生与先前结果相反的结果（温度正在上升，现在将降低），则反馈为负反馈。负反馈的效果使系统稳定。
In every feedback loop, information about the result of a transformation or an action is sent back to the input of the system in the form of input data. With the thermostat, the input data is information about air temperature. If this data causes the system to continue moving in the same direction (the temperature continues to rise), then it is positive feedback. This means that the effect is cumulative. If, on the other hand, the new data produces a result in opposition to the previous result (the temperature is rising, it will now be lowered), the feedback is negative. The effects of negative feedback stabilize the system.
正反馈循环产生指数增长或下降；负反馈循环维持平衡。正如控制论专家 J. de Rosnay 解释的那样，
Positive feedback loops create an exponential growth or decline; negative feedback loops maintain an equilibrium. As cyberneticist J. de Rosnay explains,
正反馈会导致行为的分歧：无限扩张或爆炸（向无穷大逃亡）或活动完全受阻（向零逃亡）。每个正反馈都涉及另一个正反馈；存在滚雪球效应。例子很多：连锁反应、人口爆炸、工业扩张、以复利投资的资本、通货膨胀、癌细胞扩散。然而，当负反馈导致另一个负反馈时，事件就会停滞不前。典型的例子是破产和经济萧条。
Positive feedback leads to divergent behavior: indefinite expansion or explosion (a running away toward infinity) or total blocking of activities (a running away toward zero). Each plus involves another plus; there is a snowball effect. The examples are numerous: chain reaction, population explosion, industrial expansion, capital invested at compound interest, inflation, proliferation of cancer cells. However, when minus leads to another minus, events come to a standstill. Typical examples are bankruptcy and economic depression.
负反馈会导致适应性或目标追求行为：维持相同的水平、温度、浓度、速度和方向。在负循环中，每个向正方向的变化都会触发向负方向的修正，反之亦然。控制非常严格；系统围绕理想平衡振荡，但永远无法达到理想平衡。恒温器或配备浮子的水箱就是负反馈调节的简单例子。1
Negative feedback leads to adaptive, or goal-seeking behavior: sustaining the same level, temperature, concentration, speed, direction. In a negative loop every variation toward a plus triggers a correction toward the minus, and vice versa. There is tight control; the system oscillates around an ideal equilibrium that it never attains. A thermostat or a water tank equipped with a float are simple examples of regulation by negative feedback.1
恒温器示例代表负反馈系统。该系统是负反馈系统，因为它试图维持相同的温度。系统不会让房间因太阳照射而变得越来越热，而是采取行动让房间恢复到正常状态。
The thermostat example represents a negative feedback system. The system is negative because it seeks to sustain the same temperature. Instead of letting the room get hotter and hotter from the sun, the system acts to return the room to its normative state.
正反馈系统的工作方式则相反。正控制论电路不会使系统处于稳定状态，而是鼓励系统表现出越来越极端的行为。例如，如果将恒温器反转，使其仅在房间温度低于某个温度时才启动空调，那么我们就拥有了一个正反馈系统。如果房间温度低于比较器的阈值，它将继续运行，使房间越来越冷，这样温度就会逐渐降低。好冷啊！
A positive feedback system works in the opposite fashion. Instead of bringing the system to a steady state, a positive cybernetic circuit encourages the system to exhibit more and more extreme behavior. For example, if the thermostat were reversed so that it only activated the air conditioner when the room was below a certain temperature, we would have a positive feedback system. If the room temperature ever went below the comparator’s threshold, it would continue to run, making the room colder and colder, so that the temperature would steadily get lower and lower. Brrr!
Positive feedback air conditioning system
我们还可以用加热器构建负反馈和正反馈回路。在负反馈回路中，当温度低于某个水平时，加热器会打开，使温度升高直至达到其原始状态，此时加热器会关闭。在正反馈回路中，当温度升至某个水平以上时，加热器会打开，继续无限期地加热房间。好热好热！
We could also construct negative and positive feedback loops with a heater. In a negative feedback loop, the heater would turn on when the temperature was below a certain level, raising the temperature until it reached its original state, at which point the heater would shut off. In a positive feedback loop, the heater would turn on when the temperature rose above a certain level, continuing to heat the room indefinitely. Hot hot hot!
现在想象一下，如果我们将两个使用空调和加热器的简单控制系统结合起来会发生什么。这个双重系统将有一个传感器来检测温度，一个双比较器来将室温与预设设置进行比较，以及加热和冷却激活器。使用双重系统使我们能够以更微妙的方式控制室温。如果两个子系统都是负反馈系统，则室温将非常稳定，因为它们都会试图维持中等室温。当房间变得太热或太冷时，冷却器或加热器将打开，并且温度将始终回到其正常位置。系统永远不会让温度变化太大。事实上，这就是许多家庭的中央供暖和制冷的工作原理。
Now imagine what would happen if we combined two simple cybernetic systems using an air conditioner and a heater. This dual system would have a sensor to detect the temperature, a double-comparator to compare the room temperature to a pre-established setting, and heating and cooling activators. Using a dual system allows us to control the room temperature in more subtle ways. If both sub-systems were negative feedback systems, the room temperature would be very stable, as both would seek to sustain a middle room temperature. The cooler or heater would turn on when the room became too hot or too cold, and the temperature would always be brought back to its normative position. The system would never let the temperature vary too greatly. This is, in fact, how central heating and cooling works in many homes.
或者，加热和冷却电路都可以制成正反馈子系统。每当温度变得太热或太冷时，其中一个激活器就会打开并不断将温度推向那个方向。如果加热器的温度设定高于空调的温度设定，一旦房间温度偏离中间范围，它就永远不会再回到中心。另一方面，想象一下加热器的激活温度低于空调的激活温度。如果房间一开始处于两个激活温度之间的中间温度范围，当两个系统打开时，两个激活器就会开始相互竞争，要么提高温度，要么降低温度。
Alternately, both the heating and cooling circuits could be made into positive feedback sub-systems. Whenever the temperature became too hot or too cold, one of the activators would turn on and keep pushing the temperature in that direction. If the temperature setting for the heater were above the temperature setting for the air conditioner, once the room temperature strayed from the middle range, it would never reach the center again. On the other hand, imagine that the heater’s activation temperature was below the air conditioner’s activation temperature. If the room started out in a middle temperature range somewhere between the two activation temperatures, when the two systems were turned on, both activators would begin battling with each other in a tug-of-war to either raise or lower the temperature.
负反馈加热系统
Negative feedback heating system
正反馈加热系统
Positive feedback heating system
在所有加热和冷却示例中，需要注意的重要一点是，控制论系统以非常特殊的方式影响温度等现象。当多个控制论系统一起运行时，事情很快就会变得复杂起来。
The important thing to notice in all of the heating and cooling examples is that cybernetic systems affect phenomena like temperature in very specific ways. When more than one cybernetic system is operating together, things get complex quite quickly.
冷热负反馈系统
Hot and cold negative feedback system
Hot and cold positive feedback system
游戏中的反馈系统
Feedback Systems in Games
游戏中的反馈系统如何运作？作为控制论系统，游戏规则定义了游戏反馈回路的传感器、比较器和激活器。在游戏中，有许多子系统可以调节游戏流程，动态地改变和转换游戏元素。你想让你的游戏走向平衡、稳定的状态吗？还是你想让它疯狂地朝着一个极端或另一个极端旋转？在游戏中设计反馈回路可以帮助你塑造这些趋势。反馈回路可能很难掌握，但它们提供了一种理解正式游戏系统如何运作的关键方法。
How do feedback systems operate in games? As a cybernetic system, the rules of a game define the sensors, comparators, and activators of the game’s feedback loops. Within a game, there are many sub-systems that regulate the flow of play, dynamically changing and transforming game elements. Do you want your game to move toward a balanced, steady state? Or do you want it to spin wildly toward one extreme or another? Designing feedback loops within your game can help you shape these tendencies. Feedback loops can be tricky to grasp, but they offer a crucial way of understanding how formal game systems function.
游戏设计师 Marc LeBlanc 对游戏设计与反馈系统之间的关系进行了大量思考，这一模式得益于 LeBlanc 在该主题上的重要工作。1999 年，LeBlanc 在游戏开发者大会上发表了题为“反馈系统和竞争的戏剧结构”的演讲。2在这次讲座中，LeBlanc 提出了一种将游戏视为反馈系统的思维方式，总结如下图所示：
Game designer Marc LeBlanc has done a great deal of thinking about the relationship between game design and feedback systems, and this schema is indebted to LeBlanc’s important work on the subject. In 1999, LeBlanc gave a presentation at the Game Developer’s Conference, titled “Feedback Systems and the Dramatic Structure of Competition.”2 In this lecture, LeBlanc proposed a way of thinking about games as feedback systems, summarized in the following chart:
在这个模型中，游戏状态代表游戏在任何特定时刻的当前状况。例如，在国际象棋游戏中，游戏状态由棋盘上的棋子排列、被吃掉的棋子以及哪个玩家接下来要移动来表示。在《VR战士4》等主机格斗游戏中，游戏状态包括选择了哪两个战斗员、两个战斗员的健康和其他固定和可变统计数据、他们的相对空间位置以及他们战斗的竞技场。游戏状态是了解游戏当前状态的一种形式，不考虑玩家的技能、情绪和经验。当然，这些基于玩家的因素肯定会影响游戏状态。如果你是《VR战士4》的高手，而你的对手不是，这在游戏过程中就会很明显。然而，游戏状态本身仅指游戏的形式、内部条件。
In this model, the game state represents the current condition of the game at any given moment. In a Chess game, for example, the game state is represented by the arrangement of the pieces on the board, the captured pieces, and which player is about to move next. In a console fighting game such as Virtua Fighter 4, the game state includes which two combatants were chosen, the health and other fixed and variable stats of the two fighters, their relative spatial positions, and the arena in which they are fighting. The game state is a formal way of understanding the current status of the game, and does not take into account the skills, emotions, and experience of the players. Of course, these player-based factors will definitely affect the game state. If you are a masterful Virtua Fighter 4 player and your opponent is not, this will be evident in the play of the game. However, the game state itself refers only to the formal, internal condition of the game.
LeBlanc 模型的其他元素直接对应于我们讨论过的控制系统的组件。计分功能是系统的传感器，用于测量游戏状态的某些方面。控制器是比较器，它查看传感器的读数并决定是否采取行动。游戏机械偏差是激活器，可以根据比较器的决定打开或关闭游戏事件或事件集。
The other elements of LeBlanc’s model correspond directly to the components of a cybernetic system as we have discussed them. The scoring function is the system’s sensor that measures some aspect of the game state. The controller is the comparator, which looks at the sensor’s reading and makes the decision whether or not to take action. The game mechanical bias is the activator, a game event or set of events that can be turned on or off depending on the decision of the comparator.
当将游戏视为控制论系统时，需要注意的是，我们不一定将整个游戏视为一个反馈系统。相反，我们的重点是控制论系统嵌入游戏的方式。嵌入式控制论系统影响大型游戏的单一方面，例如确定下一轮哪个玩家先出场或比赛中玩家的相对速度。从对系统的研究中，我们知道游戏的所有部分都以某种方式相互关联。游戏中的控制论系统直接影响游戏的一个组成部分，将间接影响整个游戏。
When looking at games as cybernetic systems, it is important to note that we are not necessarily considering the entire game as a single feedback system. Instead, our emphasis is on the ways that cybernetic systems are embedded in games. Embedded cybernetic systems affect a single aspect of a larger game, such as determining which player goes first next round or the relative speed of players in a race. We know from our study of systems that all parts of a game are interrelated in some way. A cybernetic system within a game that directly affects just one component of a game will indirectly affect the game as a whole.
正负篮球
Positive and Negative Basketball
为了将这个抽象的讨论更贴近游戏设计，让我们来看几个游戏示例。在他的演讲“反馈系统和竞争的戏剧性结构”中，勒布朗发明了篮球形式结构的两种变体：正反馈篮球和负反馈篮球。每种变体都在现有的游戏形式结构之上添加了一条规则：
To bring this abstract discussion closer to game design, let’s look at several game examples. In his talk “Feedback Systems and the Dramatic Structure of Competition,” LeBlanc invented two variations on the formal structure of Basketball: Positive Feedback Basketball and Negative Feedback Basketball. Each variation adds just a single rule on top of the existing formal structure of the game:
负反馈篮球：两队得分每相差N分，失败的一方可能会多一名球员上场。
Negative Feedback Basketball: For every N points of difference in the two teams’ scores, the losing team may have an extra player in play.
正反馈篮球：两队得分每相差N分，获胜的球队可能会多一名球员上场。
Positive Feedback Basketball: For every N points of difference in the two teams’ scores, the winning team may have an extra player in play.
添加这些规则会如何改变游戏？假设N为 5。在负反馈篮球比赛中，当 A 队落后 5 分时，它将增加一名球员上场，并开始与 6 人队比赛。一旦 A 队的得分使其落后不到 5 分，它就会放弃其额外球员。另一方面，如果 A 队继续表现不佳，当其得分落后另一支球队 10 分时，它将获得第二名额外球员。为什么这是负反馈的一个例子？因为系统中的调整（获得和失去球员）鼓励系统走向稳定、稳定的状态。失败的球队获得额外球员，这有助于它赶上获胜的球队；当差距缩小到 5 分以内时，两支球队势均力敌。该系统的稳定状态不是总分趋向于零，而是两支球队得分之间的差异保持在接近零的水平。最终结果是负反馈篮球比赛往往会非常接近。
How do the addition of these rules change the game? Say, for example, that N is 5. In a game of Negative Feedback Basketball, when Team A fell behind by 5 points, it would gain a player on the court and begin to play with a team of 6. As soon as Team A scored points that put it behind by less than 5, it would drop its extra player. On the other hand, if Team A continued to do poorly, when its score was 10 points behind the other team, it would gain a second extra player. Why is this an example of negative feedback? Because the adjustments in the system (gaining and losing players) encourage the system to move toward a stable, steady state. A losing team gets extra players, which helps it catch up to the winning team; when it moves to within 5 points, the two teams are evenly matched. The steady state of this system is not that the total points tend towards zero, but that the difference between the two teams’ scores stays near zero. The end result is that Negative Feedback Basketball games would tend to be very close games.
正反馈篮球赛则创造了相反的情况。一旦一支球队扩大领先优势，它就会获得更多球员。这些新球员将帮助球队在与对方球队的比赛中表现得更好，这将进一步增加获胜球队的领先优势，从而为该球队带来更多球员。最终，球场上将挤满一支球队的成员，他们将完全压倒并击败只有五名球员的球队。正反馈篮球赛鼓励两支球队的得分相差悬殊，因此比赛将以压倒性的优势取得胜利，而不是势均力敌。
Positive Feedback Basketball creates the opposite situation. As soon as one team increased its lead, it would gain additional players. These new players would help the team do even better against the opposing team, which would increase the winning team’s lead even more, which would result in yet more players for that team. Eventually, the court would be absurdly crowded with members of one team, who would completely overwhelm and defeat the team with only five players. Positive Feedback Basketball encourages a large difference between the two teams’ scores, so that there is a runaway, devastating victory instead of a closely matched game.
就像加热和冷却的例子一样，有很多方法可以改变游戏系统。例如，我们可以改变规则，删除球员而不是添加球员。在这种情况下，在负反馈篮球中，当一支球队领先N分时，它将失去一名球员，使另一支球队更容易赶上。在正反馈篮球中，落后N分的球队将失去一名球员，鼓励他们进一步落后，这将导致更多球员的损失。最终，一支球队会落后太多，以至于没有一名球员留在球场上。在这两种游戏中，即使球员被移除而不是增加，最终结果仍然相同：负反馈篮球倾向于稳定、势均力敌的比赛，而正反馈篮球倾向于不稳定、不平衡的比赛。篮球比赛的每种变化都会带来截然不同的玩家和观众体验。然而，我们所做的只是增加了一条影响系统行为的规则。反馈系统为游戏设计师提供了一个强大的工具来影响游戏的形式结构以及该结构在游戏中的表现方式。
As in the examples of heating and cooling, there are many ways to transform the game system. We could, for example, change the rules to remove players instead of adding them. In this case, in Negative Feedback Basketball, when one team pulls ahead by N points, it would lose a player, making it easier for the other team to catch up. In Positive Feedback Basketball, the team that was behind by N points would lose a player, encouraging them to fall further behind, which would result in the loss of even more players. Eventually, one team would fall so far behind that none of its players would be left on the court. In both games, even though players are removed rather than added, the end results remain the same: Negative Feedback Basketball tends toward stable, close matches and Positive Feedback Basketball tends toward unstable, unbalanced matches. Each variation on the game of Basketball would result in vastly different player and spectator experiences. Yet all we did was add one rule that affected the behavior of the system. Feedback systems offer game designers a powerful tool to affect a game’s formal structure and the way that structure manifests in play.
赛车循环
Racing Loops
正反馈篮球和负反馈篮球是篮球游戏的变种。但许多现有游戏已在设计中运用了反馈系统。在这里，我们来看看两款数字赛车游戏中控制论系统的使用。
Positive Feedback Basketball and Negative Feedback Basketball were variations on the game of Basketball. But many existing games already make use of feedback systems in their designs. Here, we look at the use of cybernetic systems in two digital racing games.
Wipeout 是一款科幻赛车游戏，最初在 Playstation 上发布，玩家驾驶一辆高速悬浮车在赛道上行驶，试图击败计算机控制的车辆并获得第一名。在 Wipeout 等赛车游戏中，程序采用反馈机制是很常见的。显然，计算机程序可以按照游戏设计师的意愿驾驶车辆，无论驾驶得多么糟糕或多么熟练。对计算机驾驶的汽车进行编程很简单，这样它们就可以以数学上最优的方式行驶并始终击败玩家。然而，这样做一点也不好玩。相反，在赛车游戏中，计算机车辆被编程为以不太“完美”的方式，有时不能有效地转向或加速，以便为人类玩家提供可以克服的挑战。
Wipeout is a science-fiction racing game originally released for the Playstation, in which the player pilots a fast-moving hover vehicle around a track, trying to beat the computer-controlled vehicles and come in first place. It is common in racing games such as Wipeout for the program to employ feedback mechanisms. Obviously, a computer program can drive a vehicle as poorly or as skillfully as the game designer wants. It would be simple to program the computer-driven cars so that they drove in a mathematically optimal fashion and always beat the player. However, that would simply not be fun. Instead, in racing games the computer vehicles are programmed to drive in a less than “perfect” manner, sometimes not steering or accelerating efficiently, in order to provide a challenge that a human player can overcome.
为玩家创造规模化挑战的一种方法是为计算机控制的车辆编写不同的技能等级。有些车辆对于初学者来说很容易打败，而有些车辆只有经验丰富的玩家才能打败。然而，为每辆对手车辆编写一个静态技能等级还不是控制论反馈回路。我们为什么要在赛车游戏中添加反馈系统？当然是为了保持游戏的流畅性。像 Wipeout 这样的赛车游戏的乐趣之一就是在密集的悬浮车辆群中争夺位置，与紧随您或在您视线前方的另一位赛车手争夺第一名。
One way to create a scaled challenge for the player would be to program different skill levels for the computer-controlled vehicles. Some vehicles would be easy for a beginner to beat whereas others could only be bested by experienced players. Programming a static skill level for each opponent vehicle, however, is not yet a cybernetic feedback loop. Why would we want to add a feedback system to a racing game? In order to keep the flow of play exciting, of course. Part of the fun of a racing game such as Wipeout is jockeying for position among a dense cluster of hover vehicles, battling for first place with another racer who is hot on your tail or dead ahead in your sights.
如果没有反馈回路，这些情况就不太可能发生。如果一名玩家在比赛初期摔倒了，她还能追上电脑控制的车辆吗？或者，如果一名玩家的技术远远超过预先编程的电脑对手，她会怎么样？一旦她在比赛初期取得领先，她可能就只能独自比赛了，因为电脑对手永远追不上她。
Without a feedback loop, these moments are unlikely to occur. What if a player crashes early in a race—will she ever catch up to the computer-controlled vehicles? Or what if a player’s skill far outmatches the pre-programmed computer opponents? Once she gains a lead early in the race, she might as well be racing alone, because the computer opponents will never catch up to her.
这正是 Wipeout（以及许多其他数字赛车游戏）利用控制论反馈系统来控制计算机对手速度的原因。我们可以从游戏中计算机控制车辆的行为中抽象出两条一般规则。虽然这些并不是决定它们速度的唯一因素，但它们确实对游戏体验有明显的影响：
This is precisely why Wipeout (and many other digital racing games) make use of cybernetic feedback systems to control the speed of the computer opponents. There are two general rules we can abstract from the behavior of the computer-controlled vehicles in the game. Although these are not the only factors determining their speed, they do have a clear impact on the experience of the game:
• 如果人类玩家处于第一名，则第二名的车辆将加速并追赶人类玩家的车辆。
• If the human player is in first place, the vehicle in second place will accelerate and catch up to the human player’s vehicle.
• 如果人类玩家处于最后一位，最后几辆车将会减速让玩家赶上它们。
• If the human player is in last place, the last few vehicles will slow down to let the player catch up to them.
这两条规则的结果是负反馈系统。与负反馈篮球一样，这两条规则共同作用，缩短了游戏中车辆之间的距离，消除了玩家远远领先或远远落后于计算机对手的“极端情况”。
The result of these two rules is a negative feedback system. Like Negative Feedback Basketball, together these two rules operate to reduce the distance between vehicles in the game, eliminating the “extremes” of the player being very far ahead or very far behind the computer opponents.
在这个系统中，比较器需要监控三种状态：玩家处于第一名、玩家处于最后一名或玩家既不是第一名也不是最后一名。如果玩家处于队伍的中间位置，则不会发生任何特殊的激活事件。但是，如果玩家处于第一名或最后一名，车辆行为会相应调整。这种反馈系统的结果是，Wipeout 中的赛车往往提供令人兴奋和满意的游戏体验。值得注意的是，Wipeout 只会影响计算机对手的车辆，而不会影响玩家驾驶的气垫船。本质上，程序会仔细调整竞争背景，而不是直接提升或阻碍玩家。但是，有些游戏会更直接地将负反馈系统应用于玩家的能力。
In this system, there are three states that the comparator needs to monitor: when the player is in first place, when the player is in last place, or when the player is in neither first nor last place. If the player is somewhere in the middle of the pack, then no special activator event comes into play. But if the player is in first or last place, vehicle behavior adjusts accordingly. The outcome of this feedback system is that racing in Wipeout tends to offer exciting and satisfying play. Significantly, Wipeout only affects the computer-opponent vehicles, not the hovercraft that the player is driving. In essence, the program carefully adjusts the competitive backdrop, rather than boosting or handicapping the player directly. However, there are games that apply a negative feedback system more directly to a player’s abilities.
此类游戏的一个例子是任天堂 GameCube 上的 Super Monkey Ball。Super Monkey Ball 包含几种不同的游戏模式；其中一种是赛车游戏，最多四名玩家同时与猴子角色比赛通过一系列赛道。当玩家驾驶着穿过赛道上的强化物体时，他们会获得一种只能使用一次的特殊能力。这些能力包括向前射击攻击（向前方的玩家发射炸弹）、后方攻击（扔下香蕉皮，希望身后的玩家会碾过它并滑倒）和非攻击能力（一种暂时提高玩家速度的加速）。
One example of such a game is Super Monkey Ball for the Nintendo GameCube. Super Monkey Ball contains several different game modes; one of them is a racing game in which up to four players simultaneously race monkey characters through a series of tracks. When players drive through a power-up object on the track, they gain a special power that can be used one time. These powers range from forward-firing attacks (shoot a bomb at another player ahead of you) to rear-based attacks (drop a banana peel, hoping a player behind you will run over it and slip) to non-attack powers (a speed-up that temporarily boosts a player’s velocity).
超级猴子球
Super Monkey Ball
虽然许多赛车游戏都使用这种强化惯例（包括 Wipeout），但 Super Monkey Ball 使用反馈系统来确定玩家将获得哪种强化，具体取决于玩家是领先还是落后于其他玩家。如果玩家排在最后一名，则该玩家更有可能获得加速能力，这将有助于该玩家赶上其他竞争对手。另一方面，排名第一的玩家更有可能获得向前射击攻击，而不是加速或后方攻击。因此，领先的玩家会获得最没用的一种强化：排名第一的玩家无法使用向前射击攻击来改善自己的位置，因为没有人领先于他。这些规则加起来就是一个负反馈系统。与 Wipeout 一样，Super Monkey Ball 的反馈循环鼓励激烈的比赛，其中没有玩家领先或落后其他玩家太远。
Whereas many racing games use this power-up convention (including Wipeout), Super Monkey Ball uses a feedback system to determine which power-up a player will receive, depending on whether the player is ahead or behind other players. If a player is in last place, the player is much more likely to receive the speed-up power, which will help that player catch up to the other competitors. On the other hand, a player in first place is more likely to get forward-firing attacks, rather than speed-ups or rear-based attacks. The lead player thus receives the least useful kind of power-up: a player in first place can’t use a forward-firing attack to better his position, because no one is ahead of him. These rules add up to a negative feedback system. As with Wipeout, Super Monkey Ball’s feedback loops encourage a close race, in which no player is too far ahead of or behind the others.
能量石
Powerstone
在《Super Monkey Ball》和《Wipeout》中，负反馈循环用于产生有意义的玩法。我们从《游戏是不确定系统》中了解到，游戏结果必须是不确定的，才有意义。如果作为玩家，你落后或领先其他玩家太多，以致结果已成定局，那么有意义的玩法就会减少，因为你做出的决定不会对游戏结果产生影响。这并不意味着反馈系统每次都能保证比赛势均力敌：技巧在赛车游戏中起着重要作用，《Super Monkey Ball》中的玩家有可能落后太多，以至于获胜的机会很小。并没有通用的策略来打造有意义的玩法。但在《Wipeout》和《Super Monkey Ball》中，反馈系统通过让游戏对游戏的持续状态做出响应来支持有意义的玩法。
In Super Monkey Ball and Wipeout, negative feedback loops are used to engender meaningful play. As we know from Games as Systems of Uncertainty, the outcome of a game needs to be uncertain for meaningful play to occur. If, as a player, you fall so far behind or ahead of the other players that the outcome is a foregone conclusion, meaningful play is diminished, because decisions you make won’t have an impact on the outcome of the game. This does not mean that feedback systems guarantee a close race every time: skill plays an important role in racing games, and it is possible for a player in Super Monkey Ball to fall so far behind that there is very little chance of victory. There is no universal strategy for crafting meaningful play. But in Wipeout and Super Monkey Ball, feedback systems support meaningful play by making the game responsive to the ongoing state of the game.
游戏中的正反馈
Positive Feedback in a Game
并非所有游戏都使用负反馈系统。有些游戏也很好地利用了正反馈系统。Powerstone 是一款最多可容纳 4 名玩家的主机格斗游戏，具有卡通、快节奏的打斗动作。在 Powerstone 中，当玩家成功受到强力攻击时，攻击目标将被短暂击晕，在此期间目标玩家无法移动其角色，攻击者可以继续攻击被击晕的角色。被击晕的角色无法躲避、防御或反击，而且更容易被击中。这实际上是一种正反馈系统：由于玩家成功发动了强大的攻击，因此玩家更有可能发动更多攻击，因为目标仍然处于被击晕状态，更容易被击中。新的攻击会继续击晕目标，从而提高攻击者造成更多伤害的能力。正反馈会产生戏剧性的结果，玩家可能会被快速发动的一系列攻击摧毁。这种闹剧动作在像 Powerstone 这样轻松幽默的游戏中是有意义的。
Not all games use negative feedback systems. Some make good use of positive feedback systems as well. Powerstone is a console fighting game for up to four players that features cartoony, fast-paced brawling action. In Powerstone, when a player is successfully hit by a powerful attack, the target of the attack will be stunned for a short time, during which the target player cannot move his or her character, and the attacker can continue to strike the stunned character. A stunned character cannot move out of the way, defend, or counterattack, and is much easier to hit. This is, in effect, a positive feedback system: because a player successfully launches a powerful attack, the player has a better chance of launching yet more attacks as the target remains stunned and easier to hit. The new attacks continue to stun the target, increasing the ability of the attacker to deliver more damage. Positive feedback creates dramatic results, in which a player can be devastated by a rapidly delivered series of attacks. This kind of slapstick action makes sense in a lighthearted and humorous game such as Powerstone.
但是，如果允许正反馈系统一直运行到比赛结束，那么整个游戏就无法正常工作。一旦您的角色第一次被击中，您将处于晕眩状态，而对手会继续攻击您。实际上，第一次打击将决定您的命运，游戏将失去来回的斗争，而这是格斗游戏的重要组成部分。Powerstone 通过在游戏系统中添加不同的行为摆脱了这种反馈陷阱。在受到一定数量的攻击后，晕眩的角色将被抛过游戏场，使攻击者无法无限期地继续快速攻击。攻击者可以追赶飞过游戏场的角色，但当攻击者到达那里时，远处的角色通常不再处于晕眩状态。
However, if the positive feedback system were permitted to play itself out until the end of a match, then the game as a whole wouldn’t work. Once your character was hit for the first time, you would remain stunned while an opponent continued to attack you. In effect, the first blow landed would determine your fate and the game would lose the back-and-forth struggle that is an important ingredient of fighting games. Powerstone gets out of this feedback trap by adding a different behavior to the game system. After receiving a certain number of attacks, a stunned character will be hurled across the playfield, making it impossible for the attacker to indefinitely continue rapid-fire strikes. The attacker can pursue the character that flew across the playfield, but the far-flung character is usually no longer stunned by the time the attacker gets there.
由于正反馈系统本质上是不稳定的，会将游戏系统推向不可避免的结果，因此它们通常会受到其他限制反馈循环加速的游戏因素的抑制。在《魔兽争霸 II》等实时多人战略游戏中，玩家会收集资源，这让他们能够建造更多单位来收集更多资源，从而加快资源收集的速度。这样，所有玩家都在构建自己的正反馈循环，一起参加军备竞赛，看看谁能收集到足够的资源，谁能率先带领一支能够赢得游戏的军队。
Because positive feedback systems are inherently unstable and push a game system toward an inevitable outcome, they are usually dampened by other game factors that limit the acceleration of the feedback loop. In real-time multiplayer strategy games such as Warcraft II, players gather resources, which allow them to build more units that can gather yet more resources, increasing the acceleration of resource-gathering. In this way, all of the players are building their own positive feedback loops, joined together in an arms race to see who will gather enough resources and be the first to front an army capable of winning the game.
在《魔兽争霸 II》中，每个玩家都在同时创建自己的反馈回路，这一事实平衡了潜在不稳定的正反馈回路。此外，这些反馈回路有助于游戏的结束。由于实时多人战略游戏的复杂性，它们有时会拖延无休止，玩家势均力敌，无法占上风。由于正反馈系统可能很快失控，能够获得轻微优势（例如从其他玩家手中夺取资源丰富的金矿）的玩家可以利用这一优势压倒对手。显然，除了资源反馈回路之外，还有许多战略因素决定着《魔兽争霸 II》的结果。（例如，熟练的战斗策略可以帮助击败资源更强大的对手。）然而，正反馈系统显然是游戏设计的关键要素，有助于游戏的成功。
In Warcraft II, potentially unstable positive feedback loops are balanced by the fact that each player is creating his or her own feedback loop in parallel. Furthermore, these feedback loops help bring the game to conclusion. Because of their complexity, real-time multiplayer strategy games can sometimes drag on interminably, with players evenly matched and unable to get an upper hand. Because of the way that positive feedback systems can quickly grow out of control, a player that can gain a slight advantage (such as capturing a resource-rich gold mine from another player) can use the advantage to overwhelm an opponent. Obviously, there are many strategic factors other than the resource-feedback loops that determine the outcome of Warcraft II. (For example, skillful battle tactics can help defeat a more resource-powerful opponent.) However, positive feedback systems are clearly a key element of the game design and contribute to the successful play of the game.
动态难度调整
Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment
数字游戏设计师越来越多地将更复杂的反馈技术融入到游戏设计中。游戏开发商顽皮狗娱乐公司以其所谓的“动态难度调整”而闻名于游戏行业，该技术已在《古惑狼》系列游戏以及最近的《杰克与达斯特》中得到应用。
Increasingly, digital game designers are incorporating more sophisticated feedback techniques into their game designs. The game developer Naughty Dog Entertainment is known in the game industry for what it calls “Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment,” a technique it has used in the Crash Bandicoot series of games, as well as the more recent Jak and Daxter.
动态难度调整 (DDA) 使用反馈循环来调整游戏难度。例如，在原版《古惑狼》游戏中，玩家通常操纵角色古惑狼通过一系列跳跃和躲避障碍物，试图克服破坏性危险并达到目标以完成关卡。当玩家死亡时，游戏将从关卡的开头或关卡中最近到达的“保存点”重新开始。
Dynamic Difficult Adjustment, or DDA, uses feedback loops to adjust the difficulty of play. For example, in the original Crash Bandicoot game, the player is generally maneuvering the character Crash through a series of jumping and dodging obstacles, trying to overcome damaging hazards and reach objectives to finish the level. When a player dies, the game restarts at the beginning of the level or at the most recent “save point” reached in the level.
设计这种游戏的危险在于玩家的技术水平参差不齐。经验丰富的玩家可能轻而易举地闯过关卡，而新手可能会在死过几次却毫无进展后感到沮丧。
The danger in designing this kind of game is that players possess widely varying skill levels. An experienced gamer might breeze through a level, whereas a beginner might become frustrated after dying several times without making any progress.
Crash Bandicoot 中的 DDA 操作会评估玩家在关卡中特定位置死亡的次数，从而使游戏变得更容易。遇到困难的玩家可能会突然发现附近有更多有用的物体，或者需要避开的敌人更少。这种对平衡玩家体验的关注在 Crash Bandicoot 游戏中显而易见，这有助于解释为什么广大硬核玩家和缺乏经验的玩家都喜欢这些游戏。
The DDA operations in Crash Bandicoot evaluate the number of times that a player is dying at a particular location in a level, and make the game easier as a result. A player having trouble might suddenly find that there are more helpful objects nearby, or fewer enemies to avoid. This kind of attention to the balancing of player experience is evident in the play of Crash Bandicoot games, and it helps explain the fact that a wide audience of both hardcore and less experienced players enjoys them.
在游戏中使用 DDA 和其他反馈机制会引发一些有趣的游戏设计问题。如果我们考虑计算机出现之前的数千年游戏传统，游戏传统上是关于玩家在正式系统中竞争，该系统不会自动根据玩家的表现进行调整。当您玩棒球或黑白棋等游戏时，您对系统的熟悉程度和操纵能力会不断提高。游戏本身和其他玩家会为您提供挑战。随着您游戏的深入，您会找到新的游戏形式，在游戏系统中表达自己的新方式。
Using DDA and other feedback mechanisms in games raises some fascinating game design issues. If we consider the millennia-old tradition of pre-computer play, games are traditionally about a player or players competing within a formal system that does not adjust itself automatically to player performance. As you play a game such as Baseball or Othello, your fluency with the system and your ability to manipulate it grows. The game itself and the other players provide the challenge for you. As your play deepens, you find new forms of play, new ways of expressing yourself within the system of the game.
DDA 指向一种不同的游戏，这种游戏不断预测玩家的能力，了解玩家的行为，并做出相应的调整。玩游戏不再像学习一种表达性语言，而更像是成为参与式即兴表演的唯一观众，表演者会根据你与他们互动的方式调整他们的行为。那么，你是在玩游戏，还是游戏在玩你？如果游戏不断调整自己的规则，它是否是“作弊”？这样的方案是否可以设计成多人游戏体验，并且仍然让所有参与者感到“公平”？这些问题没有明确的答案，因为任何给定的游戏设计问题总是有很多解决方案。动态难度调整可以被认为是一种剥夺玩家主动权的严厉设计工具，也可以被认为是一种巧妙的方式，可以无形地塑造游戏玩法，让每个玩家都有最佳体验。无论您对此事有何看法，DDA 都是一个重要的工具，并且随着数字游戏越来越依赖其自动化复杂流程的能力，这种设计策略将变得更加普遍。
DDA points to a different kind of game, a game that constantly anticipates the abilities of the player, reads the player’s behavior, and makes adjustments accordingly. Playing a game becomes less like learning an expressive language and more like being the sole audience member for a participatory, improvisational performance, where the performers adjust their actions according to how you interact with them. Are you then playing the game, or is it playing you? Is a game “cheating” if it constantly adjusts its own rules? Could such a scheme be designed into a multiplayer experience and still feel “fair” for everyone involved? These questions have no definitive answers, as there are always many solutions for any given game design problem. Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment could be considered a heavy-handed design tool that takes agency away from the player, or it could be considered an elegant way of invisibly shaping game play so that every player has an optimal experience. Regardless of your opinion on the matter, DDA is an important tool, and as digital games rely more and more on their ability to automate complex processes, this kind of design strategy will become more common.
简单的掷骰子
A Simple Die Roll
由于到目前为止使用的大部分示例都来自复杂的数字游戏，因此我们想通过在更简单的游戏环境中研究控制论反馈系统来结束本文。有时在游戏中，没有游戏 AI 或裁判来感知和激活游戏状态的变化。然而，优雅的反馈系统仍然可以直接从游戏规则中产生。
Because most of the examples used so far have come from complex digital games, we wanted to finish by looking at a cybernetic feedback system within a more minimal game context. Sometimes in games, there is no game AI or referee to sense and activate the changes in the game state. However, elegant feedback systems can still emerge directly from the game rules.
让我们来看看我们最喜欢的例子之一，《滑梯与梯子》。《滑梯与梯子》是一款非常简单的纯运气游戏。但你能发现其中的反馈系统吗？它不是真正的滑梯和梯子。是的，它们似乎可以调节玩家的位置，但它们并不是以控制论的方式运作的。它们只是随机地改变棋盘上玩家的位置。滑梯和梯子不构成动态反馈回路。
Let us take a look at one of our favorite examples, Chutes and Ladders. Chutes and Ladders is an extremely simple game of pure chance. But can you spot the feedback system in it? It is not the actual chutes and ladders. Yes, those seem like they regulate the positions of the players, but they do not act in a cybernetic way. They merely randomly shift the position of the players on the board. The chutes and ladders do not constitute a dynamic feedback loop.
蛇梯棋中的反馈循环发生在游戏的最后，玩家必须准确落在最后一个格子上才能获胜（而不是能够越过最后一个格子并落在那里）。这条规则创建了一种负反馈系统。准确着陆规则对玩家之间的距离起到了负反馈的作用。在蛇梯棋游戏中，最领先的玩家最终将位于距离终点格子六个格子以内，并且通常会花费更多回合来尝试准确掷骰子，或者可能通过掷出小数字来领先一英寸。在此期间，其他玩家通常会赶上来。总体效果是通过减少玩家位置之间的差异来平衡比赛场地。以这种方式延长游戏结束时间的结果就是更接近、更戏剧性的结局。
The feedback loop in Chutes and Ladders occurs at the very end of the game, when players must land exactly on the final square in order to win (rather than being able to overshoot the final space and land there anyway). This rule creates a kind of negative feedback system. The exact landing rule serves as negative feedback on the distance between players. In a game of Chutes and Ladders, the player that is farthest ahead will eventually be within six spaces of the finish square and will usually end up spending a few more turns trying to make the exact roll, or possibly inch ahead by rolling small numbers. During this time, the other players often catch up. The overall effect is to level out the playing field by reducing the difference between the positions of the players. The result of stretching out the end of the game in this way is a closer and more dramatic finish.
想象一下没有这条规则的游戏。如果玩家可以越过最后一个格子并仍然获胜，想象一下你正在与距离最后一个格子只有三个格子的人对战。即使那个玩家运气很差（连续掷出三个 1），他距离赢得游戏也不超过三个回合。如果你距离超过 18 个格子（连续掷出三个 6 的总和），你就不可能获胜。另一方面，如果你的对手必须进行精确的掷骰，那么他有 50% 的机会掷得太高，以至于他必须留在原地，而你则不断接近。游戏延长了，结果仍然不确定，总的来说，游戏玩起来更令人满意。最后几次掷骰子变成了戏剧性的、令人紧张的游戏事件。
Think about the game without this rule. If players can overshoot the final space and still win, imagine that you are playing against someone who is just three spaces away from the last square. Even if that player has very bad luck (rolling three 1s in a row), that player is no more than three turns from winning the game. If you are more than 18 spaces away (the total of rolling three 6s in a row), there is no way you can win. On the other hand, if your opponent has to make an exact roll, then he has a 50 percent chance of rolling too high so that he has to stay put, as you keep getting closer. The game is prolonged, the outcome remains uncertain, and in general, the game is more satisfying to play. Those last few die rolls become dramatic, nail-biting game events.
我们应该指出，这不是控制论反馈系统的真正例子。正统的系统理论家会指出，实际操作中没有传感器、比较器和激活器。作为反例，如果有一条规则要求玩家首先从他的骰子掷出结果中减去 1，我们将有一个真正的反馈循环，其中当满足某些条件时会实施程序更改。在这里，玩家是传感器，规则本身是比较器，而激活器是从骰子掷出结果中减去 1 的动作。
We should point out that this is not a true example of a cybernetic feedback system. An orthodox systems theorist would point out that there is no sensor, comparator, and activator in actual operation. As a counter-example, if there were a rule requiring that the player in first place subtract 1 from his die roll, we would have a true feedback loop, in which a procedural change is enacted when certain conditions are met. Here the player is the sensor, the rule itself the comparator, and the activator is the action of subtracting one from the die roll.
回到我们确切的着陆规则，如果我们以以下方式制定规则，我们可能会认为它有一个反馈循环：“如果玩家距离最终空间少于 6 个空间，则滚动高于N（其中N是玩家和最终空间之间的空间数）没有影响。”
Coming back to our exact landing rule, if we frame the rule in the following fashion, we might consider it to have a feedback loop: “If a player is fewer than 6 spaces from the final space, then rolling higher than N, where N is the number of spaces between the player and the final space, has no effect.”
现在，规则更像是一个反馈回路，玩家可以感知到距离终点的距离，而规则的作用是限制掷骰子的有效性。归根结底，正统系统理论家是否认可这个例子并不重要。作为设计师，模式的价值在于它解决设计问题的能力。要求玩家在最终空间中准确计数的规则确实创造了更有意义的游戏。将规则理解为控制论反馈回路，甚至是伪控制论反馈回路，只能增强我们对游戏设计的欣赏。
The rule now feels more like a feedback loop, where the player senses proximity to the finish and the rule acts to limit the effectiveness of the die roll. Ultimately, it does not really matter whether an orthodox systems theorist would approve of this example or not. As designers, the value of a schema is its ability to solve design problems. The rule that requires players to land by exact count on the final space does create more meaningful play. Understanding the rule as a cybernetic feedback loop, or even a pseudo-cybernetic feedback loop, can only enhance our appreciation for the game’s design.
运用反馈
Putting Feedback to Use
作为一种游戏设计模式，《游戏作为控制论系统》是本书介绍的最具实践应用性的框架之一。控制论反馈系统可以成为平衡游戏以达到特定结果的绝佳方式。你的游戏有什么问题：结束得太早了吗？游戏运行时间太长了吗？游戏是否太不确定了？游戏是否不够不确定？玩家获得优势是太容易还是太难了？你可以通过寻找游戏设计形式结构中存在的反馈循环或添加自己的额外循环来解决所有这些基本问题。
As a game design schema, Games as Cybernetic Systems is one of the most practically applicable frameworks presented in this book. Cybernetic feedback systems can be wonderful ways of balancing your game to arrive at a particular result. What is wrong with your game: Is it ending too soon? Running on for too long? Is it too uncertain? Not uncertain enough? Is it too easy or too difficult for players to gain an advantage? You can address all these fundamental questions by looking for feedback loops existing within the formal structure of your game’s design, or by adding additional loops of your own.
在演讲中，Marc LeBlanc 将游戏设计与反馈系统之间的关系归结为一套设计“规则”。这些规则为将反馈系统集成到设计中提供了一套有用的指导方针。以下是 LeBlanc 的一些“规则”以及我们对每条规则的一些评论：
In his lecture, Marc LeBlanc boiled down the relationship between game design and feedback systems to a set of design “rules.” These rules offer a useful set of guidelines for integrating feedback systems into your design. Here are a number of LeBlanc’s “rules” and some of our comments on each of them:
•负反馈可以稳定游戏。
• Negative feedback stabilizes the game.
•正反馈会破坏游戏的稳定性。
• Positive feedback destabilizes the game.
这两个观察结果或许构成了游戏设计最基本的控制论见解。作为一名设计师，你应该意识到你的游戏创造稳定性和不稳定性的方式。如果你的双人纸牌游戏让最强大的玩家从较弱的玩家手中夺取纸牌，那么你就创建了一个正反馈系统，最强大的玩家将很快占据主导地位。游戏是不稳定的，很快就会失去平衡。也许解决方案是增加更多玩家，让他们组队对抗领先的玩家。这将增加一个负反馈系统来重新平衡游戏，使获得微小优势的玩家最终获胜的可能性降低。
These two observations form perhaps the most fundamental cybernetics insight for game design. As a designer, you should be aware of the ways that your game creates stabilities and instabilities. If your two-player card game lets the most powerful player take cards from the weaker player, then you have created a positive feedback system where the most powerful player will quickly dominate. The game is unstable, and will rapidly fall out of balance. Perhaps the solution is to add more players to the game and allow them to team-up on the player that is ahead. This would be adding a negative feedback system to re-balance the game and make it less likely that a player who gains a small advantage will end up winning.
尽管我们的例子强调了负面反馈是一种有用的游戏设计工具，但过多的负面反馈会使游戏过于稳定。想象一下《蛇梯棋》的变体，其中每当一个玩家领先于另一个玩家时，所有玩家都会回到起点。虽然这条规则肯定会给游戏增加负面反馈，确保没有玩家会领先于其他玩家，但它会将游戏稳定到停滞状态，这样游戏就不会向前发展。在设计有意义的游戏时，找到游戏负面因素和正面因素之间的平衡至关重要。
Although our examples have emphasized negative feedback as a useful game design tool, too much negative feedback can make a game too stable. Imagine a variation on Chutes and Ladders in which, whenever a player is ahead of another player, all of the players go back to the start. Although this rule would certainly add negative feedback to the game, ensuring that no player would get ahead of the others, it stabilizes the game to the point of stasis, so that the game doesn’t move forward at all. Finding a balance of negative and positive factors for your game is crucial in designing meaningful play.
•负面反馈可以延长游戏时间。
• Negative feedback can prolong the game.
•积极的反馈可以结束这一切。
• Positive feedback can end it.
勒布朗的下两条“规则”应该从我们众多反馈系统示例中直观地看出。正反馈可以加速游戏结束，奖励已经领先的玩家，就像《魔兽争霸 II》中一样。负反馈，就像《蛇梯棋》中的精确着陆规则一样，让失败的玩家更容易赶上，通过减少获胜玩家的领先优势来延长游戏时间。
LeBlanc’s next two “rules” should follow intuitively from our many examples of feedback systems. Positive feedback can rush a game to conclusion, rewarding a player that is already ahead, as in Warcraft II. Negative feedback, as in the Chutes and Ladders exact landing rule, makes it easier for a losing player to catch up, prolonging the game by reducing the winning player’s lead.
•积极的反馈会放大早期的成功。
• Positive feedback magnifies early successes.
•负面反馈会放大后期的影响。
• Negative feedback magnifies late ones.
这两条“规则”紧随上一条规则。在《魔兽争霸 II》中，在早期建立正反馈资源循环方面的优势可以让玩家遥遥领先于其他玩家。另一方面，在《蛇梯棋》中，最后的负反馈可以让一直落后的玩家赶上来。
These two “rules” follow closely from the last pair. In Warcraft II, an early advantage in establishing positive feedback resource loops can put a player too far ahead of the other players. In Chutes and Ladders, on the other hand, negative feedback at the very end can allow a player that has been behind the whole game to catch up.
如何将这些想法应用到自己的游戏设计中？这取决于您想要创造的游戏体验类型。对于游戏的适当长度，没有通用的指导方针。战争游戏玩家可能会玩几个星期的游戏，而不太狂热的游戏玩家可能会认为玩一个小时的游戏时间太长了。同样，也没有固定的规则告诉你开局或收尾动作是游戏中最重要的动作。
How can you apply these ideas to your own game design? It depends on the kind of game experience you want to create. There are no universal guidelines for the proper length of a game. Wargamers might play a game for weeks, whereas less hardcore gamers might think an hour is a long time to be playing a single game. Similarly, there are no fixed rules that tell you to make the opening moves or the ending moves the most important ones in the game.
做出此类决定的指南应该是有意义的游戏的核心原则。无论游戏的长度如何，您都应努力在任何时候创造有意义的游戏，游戏结果在结束前都是不确定的，玩家采取的每一个行动都可以帮助以综合的方式确定结果。一般来说，玩得好的玩家应该获得胜利。但也许最后总有机会出现戏剧性的转折，第一个变成最后一个，最后一个变成第一个。
Your guide to making these kinds of decisions should be the core principles of meaningful play. Regardless of the length of your particular game, you should strive to create meaningful play at all moments, where the game outcome is uncertain until the end and every action a player takes can help determine that outcome in an integrated way. In general, players that play well should be rewarded with victory. But perhaps there is always a chance for a dramatic turn of events at the end, where the first becomes the last and the last becomes the first.
•反馈系统可能会“意外”地从你的游戏系统中 出现 。一定要识别它们。
• Feedback systems can emerge from your game systems “by accident.” Be sure to identify them.
•反馈系统可能会剥夺玩家的控制权。
• Feedback systems can take control away from players.
LeBlanc 的最后几条“规则”至关重要。游戏系统复杂且不可预测，你永远无法确定你正在构建的可能性空间中可能隐藏着什么反馈系统。反馈系统可以成为塑造玩家体验的绝佳方式，但正如 LeBlanc 警告的那样，当你将积极重塑体验的系统融入到游戏中时，你就有可能剥夺玩家的主动性，让玩家感到无能为力。一些反馈系统，例如《蛇梯棋》的最后一条空间规则，相对无害。但如果许多游戏玩家能够发现游戏在根据他们的游戏进行调整，他们会感到“被骗了”。如果第二名的车总是紧随你，你的表现真的很重要吗？也许应该限制第二名车的速度，这样真正高超的玩家才能享受远远领先于其他玩家的满足感。
LeBlanc’s final few “rules” are crucial. Game systems are complex and unpredictable and you can never be sure what feedback systems might be hiding out in the space of possibility you are constructing. Feedback systems can be great ways of shaping player experience, but as LeBlanc warns, as you incorporate systems into your game that actively reshape the experience, you run the danger of removing player agency, leaving your players feeling powerless. Some feedback systems, such as the last space rule of Chutes and Ladders, are relatively innocuous. But many game players will feel “cheated” if they can detect a game adjusting itself to their play. If that second place car is always on your tail, does it really matter how well you perform? Perhaps there should be limits on the speed of the second place car, so that a truly masterful player can have the satisfaction of driving far ahead of the rest of the pack.
正如最后一个例子清楚地表明的那样，对于玩家和控制而言，最重要的不是他们在游戏中的实际控制，而是他们在游戏体验中的控制感。我们在“不确定性”的架构中探讨了这种现象，它在这里同样有效。毕竟，有意义的游戏是通过玩家的体验来衡量的，而不是通过游戏的基本规则来衡量的。
As this last example clearly demonstrates, the most important thing about players and control is not their actual control in a game, but their feeling of control in the experience of play. We explored this phenomenon in the schema on Uncertainty, and it is just as valid here. Meaningful play is, after all, measured by what a player experiences, not by the underlying rules of a game.
后记：不要忘记参与者
Afterword: Don’t Forget the Participant
在结束对控制论系统的全面讨论之前，我们想对这个领域提出一些批评性的评论。控制论显然是一种理解系统的正式方式，这就是为什么游戏作为控制论系统的模式属于我们的规则主要模式。然而，与所有正式模式一样，控制论未能解决许多问题。
Before departing a discussion of cybernetic systems entirely, we would like to make a few critical comments on the field. Cybernetics is clearly a formal way of understanding systems, which is why the schema of Games as Cybernetic Systems belongs within our RULES primary schema. However, as with all formal schemas, there are many things that cybernetics fails to address.
作为一个领域，控制论最初将系统视为一个完全独立的实体。控制论采用了经典科学思想，即系统的观察者对系统的运行没有影响。二阶控制论的引入震撼了控制论系统的这个初始模型。二阶控制论将观察者视为系统本身的一部分，破坏了经典控制论的“客观”立场。二阶控制论的见解是，观察系统的运行就是成为该系统的一部分。尽管许多思想家，例如凯瑟琳·海尔斯在她的《我们如何成为后人类》一书中，都批评二阶控制论陷入了与其前身相同的许多客观主义陷阱，但二阶控制论在尝试在更大的背景下理解系统方面取得了长足进步。
As a field, cybernetics initially considered a system as a completely self-contained entity. Cybernetics played into the classical scientific idea that the observer of a system had no effect on the operation of the system. This initial model of a cybernetic system was rocked by the introduction of second-order cybernetics into the field. Second-order cybernetics took the observer into account as a part of the system itself, undermining the “objective” stance of classical cybernetics. The insight of second-order cybernetics is that to observe a system in operation is to be part of that system. Although many thinkers, such as Katherine Hayles in her book How We Became Post-Human, have since criticized second-order cybernetics for falling into many of the same objectivist traps as its predecessor, second-order cybernetics went far in attempting to understand systems within a larger context.
所有这些对于游戏设计意味着什么？为了构建这个架构，我们利用了更“经典”的一阶控制论。我们将游戏视为自足的系统，完全隐藏在规则划定的魔法圈内。偶尔，我们会稍微窥视一下形式变化在游戏体验中发挥作用的方式，但总的来说，我们坚持游戏系统的形式机制。当然，这种形式重点就是规则架构的全部内容。将游戏视为形式系统的想法是忽略影响玩家游戏体验的所有情感、心理、社会、文化和背景因素。在本书的“游戏”和“文化”部分，我们确实将游戏视为不仅仅是自足的系统。不过，目前，我们将继续进行基于规则的研究。即使被视为纯粹的形式结构，游戏的复杂现象仍有许多层面有待我们去发现。
What does all of this mean for game design? For the purposes of this schema, we made use of the more “classical” first-order cybernetics. We looked at games as self-contained systems, ensconced entirely within the magic circle demarcated by the rules. Occasionally we peeked a bit at the way formal changes play out in the experience of a game, but by and large we kept to the formal mechanics of game systems. This formal emphasis, of course, is what the RULES schemas are all about. The conceit of looking at games as formal systems is to leave out all of the emotional, psychological, social, cultural, and contextual factors that influence the experience of the game for the players. In the PLAY and CULTURE sections of this book, we do in fact look at games as much more than self-contained systems. For the time being, however, we continue our rules-based investigations. Even considered as purely formal structures, there are still many layers to the complex phenomena of games for us to uncover.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
我们如何成为后人类，凯瑟琳·海尔斯著
How We Become Post-Human, by Katherine Hayles
海尔斯的书与其说是对控制论的阐释，不如说是对这一领域的意识形态批判。然而，她对控制论和二阶控制论的发展和演变的详细研究为这些运动如何与文化对技术的信仰相交叉提供了大量见解。在这本复杂的书中，海尔斯还将这些主题与文学理论和当代关于计算机技术、虚拟性和身份的观念联系起来。
Hayles’ book is less an explication of cybernetic theory and more an ideological critique of the field. However, her detailed research on the development and evolution of cybernetics and second-order cybernetics provides a great deal of insight to how these movements intersect with cultural beliefs about technology. In this complex book, Hayles also relates these subjects to literary theory and contemporary ideas about computer technology, virtuality, and identity.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第三章：争夺信息主体：梅西控制论会议
Chapter 3: Contesting for the Body of Information: The Macy Conferences on Cybernetics
第四章：自由主义主体性受到威胁：诺伯特·维纳与控制论焦虑
Chapter 4: Liberal Subjectivity Imperiled: Norbert Wiener and Cybernetic Anxiety
第六章：控制论的第二次浪潮：从反身性到自组织
Chapter 6: The Second Wave of Cybernetics: From Reflexivity to Self-Organization
《人类沟通理论》，作者：Stephen W. Littlejohn（见第 200 页）
Theories of Human Communication, by Stephen W. Littlejohn (see page 200)
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第三章：系统理论
Chapter 3: System Theory
笔记
Notes
1. <pespmc1.vub.ac.be>.
1. <pespmc1.vub.ac.be>.
2. Marc LeBlanc，1999 年游戏开发者大会上的演讲
2. Marc LeBlanc, presentation at Game Developer’s Conference, 1999
游戏作为控制论系统
概括
• Cybernetics studies the behavior of self-regulating systems. A cybernetic systems consists of three elements:
•测量系统或其环境某些方面的传感器
• A sensor that measures some aspect of the system or its environment
•比较器将该测量值与设定值进行比较，并决定是否采取行动
• A comparator that compares this measure to a set value and decides whether or not to take action
• 一个可以改变系统状态的激活器
• An activator that creates a change in the state of the system
例如，在空调中，传感器和比较器位于恒温器中，当温度过高时，恒温器会激活空调激活器来冷却房间。
For example, in an air conditioner, the sensor and comparator are in the thermostat, which activates the air conditioner activator to cool down a room when the temperature gets too high.
控制论反馈系统可以是积极的，也可以是消极的：
Cybernetic feedback systems can be positive or negative:
负反馈系统具有稳定作用，可将系统带入固定的稳定状态。空调就是一个负反馈系统，它可以防止房间变得太热，但当房间变冷时就会关闭。温度保持在一个狭窄的范围内。
A negative feedback system is stabilizing and brings a system to a fixed, steady state. The air conditioner example, which keeps a room from getting too hot, but shuts off when the room cools down, is a negative feedback system. The temperature remains within a narrow range.
正反馈系统具有累积性，会使系统不稳定。如果在温度低于某个数值时打开空调，房间就会变得越来越冷，远离稳定状态。
A positive feedback system is cumulative and makes a system unstable. If the air conditioner turned on when the temperature was below a certain number, then the room would become colder and colder, moving away from a stable state.
• 一个游戏可以包含许多反馈系统，这些反馈系统在更大的游戏系统内相互作用。
• A game can contain many feedback systems that interact with each other within the larger system of the game.
• 许多游戏反馈系统都是负面的，会降低玩家或团队的优势或劣势。这种现象在数字赛车游戏中很常见。
• Many game feedback systems are negative, reducing the advantage or disadvantage of a player or a team. This phenomenon is common in digital racing games.
• 游戏也利用正反馈系统来产生戏剧效果或使游戏圆满结束。游戏中的正反馈系统通常会被负反馈系统抵消。Powerstone 的震撼和震撼功能展示了正反馈系统和负反馈系统的协同作用。
• Games also make use of positive feedback systems for dramatic effect or to bring a game to conclusion. Often, a positive feedback system is countered by a negative feedback system in a game. Powerstone’s stunning and hurling features demonstrate positive and negative feedback systems working together.
•动态难度调整（DDA）是根据玩家表现来调整游戏难度。它最常用于复杂的单人数字游戏。
• Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment, or DDA, is the modification of a game’s challenge according to player performance. It is most often used in complex single-player digital games.
• 游戏设计师 Marc LeBlanc 概述了一系列将控制论应用于游戏设计的设计“规则”。这些“规则”包括：
• Game Designer Marc LeBlanc outlines a number of design “rules” that apply cybernetics to game design. These “rules” include the following:
• 负反馈可以稳定游戏。
• Negative feedback stabilizes the game.
• 正反馈会破坏游戏的稳定性。
• Positive feedback destabilizes the game.
• 负面反馈可以延长游戏时间。
• Negative feedback can prolong the game.
• 积极的反馈可以结束这一切。
• Positive feedback can end it.
• 积极的反馈会放大早期的成功。
• Positive feedback magnifies early successes.
• 负面反馈会放大后期的影响。
• Negative feedback magnifies late ones.
• 反馈系统可能会“意外”地从你的游戏系统中出现。一定要识别它们。
• Feedback systems can emerge from your game systems “by accident.” Be sure to identify them.
• 反馈系统可能会剥夺玩家的控制权。
• Feedback systems can take control away from the players.
• 在控制论领域，较为经典的一阶控制论将系统视为一个自足的实体，而二阶控制论则将系统的观察者视为系统的一个元素，这挑战了二阶控制论。在这个形式架构中，我们并未使用二阶控制论思维。
• In the field of cybernetics, the more classical first-order cybernetics, which considers a system as a self-contained entity, was challenged by second-order cybernetics, which includes the observer of a system as an element of the system. Within this formal schema, we have not made use of second-order cybernetic thinking.
19
19
游戏作为博弈论系统
GAMES AS GAME THEORY SYSTEMS
决策树
decision tree
策略
strategies
公用事业
utility
收益矩阵
payoff matrix
零和
zero-sum
鞍点
saddle point
退化策略
degenerate strategy
混合策略
mixed strategy
这些是主要问题：每个玩家如何规划自己的路线——即，如何制定策略的确切概念？在游戏的每个阶段，每个玩家可以获得哪些信息？了解其他玩家策略的玩家的作用是什么？关于整个游戏理论？——奥斯卡·摩根斯坦和约翰·冯·诺依曼，《博弈论与经济行为》
These are the main problems: How does each player plan his course—i.e., how does one formulate an exact concept of a strategy? What information is available to each player at every stage of the game? What is the role of a player being informed about the other player’s strategy? About the entire theory of the game?—Oscar Morganstern and John Von Neumann, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior
介绍博弈论？
Introducing Game Theory?
也许你以为整本书都是关于博弈论的。如果是这样的话，“博弈论系统”是什么意思呢？实际上，博弈论并非表面上看起来的那样。它不是一个泛指博弈论方法的术语。博弈论的含义非常具体：它是经济学的一个分支，可以追溯到两位数学家奥斯卡·摩根斯坦和约翰·冯·诺依曼的工作。该领域的经典著作是1942 年出版的《博弈论与经济行为》。
Perhaps you thought that this entire book was about game theory. If that were the case, what does “Games as Game Theory Systems” mean? Actually, game theory is not what it may appear to be. It is not a general term that means theoretical approaches to games. Game theory means something quite specific: it is a branch of economics that can be traced back to the work of two mathematicians, Oscar Morganstern and John Von Neumann. The classic text in the field is Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, published in 1942.
博弈论是研究决策的数学方法。它研究人们在特定情况下的行为，这些情况与非常简单的游戏非常相似。博弈论的创始人旨在创造一种新的数学方法来研究经济学。摩根斯坦和冯·诺依曼写作的时代正是马克思主义在经济学领域盛行的时代，而《博弈论与经济行为》在许多方面都试图用一套更合理、更科学的技术取代马克思主义的意识形态方法。尽管博弈论在推出时引起了轰动，但它的承诺从未完全实现，而且它作为一种经济学方法论已经基本失宠。但博弈论对游戏设计师来说仍然非常有用。
Game theory is the mathematical study of decision making. It looks at how people behave in specific circumstances that resemble very simple kinds of games. The founders of game theory intended to create a new kind of mathematical approach to the study of economics. Morganstern and Von Neumann were writing during a time when Marxism was very much in vogue in the field of economics, and Theory of Games and Economic Behavior was, in many ways, an attempt to replace the ideological approach of Marxism with a more rational and scientific set of techniques. Although it caused quite a sensation when it was introduced, the promises of game theory were never quite fulfilled, and it has largely fallen out of favor as a methodology within economics. But game theory can still be quite useful for game designers.
博弈论是一种决策理论。它涉及人们应该如何做决定，以及在较小程度上如何做决定。你每天都会做出许多决定。有些需要深思熟虑，而有些则几乎是自动的。你的决定与你的目标相关——如果你知道每个选择的后果，解决方案就很容易。决定你想去哪里，然后选择通往那里的路径。当你带着特定的楼层（你的目标）进入电梯时，你会按下与你的楼层相对应的按钮（你的选择之一）。1
The theory of games is a theory of decision making. It concerns how one should make decisions and, to a lesser extent, how one does make them. You make a number of decisions every day. Some involve deep thought, while others are almost automatic. Your decisions are linked to your goals—if you know the consequences of each of your options, the solution is easy. Decide where you want to be and choose the path that takes you there. When you enter an elevator with a particular floor in mind (your goal), you push the button (one of your choices) that corresponds to your floor.1
作为一种正式的游戏设计模式，《游戏作为博弈论系统》将游戏视为理性选择的系统。它对游戏设计师可能有用，主要有两个原因。首先，它以非常详细的方式分析了类似于简单游戏的情况。更重要的是，正如博弈论家 Morton D. Davis 在前面的引文中指出的那样，博弈论特别关注决策和结果之间的关系。从我们之前对交互性的讨论中我们知道，行动和结果是有意义游戏的基石。在这个模式中，我们探讨了玩家如何在游戏中计划他们的行动路线以及如何制定策略和做出决策的问题。从决策树到退化策略，我们将仔细研究博弈论概念在有意义游戏设计中的应用。
As a formal game design schema, Games as Game Theory Systems looks at games as systems of rational choice. It is potentially useful to game designers for two chief reasons. First, it analyzes situations that resemble simple games in a very detailed way. Even more importantly, as game theorist Morton D. Davis points out in the previous quotation, game theory specifically focuses on relationships between decisions and outcomes. We know from our earlier discussion of interactivity that actions and outcomes are the building blocks of meaningful play. Within this schema, we explore questions of how players plan their course of action within a game and how they formulate strategies and make decisions. From decision trees to degenerate strategies, we will look closely at the application of game theory concepts to the design of meaningful play.
决策树
Decision Trees
作为一种理解游戏的正式方法，博弈论将游戏视为游戏玩家做出的一系列战略决策。将游戏简化为战略决策意味着什么？一种常见的博弈论方法是为游戏创建决策树。决策树是一种分支树状图，概述了玩家在游戏中可以采取的所有可能动作。决策树是流程图绘制交互式体验的常用方法。例如，如果您正在编写具有超文本结构的交互式故事，则可以绘制一个图表来显示故事不同部分之间的所有链接。这种图表就是决策树。
As a formal approach to understanding games, game theory looks at games as a series of strategic decisions made by the players of a game. What does it mean to reduce a game to its strategic decisions? One common game theory method is to create a decision tree for a game. A decision tree is a branching tree-style diagram that outlines all of the possible moves a player can make in a game. Decision trees are a common way of flow-charting interactive experiences. For example, if you are programming an interactive story that has a hypertext structure, you might draw a diagram that shows all of the links between the different parts of your story. This kind of diagram would be a decision tree.
为游戏创建决策树比创建超文本结构的决策树更复杂。区别在于，在典型的超文本中，玩家在较大结构中的任何位置可以执行的链接和操作不会随着参与者在结构中移动而改变。读者在超文本结构中的首选不会改变其他超文本链接的功能方式。唯一改变的是读者在结构中的位置。
Creating a decision tree for a game is more complicated than creating a decision tree of a hypertext structure. The difference is that in a typical hypertext, the links and the actions that a player can perform at any location in the larger structure do not change as the participant moves through the structure. A reader’s first choice in a hypertext structure does not change the way that the other hypertext links function. The only thing that changes is where the reader is positioned in the structure.
游戏则更为复杂。在游戏中，你在特定时刻可以做什么取决于游戏中已经发生的事情。例如，在国际象棋游戏开始时，你无法移动你的车，因为它们都被兵挡住了。在游戏后期，如果你的兵被移开，你也许可以移动你的车。游戏的复杂性导致了许多可能的动作系统。在特定时刻可以发生哪些动作取决于游戏的当前状态。
A game is more complex. In a game, what you can do at any given moment depends on what has already happened in the game. At the beginning of a game of Chess, for example, you can’t move either of your rooks because they are both blocked by pawns. Later in the game, you might be able to move your rooks if your pawns have been maneuvered out of the way. The complexity of games leads to a system of many possible actions. Which actions can happen at a given moment is contingent on the current state of the game.
由于国际象棋是一种很难用决策树来表示的游戏，所以我们先从一个简单的例子开始：井字游戏。在《囚徒困境》这本关于博弈论及其历史背景的书里，作家威廉·庞德斯通带领我们了解了井字游戏决策树的制作过程。
Because Chess is a complicated game to diagram as a decision tree, let’s start with a simpler example: Tic-Tac-Toe. In Prisoner’s Dilemma, a book about game theory and its historical context, writer William Poundstone leads us through the process of making a decision tree of the game of Tic-Tac-Toe.
井字游戏开始时，第一个玩家（“X”）在九个格子中的任何一个格子中放置一个标记。因此，第一步有九种可能。玩家 X 在第一步上可以选择的九种选择可以画成九条从一个点向上辐射的线。点代表移动，即决策时刻，线代表可能的选择。
Ticktacktoe starts with the first player (“X”) putting a mark in any of nine cells. There are consequently nine possible first moves. The nine choices open to Player X on the first move can be diagrammed as nine lines radiating up from a point. The point represents the move, the moment of decision, and the lines represent the possible choices.
接下来是玩家 O 的移动。仍有八个单元格未打开 — 八个单元格取决于 X 的位置。因此，在九个主要分支的顶部分别画出八个次要分支。这样，X 的第二步就剩下七个未打开的单元格了。随着可能移动的图表继续向上，它就像一棵非常茂密的树一样分枝。
Next it’s Player O’s move. There are eight cells still open—which eight depending on where the X is. So draw eight secondary branches at the top of each of the nine primary branches. That leaves seven open cells for X on his second move. As the diagram of possible moves is continued upward, it branches like a very bushy tree.
随着您继续这一过程，您最终会绘制出将三个标记连成一线的移动图。移动的玩家获胜。这也是图中特定分支的终止点，因为当有人连成三线时游戏结束。根据情况，将该点（称为图的“叶子”）标记为 X 或 O 的胜利。
As you continue the process, you will eventually diagram moves that put three markers in a row. That’s a win for the player who moves. It’s also the termination of that particular branch in the diagram, for the game ends when someone gets three in a row. Mark that point (call it a “leaf” of the diagram) as a win for X or O as the case may be.
图中其他分支将以平局结束。将它们标记为平局。显然，井字游戏不可能永远进行下去。九步是最大值。因此最终，您将得到一个完整的井字游戏图。每个可能的井字游戏（曾经玩过或将要玩的每场游戏）都必须作为分支出现在图中，从“根”（X 的第一步）开始，一直延伸到标记为 X 获胜、O 获胜或平局的“叶”。最长的完整分支/游戏为九步。最短为五步（这是第一个玩家获胜的最低限度）。2
Other branches of the diagram will terminate in a tie. Mark them as ties. Obviously, the game of ticktacktoe cannot go on forever. Nine moves is the maximum. So eventually, you will have a complete diagram of the game of ticktacktoe. Every possible ticktack-toe game—every game that ever has been played or ever will be played—must appear in the diagram as a branch starting at the “root” (X’s first move) and continuing up to a “leaf” marked as a win for X, a win for O, or a tie. The longest complete branches/games are nine moves long. The shortest are five moves (this is the minimum for a win by the first player).2
创建决策树是理解游戏形式结构的有效方法。它本质上是一种绘制游戏形式可能性空间的方法。对于像井字棋这样的简单游戏，完整可能性空间实际上可以绘制出来。然而，并非所有游戏都可以用这种方式绘制出来。
Creating a decision tree can be a powerful way of understanding the formal structure of a game. It is in essence a way of mapping out a game’s formal space of possibility. For a simple game such as Tic-Tac-Toe, the complete space of possibility can in fact be diagrammed. However, not all games can be mapped out in this way.
能够制作游戏或其他交互式结构的决策树意味着参与者做出的决策是离散的，可导致可知的结果。例如，涉及身体技能的游戏（如美式足球）没有独立的决策时刻，无法像井字游戏的轮流游戏那样进行图表绘制。相反，游戏以连续的动作流的形式存在。当球被踢出时，四分卫不会采取单一的离散动作。相反，游戏在复杂的活动网络中向前流动。感知、运动和现实世界的粒度创建了一个非离散的游戏空间。
Being able to make a decision tree of a game or other interactive structure implies that the decisions participants make are discrete decisions that lead to knowable outcomes. For example, a game that involves physical skill, such as American Football, does not have self-contained moments of decision making that can be diagrammed like the alternate turn-taking of Tic-Tac-Toe. Instead, the game exists as a continuous flow of action. When the ball is hiked, a quarterback does not take a single discrete action. Instead, the game flows forward in a complex web of activity. Perception, movement, and the granularity of the real world creates a non-discrete game space.
尽管足球比赛每时每刻都是连续的，但比赛可以分解成一个独立的系统比赛。这是否意味着可以通过扩大分析框架来创建足球决策树，以便图表上的每个决策点代表一支球队教练的选择？答案是否定的。这个提议的问题在于，要创建决策树，决策的结果需要是可知的结果或结果集。想想井字游戏。当玩家决定在特定方格中放置 X 或 O 时，毫无疑问玩家会完成动作并做出标记。另一方面，仅仅因为足球队选择了某种比赛并不意味着他们能够成功完成它，或者以可以准确预测的方式完成它。在足球比赛中选择特定比赛的结果可能导致码数损失或增加、罚球、失球、逆转或触地得分，因此无法像井字游戏那样绘制结果图。 （还要注意的是，“X 和 O”比赛图显示了球员在某些比赛中的跑动位置，可用于将足球比赛模式化。但这些比赛图不符合决策树的条件。）
Although the moment-to-moment play of Football is continuous, the game can be broken down into a system of separate plays. Does that mean it is possible to create a decision tree of Football by widening the frame of analysis, so that each decision point on the chart represents the choice of a play by one team’s coach? The answer is no. The problem with this proposal is that to create a decision tree, the result of a decision needs to be a knowable outcome or set of outcomes. Think about a game of Tic-Tac-Toe. When a player makes a decision to place an X or an O in a particular square, there isn’t any doubt that the player will finish the action and make the mark. On the other hand, just because a Football team picks a certain play does not mean that they will be able to successfully complete it, or complete it in a way that can be predicted with any accuracy. The outcome of picking a particular play in a Football game could result in a yardage loss or gain, a penalty, a fumble, a reversal, or a touchdown, making it impossible to diagram the outcome in the same way that we could Tic-Tac-Toe. (Note also that “X and O” play diagrams that show where players will run on certain plays can be used to schematize the play of Football. But these play diagrams do not qualify as decision trees.)
我们可以将哪些类型的游戏变成决策树？决策树适用于具有以下特征的任何游戏：
What kinds of games can we turn into decision trees? Decision trees work for any game that has the following qualities:
• 游戏中的时间以轮流或其他离散单位进行。
• Time in the game takes place in turns or other discrete units.
• 玩家做出有限数量的明确决定，这些决定具有可知的结果。
• Players make a finite number of clear decisions that have knowable outcomes.
• 游戏是有限的（它不可能永远进行下去）。
• The game is finite (it can’t go on forever).
虽然这排除了许多游戏（包括足球），但它确实包括了各种各样的游戏，比如回合制策略游戏，如井字游戏，它显然满足上述所有三个标准。国际象棋呢？国际象棋是轮流进行的，决策有明确的结果，但它是有限的吗？国际象棋可能看起来像一个无限的游戏（想象一个残局，两个国王永远在同一个格子之间来回移动），但事实上，当一定数量的移动过去而没有被捕获时，游戏就会陷入僵局。像蛇梯棋这样的游戏怎么样？它似乎符合这三个标准，但它确实有随机掷骰子。我们能用决策树来绘制它吗？令人惊讶的是，我们可以。决策树的第一个点或“根”会有六个分支，具体取决于第一个玩家掷出的数字。这六个分支中的每一个都会有六个，具体取决于下一个玩家掷出的数字。依此类推。当然，双人游戏、三人游戏和四人游戏必须有不同的树。
Although this disqualifies many games (including Football), it does include a wide variety of games, such as turn-based strategy games like Tic-Tac-Toe, which clearly fulfills all three criteria listed above. What about Chess? Chess takes place in turns and decisions have clear outcomes, but is it finite? Chess might seem like an infinite game (imagine an endgame with two kings shuffling back and forth between the same squares forever), but in fact there are rules that resolve the game in a stalemate when a certain number of moves have elapsed without a capture. How about a game such as Chutes and Ladders? It seems to fit the three criteria, but it does have a random die roll. Could we map it out with a decision tree? Surprisingly, yes we could. The first point or “root” of the decision tree would have six branches coming out, depending on what the first player rolled. Each of those six branches would have six more, depending on what number the next player rolled. And so on. Of course, there would have to be a different tree for a two-player game, a three-player game, and a four-player game.
尽管像井字棋这样简单的游戏的决策树可能看起来很大，但像国际象棋或梯子游戏这样的游戏的决策树将异常庞大和复杂。请记住，决策树包含曾经玩过或将要玩的所有可能的游戏。梯子游戏的决策树必须包含游戏中每个可能时刻的所有可能的骰子投掷、棋盘上所有可能的玩家排列、以及可能在逻辑上发生的每个可能顺序。国际象棋的决策树必须包含所有可能的走法以及对每个可能走法的所有可能反应的所有可能反应。这些游戏的决策树将是巨大的。根据庞德斯通的说法，如果在纸上以清晰易读的大小绘制出国际象棋的决策树，该图将横跨太阳系。
Although the decision tree for games as simple as Tic-Tac-Toe might seem large, a decision tree for a game such as Chess or Chutes and Ladders would be extraordinarily vast and complex. Remember that the decision tree contains all of the possible games that have ever or will ever be played. The decision tree for Chutes and Ladders would have to contain every possible die roll at every possible moment in the game with every possible arrangement of players on the board, in every possible sequence that could logically occur. The decision tree for Chess would have to contain every possible move and every possible response to every possible response to every possible move. The decision trees for these games would be immense. According to Poundstone, if a decision tree for Chess were graphed out on paper at a legible size, the diagram would span the solar system.
如果游戏决策树在现实世界中如此难以操作，那么它们对游戏设计师来说又有什么用呢？决策树更多的是理论构造，而不是工程工具。同时，理解决策树是什么以及它如何工作的能力对于游戏设计至关重要。为什么？因为决策树也是游戏形式可能性空间的图表。能够概念化你正在设计的可能性空间是一项重要的游戏设计技能。尽管真正的决策树通常无法创建，但通常您可以为游戏的各个部分或方面创建非常有用的决策树。例如，假设您正在设计一款基于任务的策略游戏，其中包含玩家必须完成的许多级别“任务”。玩家可以在任务中成功或失败，下一个任务取决于最近任务的结果。虽然可能无法绘制单个任务中发生的战斗的决策树，但绘制任务之间的关系将非常有用。
If decision trees for games are so unwieldy in the real world, how are they possibly useful for game designers? Decision trees are more theoretical constructs than engineering tools. At the same time, the ability to understand what a decision tree is and how it works is crucial to game design. Why? Because a decision tree is also a diagram of the formal space of possibility of a game. Being able to conceptualize the space of possibility you are designing is an important game design skill. Even though true decision trees are usually impossible to create, often you can create very useful decision trees for sections or aspects of a game. For example, say you are designing a mission-based strategy game that contains many level “missions” that the player has to complete. A player can succeed or fail at a mission, and the next mission depends on the outcome of the most recent mission. While it might be impossible to draw a decision tree of the battle that takes place within an individual mission, it would be extremely useful to chart out the relationships between missions.
例如，制作游戏任务的决策树可以告诉你，单个玩家在一场普通游戏中会玩多少个任务。或者它可以帮助你消除那些自我循环的游戏设计。当你能利用它们时，决策树是一种理解游戏结构的直接而有用的方法。然而，也许更重要的是，决策树是理解博弈论的重要组成部分。
Making a decision tree of the game’s missions will tell you, for example, how many missions a single player will play through in an average game. Or it will help you eliminate game designs that loop back on themselves. When you can make use of them, decision trees are a straightforward and useful way of understanding the structure of a game. Perhaps more importantly, however, decision trees are an important part of understanding game theory.
博弈论中的策略
Strategies in Game Theory
决策树帮助我们了解玩家如何在游戏的可能性空间中移动。要了解其工作原理，请回想一下井字游戏决策树。该树包含游戏所有可能的迭代中的所有可能动作。这实际上比我们需要的信息更多。大多数玩家不会随机选择下一个方格，但会积极尝试连续得分三分，同时阻止对手做同样的事情。考虑到这一点，我们可以开始从树上修剪所有“愚蠢的动作”分支。庞德斯通描述了这种“修剪”过程是什么样的：
Decision trees help us understand how players move through the space of possibility of a game. To see how this works, think back to the Tic-Tac-Toe decision tree. The tree contains every conceivable move, in every possible iteration of the game. This is actually more information than we need. Most players will not randomly pick their next square, but will actively try and score three in a row while keeping an opponent from doing the same. With this in mind, we can start to trim all of the “stupid move” branches from our tree. Poundstone describes what this process of “trimming” would be like:
浏览图表，仔细地从每一片叶子回溯。每片叶子都是某人的最后一步，这一步可以带来胜利或平局。例如，在点 A，这是 X 的一步，只有一个空单元格。X 别无选择，只能填写它并造成平局。
Go through the diagram and carefully backtrack from every leaf. Each leaf is someone’s last move, a move that creates a victory or a tie. For instance, at Point A, it is X’s move, and there is only one empty cell. X has no choice but to fill it in and create a tie.
现在看看 B 点，这是游戏的早期步骤。轮到 O 了，他有两个选择。将 O 放在两个开放单元格之一会导致上述 A 点和必定的平局。然而，将 O 放在另一个单元格会导致 X 获胜。理性的 O 玩家更喜欢平局而不是 X 胜利。因此，在理性游戏中，从 B 点向上的右分支永远不会出现。从图表中剪下此分支。一旦游戏进行到 B 点，平局就是必然结果。
Now look at Point B, a move earlier in the game. It is O’s turn, and he has two choices. Putting an O in one of the two open cells leads to the aforementioned Point A and a sure tie. Putting an O in the other cell, however, leads to a win for X. A rational O player prefers a tie to an X victory. Consequently, the right branch leading upward from Point B can never occur in rational play. Snip this branch from the diagram. Once the play gets to Point B, a tie is a forgone conclusion.
但是你看：X 本可以在点 C 更早获胜。理性的 X 会选择在点 C 立即获胜。所以实际上，我们可以剪掉图表的整个左侧分支。
But look: X could have won earlier, at Point C. A rational X would have chosen an immediate win at Point C. So actually, we can snip off the entire left branch of the diagram.
继续修剪这棵树直至根部，你会发现平局是理性游戏的唯一可能结果。（不过，理性游戏的方式不止一种。）第二个玩家可以并且会否决任何 X 胜利的尝试，反之亦然。3
Keep pruning the tree down to the root, and you will discover that ties are the only possible outcomes of rational play. (There is more than one rational way of playing, though.) The second player can and will veto any attempt at an X victory, and vice-versa.3
从这个精简版的井字游戏，可以创建博弈论中所谓的策略。博弈论术语中的策略比通常的“策略”含义更精确。对星际争霸中策略的常见理解可能是：“如果你玩的是虫族，那么在游戏开始时就制造大量虫族，在对手有时间建立力量之前冲向他们的中央建筑。”这种随意意义上的策略是一套通用的启发式方法或经验法则，可以帮助指导你玩游戏。然而，博弈论中的策略意味着对游戏每个时刻你应该如何行动的完整描述。一旦你选择了博弈论意义上的策略，你就不需要做任何其他选择，因为无论其他玩家做什么，该策略已经决定了你在游戏的剩余时间应该如何行动。这会使博弈论策略变得非常复杂。庞德斯通列出了第一个玩家 X 的井字游戏示例策略。
From this pruned-down version of Tic-Tac-Toe, it is possible to create what game theory calls a strategy. A strategy in game theory parlance offers a more precise meaning than what is commonly meant by “strategy.” A common understanding of a strategy in Starcraft might be: “If you’re playing the Zergs, create a lot of Zerglings at the beginning of the game and rush your opponent’s central structures before they have time to build power.” A strategy in this casual sense is a set of general heuristics or rules of thumb that will help guide you as you play. However, a strategy in game theory means a complete description of how you should act at every moment of the game. Once you select a strategy in the game theory sense of the word, you do not make any other choices, because the strategy already dictates how you should act for the rest of the game, regardless of what the other player does. This can make game theory strategies quite intricate. Poundstone lists a sample strategy for Tic-Tac-Toe for the first player X.
将 X 放在中心方块中。O 可以用两种方式回应：
Put X in the center square. O can respond two ways:
1. 如果 O 进入非角格，则将 X 放入与 O 相邻的角格中。这样您就获得两连胜。如果 O 在下一步中未能阻挡，则将三连胜获胜。如果O 阻挡，则将 X 放入与第一个（非角）O 不相邻的空角格中。这样您就获得两种两连胜方式。无论 O 在下一步中做什么，您都可以将三连胜获胜。
1. If O goes in a non-corner square, put X in a corner cell adjacent to O. This gives you two-in-a-row. If O fails to block on the next move, make three-in-a-row for a win. If O blocks, put X in the empty corner cell that is not adjacent to the first (non-corner) O. This gives you two-in-a-row two ways. No matter what O does on the next move, you can make three-in-a-row after that and win.
2. 如果 O 的第一步是角格，则将 X 放入相邻的非角格之一。这样您就获得了两连胜。如果 O 在下一步中未能阻挡，则将三连胜获胜。如果 O 阻挡，则将 X 放入与第二个 O 相邻的角格中，并与第一个 O 位于网格的同一侧。这样您就获得了两连胜。如果 O 在下一步中未能阻挡，则将三连胜获胜。如果 O 阻挡，则将 X 放入与第三个 O 相邻的空格中。这样您就获得了两连胜。如果 O 在下一步中未能阻挡，则将三连胜获胜。如果O 阻挡，则填写剩余的格子以打成平局。4
2. If instead O’s first move is a corner cell, put X in one of the adjacent non-corner cells. This gives you two-in-a-row. If O fails to block on the next move, make three-in-a-row for a win. If O blocks, put X in the corner cell that is adjacent to the second O and on the same side of the grid as the first O. This gives you two-in-a-row. If O fails to block on the next move, make three-in-a-row for a win. If O blocks, put X in the empty cell adjacent to the third O. This gives you two-in-a-row. If O fails to block on the next move, make three-in-a-row for a win. If O blocks, fill in the remaining cell for a tie.4
如您所见，即使是像井字游戏这样的简单游戏，其策略也有些复杂。完整的策略最终是一种在决策树的分支中导航的方法。策略规定了使用该策略的玩家的确切行动，但它还必须考虑对手可能选择的所有可能的分支。在庞德斯通的例子中，策略规定了第一个玩家从树根移动到九个可能点中的第一个点的方式。从那里，对手可以移动到其他八个点中的任何一个，策略必须考虑到这一举动。
As you can see, the strategy for even a simple game such as Tic-Tac-Toe is somewhat complex. A complete strategy is ultimately a methodology for navigating the branches of a decision tree. A strategy proscribes exact actions for the player utilizing the strategy, but it also has to take into account all of the possible branches that an opposing player could select. In Poundstone’s example, the strategy dictates the way that the first player would move from the root of the tree to the first of nine possible points. From there the opposing player could move to any of the other eight points, a move that the strategy has to take into account.
像国际象棋这样的游戏的完整策略将令人难以置信。然而，博弈论并不研究像国际象棋这样战略复杂的游戏。事实上，博弈论研究的游戏非常简单。但正如我们已经知道的那样，即使是非常简单的游戏也可以以相当复杂的方式进行。
A complete strategy for a game such as Chess would be mind-bogglingly huge. However, game theory does not study games as strategically complicated as Chess. In fact, the games that game theory studies are remarkably simple. But as we already know, even very simple games can play out in quite complex ways.
博弈论游戏
Game Theory Games
博弈论要求行为规则具有神圣性，而这些规则在现实中可能并不存在。现实世界充满了情感、道德和社会劝说，远比博弈论者的霍布斯宇宙更加混乱。——理查德·爱泼斯坦，《赌博理论与统计逻辑》
Game theory demands a sacred character for rules of behavior which may not be observed in reality. The real world, with all its emotional, ethical, and social suasions, is a far more muddled skein than the Hobbesian universe of the game theorist.—Richard Epstein, The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic
既然我们已经概述了决策树和策略，我们就可以看看博弈论所说的游戏是什么了。正如数学家理查德·爱泼斯坦 (Richard Epstein) 指出的那样，博弈论游戏并不是关于现实世界的情况，也不是关于所有类型的游戏。博弈论家以非常狭隘的方式看待非常特殊的情况。什么样的情况？我们可以用以下方式总结博弈论游戏：博弈论游戏由理性的玩家组成，他们同时揭示一种策略，以达到可以严格衡量效用的结果。通常，博弈论仅限于只有两个玩家的游戏。
Now that we have outlined decision trees and strategies, we are ready to take a look at what it is that game theory calls a game. As the mathematician Richard Epstein points out, game theory games are not about real-world situations or about all kinds of games. Game theorists look at very particular kinds of situations in a very narrow way. What kind of situations? We can summarize a game theory game in the following way: a game theory game consists of rational players who simultaneously reveal a strategy to arrive at an outcome that can be defined in a strict measure of utility. Usually, game theory limits itself to games with only two players.
理性游戏、同时性、策略、结果、效用和两名玩家。让我们分别看看这些元素。首先，博弈论关注理性玩家。理性玩家是完全有逻辑的玩家，他们知道游戏情况的所有信息。此外，理性玩家是为了赢而玩。正如庞德斯通所说，“完全理性的玩家永远不会错过跳棋，也不会在国际象棋中‘落入陷阱’。所有合法的移动顺序都隐含在这些游戏规则中，完全有逻辑的玩家会充分考虑每一种可能性。”5我们从对井字游戏的详细研究中得知，如果两个理性的玩家玩这个游戏，结果总是会以平局结束，因为两个玩家都会选择让对方陷入僵局的策略。当然，理性的玩家是虚构的，正如爱泼斯坦所言。现实世界的玩家不像博弈论玩家那样理性，完全不受“情感、道德和社会”责任的影响。但理性的玩家仍然是一个有用的理论构想，因为他们让我们以一种非常孤立和可控的方式看待游戏。
Rational play, simultaneity, strategy, outcome, utility, and two players. Let us look at each of these elements separately. First, game theory focuses its attention on rational players. Rational players are perfectly logical players that know everything there is to know about a game situation. Furthermore, rational players play to win. As Poundstone puts it, “Perfectly rational players would never miss a jump in checkers or ‘fall into a trap’ in Chess. All legal sequences of moves are implicit in the rules of these games, and a perfectly logical player gives due consideration to every possibility.”5 As we know from our detailed investigation of Tic-Tac-Toe, if two rational players played the game, the outcome will always end in a draw, because both players would select strategies that would stalemate the other player. Rational players are a fiction, of course, as Epstein makes clear. Real-world players are not like game theory players, as rational as Mr. Spock, completely immune from “emotional, ethical, and social” liabilities. But rational players are still a useful theoretical construct, for they allow us to look at games in a very isolated and controlled way.
理性玩家遵循策略这一事实也是博弈论博弈的一个重要方面。如前所述，策略是全面的。它是从头到尾玩整个游戏的完整计划。策略包括与对手选择的任何其他策略对抗的明确指示。在博弈论游戏中，两个理性玩家同时选择并向对方透露自己的策略。换句话说，与许多游戏的“我轮到我，你轮到你”模式不同，在博弈论游戏中，玩家在同一时间只做出一个决定，而不知道另一个玩家会做什么。在做出同时决定时，玩家不仅要考虑游戏的当前状态，还要考虑对手当时的想法。同时决策游戏的一个经典例子是石头剪刀布，其中两个玩家都必须根据对方玩家的预期动作来决定他们要做什么。
The fact that rational players follow a strategy is an important aspect of a game theory game as well. As we mentioned previously, a strategy is comprehensive. It is a complete plan for playing an entire game, from start to finish. A strategy includes explicit instructions for playing against any other strategy an opponent selects. In a game theory game, both rational players simultaneously choose and reveal their strategies to each other. In other words, instead of the “I take my turn, you take your turn” pattern of many games, in a game theory game, players only make one decision, at the same time, without knowing what the other player will do. In making a simultaneous decision, a player has to take into account not just the current state of the game, but also what the opponent is thinking at that very moment. A classic example of a simultaneous decision game is Rock-Paper-Scissors, in which both players have to decide what they are going to do based on the anticipated action of the other player.
因此，尽管博弈论并不直接研究心理学，但博弈论游戏中存在心理因素，玩家可能会考虑“虚张声势”或使用其他间接策略来对抗对方。尽管他们可能会采取这些行动，但理性玩家在心理上仍然是可以预测的。博弈论场景中的玩家永远不会心怀恶意、健忘、自我毁灭或懒惰，因为这会改变他们作为理性玩家的地位。在博弈论游戏中，人们总是可以假设理性玩家都在为自己的最大利益行事，并据此制定策略。
So although game theory does not study psychology directly, there is a psychological element in game theory games, where players might consider “bluffing” or using other indirect strategies against each other. Though they might take these kinds of actions, rational players are still psychologically predictable. Players in a game theory scenario are never going to be vindictive, forgetful, self-destructive, or lazy, as this would change their status as rational players. In game theory games one can always assume that both rational players are acting in their own best interest and are developing strategies accordingly.
为什么博弈论会选择盲目、同时的决策作为其研究的游戏过程？请记住，博弈论不是一种游戏设计形式：它是一门经济理论。在经济形势下，决策必须在不知道其他“玩家”将如何行动的情况下做出。你应该卖掉你在迪士尼的股票，还是买入更多股票？你本周应该购买两加仑牛奶，还是买一加仑然后等着看价格是否下降？一个国家应该增加还是减少进口税？所有这些微观和宏观经济情景都涉及决策。但决策的结果是基于决策者无法直接控制的因素。同时的盲目决策提供了一种模拟这种决策环境的方法，这种环境位于数学和心理学的交叉点。正如摩根斯坦和冯·诺依曼所解释的那样，
Why would game theory choose blind, simultaneous decision making as the game play process that it studies? Remember that game theory is not a form of game design: it is a school of economic theory. Within an economic situation, decisions have to be made without knowledge of how the other “players” are going to act. Should you sell your stock in Disney, or buy more shares? Should you purchase two gallons of milk this week, or buy one and wait to see if the price goes down? Should a nation increase or decrease import taxes? All of these micro- and macro-economic scenarios involve making decisions. But the outcome of the decision is based on factors outside the decision maker’s direct control. Simultaneous, blind decisions offer a way of simulating this decision making context, a context that lies at the intersection of mathematics and psychology. As Morganstern and Von Neumann explain,
可以用数学来描述和讨论人类的行为，其中主要强调的是心理方面。在本例中，心理因素是由于需要分析决策、决策所依据的信息以及这些信息集（在各种动作中）之间的相互关联而引入的。6
It is possible to describe and discuss mathematically human actions in which the main emphasis lies on the psychological side. In the present case, the psychological element was brought in by the necessity of analyzing decisions, the information on the basis of which they are taken, and the interrelatedness of such sets of information (at the various moves) with each other.6
博弈论游戏的另一个重要组成部分是效用，它是玩家满意度的数学度量。为了制定正式的决策理论，冯·诺依曼和摩根斯坦必须对效用进行数字量化玩家希望实现某个结果。在博弈论游戏中，对于决策可能产生的每种结果，都会为该决策分配一个效用。
Another important component of a game theory game is utility, which is a mathematical measure of player satisfaction. In order to make a formal theory of decision making, it was necessary that Von Neumann and Morganstern numerically quantify the desire of a player to achieve a certain outcome. In a game theory game, for every kind of outcome that a decision might have, a utility is assigned to that decision.
效用函数只是对一个人对某些对象的偏好的“量化”。假设我关心三种水果：一个橙子、一个苹果和一个梨。效用函数首先将反映其吸引力的数字与每一种水果联系起来。如果梨最受欢迎，而苹果最不受欢迎，那么梨的效用最大，而苹果的效用最小。7
A utility function is simply a “quantification” of a person’s preferences with respect to certain objects. Suppose I am concerned with three pieces of fruit: an orange, an apple, and a pear. The utility function first associates with each piece of fruit a number that reflects its attractiveness. If the pear was desired most and the apple least, the utility of the pear would be greatest and the apple’s utility would be least.7
当多种因素发挥作用时，效用会变得更加复杂。例如，如果你在海滨为自己建造一栋房子，从博弈论的角度考虑，你可以衡量房子在不同位置的效用。如果你建在海滩上，你可能会得到最高的效用，比如 +10。如果你必须把它建在离海岸线几米远的地方，效用可能会更低，比如 +5 或 +2。
Utility can become more complex when multiple factors come into play. For example, if you were building a house for yourself on beachfront property, thinking in game theory terms, you could measure different locations of your house in terms of utility. You might be able to get the highest utility, say +10, if you built right on the beach. There might be a lower utility, such as +5 or +2, if you had to build it several meters away from the shoreline.
另一方面，如果你不得不把房子建在离海滩很远的地方，以至于看不到大海，你的效用可能会变成负数，这表明你会觉得结果不愉快。当然，你可能没有足够的钱来承担效用最高的情况。例如，你可能需要一栋一定大小的房子，如果它就在海滩上，它就不能有地下室，而且必须更小。或者，由于在沙滩上建造需要额外的建筑复杂性，海滩上的房子的成本可能会更高。成本、大小和位置都会被赋予不同的值。在做决定时，你会尝试在现有选项的情况下最大化总效用。
On the other hand, if you had to build the house so far away from the beach that the ocean was no longer in view, your utility might go into the negative numbers, indicating an outcome that you would find unpleasant. Of course, you might not have the money to afford the situation with the highest utility. For example, you might require a house of a certain size and if it were directly on the beach it couldn’t have a basement and would have to be smaller. Or the cost of the house might be higher on the beach because of the extra architectural complexity required to build in the sand. Cost, size, and location would all be assigned different values. In making your decision, you would try and maximize the total utility given your available options.
这些例子触及了博弈论运用效用概念的方式。考虑到我们的愉悦感包含无数的复杂性，将人类满足感之类的东西转化为数值似乎有些愚蠢，但摩根斯坦和冯·诺依曼强烈地认为，科学的经济学理论需要这种方法。在他们的书中，他们使用了热量等物理属性的类比。在科学家开发出概念化和测量热量的方法之前，热量是一种未知的、模糊的、似乎无法测量的属性：一种当人接近火焰时产生的感觉。但对热量的精确测量如今已成为当代物理学的重要组成部分。冯·诺依曼和摩根斯坦的目标是通过量化愉悦感作为效用的衡量标准，在经济学中掀起一场类似的革命。
These examples touch on the ways that game theory employs the concept of utility. It might seem silly to turn something like human satisfaction into a numerical value, given the innumerable complexities that go into our feelings of pleasure, but Morganstern and Von Neumann felt very strongly that a scientific theory of economics necessitated such an approach. In their book, they use an analogy to physical properties such as heat. Before scientists developed a way of conceptualizing and measuring heat, it was an unknown, fuzzy property that seemed impossible to measure: a sensation that occurred as one approached a flame. But the precise measurement of heat is now an important part of contemporary physics. The aim of Von Neumann and Morganstern was to begin a similar revolution in economics, by quantifying pleasure as a measure of utility.
效用可能过于简单化了人类的欲望，但它确实与游戏的形式特征非常契合。从我们对游戏的定义中我们知道，所有游戏都有可量化的结果：有人赢或输，所有人都赢或输，或者玩家的表现以分数、时间或其他数值来衡量。将数值效用分配给决策结果的概念实际上只是创建可量化结果的另一种方式。当通过形式框架看待游戏时，我们无法使用非数字。数字游戏和非数字游戏的形式系统都需要精确性，而这种精确性实际上归结为数字。你在那一轮比赛中获得了多少击杀？在下一轮比赛中你需要多少时间才能继续比赛？哪支球队赢得了比赛？这些非常简单的游戏结果都是可量化的结果，也是效用的例子。
Utility may well be an oversimplification of human desire, but it does make a good fit with the formal qualities of games. As we know from our definition of games, all games have a quantifiable outcome: someone wins, or loses, everyone wins or loses, or player performance is measured in points, time, or some other numerical value. The concept of assigning a numerical utility to decision outcomes is really just another way of creating a quantifiable outcome. When looking at games through a formal frame, we do not have the luxury of being non-numerical. The formal systems of both digital and non-digital games require an exactness that does in fact come down to numbers. How many kills did you earn that round? What qualifying time do you need on the next heat in order to continue the race? Which team won the game? These very simple game results are all quantifiable outcomes, and are all examples of utility as well.
大多数博弈论游戏的最后一个要素是它们通常只由两名玩家玩。这并不是《博弈论与经济行为》中提出的博弈论的原始表述的一部分。最初的想法是该理论可以涵盖 n 人游戏，其中 n 是任意大小的数字，表示玩家的数量。但冯·诺依曼和摩根斯坦发现，就像《作为新兴系统的游戏》中讨论的三个行星体的问题一样，当考虑到三名或更多玩家时，他们的理论变得复杂得多。因此，大多数博弈论工作都集中在两人游戏上。我们将在后面的材料中效仿。
The last component of most game theory games is that they are usually played by only two players. This was not part of the original formulation of game theory as proposed in Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. The original idea was that the theory could cover n-player games, where n was a number of any size that indicated the number of players. But Von Neumann and Morganstern found that, as with the problem of three planetary bodies discussed in Games as Emergent Systems, their theory became vastly more complex when it took three or more players into account. As a result, most game theory work has focused on two player games. We follow suit in the material to follow.
蛋糕事业部
Cake Division
现在终于到了看一场真正的博弈论博弈的时候了。以下描述取自《囚徒困境》，是经典的“蛋糕分割”博弈论问题：
It is finally time to take a look at a real game theory game. The following description is taken from Prisoner’s Dilemma and is the classic “cake division” game theory problem:
大多数人都听说过让两个顽皮的孩子分蛋糕的最好办法。无论父母如何小心地分蛋糕，一个孩子（或两个孩子！）都会觉得自己被小块蛋糕轻视了。解决办法是让一个孩子分蛋糕，另一个孩子选择他想要的那块。贪婪确保公平分配。第一个孩子不能反对蛋糕分得不均匀，因为他自己分的。第二个孩子也不能抱怨，因为他有自己的选择……
Most people have heard of the reputed best way to let two bratty children split a piece of cake. No matter how carefully a parent divides it, one child (or both!) feels he has been slighted with the smaller piece. The solution is to let one child divide the cake and let the other choose which piece he wants. Greed ensures fair division. The first child can’t object that the cake was divided unevenly because he did it himself. The second child can’t complain since he has his choice of pieces . . . .
蛋糕问题是一种利益冲突。两个孩子都想得到同一件事——尽可能多的蛋糕。最终蛋糕的选择取决于一个孩子如何切蛋糕以及另一个孩子选择哪一块。重要的是，每个孩子都要预测对方会做什么。这就是冯·诺依曼所说的游戏。
The cake problem is a conflict of interests. Both children want the same thing—as much of the cake as possible. The ultimate decision of the cake depends both on how one child cuts the cake and which piece the other child chooses. It is important that each child anticipates what the other will do. This is what makes the situation a game in Von Neumann’s sense.
博弈论寻求游戏的解决方案——合理的结果。均分蛋糕是第一个孩子的最佳策略，因为他预计另一个孩子的策略是拿走最大的一块。因此，均分蛋糕是这个游戏的解决方案。解决方案并不取决于孩子的慷慨或公平竞争意识。它由两个孩子的自身利益决定。博弈论寻求的正是这种解决方案。8
Game theory searches for solutions—rational outcomes—of games. Dividing the cake evenly is the best strategy for the first child, since he anticipates that the other child’s strategy will be to take the biggest piece. Equal division of the cake is therefore the solution to this game. The solution does not depend on a child’s generosity or sense of fair play. It is enforced by both children’s self interest. Game theory seeks solutions precisely of this sort.8
蛋糕分割问题包含了前面列出的博弈论“游戏”的所有元素。有两个理性的玩家（受自身利益驱使的孩子）。这两个玩家选择了一种行为策略（如何切割或选择蛋糕块）。这些策略会给这两个玩家带来某种效用，以他们得到的蛋糕量来衡量。请注意，尽管这个非常简单的游戏的“玩法”由两部分动作组成（首先切蛋糕，然后选择一块），但两个玩家仍然可以同时展示和实施他们的策略。例如，从两个蛋糕块中进行选择的玩家的策略始终是“选择较大的一块”。无论切蛋糕的玩家采取什么策略，理性的蛋糕选择玩家都会选择这种策略。（请注意，尽管这些“策略”看起来像是既定结论而不是选择，但这是因为这个博弈论游戏有一个鞍点，这个概念稍后会详细解释。）
The cake division problem contains all of the elements of a game theory “game” listed earlier. There are two rational players (the children motivated by self interest). These two players choose a strategy about how to behave (how to cut or select the pieces). These strategies result in some kind of utility for the two players, measured in how much cake they get. Note that even though the “play” of this very simple game consists of a two-part action (first slice the cake and then choose a slice), the two players can still reveal and enact their strategies simultaneously. For example, the strategy of the player that chooses from the two pieces is always going to be “take the bigger piece.” A rational piece-choosing player is going to choose this strategy regardless of the strategy that the cake-cutting player takes. (Note that although these “strategies” may seem like forgone conclusions rather than choices, this is because this game theory game has a saddle point, a concept explained in detail later on.)
博弈论提供的一个强大的分析工具是将这个决策过程映射到网格中。网格的一个轴代表一个玩家的决策。另一个轴代表另一个玩家的决策。网格中的单元格代表根据所做决策而得出的结果。这种博弈论表称为收益矩阵（收益是效用的另一个术语）。图 1显示了蛋糕分割问题的收益矩阵，取自《囚徒困境》。请注意，威廉·庞德斯通假设蛋糕切分将发生在一个不完美的世界中，因此即使切蛋糕的孩子试图将蛋糕切成均匀的块，切出的两块蛋糕仍然会略有不同，比如说相差一小块。
A powerful analytical tool provided by game theory is to map this decision making process into a grid. One axis of the grid represents one player’s decision. The other axis represents the other player’s decision. The cells in the grid represent the outcomes reached depending on which decisions were made. A game theory table of this sort is called a payoff matrix (payoff being another term for utility). Figure 1 shows a payoff matrix for the cake division problem, taken from Prisoner’s Dilemma. Note that William Poundstone makes the assumption that the cake slicing is going to happen in an imperfect world, so that even if the child that cuts the cake tries to slice it evenly, the two resulting slices will still differ a tiny bit, say by one crumb.
矩阵左侧是切蛋糕者可以采取的策略：要么把蛋糕切得均匀，要么切得不均匀。虽然切蛋糕的方法有很多种，但切蛋糕者可以选择的策略有两种。矩阵顶部是选择者可以采取的策略：选择较大的一块或选择较小的一块。这些单元格只显示了其中一位参与者（切蛋糕者）的效用或收益，但可以假设选择者会得到相反的收益。如果收益矩阵表明切蛋糕者得到了“小块”，那么选择者就会得到“大块”。对于蛋糕的一半加上或减去一块碎屑，情况也是如此。
Along the left side of the matrix are strategies that the cutter can take: either cut the cake evenly or cut it unevenly. Although there are any number of ways to cut the cake, these are the two essential strategies from which the cutter can choose. Across the top of the matrix are strategies the chooser can take: choose the bigger piece or choose the smaller piece. The cells show the utility or payoff for only one of the players (the cutter), but it can be assumed that the inverse payoff would happen for the chooser. If the payoff matrix indicates that the cutter receives the “small piece,” the chooser would therefore receive the “big piece.” This is also true for half of the cake plus or minus a crumb.
Figure 1: Cake Division payoff grid
蛋糕分配问题说明了两个重要的博弈论概念。第一个是零和博弈的概念。在零和博弈中，两个玩家对每个游戏结果的效用是互为相反的。换句话说，一个玩家每获得一分钱，另一个玩家就会遭受同等的损失。例如，玩一种每个人都把钱投入底池的扑克游戏就是零和博弈。在游戏结束时，一个玩家赢得的每一美元都是另一个玩家输掉的一美元。一群赌徒玩轮盘赌并不是玩家之间的零和博弈，因为他们并不是直接对抗对方。另一方面，如果我们将轮盘赌设计成一个玩家与赌场对赌，那么这就是一个零和博弈：如果一个玩家赢了一美元，这笔钱就会被赌场拿走，反之亦然。
The cake division problem illustrates two important game theory concepts. The first is the concept of a zero-sum game. In a zero-sum game, the utilities of the two players for each game outcome are the inverse of each other. In other words, for every gain by one player, the other player suffers an equal loss. For example, playing a version of Poker in which everyone puts money into a pot is a zero-sum game. At the end of the game, every dollar won by one player is a dollar lost by another player. A group of gamblers playing Roulette is not a zero-sum game between the players, because they are not playing directly against each other. On the other hand, if we frame Roulette so that one player is playing against the casino, then it is a zero-sum situation: if a player wins a dollar, it is taken from the house, and vice-versa.
许多游戏都是零和游戏，即使那些不涉及金钱的游戏也是如此。当一个玩家赢得跳棋游戏而另一个玩家输掉时，一个玩家的损失等于另一个玩家的收益。在这种情况下，博弈论会将损失的效用设为 -1，将收益设为 +1。效用加起来为零，这正是它被称为“零和”游戏的原因。有些游戏，例如合作棋盘游戏《指环王》，不是零和游戏。在《指环王》的基本版本中，玩家与游戏系统本身合作。玩家
Many games are zero-sum games, even those that do not involve money. When one player wins a game of Checkers and the other player loses, the loss by one player equals a gain for the other player. In this case, game theory would assign a utility of −1 for the loss and +1 for the gain. The utilities add up to zero, which is exactly why it is called a “zero-sum” game. Some games, such as the cooperative board game Lord of the Rings, are not zero sum games. In the basic version of Lord of the Rings, players cooperate against the game system itself. Players
并非所有博弈论游戏都是零和游戏，但很多都是。蛋糕分割显然是一场零和游戏。直观地考虑这个问题：蛋糕是有限的，它们将被分成两块吃掉。一个玩家吃的蛋糕越多，另一个玩家吃的就越少。我们可以将以下效用分配给图表的四个单元：
Not all game theory games are zero-sum games, but many are. Cake division is clearly a zero-sum game. Consider the problem intuitively: there is only so much cake, which is all going to be divided into two slices and eaten. The more cake that one player eats, the less the other player eats. We could assign the following utilities to the four cells of the diagram:
我们知道，两个玩家的结果是互为相反的。如果一个玩家得到一半的蛋糕减去一块碎屑（-1），另一个玩家将得到一半的蛋糕加上一块碎屑（+1）。总数为零。蛋糕分配是一场零和游戏，要么全输，要么全赢。因为玩家之间没有相互竞争，所以他们要么全输得-1，要么全赢得+1。玩家之间的输赢加起来不为零；因此它不是零和游戏。
We know that the two player outcomes are inverses of each other. If one player receives half of the cake minus a crumb (−1) the other player will receive half of the cake plus a crumb (+1). The total is zero. Cake division is a zero-sum game, either all lose, or they all win. Because the players are not competing against each other, they either all get a −1 for losing or all get a +1 for winning. The losses and wins among the players do not add up to zero; it is therefore not a zero-sum game.
为什么这很重要？因为根据博弈论，每个有限的、零和的双人游戏都有一个解决方案（一种正确的游戏方式），即任何理性的玩家都会采取的策略。蛋糕分割问题的答案是什么？游戏总是在左上角结束。切蛋糕的人会得到一半的蛋糕减去一块蛋糕屑，而选择蛋糕的人会得到一半的蛋糕加上一块蛋糕屑。为什么会这样？看看切蛋糕的人的策略。切蛋糕的人很想得到右下角的那个格子，在那里他能得到大块蛋糕。所以也许他应该选择不均等地切蛋糕的策略。但切蛋糕的人也知道，如果给选择蛋糕的人选择的机会，选择蛋糕的人总是会选择更大的一块。因此，切蛋糕的人必须尽量减少左下角的蛋糕屑。选择者将通过尽可能均匀地切蛋糕来进行选择。游戏解析到左上角。
Why is this important? Because, according to game theory, every finite, zero-sum, two-player game has a solution (a proper way to play the game), the strategy that any rational player would take. What is the solution to the cake division problem? The game will always end in the upper left corner. The cutter will get half of the cake minus a crumb and the chooser will get half of the cake plus a crumb. Why is this so? Look at the cutter’s strategies. The cutter would love to end up with the lower right cell, where he gets the big piece. So perhaps he should choose the strategy of cutting the pieces unequally. But the cutter also knows that if the chooser is given the chance to choose, the chooser will always choose the bigger piece. As a result, the cutter has to minimize the bigger piece that the chooser will select by cutting the cake as evenly as possible. The game resolves to the upper left corner.
这种情况清楚地说明了博弈论的另一个关键概念：支付网格的鞍点性质。在分蛋糕游戏中，每个玩家都试图最大化自己的收益，同时最小化其他玩家的收益。当两个玩家的选择都指向同一个单元格时，其结果就是冯·诺依曼和摩根斯坦所说的鞍点。鞍点指的是马鞍形的山口，即两座相邻山峰之间山谷的交点。山口的高度既是穿越两座山峰的旅行者所能达到的最低海拔，也是穿越山口的山谷旅行者所能达到的最高海拔。游戏中鞍点的数学证明称为极小最大定理，冯·诺依曼于 1928 年首次发表了该定理，比 1944 年出版的《博弈论与经济行为》早了很多年。
This situation clearly illustrates another key game theory concept: the saddle point property of payoff grids. In cake division, each player is trying to maximize his own gains while minimizing the gains of the other player. When the choices of both players lead to the same cell, the result is what Von Neumann and Morganstern call a saddle point. A saddle point refers to a saddle-shaped mountain pass, the intersection of a valley that goes between two adjacent mountains. The height of the pass is both the minimum elevation that a traveler going across the two mountains will reach, as well as the maximum elevation that a valley traveler crossing the mountain pass will achieve. The mathematical proof of saddle points in games is called the minimax theorem, which Von Neumann first published in 1928, many years before the 1944 publication of Theory of Games and Economic Behavior.
鞍点的概念在游戏设计中极其重要。一般来说，你会尽量避免它们。记住，鞍点是游戏的最佳解决方案。一旦玩家找到它，就没有其他理由去做其他事情了。想想蛋糕分割的鞍点：如果任何一个玩家偏离了目标，那个玩家就会失去更多的蛋糕。如果你把你正在制作的可能性空间想象成一个大型的 3D 结构，精心设计以赋予玩家一定的体验，鞍点就是结构中的短路，允许玩家一遍又一遍地做出相同的决定。这种游戏体验通常不会提供非常有意义的游戏体验。为什么？因为如果游戏总是有一个可知的鞍点解决方案，无论其他玩家做什么或系统处于什么状态，都有一个最佳动作，那么游戏就会失去可能动作的不确定性。有意义的游戏体验就此消失。
The concept of saddle points is extremely important in game design. In general, you want to avoid them like the plague. Remember, a saddle point is an optimal solution to a game. Once a player finds it, there is no other reason to do anything else. Think about the cake division saddle point: if either player deviates, that player will lose even more cake. If you think of the space of possibility that you are crafting as a large 3D structure carefully crafted to give a certain shape to the experience of your players, saddle points are short-circuits in the structure that allow players to make the same decision over and over. That kind of play experience does not usually provide very meaningful play. Why? Because if there is always a knowable saddle point solution to a game, a best action regardless of what other players do or what state the system is in, the game loses the uncertainty of possible action. Meaningful play then goes out the window.
鞍点不仅仅出现在博弈论游戏中。例如，许多格斗游戏都被毁了，因为尽管游戏中设计了各种特殊动作和组合，但对付对手的最佳策略就是一遍又一遍地使用同样强大的攻击。鞍点！鞍点的另一个常见现象涉及计算机对手的编程。在许多实时战略游戏中，AI 中存在允许鞍点出现的“漏洞”或弱点。如果玩家发现计算机对手不知道如何很好地防御某种类型的单位，他可能会放弃所有其他游戏策略，而只是一遍又一遍地攻击 AI 的弱点，无论在精心设计需要不同类型问题解决的任务时投入了多少精力。鞍点！
Saddle points do not just occur in game theory games. Many fighting games are ruined, for example, because despite all of the special moves and combinations that are designed into the game, the best strategy to use against opponents is simply to use the same powerful attack again and again and again. Saddle point! Another common occurrence of saddle points involves the programming of computer opponents. In many real-time strategy games there are “holes” or weaknesses in the AI that allow for saddle points. If a player discovers that the computer opponent does not know how to defend well against a certain type of unit, he is likely to abandon all other game strategies and simply hammer on the AI’s weakness over and over, regardless of how much care went into carefully designing missions that require different kinds of problem-solving. Saddle point!
这种基于利用战略鞍点的游戏风格被称为利用或退化策略。退化策略是一种确保每次都能获胜的游戏方式。术语“利用”和“退化”的负面含义意味着玩家有意识地避开设计好的体验，而选择最短的胜利路线。有些玩家即使在发现退化策略后也会拒绝使用，因为他们希望以“正确”的方式玩游戏。另一方面，许多玩家会毫不犹豫地采用退化策略，尤其是当他们的奖金显示在游戏之外的更大社交空间中时，例如在线高分榜。
This style of play, based on exploiting a strategic saddle point, is called an exploit or degenerate strategy. A degenerate strategy is a way of playing a game that ensures victory every time. The negative connotation of the terms “exploit” and “degenerate” imply that players are consciously eschewing the designed experience in favor of the shortest route to victory. There are some players that will refuse to make use of degenerate strategies, even after they find out about them, because they wish to play the game in a “proper” manner. On the other hand, many players will not hesitate to employ a degenerate strategy, especially if their winnings are displayed in a larger social space outside the game, such as an online high score list.
退化策略可能会让游戏设计师感到痛苦，因为玩家会忽略游戏丰富的可能性。试着找到退化策略并摆脱它们！我们在上一个图式中了解到，正反馈和负反馈系统可能会意外地从游戏结构中出现，并可能破坏玩家的游戏体验。退化策略也是如此。仔细分析你的游戏设计有时可以发现它们，但真正根除这些策略的唯一方法是进行严格的游戏测试。如果你发现玩家一次又一次地被某一套策略所吸引，那么他们可能正在利用你设计中的弱点。
Degenerate strategies can be painful for game designers, as players shortcut all of the attention lavished on a game’s rich set of possibilities. Try to find degenerate strategies and get rid of them! We learned in the previous schema that positive and negative feedback systems can emerge unexpectedly from within a game’s structure and can ruin a game experience for players. The same is true of degenerate strategies. A close analysis of your game design can sometimes reveal them but the only real way to root them out is through rigorous playtesting. If you see players drawn to a particular set of strategies again and again, they may be exploiting a weakness in your design.
玩便士
Playing for Pennies
并非所有博弈论游戏都有鞍点。考虑一个需要更复杂游戏策略的简单游戏：匹配硬币，另一个经典博弈论问题。游戏的运作方式如下：两个玩家每人有一枚硬币。将他们的硬币隐藏起来，两个玩家选择一面，正面朝上或朝下，然后同时展示他们的硬币。如果匹配，玩家 1 获得两枚硬币。如果不匹配，玩家 2 获得它们。我们可以在收益网格上绘制这个游戏的图表：
Not all game theory games have a saddle point. Consider a simple game that requires a more complex playing strategy: Matching Pennies, another classic game theory problem. Here is how the game works: two players each have a penny. Hiding their penny from view, both players pick a side, heads up or heads down, and then simultaneously reveal their pennies. If they match, Player 1 gets both pennies. If they don’t match, Player 2 gets them. We can graph this game on a payoff grid:
下表显示了玩家 1（硬币匹配则获胜）的结果。由于这是另一个零和游戏，因此玩家 2 的效用是玩家 1 收益的倒数。玩这个游戏的正确方法是什么？理性玩家应该选择什么策略：正面还是反面？这个问题似乎没有唯一最佳答案。如果一个玩家决定选择正面或反面作为永久策略，另一个玩家可以利用此策略每次都获胜。但匹配硬币是一个有限的、零和的双人游戏，博弈论应该能够解决这个游戏并为两个理性玩家提供适当的策略。解决方案比蛋糕分割问题更复杂：玩家不选择单一的固定策略，而是选择混合策略。在混合策略中，玩家根据一定的概率比选择其中一个选项。对于匹配硬币，混合策略要求理性玩家随机选择正面或反面，选择其中任何一种的概率为 50/50。
This table shows the outcomes for Player 1, the player that wins if the pennies match. Because this is another zero-sum game, the utility for Player 2 is the inverse of Player 1’s payoff. What is the proper way to play this game? What strategy should a rational player choose: heads or tails? There does not seem to be a single best answer to the question. If one player decided to pick heads or tails as a permanent strategy, the other player could take advantage of this strategy and win every time. But Matching Pennies is a finite, zero-sum, two-player game, and game theory should be able to solve this game and provide the proper strategy for two rational players. The solution turns out to be more complex than the cake division problem: players do not choose a single, fixed strategy, but select a mixed strategy. In a mixed strategy, players choose one of their options according to a certain probability ratio. For Matching Pennies, the mixed strategy requires rational players to randomly pick heads or tails, with a 50/50 chance of selecting either one.
请记住，理性的玩家会试图最大化自己的效用收益，同时最小化对手的收益。如果理性的玩家玩了很多次 Matching Pennies 游戏，他们最终的平均效用将为零。这意味着两位玩家都不会获胜，但这是他们在这场“游戏中”所能期望的最好结果。
Remember that rational players will attempt to maximize their own gains in utility while minimizing the gains of their opponents. If rational players play many, many games of Matching Pennies, they will end up with an average utility of zero. This means that neither player will ever come out ahead, but that is the best that they can hope for in this “game.”
囚徒困境
The Prisoner’s Dilemma
当然，可以用许多不同的方式构建支付网格，它们并不总是零和游戏。事实上，构建故意比混合硬币和蛋糕分割更不对称的博弈论问题可能会导致一些非常令人困惑的“游戏”。一个著名的博弈论问题被称为囚徒困境。威廉·庞德斯通的书名就是取自这个问题。他这样描述这个游戏背后的“故事”：
Of course, it is possible to construct payoff grids in many different ways, and they do not always have to be zero-sum. In fact, constructing game theory problems that are intentionally less symmetrical than Mixed Pennies and Cake Division can lead to some very perplexing “games.” One famous game theory problem is called the Prisoner’s Dilemma. It is from this problem that William Poundstone takes the title of his book. He describes the “story” behind this game as follows:
犯罪团伙的两名成员被捕入狱。每名囚犯都被单独监禁，无法与对方交谈或交换信息。警方承认，他们没有足够的证据以主要指控定罪。他们计划以较轻的指控判处两人一年监禁。同时，警方向每名囚犯提出浮士德式的交易。如果他作证指控他的同伙，他将获得自由，而他的同伙将因主要指控被判入狱三年。哦，是的，有一个条件：如果两名囚犯互相作证，两人都将被判处两年监禁。
Two members of a criminal gang are arrested and imprisoned. Each prisoner is in solitary confinement with no means of speaking to or exchanging messages with the other. The police admit they don’t have enough evidence to convict the pair on the principal charge. They plan to sentence both to a year in prison on a lesser charge. Simultaneously, the police offer each prisoner a Faustian bargain. If he testifies against his partner, he will go free while the partner will get three years in prison on the main charge. Oh yes, there is a catch If both prisoners testify against each other, both will be sentenced to two years in jail.
囚犯们有一点时间考虑这个问题，但在任何情况下，除非囚犯做出了不可逆转的决定，否则他们都不会知道对方的决定。每个人都被告知对方也得到了同样的待遇。每个囚犯只关心自己的福利——尽量减少自己的刑期。9
The prisoners are given a little time to think this over, but in no case may either learn what the other has decided until he has irrevocably made his decision. Each is informed that the other prisoner is being offered the very same deal. Each prisoner is only concerned with his own welfare—with minimizing his own prison sentence.9
收益网格显示了两名囚犯的效用，首先列出囚犯 A，其次列出囚犯 B。为了方便使用，效用以监禁年限显示，而不是正效用值和负效用值。
The payoff grid shows the utilities for both prisoners, listing Prisoner A first and Prisoner B second. For ease of use, the utilities are displayed as years of jail time rather than as positive and negative utility values.
仔细看看这种情况。首先，这是博弈论意义上的游戏吗？是的，它是：有两个理性的玩家，他们只关心自己的福利（而不是合作或忠诚等抽象概念），两个玩家必须同时选择一种策略，并且他们决策的每个可能结果都以离散数字来衡量——在这种情况下，以监禁年限来衡量。因为这两名囚犯都想尽量减少刑期，所以他们希望数字尽可能低。
Look closely at this situation. First of all, is it a game in the game theory sense? Yes, it is: there are two rational players who are only interested in their own welfare (and not in abstract concepts such as cooperation or loyalty), both players have to choose a strategy simultaneously, and each possible outcome of their decision is measured in discrete numbers—in this case, in terms of years of jail time. Because the two prisoners want to minimize their sentence, they desire the lowest possible number.
下一个问题：囚徒困境是零和游戏吗？答案是否定的。看看左上角和右下角的单元格。有了这些结果，我们游戏中的两个“玩家”就不会有相反的结果。一个玩家的收益并不等于另一个玩家的损失，所以这个游戏不是零和游戏。
Next question: Is Prisoner’s Dilemma a zero-sum game? The answer is no. Look at the upper left and lower right cells. With these outcomes, both “players” in our game do not have inverse outcomes. The gains of one player are not equal to the losses of another player in every case, so the game is not a zero-sum problem.
现在想想在这种情况下每个囚犯可能会决定做什么。首先，似乎最好是将国家的证据变成“叛变”，而不是与另一个囚犯“合作”。如果另一个玩家合作，那么叛变者会得到最好的结果，那就是根本不会坐牢。但两位玩家都是理性的，会想到同样的事情，这意味着两名囚犯都会“叛变”并转交国家的证据。这意味着他们俩都将被判两年徒刑。但如果他们都合作，他们每人只能被判一年！
Now think about what each prisoner might decide to do in this situation. First of all, it seems like it is better to turn state’s evidence, to “defect” rather than “cooperate” with the other prisoner. If the other player cooperates, then the defector receives the best possible outcome, which is to receive no jail time at all. But both players are rational and will be thinking the same thing, which means both prisoners will “defect” and turn state’s evidence. This means that both of them will receive two years. But if they both cooperated, they could have received only one year each!
博弈论者对囚徒困境的正确解决方案意见不一。有两种思考这个问题的方法。使用极小最大方法，很明显，无论另一个囚犯做什么，叛逃总是更好的选择。如果你叛逃而另一个囚犯不叛逃，那么你会得到最好的结果。但是，如果另一个囚犯决定叛逃，那么你也做了一件好事，因为你避免了最糟糕的结果。根据这种逻辑，两个玩家都会叛逃，理性的结果是收益网格的右下角单元格。另一种方法是说，因为两个玩家都是理性的，而且收益网格是对称的，所以两个玩家都会做出相同的选择。这意味着两个玩家在左上角和右下角单元格之间进行选择。在这种选择下，两个理性的玩家最终会选择两个选项中更好的一个，即左上角，他们只会被判处一年监禁。
Game theorists do not agree on the proper solution to the Prisoner’s Dilemma. There are two ways of thinking about this problem. Using a minimax approach, it is clear that it is always better to defect, no matter what the other prisoner does. If you defect and the other prisoner does not, you get the best possible outcome. But if the other prisoner decides to defect, then it is a good thing you did too, because you saved yourself from the worst possible outcome. According to this logic, both players will defect and the rational outcome is the lower right cell of the payoff grid. The other approach is to say that because both players are rational and because the payoff grid is symmetrical, both players will make the same choice. This means that the two players are choosing between the upper left and the lower right cells. Given this choice, two rational players will end up choosing the better of their two options, the upper left, where they receive only one year of jail time.
囚徒困境仍然是一个尚未解决的博弈论问题。它清楚地表明，即使是非常简单的规则集也能提供极其复杂的决策环境，这不仅引发了数学和游戏设计方面的问题，还引发了社会和道德方面的问题。
The Prisoner’s Dilemma remains an unsolved game theory problem. It clearly demonstrates that even very simple sets of rules can provide incredibly complex decision-making contexts, which raise questions not just about mathematics and game design, but about society and ethics as well.
博弈论与游戏设计
Game Theory and Game Design
博弈论是一件奇妙的事情。它有望成为游戏背景下的决策详细理论。同时，它与现实世界游戏的关系似乎是偶然的：博弈论研究的“游戏”与大多数游戏设计师想要创造的游戏类型相去甚远。
Game theory is a curious thing. It promises to be a detailed theory of decision making in a game context. At the same time, its relationship to real-world games seems incidental: the “games” that game theory studies are far removed from the kinds of games that most game designers would like to create.
这是否意味着博弈论与游戏设计无关？绝对不是。这个关于游戏作为博弈论系统的架构，与我们大多数其他基于RULES的架构一样，借用了对系统进行正式研究的学科的概念和理论。与系统理论、复杂性理论、信息理论和控制论一样，博弈论并非为了协助游戏设计过程而创建的。但这并不意味着它与设计师无关。
Does that mean that game theory is irrelevant to game design? Absolutely not. This schema on Games as Game Theory Systems, like most of our other RULES-based schema, borrows concepts and theories from disciplines that make a formal study of systems. Like systems theory, complexity theory, information theory, and cybernetics, game theory was not created in order to assist in the game design process. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t relevant to designers.
决策树标出了游戏的正式可能性空间；效用衡量了玩家对给定游戏结果的期望；鞍点抹去了有意义的游戏——博弈论与我们的一些核心设计概念有着密切的联系。博弈论游戏是游戏设计问题的缩影，是一个详细规划简单决策并欣赏即使是基本的选择时刻也能产生的复杂性的机会。博弈论作为理解决策的正式方法，是一种非常有用的游戏设计工具。
Decision trees that mark out a game’s formal space of possibility; utility that measures the desire of a player for a given game outcome; saddle points that erase meaningful play—game theory is rife with connections to some of our core design concepts. Game theory games are microcosms for game design problems, an opportunity to plot out a simple decision in great detail and appreciate the complexity that even elementary moments of choice can generate. Game theory, as a formal approach to understanding decisions, is an extremely useful game design tool.
游戏规则构成了极其微妙和复杂的系统。作为一门历史非常短的设计学科，游戏设计必须转向这些更成熟的思维方式，以试图理解游戏现象。也许随着该领域的成熟，本书中引用的理论将被更多以游戏为中心的思想流派所取代。至少，我们当然希望如此。
The rules of games constitute systems of incredible subtlety and complexity. As a design discipline with a very young history, game design must turn to these more established ways of thinking in order to try and make sense of the phenomena of games. Perhaps as the field matures, the theoretical borrowings that take place in this book will be replaced by more game-centric schools of thought. At least, we certainly hope so.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
《涌现：从混沌到秩序》，约翰·霍兰德 (John Holland) 著（见第 169 页）
Emergence: From Chaos to Order, by John Holland (see page 169)
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第 2 章：游戏和数字
Chapter 2: Games and Numbers
第 3 章：地图、博弈论和基于计算机的
Chapter 3: Maps, Game Theory, and Computer-Based
造型
Modeling
囚徒困境，威廉·庞德斯通著
Prisoner’s Dilemma, by William Poundstone
《囚徒困境》结合了约翰·冯·诺依曼的传记、对冷战政治的分析以及对博弈论的详细解释。这是我们发现的最清晰的非技术性博弈论书籍，其中包含大量详细的例子。总的来说，《囚徒困境》有助于将博弈论置于其适当的历史和文化背景中。
Prisoner’s Dilemma combines a biography of John Von Neumann with an analysis of Cold War politics and a detailed explanation of game theory. It is the clearest non-technical book on game theory we have found, with a range of detailed examples. Taken as a whole, Prisoner’s Dilemma helps put game theory in its proper historical and cultural context.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第三章：博弈论
Chapter 3: Game Theory
第 6 章：囚徒困境
Chapter 6: Prisoner’s Dilemma
第12章：适者生存
Chapter 12: Survival of the Fittest
笔记
Notes
1. Morton D. Davis，《博弈论：非技术性导论》（Mineola：Dover Publications，1970 年），第 3 页。
1. Morton D. Davis, Game Theory: A Nontechnical Introduction (Mineola: Dover Publications, 1970), p. 3.
2.威廉·庞德斯通，《囚徒困境》（纽约：Doubleday，1992 年），第 45 页。
2. William Poundstone, Prisoner’s Dilemma (New York: Doubleday, 1992), p. 45.
3.同上，第 46 页。
3. Ibid. p. 46.
4.同上，第48页。
4. Ibid. p. 48.
5. Richard Epstein，《赌博理论与统计逻辑》（圣地亚哥：Academic Press，1995 年），第 118 页。
5. Richard Epstein, The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic (San Diego: Academic Press, 1995), p. 118.
6.约翰·冯·诺依曼和奥斯卡·摩根斯坦，《博弈论与经济行为》（普林斯顿：普林斯顿大学出版社，1944 年），第 77 页。
6. John Von Neumann and Oscar Morganstern, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1944), p. 77.
7. Davis，《博弈论：非技术性导论》，第 62 页。
7. Davis, Game Theory: A Nontechnical Introduction, p. 62.
8.庞德斯通，《囚徒困境》，第43页。
8. Poundstone, Prisoner’s Dilemma, p. 43.
9.同上，第118页。
9. Ibid. p. 118.
游戏作为博弈论系统
概括
•博弈论是经济学的一个分支，研究理性决策。它经常研究类似博弈的情况，但它不是博弈或博弈设计的一般理论。
• Game theory is a branch of economics that studies rational decision making. It often looks at game-like situations, but it is not a general theory of games or game design.
•决策树是一种图表，它列出了玩家在游戏中可能做出的所有决策和结果。完整的决策树相当于游戏的正式可能性空间。游戏必须具备以下特征才能简化为决策树：
• A decision tree is a diagram that maps out all of the possible decisions and outcomes that a player can take in a game. A completed decision tree is equivalent to the formal space of possibility of a game. A game must have the following characteristics to be reducible to a decision tree:
• 游戏中的时间以轮流或其他离散单位进行。
• Time in the game takes place in turns or other discrete units.
• 玩家做出有限数量的明确决定，这些决定具有可知的结果。
• Players make a finite number of clear decisions that have knowable outcomes.
• 游戏是有限的（它不可能永远进行下去）。
• The game is finite (it can’t go on forever).
• 即使游戏满足这些标准，大多数游戏也过于复杂，无法用决策树来绘制图表。决策树最适合用于绘制游戏的各个方面，或作为思考游戏形式结构的概念工具。
• Even if a game meets these criteria, most games are too complex to be diagrammed as a decision tree. Decision trees are most useful for mapping aspects of games, or as conceptual tools for thinking about the formal structure of a game.
• 博弈论游戏仅限于理性的玩家，他们同时透露一种策略以达到结果，该结果可以用严格的效用度量来定义。通常，博弈论仅限于只有两个玩家的游戏。
• A game theory game is limited to rational players who simultaneously reveal a strategy to arrive at an outcome, which can be defined in a strict measure of utility. Usually, game theory limits itself to games with only two players.
•现实世界中不存在理性玩家。理性玩家是完全合乎逻辑的玩家，他们玩游戏只是为了最大化赢利，而不考虑情绪、道德和社会依恋。
• A rational player doesn’t exist in the real world. A rational player is a completely logical player that plays only to maximize winnings, regardless of emotions, ethics, and social attachments.
• 博弈论策略是玩游戏的完整计划。策略明确而全面地涵盖了玩家在玩游戏过程中可能遇到的所有可能情况，包括对手可能选择的所有可能策略。
• A game theory strategy is a complete plan for playing a game. A strategy explicitly and comprehensively covers every possible situation that a player might encounter in the course of playing a game, including every possible strategy that an opponent might select.
• 在博弈论游戏中，理性的玩家会同时决定采取什么策略。他们知道游戏的完整规则和决策可能产生的结果，但不知道其他玩家将采取什么策略。
• In a game theory game, rational players make a simultaneous decision about what strategy to take. They know the complete rules of the game and the possible outcomes of their decisions, but they do not know the strategy that the other player will take.
• 博弈论游戏的结果以效用来衡量，效用是玩家对特定结果的期望的数值表示。有吸引力的结果被赋予较高的正数，而不太有吸引力的结果被赋予较低的正数。负数代表不愉快的效用。
• The results of a game theory game are measured in utility, which is a numerical representation of the players’ desire for a certain outcome. Attractive outcomes are assigned higher positive numbers, and less attractive outcomes are assigned lower numbers. Negative numbers represent an unpleasant utility.
•收益矩阵是用于绘制博弈论问题可能结果的单元格网格。
• A payoff matrix is a grid of cells used to diagram the possible outcomes of a game theory problem.
• 在零和游戏中，胜利者的收益等于失败者的损失。象棋等只有一个赢家和输家的游戏就是零和游戏。
• In a zero-sum game, the winnings of the victor are equal to the losses of the loser. Games such as Chess with a single winner and a single loser are zero-sum games.
• 每一个双人零和博弈游戏都有一个解决方案，即每次都能最大化玩家收益的正确游戏方式。当游戏对两个玩家来说都有一个最佳解决方案时，该解决方案被称为鞍点。
• Every two-player, zero-sum game theory game has a solution, a proper way to play the game that will maximize winnings for the player every time. When there is a single best solution to a game for both players, the solution is known as a saddle point.
• 任何游戏中的鞍点都可能导致退化策略，也称为漏洞。退化策略是一种每次都能获胜的游戏方式。一般来说，游戏中应避免使用退化策略，因为它们会降低不确定性和有意义的游戏。
• Saddle points in any game can lead to degenerate strategies, also called exploits. A degenerate strategy is a way to play a game that leads to victory every time. Generally, degenerate strategies are to be avoided in games because they diminish uncertainty and meaningful play.
• 一些博弈论解决方案由混合策略组成，其中玩家根据加权百分比在不同策略中进行选择。
• Some game theory solutions consist of mixed strategies, where players select among different strategies with a weighted percentage.
20
20
游戏作为冲突系统
GAMES AS SYSTEMS OF CONFLICT
竞争与合作
competition and cooperation
系统合作
systemic cooperation
玩家合作
player cooperation
游戏目标
game goals
胜利和失败条件
victory and loss conditions
公平的竞争环境
level playing field
冲突自然而然地从游戏互动中产生。玩家积极追求某个目标。障碍阻止他轻松实现这一目标。冲突是所有游戏的内在元素。它可以是直接的或间接的，可以是暴力的或非暴力的，但它始终存在于每款游戏中。——克里斯 ·克劳福德，《电脑游戏设计艺术》
Conflict arises naturally from the interaction in a game. The player is actively pursuing some goal. Obstacles prevent him from easily achieving this goal. Conflict is an intrinsic element of all games. It can be direct or indirect, violent or nonviolent, but it is always present in every game.— Chris Crawford, The Art of Computer Game Design
引入冲突
Introducing Conflict
将游戏视为冲突系统意味着什么？首先，我们同意克里斯·克劳福德的观点。冲突是每个游戏的内在要素。冲突，即权力较量的游戏，是我们对“游戏”一词的定义的核心组成部分。虽然游戏之外的冲突有时具有破坏性，但在游戏中，我们发现了阶段性冲突的奇妙悖论，从而产生了有意义的游戏。
What does it mean to consider games as Systems of Conflict? First of all, we agree with Chris Crawford. Conflict is an intrinsic element of every game. Conflict, a game as a contest of powers, is a core component of our very definition of the term “game.” While conflict outside of games can sometimes be destructive, in games we find the wonderful paradox of a staged conflict, resulting in meaningful play.
游戏冲突源自游戏的独特环境。魔法圈赋予游戏特殊的意义。其中最重要的意义之一是游戏的胜利条件。赢得游戏可能只在魔法圈内才有价值，但玩家却追求它。由于他们参与游戏，他们已经将游戏的假设和禁令视为有意义的，包括与获胜相关的一切。玩家为实现游戏目标并成为赢家而进行的斗争是驱动游戏冲突系统的竞争活动。
Game conflict emerges from the unique circumstances of a game. The magic circle imbues games with special meanings. One of the most important meanings to emerge is the game’s victory conditions. Winning the game might only have value within the magic circle, yet players pursue it. By virtue of their participation in the game, they have taken on as meaningful the game’s presumptions and proscriptions, including everything associated with winning. The struggle among the players to achieve the goal of a game and become winners is the competitive activity that drives a game’s system of conflict.
这种活动是一种斗争，这源于游戏冲突所带来的内在挑战。正如我们对游戏态度的研究所知，游戏的设计使得其目标难以实现。游戏冲突的产生是因为游戏玩家为了实现目标而奋斗，他们经常相互对抗，有时一起奋斗或并行奋斗。
The fact that this activity is a struggle derives from the intrinsic challenge presented by the conflict of a game. As we know from our study of the lusory attitude, games are constructed so that their goals are difficult to achieve. The conflict of a game arises as the game players struggle toward achieving the goal, often in opposition to each other, sometimes struggling together or in parallel.
游戏中发生的冲突有哪些形式？游戏中的斗争可以有多种形式：
What are the shapes of conflict that occur in games? Struggle in a game can take many forms:
•单人对战单人：国际象棋比赛或拳击比赛
• Single player vs. single player: a Chess game or Boxing match
•团体对抗：篮球、足球和其他团队运动
• Group vs group: Basketball, Soccer, and other team sports
•一对多：标签或妈妈可以吗？
• One against many: Tag or Mother May I?
•每位玩家都为自己而战：赛跑或战略棋盘游戏“风险”
• Every player for themselves: a footrace or the strategic board game Risk
•单人游戏对抗游戏系统：纸牌或俄罗斯方块
• Single player competing against a game system: Solitaire or Tetris
•个人玩家并肩对抗游戏：赌场二十一点
• Individual players competing side by side against the game: casino Blackjack
•一组玩家合作玩游戏：《指环王》棋盘游戏
• A group of players cooperating against a game: Lord of the Rings Board Game
许多游戏混合并搭配了这些形式，例如摔跤比赛，其中个人以两人一组的方式相互竞争，但他们的得分会被加起来并应用于整个团队。有些游戏可以容纳多种游戏模式，例如街机游戏《双截龙》，其中一名玩家可以与程序竞争，或者两名玩家可以合作对抗程序。还有一些游戏的竞争结构会随着时间而变化，例如电视节目《幸存者》，其中玩家最初被分成两个竞争团队，最终成为一个团队，从中产生一个获胜者。
Many games mix and match these forms, such as a wrestling meet, in which individuals compete against each other in pairs, but their scores are added up and applied to the team as a whole. Some games can accommodate more than one of these game modes, such as the arcade game Double Dragon, in which one player can compete against the program, or two players can cooperate against it. Still others have competitive structures that change over time, such as the television show Survivor, in which players are initially divided into two competitive teams, eventually becoming a single group from which a single winner emerges.
游戏中的冲突可以是直接的，也可以是间接的。在腕力比赛中，选手们直接对抗，试图压住对方的手臂，同时避免自己被压住。选手们紧握的双手来回移动是斗争的直接衡量标准，表明他们中的一方距离实现冲突的获胜条件有多近或多远。在花样滑冰比赛中，冲突是间接的。每个选手都有自己的表演和评判轮次。他们不能直接干扰对方的成功，赢得比赛意味着获得裁判的最高分。
Conflict in a game can be direct or indirect. In an arm wrestling match, players are pitted directly against each other, trying to pin the other player’s arm while avoiding being pinned themselves. The back and forth movements of the players’ locked hands is a direct meter of the struggle, indicating how near or how far either one of them is from achieving the winning conditions of the conflict. In a figure skating contest, the conflict is indirect. Competitors each have their own turn to perform and be judged. They cannot directly interfere with each other’s success, and winning the competition means receiving the highest score from the judges.
还有一些游戏混合了直接冲突和间接冲突。在多人星际争霸等实时战略游戏中，玩家相互竞争，尽管他们并不总是直接互动。玩家必须从进攻和防守的角度思考，建立自己的资源和防御，预测其他玩家的行动。随着游戏的进行，随着玩家控制的单位发生接触，每个玩家的单独活动会演变成直接冲突。此外，还有不止一种方法配置星际争霸中的冲突：游戏允许玩家设置团队对战团队游戏、单人对战多名玩家、人类玩家对战计算机对手等等。
Still other games mix direct and indirect conflict. In a real-time strategy game such as multiplayer Starcraft, players compete against each other, though they are not always directly interacting. Players have to think offensively and defensively, building their resources and defenses, anticipating the actions of other players. As a game proceeds, the solo activities of each player evolve into direct conflict, as the units controlled by the players come into contact. Further, there is more than one way to configure the conflict in Starcraft: the game lets players set up team vs. team games, one player vs. many players, human players vs. computer opponents, and so on.
冲突案例研究
Conflict Case Studies
正如这些例子所示，在单一游戏设计范围内可以存在多种形式的冲突。接下来，我们将详细研究三款不同的游戏，重点关注每款游戏如何配置玩家之间的竞争与合作。这三款游戏都是 20 世纪 80 年代的街机游戏：Centipede、Joust 和 Gauntlet。每款游戏都编织了令人惊讶的复杂玩家冲突结构。
As these examples illustrate, more than one form of conflict can exist within the scope of a single game design. Next we take a detailed look at three different games, focusing on the ways each one configures competition and cooperation between players. All three games are arcade games from the 1980s: Centipede, Joust, and Gauntlet. Each game weaves its own surprisingly complex fabric of player conflict.
蜈
Centipede
我们的第一个例子是街机游戏《蜈蚣》，玩家使用轨迹球控制器和射击按钮移动屏幕底部的角色并射击从顶部落下的物体。乍一看，《蜈蚣》的冲突结构似乎简单直接。但事实上，正式系统为玩家提供了许多奋斗和追求目标的方式。
Our first example is the arcade game Centipede, in which the player uses a trackball controller and fire button to move a character at the bottom of the screen and shoot at objects coming down from the top. Centipede might seem at first glance to have a simple and straightforward structure of conflict. But in fact, the formal system provides many ways for players to struggle and pursue goals.
• 作为一款单人游戏，玩家将与程序竞争。游戏将根据玩家的表现不断计算“分数”，而游戏的预期目标是获得最高分。
• As a single-player experience, you compete against the program. The game compiles an ongoing “score” based on your performance, and the presumed goal of the game is to achieve the highest score.
• 您可以通过多种方式追求与游戏高分目标相关的目标。您可能对什么是“好分数”有一个大致的了解，并尝试实现这一目标。或者您可能尝试超越您之前游戏的分数，或获得新的个人最佳分数。
• There are many ways that you might pursue goals related to the high score goal of the game. You might have a general idea of what constitutes a “good score,” which you try to achieve. Or you might try to surpass your previous game’s score, or attain a new personal best score.
• 除了与得分相关的目标外，您还可以设定其他目标。例如，您可以尝试玩一定时间、达到游戏的某个级别或消灭出现的每个特定类型的敌人。这些目标中的几个可能相互共存，也可能与以得分为导向的目标共存。
• You might set other goals besides those involving your score. For example, you might try to play for a certain amount of time, get to a certain level in the game, or destroy every enemy of a particular type that appears. Several of these goals might co-exist with each other and with the score-oriented goals.
• Centipede 可以作为双人游戏进行。两个玩家轮流玩，当前玩家失去生命时交换位置。如果您以这种方式与另一个玩家竞争，游戏的可量化结果（您的分数）将具有新的含义。它不再只是您个人成功的指标，而成为比较您与其他玩家表现的一种方式。双人 Centipede 是一场零和竞赛，其中一个玩家获胜，另一个玩家失败。从这个意义上讲，实际游戏分数仅在用于确定获胜者时才重要。玩家的数字分数被转换为二进制的赢/输值。
• Centipede can be played as a two-player game. Both players alternate play, switching places when the current player loses a life. If you compete against another player in this way, the quantifiable outcome of the game (your score) has new meaning. It is no longer only an indicator of your personal success but becomes a way to compare your performance to that of the other player. Two-player Centipede is a zero-sum competition, where one player wins and the other player loses. In this sense, the actual game scores are important only insofar as they are used to determine the winner. The numeric scores of the players are translated into binary win/lose values.
• 单人竞赛的某些方面可以与双人竞赛的某些方面相结合。您可能输给了对手，但您也可能取得了有史以来的最高分，在这种情况下，您在自己的竞赛中获胜，即使在双人游戏的零和冲突中输给了其他玩家。
• Aspects of the single-player competition can be combined with aspects of the two-player competition. You might have lost to your opponent, but you might also have gotten your best score ever, in which case you won in your own self-competition, even while losing to the other player in the zero-sum conflict of the two-player game.
• 玩家可以将自己的姓名首字母输入到高分榜中，这创造了一种不同的竞争：你可以与之前的玩家竞争，而你可能从未见过他们。这种竞争更加间接：你将自己的分数与他们的分数进行比较，如果你是前八名玩家之一，你就可以在游戏中输入自己的姓名首字母，让其他玩家看到，从而淘汰排名垫底的玩家。但是，你以后也可能会遭到淘汰。在这里，你的数字分数被转换成等级排名：要么你的分数不够高，无法进入榜单，要么你以特定排名进入榜单。
• The fact that players can enter their initials into a high score list creates a different kind of competition: you compete against previous players, whom you probably have never met. This competition is more indirect: you compare your score with their scores, and if you are one of the top eight players, you get to enter your initials into the game for other players to see, bumping off the player at the bottom of the list. However, you might later be bumped off as well. Here, your numeric score is translated into a scaled rank: either your score wasn’t high enough to put you on the list, or you entered the list at a specific rank.
• 还有其他竞争场景。例如，您可以作为单人玩家玩游戏，并设定进入高分榜的目标。在这种情况下，您将游戏变成一个具有二元胜负条件的竞争系统：要么进入高分榜，要么不进入。
• There are other competition scenarios as well. For example, you might play as a single player and set the goal of making it onto the high score list. In this case, you turn the game into a system of competition with a binary win/loss condition: either you make it onto the high score list or you don’t.
• 您可能与朋友一直在竞争谁能在 Centipede 上获得更高的分数。你们两个都不够优秀，无法进入高分榜，但您仍然可以跟踪你们的相对分数。在这种情况下，您的分数将转换为您与朋友之间的排名，随着你们其中一人的分数超过另一人的高分，排名会发生变化。
• You might have an ongoing rivalry with a friend about who can achieve the higher score on Centipede. The two of you are not good enough to get on the high score list, but you can still keep track of your relative scores. Your score in this scenario is translated into a rank between you and your friend, a rank that changes as one of you bests the other’s higher score.
马上比武
Joust
谁会想到一款简单的街机游戏背后隐藏着如此多不同形式的冲突？我们的下一个例子则更是如此。在 Joust 中，两名玩家操纵骑在鸟身上的骑士，攻击由程序控制的敌人。两名玩家可以同时玩游戏，而不是轮流玩游戏。这种结构开辟了全新的竞争形式。
Who knew so many different forms of conflict were lurking under the surface of a simple arcade game? Our next example adds even more. In Joust, two players maneuver bird-mounted knights, attacking enemies controlled by the program. Both players can play the game simultaneously, instead of alternating turns. This structure opens up whole new forms of competition.
• Joust 可以是单人游戏。每个玩家都会获得分数，并且会列出玩家的最高分，包括每日最高分和“历史”最高分的单独排名。Centipede 中的大多数比赛形式也出现在 Joust 中。
• Joust can be a single-player game. Individual players receive a score and there is a list of player high scores, including separate rankings for daily high scores and “all time” high scores. Most of the forms of competition in Centipede also occur in Joust.
• 两名玩家可以竞争谁在游戏过程中获得更高的分数。由于玩家不是轮流比赛而是同时比赛，因此双方的分数始终可见，从而增强了这种比赛形式的戏剧性。
• Two players could compete to see who gains the higher score over the course of a game. Because players do not alternate turns but compete simultaneously, the scores of o both players are visible at all times, heightening the drama of this form of competition.
• 同时进行的双人游戏结构为冲突提供了其他可能性。如果愿意，两个 Joust 玩家可以互相攻击。游戏的一种玩法是作为格斗游戏，玩家直接互相攻击，成功攻击后杀死对手。在这种情况下，比赛的目标是杀死对手的次数比被杀死的次数多。以这种方式玩游戏会使 Joust 变成零和游戏。数字分数并不重要，重要的是谁最后活了下来。
• The simultaneous two-player structure opens other possibilities for conflict. Two Joust players can attack each other if they wish. One way to play the game is as a fighting game, where players directly attack each other, killing their opponent with a successful attack. The goal of the competition in this case is to kill your opponent more times than you are killed. Playing the game in this way turns Joust into a zero-sum game. Numerical scores do not matter, only who is left alive at the end.
马上比武
Joust
• 两名玩家也可以不互相攻击，而是合作击败计算机生成的敌人，战略性地协调他们的行动。在这种情况下，两名玩家一起与计算机竞争。他们可能会设定一个目标，即达到最高水平或尽可能长时间地玩游戏。
• It is also possible for two players to refrain from attacking each other and instead work together to defeat the computer-generated enemies, strategically coordinating their actions. In this case, the two players compete together against the computer. They might set a goal of reaching the highest level or for playing as long as possible.
• 即使玩家合作，他们仍可能以其他方式竞争。例如，两个玩家协调行动对抗计算机，可能会争夺更高的分数。
• Even if players cooperate, they might still compete in other ways. For example, two players coordinating their actions against the computer might compete to get the higher score.
• 通常，这些不同类型的竞争是重叠的。Joust 的游戏设计让玩家很容易杀死另一个玩家：如果他们相撞，位置较高的玩家会消灭另一个玩家。即使是合作的玩家有时也会意外杀死对方，这种情况通常会影响游戏的竞争流程。意外杀人后，一名玩家可能会变得怨恨和好斗，游戏可能会转变为 Joust 的“格斗游戏”版本。或者，意外杀人者可能会让对手杀死他一次，只是为了平衡局面。游戏也可能照常继续。
• Often, these different kinds of competition overlap. The game design of Joust makes it easy for a player to kill another player: if they collide, the one that is in a higher position destroys the other one. Even cooperating players sometimes accidentally kill each other, an event that usually affects the competitive flow of the game. After an accidental killing, one player might become resentful and aggressive and the game might transition into the “fighting game” version of Joust. Or the accidental killer might let his opponent kill him one time, just to balance things out. The game might also just continue as usual.
• 竞争压力贯穿整个游戏。由于两名玩家同时在屏幕上操作，即使他们没有主动试图杀死对方，他们也可能对应该在哪里以及如何玩存在竞争。例如，两名玩家可能都希望占据屏幕的某个部分或攻击特定的一组敌方角色。因此，意外杀死玩家（或威胁杀死玩家）可能会进入游戏，从而带来额外的竞争复杂性。
• Competitive tensions persist throughout the game. Because both players are operating on the screen at the same time, there may be competition about where and how they should play, even if they are not actively trying to kill each other. For example, two players might both wish to occupy a certain section of the screen or attack a specific group of enemy characters. An accidental player-killing (or the threat of one) can enter the game as a result, opening up additional competitive complexities.
手套
Gauntlet
在 Joust 中，双人同时游戏的结构为游戏冲突的可能性增加了新的层次。在我们的第三个街机游戏示例 Gauntlet 中，最多可以有四名玩家同时游戏。玩家作为团队成员扮演固定角色（战士、女武神、盗贼或巫师）。团队一起探索游戏空间，与电脑生成的敌人战斗，并收集资源以增强他们的能力，让他们可以进一步探索。
In Joust, the two-player simultaneous structure adds new layers to the possibilities of game conflict. In Gauntlet, our third arcade game example, up to four players can play at once. The players take fixed roles (Warrior, Valkerie, Thief, or Wizard) as members of a team. Together the team explores the game spaces, fights computer-generated enemies, and gathers resources that boost their abilities to let them explore further.
• 与 Joust 和 Centipede 一样，Gauntlet 也可以由单人玩。Gauntlet 玩家也会获得分数；如果分数足够高，玩家会记录高分和玩家姓名首字母。所有单人和高分榜形式的比赛也适用于 Gauntlet。
• Like Joust and Centipede, Gauntlet can be played by a single player. Gauntlet players also receive a score; if the score is high enough, players record high scores and player initials. All of the single-player and high score list forms of competition apply to Gauntlet as well.
• 与 Joust 不同，Gauntlet 玩家只能攻击计算机生成的对手——他们的攻击不会影响其他玩家。因此，Gauntlet 缺乏“格斗游戏”这种可能的冲突形式。相反，玩家们不断合作，通常的目标是看看他们可以探索多少个游戏关卡。
• Unlike Joust, Gauntlet players can only attack computer-generated opponents—their attacks do not affect the other players. As a result, Gauntlet lacks the “fighting game” as a possible form of conflict. Instead, the players consistently work together, usually with the goal of seeing how many levels of the game they can explore.
• 由于 Gauntlet 玩家会获得分数，因此玩家还可以在游戏结束时竞争谁的分数最高。与 Joust 一样，分数会在整个游戏过程中显示，让玩家可以不断检查他们的相对分数。
• Because Gauntlet players receive a score, players might also compete to see who has the highest score at the end of the game. As with Joust, the scores are displayed throughout the game, allowing players to constantly check their relative scores.
• 每当玩家完成一关时，游戏就会暂停，显示每位玩家的相对分数和他们在游戏中的整体表现，例如，显示哪位玩家在最后一关获得的宝藏最多。这些时刻凸显了玩家之间基于分数和基于统计数据的竞争，鼓励他们相互比较表现，并围绕游戏中的多种统计数据展开竞争。
• Whenever players clear a level of the game, the game pauses to display the relative points of each player and their overall performance in the game, showing, for example, which player received the most treasure in the last level. These moments highlight score-based and stat-based competition between players, encouraging them to compare their performances against each other and invent competition around the many kinds of statistics in the game.
手套
Gauntlet
• 在实际玩游戏的过程中，另一种形式的竞争发生在游戏资源上。随着玩家在游戏中的进展，代表他们健康的数字会慢慢减少。当角色接触敌人时，健康会进一步降低。然而，游戏中散布着许多可以提高角色健康的“食物”物品。玩家有时会直接争夺食物，试图第一个拿到食物。玩家也可能讨论他们中谁最需要食物，并让该玩家获得食物。游戏中的其他特殊物品也是如此，例如钥匙和魔法药水。这些基于资源的竞争形式因关卡之间的统计数据比较而加剧：在这些时刻，玩家会评估资源在团队中的分配情况，并可以指责对方“不公平”或“贪婪”。
• During the actual play of a game, another form of competition takes place over in-game resources. As players progress in the game, a number representing their health is slowly reduced. When a character touches an enemy, health is lowered even more. However, there are many “food” items scattered throughout the game that raise a character’s health. Players sometimes compete directly for food, trying to be first to reach the item. Players might also discuss who among them needs the food most and let that player acquire the item. The same is true for other special objects in the game, such as keys and magic potions. These forms of resource-based competition are heightened by the statistic comparisons between levels: at these moments, players take stock of how resources have been distributed among the group and can accuse each other of being “unfair” or “greedy.”
• Gauntlet 特有的最后一种竞争形式是玩家在游戏上花钱。在许多街机游戏中，声望来自于能够用一枚 25 美分硬币玩很长时间。但与 Joust 和 Centipede 不同，Gauntlet 允许玩家通过现金补充来延长当前游戏时间。玩家可以在游戏过程中将 25 美分硬币投入游戏，以增加角色的健康度或在角色死亡后复活角色。这意味着只要玩家想继续花钱，他们就可以继续玩游戏，探索更多的游戏关卡。游戏难度不断增加，确保玩家在玩游戏时需要花越来越多的钱。这可能会让 Gauntlet 变成一种完全不同的冲突，玩家竞相展示他们对在游戏中花钱的容忍度，这是一种炫耀性消费，很像高风险赌博。相反，玩家可能会竞相看谁能玩得最久，然后再花更多的钱继续玩，因为技术娴熟的玩家会避免被杀。在这种情况下，目标是花更少的钱玩同样的时间。
• A final form of competition unique to Gauntlet involves players spending money on a game. In many arcade games, prestige comes from being able to play for a long time on a single quarter. But unlike Joust and Centipede, Gauntlet lets players extend their current game via cash additions. Players can put quarters into the game during play to add to their characters’ health or to resurrect their characters after they have died. This means that as long as players want to continue spending money, they can keep on playing, exploring more game levels. The escalating difficulty of the game ensures that players will need to spend more and more money as they play. This can turn Gauntlet into a completely different kind of conflict, one in which players compete to demonstrate their tolerance for putting money into the game, a form of conspicuous consumption much like high-stakes gambling. Conversely, players might compete to see who can play the longest before having to spend more money to continue, because skillful players will avoid being killed. In this case, spending less money for the same amount of time would be the goal.
显然，游戏中还有许多其他竞争模式。然而，即使在这三个类似的例子中，冲突也有很多种表现方式。这些例子的目的是为了展示游戏设计如何导致冲突形式。在每种情况下，关于游戏结构的正式决策都会直接影响游戏中出现的冲突的性质。对于每款游戏，以下类型的问题决定了基本的形式结构：
There are obviously many, many more models of competition in games. However, even within these three similar examples there is a wealth of ways that conflict can manifest. The point of these examples is to demonstrate how the design of a game leads to forms of conflict. In each case, formal decisions about the game’s structure directly shape the nature of conflict emerging from the game. For each game, the following kinds of questions determine the essential formal structures:
• 有多少名玩家可以玩？
• How many players can play?
• 他们是同时玩游戏还是轮流玩游戏？
• Do they play simultaneously or do they alternate playing the game?
• 是否有高分榜？
• Is there a high score list?
• 是否会不断向玩家反馈他们的相对得分？
• Are players given constant feedback about their relative scores?
• 游戏是否会暂停以允许玩家直接比较他们的分数和其他游戏统计数据？
• Does the game pause to allow players to directly compare their scores and other game statistics?
• 玩家是否会共同面对计算机生成的对手和障碍，或者玩家是否会互相充当对手？
• Are there computer-generated opponents and obstacles that players face together or do the players serve as opponents for each other?
• 游戏的结构是否允许玩家之间发生直接冲突？
• Does the structure of the game allow players to have direct conflict with each other?
• 是否存在玩家可以争夺的资源？
• Are there resources for which players can compete?
• 玩家可以花钱继续游戏或提高游戏水平吗？
• Can players spend money to continue the game or enhance their play?
我们观察到的冲突形式直接源于每款游戏对这些设计问题的回答方式。以《Gauntlet》为例：如果允许玩家通过攻击来伤害对方，游戏将失去其强制的合作精神，玩家之间的战斗可能会变得很常见。如果玩家无法通过再支付 25 美分来继续游戏，那么游戏资源的竞争将更加激烈，因为玩家将相互竞争以在游戏结束前存活下来。这三个例子中令人惊讶的是游戏中的冲突可以如此丰富和多层次。这种丰富性来自于玩家可以在游戏中推导出和构建自己的冲突形式。我们概述的一些目标是游戏规则明确定义的。其他则是玩家积极参与和操纵游戏结构而产生的新兴竞争形式。
The forms of conflict we observed follow directly from the way that each game answers these design questions. Take Gauntlet: if players were allowed to damage each other through attacks, the game would lose its enforced cooperative spirit, and inter-player fighting might become common. If players could not continue their game by paying another quarter, competition for in-game resources would be much fiercer, as players would vie against each other to stay alive until the game ended. What is surprising in all three examples is just how rich and multi-layered conflict can be in a game. This richness comes from the fact that players can derive and construct their own forms of conflict in a game. Some of the goals we outlined are explicitly defined by the game rules. Others are emergent forms of competition that arise from the player’s active engagement with and manipulation of the game structure.
回到《游戏定义》，在讨论《模拟城市》是否是游戏时，我们得出结论，这是一个边缘案例。尽管《模拟城市》没有正式定义具有量化结果的目标，但它确实提供了一个空间，玩家可以在其中形成自己的目标并得出自己的结果。正如对《Centipede》、《Joust》和《Gauntlet》的调查所表明的那样，在许多方面，所有游戏都可以像《模拟城市》一样运作，玩家可以发明自己的目标，并将这些目标置于游戏规则直接定义的目标之上。
Back in Defining Games, in discussing whether or not Sim City was a game, we concluded that it was a borderline case. Although Sim City does not formally define goals with quantitative outcomes, it does provide a space within which players form their own goals and arrive at their own outcomes. As the investigation of Centipede, Joust, and Gauntlet demonstrates, in many ways all games can function like Sim City, with players inventing their own goals and layering these goals on top of those defined directly by the rules of a game.
游戏的可能性空间是可能发生冲突的空间。玩游戏的一部分涉及选择游戏目标，作为探索和探索冲突形式和程度的手段。为玩家提供的最佳冲突形式是什么？与游戏的其他方面一样，没有单一的公式可以在所有情况下对所有玩家都有效。但是，提供支持一系列冲突的丰富可能性空间会增加玩家的潜在多样性以及他们可能发现游戏有意义的方式。
A game’s space of possibility is a space of possible conflict. Part of playing a game involves selecting game goals as a means of navigating and exploring forms and degrees of conflict. What is the best form of conflict to provide your players? As with other aspects of games, there is no single formula that will work best for all players in all contexts. However, providing a rich space of possibility that supports a range of conflict increases the potential variety of players and the ways that they might find your game meaningful.
竞争与合作
Competition and Cooperation
到目前为止，我们已经大致讨论了竞争和合作与游戏中冲突的关系。但这些术语究竟意味着什么呢？竞争发生在玩家在游戏中人为冲突中相互斗争时。我们最清晰的竞争模型可能来自博弈论：零和博弈。在零和博弈中，一个玩家的赢利等于另一个玩家的损失。如果一个玩家在两人零和博弈中获胜，另一个玩家必然会输。赢总是等于输，最终总和为零。
So far, we have spoken somewhat loosely about competition and cooperation as they relate to the conflict in a game. But what do these terms really mean? Competition occurs when players struggle against each other within the artificial conflict of a game. Perhaps our clearest model of competition comes from game theory: the zero-sum game. In a zero-sum game, one player’s winnings equal another player’s losses. If one player is the victor in a two-player zero-sum game, the other player will necessarily lose. Winning is always equally balanced by losing, making the end sum zero.
人们普遍批评游戏都是竞争性的，竞争在某种程度上是不受欢迎的。从这个角度来看，为了确保积极的游戏体验，竞争是应该避免的。游戏设计师兼《玩得好游戏》一书的作者 Bernard DeKoven雄辩地阐述了这一观点：
A common criticism leveled against games is that they are all competitive, and that competition is somehow undesirable. Framed in this way, competition is something to avoid in order to ensure a positive play experience. Bernard DeKoven, game designer and author of The Well-Played Game, states this position eloquently:
现在我很清楚，这种团结（为赢而战）的结果就是分裂，永远是分裂。它将我们分成赢家和输家，有成就的人和失败的人。这种分裂又导致我们进一步分裂。现在我们中有些人赢了，有些人输了，要找到一场我们都愿意一起好好玩的游戏就变得困难了。这从来都不是我们的重点。虽然我们一直最珍惜的是我们一起好好玩的游戏，但获胜才是最重要的。1
It is clear to me now, that the result of such a union [playing to win] is separation, always separation. It divides us into winners and losers, those who have achieved and those who have failed. The division then leads us into further division. It becomes difficult, now that some of us have won and some of us have lost, to find a game that we are all willing to play well together. It was never our focus at all. Though what we have always cherished most is the game in which we are playing well together, winning takes precedence.1
DeKoven 的观点是，当竞争的胜负成为游戏冲突的一部分时，它就成为游戏参与者最关心的问题，超越了游戏所能提供的一切。恕我直言，我们不同意。在我们看来，竞争性游戏可以提供真正有意义的体验，这一点非常明显。有时，这种意义可能源于游戏本身的乐趣（DeKoven 的“一起玩得很好”），但肯定很多意义都来自于游戏的竞争斗争，来自于努力成为赢家同时避免失败。
DeKoven’s point is that when the winning and losing of competition enters into the conflict of a game, it becomes the paramount concern of the game’s participants, eclipsing everything else the game has to offer. With all due respect, we disagree. It seems quite clear to us that competitive games can offer genuinely meaningful experiences. Sometimes that meaning can stem from the joy of play itself (DeKoven’s “playing well together”), but certainly much meaning derives from the competitive struggle of a game, from trying to become a winner while avoiding a loss.
为实现目标而展开的竞争性努力是游戏结构和游戏意义形成方式的基础。例如，在有意义的游戏中，玩家的行为被整合到游戏的大背景中，这一理念取决于游戏的竞争性本质。如果玩家没有努力的目标，玩家就很难衡量自己在游戏系统中的进度。如果没有进度衡量标准来反馈玩家决策的意义，就不可能进行有意义的游戏。还记得“恐怖”游戏《游戏即新兴系统》中的网格吗？这款游戏没有目标，玩家之间也没有相互竞争的途径。没有任何东西可以激励玩家以这种方式而不是那种方式移动棋子。有意义的游戏是不可能的。
The competitive striving toward a goal is fundamental in giving shape to the structure of a game and the way that the game creates meaning. The idea, for example, that in meaningful play a player’s actions are integrated into the larger context of a game is dependent on the competitive nature of games. Without a goal toward which players strive, it is very difficult for a player to measure his or her progress through the system of a game. Without a measure of progress to give a player feedback on the meaning of his or her decisions, meaningful play is not possible. Remember the “horrible” game The Grid in Games as Emergent Systems? That game had no goal, and no way for players to compete with each other. There was nothing to motivate players to move their pieces this way instead of that way. Meaningful play was impossible.
我们的观点是，所有游戏都是竞争性的。所有游戏都涉及冲突，无论冲突直接发生在玩家之间，还是玩家共同应对游戏系统提出的挑战性活动。如果没有明确的目标，游戏通常会成为不太正式的游戏活动。然而，仅仅因为所有游戏都是竞争性的并不意味着它们也不是合作性的。虽然我们可以自信地断言所有游戏都是竞争性的，但同样正确的是，所有游戏都是合作性的。这两种说法相互矛盾吗？所有游戏都可以既具有竞争性又具有合作性吗？游戏既具有竞争性又具有合作性的想法只有在两个术语相互排斥时，竞争才会相互矛盾，但事实并非如此。“竞争”一词的词根是拉丁语con petire，意思是“共同寻求”。2
Our opinion is that all games are competitive. All games involve a conflict, whether that conflict occurs directly between players or whether players work together against the challenging activity presented by the game system. Without a clearly defined goal, games generally become less formalized play activities. However, just because all games are competitive does not mean that they are not cooperative as well. Although we can assert with confidence that all games are competitive, it is equally true that all games are cooperative. Are these two statements contradictory? Can all games be both competitive and cooperative? The idea that games are both competitive and coop erative is only contradictory if the two terms are mutually exclusive, which they are not. The root of the word “compete” is the Latin con petire, which means “to seek together.”2
所有游戏在哪些方面都是合作性的？回想一下魔法圈和诱惑态度，以及游戏的这些方面如何创造意义。玩游戏就是让你的行为服从游戏规则，进入游戏划定的时间和空间，参与游戏提供的特殊意义。玩游戏就是与其他玩家一起参与游戏讨论。玩家可以一起打篮球，因为他们都说篮球的“语言”。当两个球员在球场上进行一对一比赛时，他们所做的正是如此。
In what ways are all games cooperative? Recall the magic circle and the lusory attitude, and the way that these aspects of a game create meaning. To play a game is to submit your behavior to the rules of the game, to enter into the time and space that the game demarcates, to traffic in the special meanings that the game offers up. To play a game is to participate in the discourse of the game with the other players. Players can play Basketball together because they both speak the “language” of Basketball. When two players hit the courts for a game of one-on-one, that is exactly what they are doing.
因此，玩游戏就是合作地承担游戏的人工意义，通过游戏所实现的人工话语与其他玩家进行交流。
Therefore, to play a game is to cooperatively take on the artificial meanings of the game, to communicate to the other players through the artificial discourse that the game makes possible.
术语之外：两种合作形式
Terminological Aside: Two Forms of Cooperation
我们在这里使用“合作”一词的方式与本章开头略有不同。说所有游戏都是合作的，是指所有游戏的基础机制，以及这些结构如何确保玩家之间有共同的话语和合作精神。我们将这种合作形式称为系统合作，因为它在基本层面上发生在所有游戏中。
We use the term “cooperation” here in a slightly different way than at the beginning of this chapter. Saying that all games are cooperative refers to the mechanisms that underlie all games, and the way these structures ensure a shared discourse and cooperative spirit among players. We call this form of cooperation systemic cooperation because it occurs in all games at a fundamental level.
然而，当我们说《指环王》棋盘游戏是合作游戏时，玩家们齐心协力打败游戏系统，我们使用的是更常见的合作一词。与国际象棋等直接竞争的零和游戏不同，《指环王》中的玩家以团队的形式获胜或失败。我们将这种形式的合作称为玩家合作，因为它描述了并非所有游戏中都会出现的特定玩家关系。
However, when we said that the Lord of the Rings Board Game, in which players work together to defeat the game system, was cooperative, we used the word in its more common sense. Unlike a directly competitive, zero-sum game such as Chess, players in Lord of the Rings win or lose as a group. We call this form of cooperation player cooperation because it describes specific player relationships that do not occur in all games.
这个词的两种用法本质上并无不同。玩家合作实际上只是系统合作的字面表现。系统合作是所有游戏固有的现象，发生在体验游戏结构的“幕后”，而玩家合作则发生在更高的层次上，更有意识地融入玩家对游戏的理解中。
The two uses of the word are not ultimately dissimilar. Player cooperation is really just a literalized manifestation of systemic cooperation. Systemic cooperation, as a phenomenon intrinsic to all games, occurs “under the hood” of the experienced game structure, whereas player cooperation happens at a higher level, incorporated more consciously into a player’s understanding of a game.
从这个意义上说，玩游戏本身就是一种合作行为。只有通过玩家的共同努力，游戏脆弱的魔法圈才能形成，并在游戏过程中得以维持。这里有一个奇妙的悖论。在为游戏预留的魔法圈内，在规则规定的竞技场内，发生了冲突。玩家合作形成游戏空间，以创造竞争来取悦自己。游戏冲突就像戏剧中演员之间的决斗：它是一种精心设计的竞争性表演，部分原因是它的人造性。游戏中存在真正的冲突，但只有在由玩家参与维持的更大的合作框架内才会发生。
In this sense, the very act of playing a game is an act of cooperation. It is only through the shared efforts of the players that a game’s fragile magic circle takes shape and is sustained over the course of play. There is a wonderful paradox here. Within the magic circle set aside for the game, within the arena spelled out by the rules, a conflict takes place. The players cooperatively form the space of the game, in order to create a competition for their own amusement. Game conflict is like a duel between actors in a play: it is an elaborately staged competitive artifice, enjoyed in part because of its artificiality. There is genuine conflict in a game, but only within a larger cooperative frame sustained by the participation of the players.
新游戏
New Games
在之前对伯纳德·德科文关于竞争消极方面的观点的批评中，我们并没有公平对待。德科文确实质疑传统的竞争形式。我们也确实不同意他关于这个问题的所有想法。但德科文的概念必须在他关于游戏的重要著作的大背景下理解。在他的著作《玩得好的游戏》中，德科文主张对游戏进行新的理解，重点不再是竞争。相反，德科文提倡更多的即兴游戏，让玩家扮演游戏设计师的角色。
In the earlier critique of Bernard DeKoven’s ideas about the negative aspects of competition, we were not quite playing fair. It is true that DeKoven questions traditional forms of competitive play. It is also true that we do not agree with all of his ideas on the subject. But DeKoven’s concepts have to be understood within the larger context of his important work on games. In his book The Well-Played Game, DeKoven argues for a new understanding of play, governed by a shift in emphasis away from competition. Instead, DeKoven is an advocate for more improvisational games in which players take on the role of game designers.
德科文并不是唯一有这样想法的人。他是“新游戏运动”的早期成员之一。该运动是一群游戏设计师和游戏倡导者，对游戏文化产生了巨大影响。新游戏运动由斯图尔特·布兰德（《全球概览》的创办者）于 20 世纪 60 年代末创立，是一个致力于推广游戏及其对社会产生积极影响的组织。在 20 世纪 60 年代末和 70 年代，新游戏运动在旧金山湾区和世界其他地区组织了许多大型公共游戏“锦标赛”。这些比赛既是艺术活动，也是社区活动，也是游乐场嘉年华，新游戏运动锦标赛体现了一种独特的以游戏为中心、以社区为基础的政治，其规模前所未有。
DeKoven was not alone in his ideas. He was one of the early members of the New Games Movement, a group of game designers and play advocates that had a tremendous impact on the culture of games. Founded by Stewart Brand (the same man who started The Whole Earth Catalog) in the late 1960s, the New Games Movement was an organization dedicated to the promotion of play and its positive impact on society. During the late 1960s and 1970s, the New Games Movement organized a number of large-scale public game “tournaments” in the San Francisco Bay Area and other parts of the world. Part art happening, part community action, and part playground carnival, New Games Movement Tournaments embodied a uniquely game-centric, community-based politics of a scale that has not been seen since.
新游戏运动对体育教育以及游戏和玩耍在学校的融合产生了巨大影响。如果你在小学体育课上玩降落伞或巨大的橡胶“地球球”，那么这可能是新游戏运动的直接或间接影响。新游戏运动出版了两本书（《新游戏书》和《更多新游戏》），其中列出了他们有趣的游戏设计。新游戏运动如何融入将游戏理解为冲突系统？新游戏运动直面竞争与合作的理念，创造了游戏和游戏设计的思维方式，挑战了将游戏视为冲突的传统观念。
The New Games Movement had a large impact on physical education and the integration of games and play into schools. If you grew up playing with a parachute or huge rubber “Earth Ball” in your elementary school gym class, it is probably due to the direct or indirect influence of the New Games Movement. The New Games Movement published two books (The New Games Book and More New Games) that cataloged their playful game designs. How does the New Games Movement fit into an understanding of games as systems of conflict? The New Games Movement confronted the idea of competition and cooperation head on, creating games and ways of thinking about game design that challenged conventional notions of games as conflict.
许多人认为《新游戏》是非竞争性的。当然事实并非如此。本书中的大多数游戏都涉及竞争——这正是《新游戏》的活力所在……每个玩家为克服阻力和实现目标所做的努力是游戏的核心，也是游戏令人愉快和满足的原因。在大多数游戏中，阻力是由对手试图实现其目标而提供的。因此，你的对手是你在游戏中的伙伴。最好的游戏是那些你可以尽最大努力同时仍然指望对手与你竞争的游戏。3
Many people think of New Games as non-competitive. Of course this isn’t the case. Most of the games in this book involve competition—it’s what gives New Games its vitality . . . . The effort each player makes to overcome the resistance and achieve the goal is the heart of the game and what makes it enjoyable and gratifying. In most games, the resistance is supplied by your opponent trying to achieve her goal. Your opponent is therefore your partner in the game. The best games are those in which you can play your hardest and still count on our opponent to meet your effort—to compete with you.3
尽管德科文在他的某些作品中可能会抨击竞争，但他也帮助《新游戏》灌输了更为平衡的竞争观念，如上文引用的这段话所体现的，这段话摘自他为《新游戏》一书所写的一篇文章。德科文的主要观点是，在游戏的背景下，玩家之间的竞争也是彼此之间的竞争，因为玩家要应对他们为彼此提供的挑战。通过这种方式，《新游戏》肯定了竞争与合作之间的相互依存关系，即系统性合作是所有游戏的一部分。
Although DeKoven may rail against competition in some of his writings, he also helped instill in New Games the more balanced notions of competition embodied in the quote above, taken from an essay he wrote for the New Games Book. DeKoven’s main point is that in the context of a game, the struggle of players against each other is also a struggle with each other, as players meet the challenges that they provide for one another. In this way, New Games affirms the interdependent relationship between competition and cooperation, the systemic cooperation that is part of all games.
但新游戏运动的核心焦点不是游戏哲学，而是游戏本身的设计和玩法。这场运动产生了一些非凡的游戏设计。例如，一款名为《捉龙尾巴》的游戏：
But the central focus of New Games wasn’t game philosophy: it was the design and play of games themselves. The movement produced some extraordinary game designs. Take, for example, a game called Catch the Dragon’s Tail:
您需要一个足够大的区域来举办这项活动，没有突然出现的坑洞和无法移动的橡树。大约八到十个人排成一排，一个接一个。现在，每个人都用手臂搂住前面人的腰。（在龙周围你不能怕痒。）排在最后一排的人将手帕塞进腰带后面。为了激怒龙，龙可能会发出几声咆哮——我们打赌，这声咆哮足够可怕，让九头蛇都汗颜。
You’ll need a good-sized area for this event, clear of sudden pits and immovable oaks. About eight to ten people line up, one behind the other. Now, everyone puts their arms around the waist of the person in front of them. (You can’t be ticklish around dragons.) The last person in line tucks a handkerchief in the back of his belt. To work up steam, the dragon might let out a few roars—fearsome enough, we wager, to put Hydra to shame.
信号一响，龙就开始追逐自己的尾巴，目标是让排在队伍最前面的人抢到手帕。这场史诗般的斗争的棘手之处在于，前面的人和后面的人显然在竞争——但中间的人却不确定该往哪个方向走。当龙头最终抓住尾巴时，谁是失败者，谁是胜利者？每个人都是！龙头戴上手帕，成为新的尾巴，而排在队伍最前面的第二个人成为新的龙头。4
At the signal, the dragon begins chasing its own tail, the object being for the person at the head of the line to snatch the handkerchief. The tricky part of this epic struggle is that the people at the front and the people at the back are clearly competing—but the folks in the middle aren’t sure which way to go. When the head finally captures the tail, who’s the defeated and who’s the victor? Everyone! The head dons the handkerchief and becomes the new tail, while second from the front becomes the new head.4
《捉龙尾》故意模糊了竞争与合作的界限。一方面，所有玩家都在合作，互相依偎在一起，成为一条龙。但与此同时，龙的前半部分正在追逐后半部分，中间的人在冲突中没有明确的角色。《捉龙尾》以玩笑的方式明确了玩家在有限的游戏空间内竞争时必须合作的方式。《捉龙尾》还体现了游戏设计的一个重要教训：我们对游戏的所有先入之见都是可以质疑的。通常我们可能会认为游戏的所有玩家都必须有一个明确的目标，或者竞争路线必须明确界定，或者玩家之间相互竞争的游戏合作不可能也伴随着激烈的竞争——但《捉龙尾》推翻了所有这些假设。游戏设计至少就是玩弄想法，甚至游戏中看似基本的竞争想法也会受到游戏干预。
Catch the Dragon’s Tail purposefully blurs the lines between competition and cooperation. On the one hand, all of the players are cooperating to hold on to each other to become a single dragon. But at the same time, the front part of the dragon is chasing the rear part, with the people in the middle not given a clear role to play in the conflict. Catch the Dragon’s Tail makes playfully explicit the ways that players must work together even as they compete within the limited space of a game. Catch the Dragon’s Tail also embodies an important lesson for game design: all of our preconceptions about games can be questioned. Normally we might think that all players of a game must have a clearly defined goal, or that lines of competition must be sharply defined, or that a game with player cooperation cannot also have vigorous competition—but Catch the Dragon’s Tail debunks all of these assumptions. If nothing else, game design is about playing with ideas, and even seemingly fundamental ideas about competition in games are subject to playful intervention.
游戏的目标
The Goal of a Game
除了竞争和合作之外，游戏作为冲突系统的另一个基本组成部分是目标。目标是游戏的基础。在 Centipede、Joust 和 Gauntlet 的解释中，目标体现在每种冲突形式中。游戏的结果要么达到目标，要么未达到目标，这种可量化的结果是我们对游戏的定义的一部分。通常，明确且可量化的目标和结果将游戏与其他游戏活动区分开来。在非正式游戏中添加目标，通常您就会有游戏。休闲滑雪是一种休闲游戏活动。但是，如果您与朋友比赛到山脚，您就会突然参与到游戏中。
In addition to competition and cooperation, another essential component of a game as a system of conflict is a goal. Goals are fundamental to games. In the explication of Centipede, Joust, and Gauntlet, goals figured into each form of conflict. At the outcome of a game, the goals are either reached or not reached, and this quantifiable outcome is part of our definition of games. Very often, it is a clear and quantifiable goal and outcome that distinguishes games from other play activities. Add a goal to informal play and usually you will have a game. Casual skiing for fun is a leisure play activity. But race your friend to the bottom of the mountain and suddenly you’re taking part in a game.
游戏的目标由游戏规则定义，并与整个游戏的形式结构紧密交织在一起。游戏的目标是其形式结构的核心特征。当玩家聚在一起玩游戏时，目标就在魔法圈的中心，魔法圈是一根杆子，当玩家在结构内互相玩耍时，它支撑着游戏的圆形帐篷。目标维持着他们的兴趣、参与度和欲望。没有明确的目标，就不可能进行有意义的游戏；如果玩家无法判断他们的行为如何使他们更接近或远离赢得游戏，他们就无法正确理解他们行为的意义，游戏就会陷入混乱和模棱两可的境地。
A game’s goal is defined by its rules and is tightly interwoven into the formal structure of the game as a whole. A game’s goal is a central feature of its formal structure. When players come together to play a game, the goal is at the center of the magic circle, the pole that holds aloft the circular tent of the game while the players are inside the structure, at play with one other. The goal sustains their interest, their engagement, and their desire. Without a clear goal, meaningful game play is not possible; if players cannot judge how their actions are bringing them closer to or farther away from winning the game, they cannot properly understand the significance of their actions, and the game collapses into a jumbled heap of ambiguity.
游戏的目标决定了它的终点；一旦达到目标，游戏就结束了。从这个意义上说，游戏的目标是游戏的结束，是结束的标志，预示着魔法圈消失的时刻。游戏玩家在游戏系统中不断挣扎，除了游戏本身提供的结局外，没有其他结局，即使他们对结局的快乐追求意味着乐趣的消亡，他们的挣扎也具有一种奇特的诗意。当然，直到下一场游戏开始。
A game’s goal defines its endpoint; once it is reached, the game is over. In this sense, a game’s goal is the death of play, the mark of the end, foretelling the moment the magic circle will disappear. There is a curious poetic quality to the struggle of game players as they make their way through the system of a game, playing to no end but the one provided by the game itself, even as their joyful pursuit of that end means the death of their pleasure. Until, of course, the next game begins.
大多数游戏都有一个结局，即一个或多个玩家获得胜利。然而，在《太空侵略者》等游戏中，游戏结构不断重复，对玩家的挑战越来越大，没有单一的胜利终点。在这种形式的游戏中，目标是尽可能长时间地玩或获得最高分。这种正式结构增强了不可避免的死亡感。玩家在借来的时间里生存，延缓游戏在失败条件满足时不可避免的结局。
Most games have an end in which one or more players achieve victory. However, in games such as Space Invaders, in which the game structure repeats itself with increasing challenge to the player, there is no single victorious endpoint. In this form of game, the goal is to play as long as possible or achieve the highest score. This formal structure heightens the sense of inevitable death. The player is living on borrowed time, staving off the inevitable end of a game that occurs when conditions of failure are met.
游戏的可能性空间是两个锚点之间的一个平面：游戏的开始和结束。玩家从一端走到另一端，从起点走到终点。在一款设计精良、支持有意义玩法的游戏中，点与点之间的旅程应该紧凑而高效，每个元素都直接或间接地为更大的体验做出贡献。
The space of possibility of a game is a plane stretched between two anchorage points: the beginning and the end of the game. The players journey from one end to another, making their way from the start to the finish. In a well-designed game that supports meaningful play, this journey between points should be taut and efficient, with every element contributing directly or indirectly to the larger experience.
如果这一切听起来太过以目标为导向，我们必须承认，目标并不是人们玩游戏的唯一原因。游戏本身可以是一种目的，也可以是实现社交互动的一种方式，或者影响文化变革。我们将在后面的章节中讨论这些游戏动机。但作为一个正式的系统，游戏的目标需要被视为塑造整个游戏的主要结构。
In case this all sounds too goal-oriented, we must acknowledge that goals are not the only reason people play games. Play can be an end in itself, or a way to achieve social interaction, or affect cultural change. We address each of these motivations for play in later chapters. But seen as a formal system, the goal of a game needs to be recognized as a primary structure that shapes the game as a whole.
跳动循环
Beating Loop
很容易说，游戏的目标是整体设计的重要组成部分。但要确定特定游戏的确切胜利和失败条件通常非常困难。一种游戏模式可以适用于不同的获胜条件，每种条件都会以不同的方式塑造游戏体验。
It is easy enough to state that the goal of a game is an important part of the overall design. But it is often very difficult to figure out the exact victory and loss conditions for a particular game. One play pattern can lend itself to different winning conditions, each one shaping the game experience differently.
LOOP 是一款关于捕捉蝴蝶的在线单人游戏。在 LOOP 的开发过程中，游戏的核心玩法是在决定胜利和失败条件之前发明的。游戏开发始于画线来圈住蝴蝶的想法，通过圈住特殊的蝴蝶组（例如相同颜色的蝴蝶）来得分。第一个原型展示了游戏的交互性，但游戏的开始和结束条件尚未定义。胜利条件的多种选择被讨论过，并被缩小到三种场景：
LOOP is an online single-player game about catching butterflies. In the development of LOOP, the core game play was invented before a decision had been made concerning victory and loss conditions. The game development began with the idea of drawing lines to loop butterflies, scoring points by looping special groups of them (such as butterflies of the same color). The first prototype demonstrated the game interactivity but the start and finish conditions of the game had not been defined. Many options for the victory conditions were discussed and were narrowed down to three scenarios:
1. 玩家必须捕捉一定数量的蝴蝶才能完成关卡。
1. The player has to catch a certain number of butterflies to finish a level.
2. 玩家必须清除屏幕上的所有蝴蝶才能完成关卡。
2. The player has to clear the screen of all of the butterflies to finish a level.
3. 没有级别：玩家必须一直捕捉蝴蝶。
3. There are no levels: the player has to keep on catching butterflies forever.
每个端点都包含不同类型的玩家体验。例如，场景 1 和 2 假设游戏以一系列离散关卡的形式进行，而场景 3 则提供单一、连续的游戏，就像俄罗斯方块一样。还有其他未解决的问题：例如，在场景 2 中，如果玩家只剩下一只蝴蝶会发生什么？失败条件是什么？如果游戏确实有关卡，则需要有完成关卡的胜利和失败条件；如果它没有离散关卡，则只需要有整个游戏的失败条件。在考虑失败条件时，提出了两种主要方案：
Each of these endpoints entailed different kinds of player experiences. For example, scenarios 1 and 2 presumed that the game proceeded as a series of discrete levels, whereas scenario 3 provided a single, continuous game, as in Tetris. There were other unsolved questions too: for example, in scenario 2, what would happen if a player were left with only one butterfly? And what was the loss condition? If the game did have levels, there needed to be victory and loss conditions for finishing a level; if it did not have discrete levels, there only needed to be a loss condition for the game as a whole. In considering the loss conditions, two primary schemes were proposed:
1. 玩家有一定的时间来达到胜利条件。
1. A player has a certain amount of time to attain the victory conditions.
2. 随着玩家的前进，蝴蝶会出现。如果出现的蝴蝶太多，游戏就结束了。
2. Butterflies appear as the player proceeds. If too many appear, the game is over.
许多变体都以不同的组合方式进行了游戏测试。对于失败条件，选择了时间限制，而不是让屏幕上布满蝴蝶，因为这样可以让游戏有更清晰的进度感。在《俄罗斯方块》中，很明显，当砖块堆积在屏幕顶部附近时，您就要输了。在《LOOP》的原型中，屏幕上的蝴蝶太多时，从来都不是很清楚。可以添加一个“计量器”来跟踪蝴蝶的数量并显示游戏距离过度拥挤的距离，但这似乎不必要地使游戏界面变得复杂。
Many of these variations were playtested in different combinations. For the loss conditions, a time limit was selected, rather than the option of having the screen overrun with butterflies, because it gave the game a clearer sense of progression. In Tetris, it is clear that when the bricks pile up near the top of the screen, you are about to lose. In the prototype of LOOP, it was never quite clear when there were too many butterflies on the screen. A “meter” that kept track of the number of butterflies and displayed how close the game was to being overcrowded could have been added, but that seemed to unnecessarily complicate the game interface.
在决定了失败条件（计时器）之后，游戏将分为几个独立的关卡，每个关卡的目标是捕捉一定数量的蝴蝶。游戏决定蝴蝶的数量不会随着关卡的进行而减少：每次捕捉一组蝴蝶时，屏幕一侧就会立即飞来相同数量的蝴蝶。做出这些决定有几个原因。首先，游戏希望能够创造出一种充满可能性的游戏。如果游戏的目标是清除屏幕，那么随着玩家通过关卡，游戏就会逐渐变得空洞。游戏会变得不那么有活力和生动：给定任何一组蝴蝶，都会有一个最佳的清除屏幕的解决方案——随着关卡的进行，不同操作的可能性会减少。保持蝴蝶数量不变的解决方案让游戏保持刺激，并充满了替代策略。
Having made a decision about the loss conditions (a timer), it was determined that the game would be given discrete levels, with the goal of each level to catch a certain number of butterflies. It was decided that the number of butterflies did not decline over the course of a level: every time you caught a group, the same number of butterflies immediately flew in from the side of the screen. There were several reasons for these decisions. First, there was a desire to create a game that seemed full of possibilities. If the goal of the game was to clear the screen, then the game would have gradually emptied out as the player proceeded through a level. The game would have felt less dynamic and alive: given any set of butterflies, there would have been a single best solution for clearing the screen—and as a level proceeded, the possibilities for different actions decreased. The solution to keep the number of butterflies constant kept the game exciting and full of alternate strategies.
即使关卡在捕获了一定数量的蝴蝶后就结束了，但只要超过配额，就有可能超出关卡的胜利条件。例如，你可以策略性地捕获足够多的蝴蝶，这样你只需要再捕获一只就可以达到配额，然后在最后一轮中抓取一大群蝴蝶，让你远远超过配额。捕获超过配额的蝴蝶可以为你赢得大量奖励积分。最好的玩家会小心地管理他们的蝴蝶，慢慢接近配额，然后在最后获得一大群蝴蝶，让他们远远超过配额数量。这种谨慎的游戏方式只有通过游戏中设计的特殊结构才有可能实现。
Even though a level ended when a quota of butterflies had been captured, it was possible to exceed the level’s victory conditions by going over the quota. You could, for example, strategically capture enough butterflies so that you only had to capture one more to reach your quota—and then snatch a large group of them for your final loop, putting you well above the quota. Butterflies captured beyond your quota earned you large bonus points. The best players managed their butterflies carefully, creeping up on the quota and then scoring a large group at the end that took them well over the quota amount. This kind of careful play was only made possible by the particular structures that had been designed into the game.
数字游戏往往以一系列关卡的形式进行，并有导致游戏结束的失败条件，LOOP 就是其中一个例子。决定什么构成关卡的成功以及什么结束游戏是绝对重要的游戏设计决策。游戏设计师往往将这些决策视为理所当然，遵循设计惯例而不是发明新的设计惯例。如果游戏中有多个失败或获胜条件怎么办？如果游戏的目标是尽快失败或用完积分怎么办？正如 Catch the Dragon's Tail 采用传统的竞争与合作理念一样，您的游戏也可以采用传统的胜负理念。
Digital games tend to proceed as a series of levels and have loss conditions that end the game, LOOP being one such example. Deciding what constitutes success in a level and what ends the game are absolutely crucial game design decisions. Too often, game designers take these decisions for granted, following design conventions instead of inventing new ones. What about a game in which there are multiple loss or win conditions? What if the goal of the game is to lose as quickly as possible, or run out of points? Just as Catch the Dragon’s Tail played with traditional ideas of competition and cooperation, your games can play with traditional ideas of winning and losing as well.
冲突的公平竞争环境
The Level Playing Field of Conflict
竞争与合作、目标与斗争、胜利与失败：这一切如何综合起来？游戏冲突的一般条件是什么？游戏冲突的一个核心原则是公平。游戏冲突是公正的冲突：它以所有玩家都有平等的获胜机会、游戏系统本质上是公平的、游戏的竞争在公平的竞争环境中进行、不会偏袒任何一方为前提。人类学家罗杰·凯洛伊斯 (Roger Caillois) 在谈论竞争性游戏形式时指出了这一点：“整个游戏组看起来都是竞争性的，也就是说，就像一场人为创造机会均等的战斗，以便对手在理想条件下相互对抗，能够为胜利者的胜利赋予精确且无可争辩的价值。”5
Competition and cooperation, goals and struggle, victory and loss: how does it all add up? What are the general conditions of a game conflict? One core principle of conflict in games is that it is fair. Game conflict is impartial conflict: it is premised on the idea that all players have an equal chance at winning, that the game system is intrinsically equitable, that the game’s contest takes place on a level playing field, which does not favor one side over the other. Anthropologist Roger Caillois points this out in speaking about competitive forms of play: “A whole group of games would seem to be competitive, that is to say, like a combat in which equality of chances is artificially created, in order that the adversaries should confront each other under ideal conditions, susceptible of giving precise and incontestable value to the winner’s triumph.”5
为什么游戏会如此努力地以这种方式创造平等？正如我们的定义所说，游戏是一种人为的冲突。游戏结构创造了一个人造的竞技场，在这个竞技场中，除了冲突所涉及的因素之外，其他一切都被移除了。国际象棋是智力战略竞争的背景。在体操比赛中，只有体操技巧才重要。
Why would a game strive so forcefully to create equality in this way? As our definition states, a game is an artificial conflict. The game structure creates an artificial arena, in which everything is removed except for the factors involved in the conflict. Chess is a context for intellectual strategic competition. In a gymnastics competition, only gymnastics skills matter.
在现实生活中，所面临的冲突和斗争从未像在游戏中那样清晰地表达和理解。玩家参与公平冲突的想法是游戏态度的关键组成部分，他们不会被游戏本身愚弄或欺骗。即使游戏可能存在不确定因素，但这种不确定性发挥作用的结构是预先知道的。规则本身的性质使这一点成为可能。正如我们从定义规则中所知，游戏规则限制了玩家的行为，是明确的、无歧义的、具有约束力的，并且由所有玩家共享。在魔法圈内，玩家体验到一种游戏之外不存在的平等和公平。
In real life, the conflicts and struggles faced are never so clearly articulated and understood as in a game. The idea that players are entering into a fair conflict, where they won’t be fooled or tricked by the game itself, is a key component of the lusory attitude. Even though games may have elements of uncertainty, the structure within which that uncertainty plays out is known in advance. The qualities of rules themselves make this so. As we know from Defining Rules, rules of a game limit player action, are explicit, unambiguous, binding, and shared by all players. Within the magic circle, players experience a kind of equality and fairness that is not present outside games.
游戏真的会努力创造平等的空间，只有游戏的玩法才能决定游戏的胜负吗？游戏是否如此纯粹，与现实世界毫无关联，以至于没有其他因素可以影响游戏？一般来说，不是这样的。但在本章中，我们将从形式层面，不考虑它们与外部世界的关系。从形式意义上讲，游戏是纯粹冲突的空间，与外部世界分离。
Is it really true that games strive to create spaces of equality, where only the play of the game can determine the winner of a game? Are games so pure and separate from the real world that no other factors possibly enter into the play? Generally speaking, no. But in this chapter we are analyzing games on a formal level, removed from consideration of their relation to the outside world. And in a formal sense, yes, games are spaces of pure conflict, separate from the outside world.
鉴于游戏的人工性质，公平是否可能实现？魔法圈是否提供了真正公平的竞争环境？Caillois 认为不可能：
Given the artificial nature of games, is fairness possible? Does the magic circle offer a truly level playing field? Caillois thinks not:
无论人们多么努力地去实现绝对平等，似乎都无法实现。有时，比如在跳棋或国际象棋中，先手是一种优势，因为这种优先权使受青睐的玩家能够占据关键位置或实施特殊策略。相反，在桥牌等叫牌游戏中，最后叫牌者会从对手叫牌提供的线索中获利。同样，在槌球比赛中，最后叫牌会使玩家的资源成倍增加。在体育比赛中，曝光度、太阳在前面或后面的事实、风向、在圆形跑道上争夺位置时发现自己在内侧或外侧跑道的事实构成了关键的考验，是王牌还是劣势，其影响可以通过在开始时抽签来消除或改变，然后通过严格轮换有利位置来消除或改变。6
As carefully as one tries to bring it about, absolute equality does not seem to be realizable. Sometimes, as in checkers or chess, the fact of moving first is an advantage, for this priority permits the favored player to occupy key positions or to impose a special strategy. Conversely, in bidding games, such as bridge, the last bidder profits from the clues afforded by the bids of his opponents. Again, at croquet, to be last multiplies the player’s resources. In sports contests, the exposure, the fact of having the sun in front or in back; the wind which aids or hinders one or the other side; the fact, in disputing for positions on a circular track, of finding oneself in the inside or outside lane constitutes a crucial test, a trump or disadvantage whose influence may be negated or modified by drawing lots at the beginning, then by strict alternation of favored positions.6
游戏中平等的理念确实存在矛盾。正如 Caillois 指出的那样，平等是游戏中追求的东西，但不知何故从未完全实现——至少在他引用的非数字游戏例子中是如此。那么数字游戏呢？在某些方面，它们在创造公平竞争环境方面具有优势。计算机系统的受限环境允许对确切的游戏条件进行更大的控制。另一方面，数字游戏复杂的自动化性质可能会使玩家与规则相距甚远。玩家很容易对不公平的网络延迟、“作弊”人工智能或低处理速度“卡顿”产生怀疑。这种玩家不信任，无论是否基于现实，都会毁掉一款游戏。
There is indeed a contradiction at work in the idea of equality within games. As Caillois points out, equality is something that is sought after in games, but somehow never quite achieved—at least, in the non-digital game examples he cites. What about digital games? In some ways, they have an advantage when it comes to creating a level playing field. The constrained context of a computer system allows for greater control over the exact conditions of play. On the other hand, the complex automated nature of digital games can place players at some distance from the rules. Players can easily grow suspicious of an unfair network lag, a “cheating” AI, or a low processing speed “stutter.” This kind of player distrust, whether or not it is based in reality, can ruin a game.
魔法圈很脆弱，当玩家对游戏失去信心时，魔法圈很容易被驱散。如果玩家觉得你的游戏不公平，缺乏公平竞争的环境，他们就不太可能想玩。在魔法圈内，游戏处于公平竞争的理想概念和不可避免的不公平现实之间，即使魔法圈的边界将其挡住，这种现实也会渗透到每一款游戏中。也许游戏并不是在绝对公平的竞争环境中进行的。但它们是以公平和平等的真正理念为前提的。这种斗争是游戏活力的一部分。
The magic circle is fragile, easily dispelled when players fail to invest faith in the game. If your players feel that your game is unfair, that it lacks a level playing field, it is unlikely that they will want to play. Within the magic circle, a game is suspended between the ideal notion of a level playing field and the reality of inevitable unfairness, a reality that creeps into every game, even while the magic circle’s border holds it at bay. Perhaps games do not take place on an absolutely level playing field. But they are premised on the very real idea of fairness and equality. This struggle is part of what gives games their vitality.
所有游戏都存在公平与不公平之间的冲突，这种斗争在违反规则时达到高潮，这一现象将在下一个图式中得到充分探讨。但即使在更有限的游戏设计环境中，建立公平感对于成功的游戏玩法也至关重要。以下案例研究详细研究了这个问题的一个例子。
All games participate in this conflict between fairness and unfairness, a struggle that reaches its climax in rule-breaking, a phenomena explored fully in the next schema. But even within a more limited game design context, establishing a sense of fairness is crucial to successful game play. The following case study looks at one example of this problem in detail.
猪归来
Pig Redux
我们首先在“游戏作为不确定性系统”中研究了 Pig 游戏。在 Pig 中，游戏的目标是通过掷骰子来得分，并将分数加到 100 分。如果掷出 1，则您将失去该回合获得的分数并传递骰子。否则，您将继续掷骰子以尝试增加分数。您可以随时决定停止掷骰子，此时您将当前总分添加到总分中并将骰子传递给下一位玩家。
We first examined the game Pig in Games as Systems of Uncertainty. In Pig, the goal of the game is to score points by rolling a die and adding to your score until you reach 100 points. If you roll a 1, then you lose the points you earned that turn and pass the die. Otherwise, you keep rolling to try to increase your score. You can always decide to stop rolling, at which point you add your current total to your overall score and pass the die to the next player.
这个游戏很简单。但它真的公平吗？第一个玩家有优势吗？因为 Pig 是关于一轮又一轮地积累分数，所以它确实对第一个玩家有利：那个人有额外的机会首先达到 100 分。如果有五名玩家，并且在第十轮时，第一个玩家得分达到 100 分或更多，则该玩家获胜。但是其他一些只玩了九轮的玩家，如果允许他们也玩第十轮，他们可能已经达到 100 分。
The game is very simple. But is it truly fair? Does the first player have an advantage? Because Pig is about accumulating a score, turn after turn, it does favor the first player: that person has an added chance of reaching 100 first. If there are five players and on the tenth turn the player that went first scores 100 points or more, that player wins. But some of the other players, who only got to play nine rounds, might have reached 100 if they had been allowed a tenth turn as well.
Pig 体现了经典的游戏设计问题，即创造一个公平的竞争环境。理想情况下，每个玩家都应该有平等的获胜机会。那么解决方案是什么呢？有几种可能的游戏设计调整。一种解决方案是，上一局的获胜者可以先出局，作为额外的奖励。但这并不能解决在第一局比赛中决定谁先出局的问题。获胜者应该以这种方式获得奖励吗？这样做会产生一个正反馈循环，这可能会破坏游戏的平衡。得分最低的玩家应该先出局吗？这两种解决方案都无法为所有玩家带来公平。
Pig embodies the classic game design problem of creating a level playing field. Ideally, every player should have an equal chance of winning. So what is the solution? There are a few possible game design adjustments. One solution is that the winner of the previous game gets to go first, as an added reward. But this does not solve the problem of deciding who goes first in the very first game. Should the winner be rewarded in this way? Doing so creates a positive feedback loop, which might unbalance the game. Should the player with the lowest score go first? Neither of these solutions create fairness for all players.
另一种解决方案是使用随机掷骰子来确定玩家顺序。掷出最高数字的玩家先走。尽管许多游戏都使用这种方法，但它不一定是解决问题的最佳方法。对所有玩家来说，这是否公平？例如，由于游戏是围绕玩家的圆圈进行的，如果掷出最低数字的玩家坐在掷出最高数字的玩家旁边，那么他最终可能会成为第二个玩家。无论如何，即使玩家的顺序是随机确定的，先走的玩家仍然比其他玩家有优势，不平等仍然存在。
Another solution is using a random die roll to determine player order. The player that rolled the highest number goes first. Even though a great many games use this method, it is not necessarily the best solution to the problem. Will it feel fair to all of the players? For example, because play proceeds around the circle of players, the player that rolled the lowest number may end up as the second player, if that player is sitting next to the person that rolled the highest number. In any case, even if the order of players is randomly determined, the player moving first still has an advantage over the other players, and the inequality remains.
另一种解决方案是，玩游戏的次数等于桌上玩家的数量，轮流让哪个玩家先出场。如果有十个玩家，他们将玩十次游戏。每次，不同的玩家将先出场。玩家要么将他们的分数加起来，得到一个总分，要么获胜次数最多的玩家将成为总冠军。这个解决方案在数学上是可行的，可以使游戏均衡，但它会突然将 Pig 的休闲体验转变为结构化的锦标赛。如果你只想玩一两场游戏而不是整个系列游戏，该怎么办？
Yet another solution would be to play the game a number of times equal to the number of players at the table, rotating which player goes first. If there were ten players, they would play the game ten times. Each time, a different player would go first. Players would either add up their scores for a grand total or the player who won the most times would be named the overall winner. This solution works mathematically to equalize the game, but it suddenly transforms the casual experience of Pig into a structured tournament. What if you only want to play a game or two and not an entire series of games?
我们从 Reiner Knizia 的书《骰子游戏的正确解释》中借用了猪的游戏。7 Knizia 注意到了这种不平等，并提出了以下变体：当一名玩家得分达到 100 时，其余所有玩家可以再掷一次并完成该回合。如果最终有多名玩家得分超过 100，则得分最高的玩家获胜。这比之前提出的任何调整都要好，但即使是这种设计精良的解决方案也有缺陷。在 Knizia 的解决方案中，最好不要成为第一个达到 100 的玩家，因为所有其他玩家都确切地知道他们获胜所需的分数，他们会拼命击败即将获胜的玩家。实际上，最好在最后一轮最后掷骰子。因为从数学上讲，游戏开始时先掷骰子的玩家更有可能第一个达到 100，所以成为第一个掷骰子的玩家最终会略微处于劣势。
We borrowed the game of Pig from Reiner Knizia’s book Dice Games Properly Explained.7 Knizia notes this very inequality and suggests the following as a variation: when a player reaches 100, all of the rest of the players get to roll once more and finish the round. If more than one player ends up exceeding 100, the player with the highest score wins. This is better than any of the previously proposed adjustments, but even this well-designed solution is flawed. In Knizia’s solution, it is best not to be the first player to reach 100, because all of the other players know exactly the score that they need to win, and they will push their luck in order to beat the player that is about to win. It is actually best if you roll last during the final round. Because the player that went first at the beginning of the game is mathematically more likely to be the first to reach 100, it ends up being a slight disadvantage to be the first player.
即使是在像 Pig 这样非常简单的游戏中，也没有完美的解决方案能够为所有玩家提供绝对平等。但幸运的是，玩家并不是完全理性的生物。他们是人类，最好的解决方案不一定是平等问题的最佳数学答案，而是在游戏环境中感觉正确的答案。绝对平等，就像计算机算法中的纯随机性一样，可能是一个神话。但只要游戏中的平等感持续存在，玩家就会保持信心并进入你为他们设计的魔法圈。
Even in a very simple game such as Pig, there is no perfect solution that offers absolute equality for all players. But luckily, players are not perfectly rational beings. They are human, and the best solution is not necessarily the best mathematical answer to the question of equality, but the one that feels right within the context of a game. Absolute equality, like pure randomness in a computer algorithm, may be a myth. But as long as the feeling of equality persists within the game, players will keep the faith and enter into the magic circles you design for them.
最后，公平本身是否可以在游戏中发挥作用？我们曾提出，可以通过创新的游戏设计（如《捉龙尾巴》）来挑战游戏冲突的其他组成部分，例如竞争与合作或实现游戏目标。这是否也延伸到游戏的公平竞争环境？也许吧。但这是一个非常复杂的问题。在下一个图式《打破规则》中，我们将尽力回答这个问题。
As a final thought, is fairness itself something that can be put at play in a game? We have suggested that other components of game conflict, such as competition and cooperation, or achieving game goals, could be challenged through innovative game designs such as Catch the Dragon’s Tail. Does this extend to the level playing field of a game as well? Perhaps. But it is a very complicated question. In the next schema, Breaking the Rules, we do our best to answer it.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
《Homo Ludens》，Johann Huizinga 着（见第 99 页）
Homo Ludens, by Johann Huizinga (see page 99)
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第一章：游戏作为一种文化的性质和意义
Chapter 1: Nature and Significance of Play as a Cultural
现象
Phenomenon
《新游戏书》，作者：Andrew Fluegelman 和 Shoshana Tembeck（见第 21 页）
The New Games Book, by Andrew Fluegelman and Shoshana Tembeck (see page 21)
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
“创建游戏社区”，Bernard DeKoven
“Creating the Play Community,” Bernard DeKoven
斯图尔特·布兰德《博弈论变革》
“Theory of Game Change,” Stewart Brand
笔记
Notes
1. Bernard DeKoven，《The Well-Played Game》（纽约：Doubleday，1978 年），第 11 页。
1. Bernard DeKoven, The Well-Played Game (New York: Doubleday, 1978), p. 11.
2.米哈里·契克森米哈赖，《心流：最优体验心理学》（纽约：哈珀柯林斯出版社，1991 年），第 72-3 页。
2. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991), p. 72–3.
3. Andrew Fluegelman 和 Shoshana Tembeck，《新游戏书》（纽约：Doubleday，1976 年），第 87–88 页。
3. Andrew Fluegelman and Shoshana Tembeck, The New Games Book (New York: Doubleday, 1976), p. 87–88.
4.同上，第47页。
4. Ibid. p. 47.
5. Roger Caillois，《人、游戏和游戏》（伦敦：泰晤士和哈德逊，1962 年），第 14 页。
5. Roger Caillois, Man, Play, and Games (London: Thames and Hudson, 1962), p. 14.
6.同上，第14-15页。
6. Ibid. p. 14–15.
7. Reiner Knizia，《骰子游戏的正确解释》（塔德沃思，萨里：Right Way Books，1992 年），第 128-130 页。
7. Reiner Knizia, Dice Games Properly Explained (Tadworth, Surrey: Right Way Books, 1992), p. 128–30.
游戏作为冲突系统
概括
•冲突是每个游戏的内在元素。游戏中的冲突是在玩家努力实现游戏目标时从魔法圈中产生的。
• Conflict is an intrinsic element of every game. The conflict in a game emerges from within the magic circle as players struggle to achieve the goals of a game.
• 游戏冲突有多种形式。冲突可以是个人冲突或团队冲突、合作冲突或非合作冲突、直接冲突或间接冲突。许多游戏在单一游戏结构中混合并匹配各种形式的冲突。
• Game conflict comes in many forms. Conflict can be individual or team-based, cooperative or non-cooperative, direct or indirect. Many games mix and match forms of conflict within a single game structure.
• 游戏中发生的冲突形式是游戏规则的直接产物。构建游戏可能性空间的一种方式是，它是冲突可能形式的空间。玩家不仅会参与游戏设计所禁止的冲突形式，还会找到自己的冲突形式。
• The forms of conflict occurring within a game are a direct outgrowth of its rules. One way of framing a game’s space of possibility is that it is a space of possible forms of conflict. Players take part not just in the forms of conflict that the game design proscribes, but will also find their own forms as well.
• 所有游戏都具有竞争性，玩家在玩游戏时相互竞争或与游戏系统竞争。如果没有这种竞争意识，有意义的游戏将很难进行，因为玩家将无法通过游戏的可能性空间来判断自己的进度。
• All games are competitive in that players struggle against each other or against a game system as they play. Without this sense of competition, meaningful play would be difficult because players would not be able to judge their progress through the space of possibility of a game.
• 所有游戏都是合作性的，玩游戏意味着参与游戏的共同意义，与其他玩家“讲游戏语言”来玩游戏。
• All games are cooperative, in that playing a game means engaging with the shared meanings of the game, “speaking the language” of the game with other players in order to play.
•系统合作是指所有游戏都具有的根本性、话语性合作。玩家合作是指所有玩家共同努力实现目标的游戏。并非所有游戏都表现出玩家合作。
• Systemic cooperation refers to the fundamental, discursive cooperation that is intrinsic to all games. Player cooperation refers to games in which players all work together to achieve the goal. Not all games exhibit player cooperation.
• 游戏的目标是塑造游戏形式结构的基本要素。游戏的目标是玩家努力实现的目标，同时也代表着游戏的结束或象征性死亡。
• The goal of a game is a fundamental element that shapes the game’s formal structure. The goal is at once that toward which players strive, while also that which represents the end or symbolic death of a game.
• 塑造胜利和失败条件是游戏设计的一个重要组成部分。胜利和失败条件直接决定了游戏的可能结果。
• Shaping victory and loss conditions is an important component of game design. Victory and loss conditions directly shape the possible outcomes of a game.
• 游戏冲突的前提是公平竞争，所有玩家都有同等的获胜机会。在现实世界中，真正公平的游戏几乎不可能实现，这给任何游戏的公平性带来了内在的紧张。玩家通常会拒绝玩他们认为不公平的游戏。
• Game conflict is premised on a level playing field where all players have an equal chance of winning. A truly equitable game is virtually never possible in the real world, creating an intrinsic tension in regards to the fairness of any game. Players will generally refuse to play a game they perceive to be unfair.
21
21
打破规则
BREAKING THE RULES
标准球员
standard players
专注的玩家
dedicated players
缺乏体育精神的球员
unsportsmanlike players
骗子
cheaters
破坏运动
spoil-sports
退化策略
degenerate strategies
漏洞
exploits
[玩家口头表达的规则] 是一套理想化的规则——它们是人们应该遵守的规则，而不是他们实际遵守的规则……我们可能必须知道两套规则：理想的规则和理想规则被应用、误用或颠覆的规则。——肯尼斯·戈德斯坦，《算牌策略》
[The rules that players verbalize] are an idealized set of rules—they are the rules by which people should play rather than the ones by which they do play . . . . we may have to know two sets of rules: the ideal ones and those by which the ideal rules are applied, misapplied, or subverted.—Kenneth Goldstein, “Strategies in Counting Out”
当你必须获胜时，你愿意打破任何规则，只要这能帮助你更接近目标。当你必须获胜时，你不会关心公平、感觉、社区，甚至游戏。当你必须获胜时，你不能离开游戏，直到你最终获胜。
When you have to win, you’re willing to break whatever rules you can if that would help you get closer to the goal. When you have to win, you’re not concerned with fairness, feeling, the community, or even play. When you have to win you can’t leave the game until you have finally, ultimately won.
让我惊讶的是，游戏本身并没有改变。规则和惯例都是一样的。但玩游戏的方式却完全不同。——伯纳德·德科文，《玩得好游戏》
What’s amazing to me about all this is that the game itself doesn’t change. The rules and the conventions are the same. But the manner of playing the game is completely different.—Bernard DeKoven, The Well-Played Game
打破规则
Introducing Rule-Breaking
本图以我们之前听过的两位思想家的两句名言作为开篇。民俗学家肯尼斯·戈尔茨坦首次出现在《不确定性》图解中，他研究了儿童如何通过一系列微妙而狡猾的策略来颠覆数数的习惯，比如为了避免成为“它”，多加一个“eenie-meenie-minee-moe”。我们在之前的《冲突》图解中介绍了伯纳德·德科文，他是新游戏运动的领军人物。
This schema opens with a pair of quotes from two thinkers we have heard from before. Folklorist Kenneth Goldstein first appeared in the schema on Uncertainty, where he looked at the ways that children subvert the ritual of counting-out through a number of subtle and devious strategies, such as adding an extra “eenie-meenie-minee-moe” in order to avoid becoming “it.” We introduced Bernard DeKoven in the previous schema on Conflict as a leading figure in the New Games Movement.
戈德斯坦指出，尽管游戏有规则，但应该认为游戏有两套规则：理想的游戏规则和实际的游戏规则，而实际的游戏规则有时会误用并颠覆理想的规则。德科文从不同的角度看待同一组问题。他指出，有些玩家太想赢了，以至于无视公平的一般观念。最让德科文感兴趣的似乎是，这种截然相反的游戏风格可以在同一游戏结构中与正常游戏同时出现。
Goldstein points out that although games have rules, they should be considered to have two sets of rules: the ideal rules of play and the actual rules of play, which sometimes misapply and subvert the ideal rules. DeKoven comes at the same set of issues from a different point of view. He points out that some players are so motivated to win that they disregard usual notions of fairness. What seems to intrigue DeKoven the most is that such opposing styles of play can occur alongside normal play within the same game structure.
无论我们是在谈论理想规则与实际规则，还是诚实玩家与作弊玩家，两位作者都指出了一个重要的游戏现象。到目前为止，我们在本书中以一种近乎天真的方式描述了游戏玩家：我们假设每个玩家都是认真的玩家，认真诚实地遵守规则。虽然这确实描述了许多游戏玩家，但肯定不是每个玩家都是如此。以戈尔茨坦在分析计数游戏时研究过的孩子为例。在操纵押韵以达到某些期望的结果时（他将成为“它”，不是我！），这些玩家实际上在做什么？他们是否在延长和改变计数规则以赢得胜利？他们在游戏中作弊了吗？还是他们只是玩得很好？最后一个正式的模式，打破规则，直接研究了玩家如何扭曲、作弊和破坏那些我们在过去几章中如此彻底研究过的精心设计的规则系统。
Whether we are talking about ideal rules versus actual rules or honest players versus cheating players, both writers point to an important game phenomenon. So far in this book, we have described game players in an almost naïve way: we have assumed that every player is an earnest player, carefully and honestly playing by the rules. Although this does describe many game players, it is certainly not true of every single one. Take the children that Goldstein studied in his analysis of counting-out games. In manipulating rhymes in order to achieve certain desired results (he is going to be “It,” not me!), what were these players actually doing? Were they stretching and altering the rules of counting-out in order to win? Were they cheating at the game? Or were they simply playing the game very well? This final formal schema, Breaking the Rules, takes a direct look at how players bend, cheat, and break those carefully crafted systems of rules that we have so thoroughly investigated in the last several chapters.
在许多方面，打破规则似乎是玩游戏的一部分。无论是试图在裁判不注意的时候偷偷犯规，改变棋盘游戏以使用一套特殊的“家庭规则”，还是利用藏在袖子里的黑桃 A，重新配置、打破和无视规则似乎都是游戏本身的内在组成部分。但是，是什么引导玩家打破规则呢？打破规则对游戏玩法有什么影响？游戏设计如何鼓励或阻止玩家打破规则？最后，打破规则可以作为游戏设计的创造性策略吗？我们将在以下几页中探讨这些问题。
In so many different ways, breaking the rules seems to be part of playing games. Whether it is trying to sneak in a foul while the referee isn’t looking, altering a board game to play with a special set of “home rules,” or making use of an ace of spades hidden up your sleeve, reconfiguring, breaking, and ignoring the rules seems to be an intrinsic part of games themselves. But what guides a player to break the rules? What is the effect of rule-breaking on game play? How does a game’s design either encourage or discourage players from breaking the rules? Lastly, can rule-breaking be used as a creative strategy for game design? We investigate these questions in the following pages.
违反规则的种类
Kinds of Rule-Breaking
违反规则和扭曲规则会操纵游戏的结构。在游戏中作弊或违反规则意味着违反规则，与正式系统的关系不同于正式系统本身预设和认可的关系。在考虑违反游戏规则的方式时，我们可以将玩家分为不同的玩家“类型”。每种类型的玩家都是根据其与游戏正式系统的关系来定义的，沿着三个相关的行为和态度轴线：
Rule-bending and rule-breaking manipulate the structure of a game. To cheat or transgress in a game means to break the rules, to have a relationship to the formal system that is different than the relationship that the formal system itself presupposes and endorses. In considering the ways that game rules are broken, we can divide players into different player “types.” Each type of player is defined by his or her relation to the formal systems of a game, along three related axes of behavior and attitude:
• 违反规则的球员对规则的遵守
• The rule-breaking player’s adherence to the rules
• 违反规则的球员对获胜的兴趣
• The rule-breaking player’s interest in winning
• 违反规则的球员的诱惑态度程度
• The rule-breaking player’s degree of lusory attitude
玩家类型
Player Types
标准玩家：这种玩家类型是“标准”且诚实的游戏玩家，他们按照游戏设计的方式玩游戏，遵守规则并尊重他们的权威。
The Standard Player: This player type is a “standard” and honest game player that plays the game as it was designed to be played, following the rules and respecting their authority.
专注型玩家：这类玩家是标准玩家的近亲，他们会研究游戏的正式系统，以掌握和完善自己的游戏玩法，经常寻找和利用不寻常的策略来取胜。例如：专业运动员、铁杆玩家。
The Dedicated Player: This close cousin of the standard player studies the formal systems of a game in order to master and perfect his or her play of the game, often finding and exploiting unusual strategies in order to win. Examples: professional athletes, hardcore gamers.
缺乏体育精神的球员：第三种类型的球员遵守游戏规则，但其行为方式却违背了游戏精神。例如：哥哥姐姐从来不让弟弟妹妹赢，或者棒球接球手总是试图分散击球手的注意力。
The Unsportsmanlike Player: This third type of player follows the rules of a game, but does so in a way that violates the spirit of the lusory attitude. Examples: The older sibling that never lets the younger sibling win, or the baseball catcher that tries to distract the batter’s concentration at the plate.
作弊者：作弊者与其他类型的游戏玩家不同，他们实际上违反了游戏的正式规则，但这样做是为了赢得游戏。例如：捉迷藏玩家在其他玩家躲藏时偷看。
The Cheat: The cheater, unlike the other kinds of game-players, actually violates the formal rules of the game, but does so in order to win the game. Example: The hide-and-seek player that peeks while the other players are hiding.
破坏者：这种玩家根本就不是玩家。与作弊者不同，破坏者拒绝承认游戏的魔力圈，也不关心是否获胜或是否遵守规则。示例：沮丧的 Twister 玩家通过推倒其他玩家而破坏了游戏。
The Spoil-Sport: This kind of game player is hardly a player at all. Unlike the cheat, the spoil-sport refuses to acknowledge the magic circle of the game and does not care about winning or about following the rules. Example: The frustrated Twister player that ruins a game by pushing over the other players.
在以下章节中，我们将更详细地描述每种类型的玩家。但在继续之前，重要的是要认识到这些类别既不是固定的也不是相互排斥的。它们之间的界限相当模糊，而且往往与环境有关。在玩家朋友中，一个专注的硬核玩家在与更休闲的玩家玩游戏时，可能会被视为缺乏体育精神、过于好胜的“强力玩家”。同样，玩家可能会随着时间的推移，甚至在一场游戏中在不同类别之间转换。然而，尽管它们之间的界限不固定，但这些类别提供了一个有用的类型学，有助于理解玩家扩展、改变和打破游戏规则的方式。
In the sections that follow, we describe each kind of player in more detail. But before moving on, it is important to recognize that these categories are neither fixed nor mutually exclusive. The boundaries between them are quite fuzzy, and often contextual. A player that is a dedicated hardcore gamer among gamer friends might be seen as an unsportsmanlike, overly competitive “power gamer” when playing a game with more casual players. Likewise, a player might shift between categories over time, or even within the course of a single game. Despite the fluid boundaries between them, however, these categories provide a useful typology for understanding the ways players stretch, bend, and break game rules.
标准玩家
Standard Players
标准玩家是所有其他类型玩家的对照样本。标准游戏玩家会尽力遵守规则，尊重他们的权威并遵守他们设定的限制。在规则、目标和拥有欲望态度方面，标准玩家是最守法的公民。
The standard player is the test case against which all other types of players are contrasted. The standard game player attempts to follow the rules as best he or she can, respecting their authority and honoring the limits they set. In terms of rules, goals, and possession of the lusory attitude, the standard player is a most law-abiding citizen.
大多数玩家都符合这一描述吗？事实上，他们符合。魔法圈是流动的，但大多数玩家在玩游戏时，尤其是与其他玩家面对面玩游戏时，他们都会遵守规则，从头到尾玩游戏。为什么面对面的互动很重要？游戏是一种社会契约。其他玩家的存在对于维护魔法圈的权威性很重要，因为如果一群玩家都遵守规则，他们就会暗中监督和执行正确的游戏。为什么？因为如果他们决定赋予游戏意义以便玩游戏，他们都有既得利益来维护规则创造的公平竞争环境。这并不意味着大多数玩家都是游戏规则的盲目奴隶，但一般来说，纵观所有游戏现象，玩家确实遵守规则。如果不是这样，那么在游戏中作弊就是常态，而不是例外。
Do most players fit this description? Actually, they do. The magic circle is fluid, but when most players play a game, especially a game with other players that can be seen face-to-face, they respect the rules and play the game from beginning to end. Why is face-to-face interaction important? A game is a kind of social contract. The presence of other players is important to maintaining the authority of the magic circle, because if a group of players are all obeying the rules, they implicitly police and enforce proper play. Why? Because if they have decided to invest the game with meaning in order to play, they all have a vested interest in maintaining the level playing field of conflict created by the rules. This does not mean that most players are mindless slaves to the rules of a game, but generally speaking, looking across all phenomena of games, players do follow the rules. If this were not the case, then cheating at games would be the rule and not the exception.
您可能不同意我们关于大多数玩家不会违反规则的观点。例如，人们也可以认为所有玩家都会作弊，驱使玩家获胜的游戏欲望力量包含着作弊的种子。从这个角度来看，作弊是游戏的一个内在方面，即使它并不总是以真正违反规则的形式浮出水面。但无论“标准玩家”是真正的多数情况还是现实世界中不存在的虚构，“标准玩家”的概念仍然很重要。存在一个标准玩家，即认真遵守规则而不试图扭曲和破坏规则的游戏玩家，这一观点为理解不受规则支配的游戏风格提供了背景。
You may well disagree with our contention that most players do not break the rules. One could also take the position, for example, that cheating exists in all players, that the force of game-playing desire that drives a player to win contains the seeds of cheating. Cheating, in this view, would be an intrinsic aspect of game-playing, even if it did not always rise to the surface in the form of genuine rule-breaking. But whether the “standard player” is really the majority case or a fiction that doesn’t exist in the real world, the notion of the “standard player” is still important. The idea that there is a standard player, a game player that earnestly follows the rules without trying to bend and break them, provides the backdrop against which less rule-governed styles of play can be understood.
专注的玩家
Dedicated Players
下一种类型的游戏玩家是专注型玩家。专注型玩家实际上更像是标准玩家的一个特例，而不是完全不同的玩家类型。专注型玩家渴望成为游戏专家，并努力研究游戏规则，以期最大限度地提高获胜机会获胜的欲望。标准游戏玩家表现出获胜的欲望和对游戏规则的兴趣，而专注型玩家则以某种热情投入到这项任务中，这种热情的程度可能让普通玩家感到不愉快。如果游戏允许，专注型玩家往往会练习他们的游戏，测试策略并完善他们对游戏的了解。
The next type of game player is the dedicated player. The dedicated player is really more of a special case of the standard player than a completely different player type. The dedicated player desires to become an expert at a game, and diligently studies the rules of play in an attempt to maximize the chances of winning. Whereas standard game players exhibit a desire to win and an interest in the rules of a game, dedicated players apply themselves to this task with a certain kind of zeal, to a degree that more casual players might not find enjoyable. If the game permits, dedicated players tend to practice their play, testing out strategies and perfecting their knowledge of the game.
想要享受二十一点乐趣的典型拉斯维加斯游客可能会到处玩几局，浏览不同的赌场和赌桌，依靠直觉来指导自己玩牌。另一方面，专注的二十一点玩家不会只是随便玩几轮游戏，而是可能会研究一两个二十一点“系统”并在游戏中认真实施，找到具有有利规则变体的赌桌，在游戏中数牌，并在二十一点赌桌上花很长时间来平衡获胜的几率。专注玩家和普通玩家之间的区别在于程度，而不是种类。
A typical Las Vegas tourist who wants to enjoy Blackjack might play a few games here and there, browsing different casinos and tables, relying on intuition to guide him as he plays. A dedicated Blackjack player, on the other hand, won’t merely play a few casual rounds of the game, but is likely to study a Blackjack “system” or two and implement it diligently in play, finding tables with advantageous rule variants, counting cards during play, and spending long hours at the Blackjack table in order to balance out his odds of winning. The difference between dedicated and standard players is a matter of degree, not kind.
回想一下，玩家类型之间的差异沿着三个轴线：他们与游戏态度的关系、他们对规则权威的尊重以及他们对实现游戏目标的兴趣。在每个类别中，专注型玩家与标准玩家相似。但专注型玩家对游戏的参与度更深，对游戏的热情更高。对于专注型玩家来说，获胜更为重要，为了做到这一点，他们通常会学习和掌握游戏规则。同时，专注型玩家倾向于赋予魔法圈更多权威，因为他们对整个游戏的投入很有价值。他们拥有额外的游戏态度，将游戏的低效率视为重要的挑战，并尽可能熟练地克服这些挑战。
Recall that the differences between types of players is drawn along three axes: their relationship to the lusory attitude, their respect for the authority of the rules, and their interest in attaining the goal of the game. Within each of these categories, dedicated players resemble standard players. But dedicated players have a deeper engagement with the game, a greater zeal for play. It is more important for dedicated players to win, and in order to do so, they will generally learn and master the rules of a game. At the same time, dedicated players tend to invest the magic circle with more authority, because of the value of their investment in the game as a whole. They posses extra amounts of the lusory attitude, relishing the inefficiencies of games as important challenges to overcome as proficiently as possible.
谁是忠实玩家？职业运动员和职业赌徒——那些以玩游戏为生的人。还有所谓的“硬核玩家”，从老练的历史战争游戏玩家到拥有改装定制 PC 的死亡竞赛部落领袖。一般来说，忠实玩家需要更多的深度和复杂性，以及游戏中更丰富的可能性空间。这就是为什么非游戏玩家经常发现硬核玩家的游戏内容复杂得令人费解且难以接近。
Who are dedicated players? Professional athletes and professional gamblers—those that make their living as game players. So are so-called “hardcore gamers,” from grognard historical wargamers to deathmatch clan leaders with tricked-out custom PCs. In general, dedicated players require more depth and complexity, a richer space of possibility in their games. This is why non-gamers often find the gaming fare of hardcore gamers bafflingly complex and unapproachable.
专注的玩家往往带着一种热情玩游戏，而这种热情往往会让不那么专注的玩家望而却步，他们有时会怀疑专注的玩家是否对游戏过于认真。我们所描述的专注的二十一点玩家可能会在拉斯维加斯度假的大部分时间里玩二十一点牌桌，而对于将游戏视为一种放松和休闲方式的休闲标准玩家来说，这似乎是不可理解的。休闲玩家不希望在游戏的魔力圈内花费那么多清醒的时间。
Dedicated players tend to play with a zeal that often puts off less dedicated players, who sometimes wonder if dedicated players are taking the game just a bit too seriously. The dedicated Blackjack player we described, who might spend most of a Las Vegas vacation at the Blackjack tables, might seem incomprehensible to the casual, standard player, who looks at games as a form of relaxation and leisure. A casual player does not wish to spend so many waking hours inside the magic circle of a game.
专注的游戏玩家和标准游戏玩家之间的界限非常模糊，而且这种区别往往与环境有关。在你的专注的保龄球伙伴中，你可能作为一名标准玩家就很好相处，嘲笑那些穿着相同衬衫、“太认真”地玩游戏而没有乐趣的联赛球员。但当你最终和一群初学者一起玩游戏时，他们想中途放弃比赛去看电影，你可能会发现自己被指责“玩得太认真”，因为你要求他们坚持到第十帧并完成他们开始的任务。
There is a very fuzzy line between dedicated game players and standard game players, and the difference is often contextual. Among your dedicated bowling buddies, you might fit in just fine as a standard player, scoffing at the league players that wear matching shirts and play the game “too seriously” to have fun. But when you end up in a game with a group of beginners who want to abandon a match in the middle to go see a movie, you might find yourself being accused of playing “too seriously” when you demand that they stay to the tenth frame and finish what they started.
作为游戏设计师，了解玩家类型范围以及他们与游戏规则、目标和魔法圈之间的关系非常重要。有些游戏显然对普通玩家和专业玩家都具有吸引力，例如 Scrabble。Scrabble 通常作为休闲家庭游戏，但它也支持硬核玩家的国际锦标赛文化。其他类型的游戏往往会吸引一种类型的玩家。喜欢 Myst 的低压力、探索性节奏的玩家通常与愿意花费大量时间理解和理解的忠实玩家群体不同。掌握神话：堕落的领主。在电脑之外，玩画图猜词等聚会游戏的玩家与喜欢复杂战争游戏和角色扮演游戏的玩家之间也存在类似的分歧。
As game designers, it is important to understand the range of player types that encounter your game, and the kinds of relationships they have to the rules, goals, and magic circle that your game delineates. Some games clearly appeal to both standard and dedicated players, such as Scrabble. Scrabble is often played as casual family fare, but it also supports an international tournament culture of hardcore players. Other kinds of games tend to attract one kind of player over another. The players that enjoy the low-pressure, exploratory pacing of Myst are generally not the same kind of dedicated player audience that would spend the many hours required to understand and master Myth: The Fallen Lords. There is a similar divide off the computer between players of party games such as Pictionary and fans of complex wargames and role-playing games.
前两类游戏玩家——标准玩家和专注玩家——最终并不是规则破坏者。他们是“经典”游戏玩家，是游戏设计师通常为之设计游戏的玩家，是规则的忠实执行者。与标准玩家一样，专注玩家也确实遵守规则。但我们很快就会看到，尽管他们似乎更专注于游戏的魔力圈，但他们的专注使他们更接近真正的规则破坏者。
The first two categories of game-players—standard and dedicated players—are not ultimately rule-breakers. They are “classical” game players, the kinds of players for whom designers usually design games, loyal functionaries of the rules. Like standard players, dedicated players are indeed rule-abiding. But as we’ll see soon enough, even though they seem more invested in the magic circle of a game, their dedication takes them one step closer to actual rule-breaking.
缺乏体育精神的球员
Unsportsmanlike Players
第三种是缺乏体育精神的选手。缺乏体育精神的选手会尽一切可能取胜。他们试图寻找胜利的捷径，利用严格的规则寻找漏洞，最终取得领先。例如，缺乏体育精神的拳击手可能会在对手积极进攻时不断抓住绳索或进行扭打。请注意，拳击手并没有真正违反比赛规则。事实上，有些人可能认为这种方法是拳击的有效策略。但不知何故，缺乏体育精神的拳击手违背了拳击比赛的精神，破坏了两位选手运动技能之间的纯粹较量。
The third type is the unsportsmanlike player. Unsportsmanlike players do anything they can to win. They try to find shortcuts to victory, exploiting the rigidity of the rules to locate holes that they can slip through to end up ahead. An unsportsmanlike boxer, for example, might constantly grab at the ropes or go into a clinch whenever the opponent advances aggressively. Note that the boxer stops short of actually violating the rules of the game. In fact, some might consider this approach a valid strategy for Boxing. But somehow, the unsportsmanlike boxer violates the spirit of the contest of Boxing, marring the purity of the battle between the athletic skills of the two players.
与通常公开参与“有趣”游戏的标准和专注型玩家不同，缺乏体育精神的行为有些负面。缺乏体育精神的玩家会将专注型玩家的特殊热情转变为似乎与游戏和比赛的快乐本质背道而驰的东西。缺乏体育精神的玩家不是作弊者。缺乏体育精神的玩家确实遵守游戏规则，但方式却违背了游戏精神。通过试图走捷径来逃避游戏挑战，缺乏体育精神的玩家拒绝完全屈服于贪婪的态度，在这种态度中，游戏的低效率是可以接受的。
Unlike standard and dedicated players who generally engage openly with the “fun” quality of play, there is something negative about unsportsmanlike behavior. The unsportsmanlike player turns the special zeal of dedicated players into something that seems to run counter to the joyful nature of play and games. An unsportsmanlike player is not a cheat. The unsportsmanlike player does follow the rules of a game, but in a way that violates the spirit of the game. By attempting to shortcut the challenges of a game, the unsportsmanlike player refuses to surrender completely to the lusory attitude, in which the inefficiencies of play are readily accepted.
违反体育道德的行为违反了游戏的“不成文”规则，即所有玩家都遵守的隐含规则。这就是违反体育道德的玩家如何“技术性地”避免被指定为作弊者，同时仍然没有完全尊重这种玩笑态度。我们在“三个层次的规则”中讨论过的井字游戏隐含规则之一是回合之间的隐含时间限制。即使操作规则没有提到时间限制，玩家必须在“合理”的时间内轮流进行游戏的想法也是游戏的隐含规则。想象一下，一个违反体育道德的玩家即将输掉一场井字游戏，但拒绝轮流进行游戏。玩家可能会说他正在“思考”下一步行动，并声称由于规则没有规定时间限制，他可以花任意长的时间，甚至几年的时间，然后再行动。这种行为虽然没有违反操作规则，但显然违反了游戏精神。
Unsportsmanlike behavior is a violation of the “unwritten” rules of a game, the implicit rules that are not actually written out, but are observed by all players. This is how the unsportsmanlike player “technically” avoids designation as a cheater, while still failing to completely respect the lusory attitude. One of the implicit rules of Tic-Tac-Toe we discussed in Rules on Three Levels is the implied time limit between turns. Even though the operational rules do not mention a time limit, the idea that a player must take a turn in a “reasonable” amount of time is an implicit rule of the game. Imagine an unsportsmanlike player that is about to lose a game of Tic-Tac-Toe, but refuses to take a turn. The player might state that he is “thinking” about his next move, and claim that because the rules do not state a time limit, he can take as long as he wants, even years, before he has to move. This kind of behavior, although not violating the operational rules, clearly violates the spirit of the game.
退化策略
Degenerate Strategies
专注且缺乏体育精神的玩家有独特的方式参与游戏系统。这些玩家类型表现出的一种常见行为是利用退化策略或漏洞。我们在《游戏作为博弈论系统》中首次遇到了退化策略。退化策略是一种利用游戏设计中的弱点玩游戏的方式，因此游戏策略可以保证成功。
Dedicated and unsportsmanlike players have particular ways of engaging with the system of a game. One common behavior these player types exhibit is to make use of degenerate strategies or exploits. We first encountered degenerate strategies in Games as Game Theory Systems. A degenerate strategy is a way of playing a game that takes advantage of a weakness in the game design, so that the play strategy guarantees success.
退化策略经常出现在复杂的游戏中，其中游戏的众多排列组合有时会在可能性空间中提供捷径。例如，您正在与计算机玩实时战略游戏，并且您意识到程序的 AI 不能很好地处理寻路。（寻路是指程序为计算机控制的角色绘制穿越障碍地形的导航路径。）每当计算机控制的部队绕过障碍物时，他们都会开始列队行进，但最终会变得杂乱无章，各个单位被困在不规则的地形的口袋。不过，你并不难做出必要的小调整，让你的部队保持在一起。如果你决定利用这个弱点，策略性地将计算机控制的对手引向地图上充满障碍的部分，那么你就是在使用一种退化的策略。
Degenerate strategies often appear in complex games, where the numerous permutations of play sometimes afford shortcuts in the space of possibility. For example, you are playing a realtime strategy game against the computer and you realize that the program’s AI does not handle pathfinding well. (Pathfinding refers to the aspects of the program that plot navigational paths for the computer-controlled characters through obstacle-filled terrain.) Whenever the computer-controlled troops move around obstacles, they begin the march in formation but end up disorganized, with individual units trapped in irregularly shaped pockets of the terrain. It is not difficult for you, however, to make the small corrections necessary to keep your units together. If you decided to take advantage of this weakness by strategically leading the computer-controlled opponents into obstacle-filled parts of the map, you would be using a degenerate strategy.
以这种方式利用游戏的弱点并不完全构成作弊，但它确实利用了游戏的结构作为获胜手段。尽管游戏的设计目的不是让玩家利用，但退化策略的退化不仅仅是因为它违背了设计者的意图。利用漏洞是一种违反游戏精神的游戏方式，类似于利用井字游戏回合之间时间的隐含规则。
Taking advantage of the game’s weakness in this way would not exactly constitute cheating, but it does exploit the game’s structure as a means of winning. Although games are not designed to be exploited by players, what makes a degenerate strategy degenerate is not just that it goes against the intentions of the designers. Using an exploit is a way of playing that violates the spirit of the game, similar to taking advantage of the implicit rule governing time between Tic-Tac-Toe turns.
堕落策略也出现在非数字游戏中。在《万智牌：聚会》的早期版本中，某些牌组合实在太强大，可以在比赛开始前的第一回合就击败玩家。游戏发行商威世智宣布某些牌“正式”非法，其中最臭名昭著的是黑莲花牌，以控制这种游戏体验。在受监管的锦标赛中，这些被禁止的牌不会被使用。但在更休闲的游戏中，玩家多年来仍继续将它们加入到牌组中。
Degenerate strategies appear in non-digital games as well. In early editions of Magic: The Gathering, certain card combinations were simply too powerful and could destroy a player on the first turn, before a match had a chance to develop. Wizards of the Coast, the publishers of the game, declared certain cards “officially” illegal, most notoriously the Black Lotus card, in order to keep this kind of play experience in check. In regulated tournament play, the outlawed cards were not used. But in more casual games, players continued to include them in their decks for years.
为什么使用退化策略不算作弊？退化策略利用了游戏规则的弱点，但实际上并没有违反规则。什么样的玩家会以这种方式玩游戏？答案是，既有专注的玩家，他们过分热衷于寻求完美的策略；也有缺乏体育精神的玩家，他们发现了规则中的漏洞可以利用，尽管他知道自己没有按照游戏的意图玩游戏。这两种玩家都可以使用退化策略，具体取决于具体情况。
Why isn’t using a degenerate strategy considered cheating? Degenerate strategies take advantage of weaknesses in the rules of a game, but do not actually violate the rules. What kind of player would play in this way? The answer is both a dedicated player, who is overzealously seeking the perfect strategy, and an unsportsmanlike player, who has found a hole in the rules to exploit, even though he understands that he is not playing the game the way it was intended. These two kinds of players can both make use of degenerate strategies, depending on the context.
专注的玩家和缺乏体育精神的玩家之间的区别在于玩家对游戏态度的认同程度。专注的玩家遵守所有级别的规则。缺乏体育精神的玩家遵守操作规则，但不会遵守所有隐含规则。专注的玩家忠实地维护游戏的魔力圈，但缺乏体育精神的玩家却没有这样做，偶尔会越过边界以违反规则。
The difference between a dedicated player and an unsportsmanlike player is the degree to which the player subscribes to the lusory attitude. Dedicated players follow rules on all levels. Unsportsmanlike players follow the operational rules, but they do not follow all of the implicit ones. Dedicated players loyally uphold the magic circle of a game, but unsportsmanlike players fail to do so, occasionally stepping just outside its borders in order to bend the rules.
通常，退化策略是否是“正确”的游戏方式取决于游戏体验的框架。当人们发现吃豆人可以通过记忆运动模式而不是即兴的即时战术来玩时，玩家的反应分成了两派。一些人不赞成使用记忆的游戏模式，认为这违反了游戏精神。然而，其他玩家则利用模式来获得更高的分数。这些模式玩家并不认为自己缺乏体育精神：他们认为自己是专注的玩家，只是找到了一种更好（且要求更高）的游戏方式。
Often, whether or not a degenerate strategy is a “proper” way to play depends on how the game experience is framed. When it was discovered that Pac-Man could be played by memorizing patterns of movement instead of through improvisational moment-to-moment tactics, player reaction fell into two camps. Some frowned on using memorized play patterns as a violation of the spirit of the game. Other players, however, capitalized on patterns in order to get higher scores. These pattern players did not consider themselves to be unsportsmanlike at all: they saw themselves as dedicated players who had simply found a better (and more demanding) way to play the game.
再举一个例子：还记得我们之前研究退化策略时假设的格斗游戏吗？通过反复使用一种技巧，而不是探索游戏设计者精心设计的格斗动作系统，就可以通关。可以说，使用这种退化策略的玩家的行为不符合体育道德，不正确地玩游戏，牺牲“乐趣”来换取捷径。然而，也可以说，这种漏洞被一个专注的玩家利用了，他像解谜一样“解决”了格斗游戏。与吃豆人模式的玩家一样，专注的玩家不是按照游戏设计的方式玩游戏，而是发明了一种新的互动方式。这可以说是变革性游戏的一个例子，这是一种重要的游戏现象，我们将在接下来的章节中探讨它。
One more example: remember the hypothetical fighting game from our earlier investigation of degenerate strategies? The game could be beaten by using one technique over and over, rather than exploring the carefully orchestrated system of fighting moves created by the game’s designers. It could be said that the player making use of this degenerate strategy is behaving in an unsportsmanlike manner, improperly playing the game, sacrificing “fun” in exchange for a shortcut to victory. It could also be said, however, that the exploit was being used by a dedicated player who had “solved” the fighting game like a puzzle. As with the Pac-Man pattern players, instead of playing the game the way it was designed to be played, the dedicated player simply invented a new method of interaction. This is arguably an example of transformative play, an important game phenomena we will investigate in chapters to come.
某种退化策略是否合适，通常取决于具体情况。例如，在我们假设的格斗游戏中，使用单一技术漏洞击败所有计算机对手可能会受到一群玩家的赞赏，因为它很优雅。另一方面，如果对其他人类玩家使用退化策略，格斗比赛就会演变成无趣的游戏，双方玩家都会一次又一次地依赖一种可利用的技术。在这种社会背景下，漏洞会被视为不道德的行为，违反了隐含规则和游戏的娱乐精神。游戏动作的意义，即使该动作是选择一般策略，也总是受到其发生环境的影响。在社会背景下，漏洞会破坏冲突的公平竞争环境，将可能性空间缩小到非常狭窄的范围，威胁到游戏的意义。
Whether or not a particular degenerate strategy is considered proper is often contextual. For example, the use of the single-technique exploit to beat all of the computer opponents in our hypothetical fighting game might be admired by a group of players for its elegance. On the other hand, if the degenerate strategy were used against other human players, fighting bouts would devolve into uninteresting games, with both players relying on the one exploitable technique again and again. In this social context, the exploit would be frowned upon as unsportsmanlike behavior, a violation of the implicit rules and the enjoyable spirit of the game. The meaning of a game action, even if the action is the selection of a general strategy, is always influenced by the context in which it occurs. In a social context, the exploit unbalances the level playing field of conflict and shrinks the space of possibility to a very narrow range, threatening the meaningful play of the game.
退化的战略生态系统
Degenerate Strategy Ecosystems
根据经验法则，你需要警惕退化策略，并将它们排除在游戏之外。通过单一方式玩游戏就能赢得游戏的能力表明游戏设计不佳，可能性空间中存在意想不到的限制性短路。然而，退化策略和富有想象力的游戏方式之间的界限非常模糊。让玩家探索游戏的可能性空间，寻找新策略和新玩法，是一件令人兴奋的事情。如果游戏足够复杂，玩家社区足够大，那么出现的退化策略可以通过专门为对抗这种攻击而创建的新策略来对抗。社区中出现了一个生态系统，其中不同的游戏风格争夺主导地位。
As a rule of thumb, you want to be on the lookout for degenerate strategies and keep them out of your game. The ability to win a game by playing in a singular way demonstrates a poor game design, a space of possibility with an unintended, limiting short-circuit. There is, however, an extremely fuzzy line between degenerate strategies and imaginative ways to play a game. There is something exciting about having players explore the space of possibility of your game, rooting around for new strategies and new ways to play. If the game is complex enough and the community of players is large enough, degenerate strategies that do emerge can be countered by new strategies created specifically to oppose the exploits. An ecosystem emerges from the community, in which different styles of play compete for dominance.
例如，在实时战略 (RTS) 游戏玩家社区中，玩家不断寻找在排行榜上领先的方法。与大多数 RTS 游戏一样，《命令与征服》旨在强调稳定的规划和逐步发展。但随着时间的推移，一种被称为“坦克冲锋”的退化策略逐渐出现。使用“坦克冲锋”策略的玩家无需慢慢建立力量，而是可以在游戏初期快速组建坦克队并消灭对手的大本营，而对手则来不及准备防御。尽管坦克冲锋退化策略破坏了许多渴望更典型的长期冲突的玩家的游戏，但它也催生了新类型的防御策略。退化策略的引入扩大了游戏的整体可能性空间。
In real-time strategy (RTS) game player communities, for example, players constantly look for ways to get ahead on the rankings boards. Command and Conquer, like most RTS games, was intended to emphasize steady planning and gradual development. But over time a degenerate strategy evolved called the “tank rush.” Instead of slowly building up forces, a player using the “tank rush” strategy could quickly create a group of tanks and wipe out his opponent’s base camp in the early game, before his opponent had a chance to prepare his defenses. Although the tank rush degenerate strategy ruined the games of many players that desired a more typical long-term conflict, it also spawned new kinds of defensive strategies. The introduction of a degenerate strategy enlarged the overall space of possibility of the game.
尽管有些玩家社区有足够的资源来创造自己的策略来应对退化策略，但设计师通常需要亲自介入并纠正漏洞，例如 Magic 的黑莲花卡。在流行游戏中，游戏策略有时会以需要改进形式结构的方式发展，就像园丁修剪树枝以改善植物的整体健康状况一样。退化策略纠正过程最终是游戏设计迭代过程的一部分。一项经过不断改进的游戏是美国职业篮球联赛
Although some player communities are resourceful enough to create their own antidotes to degenerate strategies, it is often necessary for the designers to step in and correct the breach themselves, as in the case of Magic’s Black Lotus card. With popular games, play strategies sometimes evolve in a way that necessitates a refinement of the formal structure, like a gardener pruning branches of a tree to improve the overall health of the plant. The process of degenerate strategy correction is ultimately part of the iterative process of game design. One game that has undergone constant refinement is professional Basketball in the U.S.
在过去的几十年里，篮球规则经历了许多变化。例如，在 20 世纪 60 年代和 70 年代，大部分动作都发生在篮筐下，那里得分的机会最大。高个子球员占据了比赛的主导地位，他们可以控制这个空间，凭借身高优势提供更强的进攻和防守能力。引入了两条规则，改变了比赛的打法，化解了开始出现的堕落策略。三分线激励球员远离篮筐打球，鼓励他们冒险投出更远的球以获得额外的一分。同时，三秒规则禁止进攻球员在篮筐前停留超过三秒停在篮筐下的三分线内，有助于疏通得分区的交通拥堵。这两条规则的最终结果是，能够穿梭于篮筐下、从篮筐下穿梭而出的快速球员，或许还能冲回三分线投篮，变得比静止不动的高大巨人更重要。比赛的可能性空间扩大了，不仅包括更多样化的比赛策略，还包括更多样化的身体类型来实施这些策略。
Over the last several decades, Basketball has undergone a number of rule changes. For example, in the 1960s and 1970s, most of the action took place right under the basket, where the chance of scoring was greatest. Play was dominated by tall players that could control this space with the greater offensive and defensive capabilities their height provided. Two rules were introduced that shook up the play of the game and defused degenerate strategies that were beginning to crop up. The three-point line incentivized players to play away from the basket, daring them to risk a longer shot in order to gain an extra point. At the same time, the three-second rule, which kept offensive players from spending more than three seconds parked in the paint under the basket, helped unclog the scoring zone traffic jam. The end result of these two rules is that quick players who could weave into the zone and out from under the basket, perhaps darting back to the three-point line to take a shot, became more important than static, towering giants. The space of possibility of the game expanded to include not just more diverse strategies of play but more diverse physical types of players to implement them.
篮球还有许多其他规则随着时间的推移而发生了修改，从本世纪初引入的运球，到最近对投篮计时器的创新，再到区域防守的反复争论。文化评论家戴夫·希基 (Dave Hickey) 在他的文章《区域防守的异端》中雄辩地阐述了这一规则迭代过程：
Basketball has plenty of other rules that have been modified over time as well, from the introduction of dribbling near the beginning of the century to the more recent innovation of the shot clock and the back-and-forth controversies over zone defense. In his essay “The Heresy of Zone Defense,” cultural critic Dave Hickey eloquently addresses this process of rule iteration:
然而，禁止区域防守的“非法防守规则”不仅挽救了比赛，还使职业篮球赛变得复杂多变。它让大学篮球赛在区域防守方面大放异彩。最初，人们担心这种法律规定的人盯人防守会以“自然比较优势”（经济学家可能会这样称呼）的方式解决竞争问题，因为如果每个球员都与对方球队的球员对位，那么身高、体重、速度或敏捷度最高的球员似乎会拥有永久的优势。但你不必一直防守同一个人；你可以换人，这种许可创造了精彩的“对位比赛”，在比赛中，两支球队都采用不同的防守模式、选择和换人，以创造有利的进攻或防守局面——从而产生不断变化的相互作用。1
The “illegal-defense rule” which banned zone defenses, however, did more than save the game. It moved professional basketball into fluid complexity. Jeaving the college game with its zoned parcels of real estate behind. Initially, it was feared that this legislated man-to-man defense would resolve competition in terms of “natural comparative advantage” (as an economist might call it), since if each player is matched up with a player on the other team, the player with the most height, bulk, speed, or quickness would seem to have a permanent advantage. But you don’t have to guard the same man all the time; you can switch, and this permission has created the beautiful “match-up game” in which both teams run patterns, picks, and switches in order to create advantageous situations for the offense or the defense—to generate shifting interplay.1
退化的策略会导致反复的设计。将游戏设计视为一种设计过程是件美妙的事情，它可以随着时间的推移而发展和演变，并随着不断变化的需求和发明的策略而保持新鲜感。随着球员的运动能力和教练的战略敏锐度测试系统的极限，篮球规则得到了改进。规则的变化保持了可能性空间的紧凑性，同时允许球员在其中自由移动。即使在今天，规则的定期变化仍然使游戏保持新鲜感。规则修改行为本身——由游戏设计师、玩家或行政机构进行——是一种重要的游戏设计，我们将在接下来的几页中进一步讨论。
Degenerate strategies can lead to iterative design. It is beautiful to think of a game design as a design in process, which can grow and evolve over time, remaining fresh in response to changing needs and invented strategies. As the athletic abilities of players and the strategic acumen of coaches tested the limits of the system, the rules of Basketball were refined. Changes in rules maintained the tautness of the space of possibility while allowing players to move freely within it. Even today, regular changes in the rules continue to keep the game fresh. The act of rule-modification itself—by game designers, players, or administrative bodies—is an important kind of game design which will be addressed further in the pages to come.
作弊和破坏活动
Cheats and Spoil-Sports
违反规则或无视规则的玩家是“扫兴者”。扫兴者不同于假玩家、骗子；后者假装在玩游戏，表面上仍然承认魔法圈……扫兴者破坏了游戏世界本身。通过退出游戏，他揭示了游戏世界的相对性和脆弱性，他暂时把自己与他人隔离在游戏世界中。—— 约翰·赫伊津哈，《游戏人》
The player who trespasses against the rules or ignores them is a “spoil-sport.” The spoil-sport is not the same as the false player, the cheat; for the latter pretends to be playing the game and, on the face of it, still acknowledges the magic circle . . . the spoil-sport shatters the play-world itself. By withdrawing from the game he reveals the relativity and fragility of the play-world in which he had temporarily shut himself with others.— Johann Huizinga, Homo Ludens
最后两类玩家是作弊者和破坏者。到目前为止，我们必须非常仔细地观察玩家的行为，以判断他们是否违反了游戏的正式制度，是否真的违反了规则。对于最后两类玩家，事情变得更加明确。
The final two categories of players are the cheater and the spoil-sport. Up to this point, we have had to look very carefully at the players’ behavior to decide whether or not they are violating the formal system of the game and are actually breaking the rules. With these final two categories of players, things become more explicit.
作弊玩家的定义是什么？作弊者破坏规则。与那些仅仅违反游戏隐含的、不成文的规则的缺乏体育精神的玩家不同，作弊者违反操作规则，即实际的游戏规则。作弊者是当对手将视线从棋盘上移开时偷偷移动棋子的玩家、从银行偷走大富翁游戏钱并藏起来以备将来使用的玩家、在锦标赛中使用非标准高尔夫球以获得更多距离的玩家。作弊者偷偷采取规则未禁止的行动，以获得优势。
What defines the cheating player? The cheater breaks rules. Unlike the unsportsmanlike player, who merely violates the implicit, unspoken rules of a game, the cheater transgresses the operational rules, the actual rules of play. The cheater is the player that secretly moves a piece when her opponent looks away from the board, the player that steals Monopoly money from the bank and hides it for future use, the player that uses a non-regulation golf ball in a tournament in order to gain a little more distance. The cheater surreptitiously takes actions that are not proscribed by the rules, in order to gain an advantage.
作弊会毁掉一场比赛吗？作弊的意外悖论是，正如 Huizinga 指出的那样，作弊者仍然处于某种程度上，作弊者破坏了规则，但只是为了进一步获胜。因此，虽然作弊者已经摆脱了足够多的贪婪态度，不尊重规则的权威，但作弊者仍然相信游戏的认可冲突：成为胜利者对作弊者来说仍然有意义。这似乎是一种奇怪的行为。当达到目标的规定步骤被抛到九霄云外时，坚持可量化结果的权威有什么意义呢？
Does cheating destroy a game? The unexpected paradox of cheating is that, as Huizinga points out, the cheater is still in some way playing the game. The cheater breaks rules, but only to further the act of winning. So while the cheater sheds enough of the lusory attitude to disrespect the authority of the rules, the cheater still has faith in the sanctioned conflict of the game: being the victor still has meaning to the cheater. This may seem like bizarre behavior. What is the point of hanging onto the authority of the quantifiable outcome when the proscribed steps for getting there are thrown out the window?
事实证明，作弊者与专注型玩家只有一步之遥。人们可能会同情作弊者，因为他或她也对获胜充满热情。作弊者渴望获胜，但过于渴望，为了达到目的不惜犯下罪行。当然，作弊的动机有很多。作弊可能源于想要打败游戏系统本身、让其他玩家出丑或获得游戏之外的荣耀奖励。但无论作弊的心理动机是什么，所有作弊行为都与规则、目标和魔法圈有着特定的形式关系。
It turns out that the cheater is only one step removed from the dedicated player. It is possible to sympathize with a cheat, for he or she too has a passion for winning. A cheater craves winning, but too much, committing crimes in order to attain the object of desire. Of course, the motivations for cheating are many. Cheating might grow from a desire to beat the game system itself, to show up other players, or to reap rewards of glory external to the game. But no matter what the psychological motivation for cheating, all cheating behavior shares a particular set of formal relationships to rules, goals, and the magic circle.
破坏者是与标准玩家最不相符的一类玩家。正如游戏设计师马克·普伦斯基所解释的那样，“破坏游戏的不是那些接受规则但不遵守规则的作弊者（我们可以对付他们），而是那些完全否认规则的虚无主义者。”2作弊者破坏规则，但仍在游戏空间内。破坏者更具破坏性，拒绝承认游戏。破坏者是沮丧的玩家，会把棋盘上的所有棋子都打掉，会揭露猜字谜游戏的隐藏信息，会在没到自己回合时回答，会侵入游戏数据库删除所有玩家记录。作弊者是一个阴险的演员，是魔法圈内的间谍，小心翼翼地假装遵守所有规则，即使他打破了它们。但破坏者没有这样的内疚。他对游戏的破坏不需要掩饰，因为谴责他的行为是非法的规则结构正是破坏者想要破坏的权威。
The spoil-sport is the category of player furthest from the standard player. As game designer Mark Prensky explains, “What spoils a game is not so much the cheater who accepts the rules but doesn’t play by them (we can deal with him or her), but the nihilist who denies them altogether.”2 The cheater breaks the rules but remains within the space of play. The spoil-sport is more destructive, refusing to acknowledge the game altogether. The spoil-sport is the frustrated player that knocks all of the pieces off the Chess board, the player that reveals the hidden information of Charades, the player that answers when it isn’t his turn, the player that hacks into the game database to erase all of the player records. The cheater is a conniving actor, a spy within the magic circle, carefully pretending to obey all of its regulations even as he breaks them. But the spoil-sport has no such compunction. His destruction of the game does not require concealment, because the rule structure that would condemn his action as illegal is exactly the authority the spoilsport wishes to undermine.
当一组棋子被摆放到棋盘上的正确位置并开始游戏时，棋子就具有了意义。但是，如果在游戏过程中，一个破坏者将棋子从棋盘上抹去，意义就会被彻底抹去。棋子从网格位置上移开后，就只是一堆散落的小雕像。破坏者将游戏恢复到赛前状态，成为零件的集合，不再是游戏规则规定的可能性空间的体现。
When a set of Chess pieces are placed in their proper positions on the board and a game begins, the pieces gain meaning. But if, during a game, the action of a spoil-sport wipes the Chess pieces from the board, meaning is violently erased. Removed from their grid positions, the Chess pieces merely represent a collection of scattered figurines. The spoil-sport returns the game to its pre-game state as a collection of parts, no longer the embodiment of the space of possibility set out by the rules of the game.
与其他类型的玩家相比，扫兴者更能体现魔法圈的脆弱性。扫兴者不受游戏信仰、对游戏态度的兴趣、对规则的尊重甚至对结果的关心的约束，他们是游戏外世界的代表。扫兴者缺乏信仰，他们毫不犹豫地破坏他人的游戏体验。作弊者可能会入侵多人死亡竞赛，提高 Ping 时间并秘密提高游戏性能。但扫兴者会释放病毒，使游戏服务器停止运行，使所有玩家都无法玩游戏。
The spoil-sport, more than any other kind of player, demonstrates the fragility of the magic circle. Not bound by a faith in the game, an interest in the lusory attitude, a respect for the rules, or even a concern for the outcome, the spoil-sport is the representative of the world outside the game. Armed with a powerful lack of belief, the spoil-sport has no qualms about ruining the play of others. The cheat may hack into a multi-player deathmatch to up his ping time and secretly improve his play performance. But the spoil-sport will unleash a virus that brings the game servers to a halt, making play impossible for all players.
五种球员类型的比较
Five Player Types Compared
下表总结了本图式中讨论的五种玩家类型。当我们以这种方式比较玩家类型时，会出现一些有趣的模式。专注型玩家和作弊者之间的滑坡现象变得尤为明显。对玩游戏的热情很快就会变成一种为了赢而狂热的行为，这会导致不道德的行为和彻头彻尾的作弊。在对游戏结果的共同投入方面，玩家和作弊者有很多共同之处。
On the following page is table that summarizes the five kinds of players discussed in this schema. Several fascinating patterns arise when we compare player types in this way. The slippery slope between the dedicated player and the cheat becomes particularly clear. An enthusiasm for playing a game can quickly become a zealous winning-for-its-own-sake, which can lead to unsportsmanlike behavior and outright cheating. In their shared investment in the outcome of the game, players and cheaters have a great deal in common.
有时很难准确判断作弊行为是真正违反了魔法圈的规定，还是仅仅是游戏的一部分。侵入在线服务器以在公共排名板上获得高分是作弊吗？这种违规行为并非发生在特定游戏的魔法圈内，但它确实表明了玩家对获胜行为的过分关注。那么体育运动中的犯规呢？鼓励在游戏中违反规则的游戏又如何呢？它们在我们对正式违规行为的理解中处于什么位置？我们将通过研究一系列将违反规则融入游戏设计本身的游戏来结束本章。
It is sometimes difficult to identify exactly when an instance of cheating is a true transgression of the magic circle or merely part of the play of a game. Is hacking into an online server to inflate a high score on a public ranking board cheating? The transgression is not taking place within the magic circle of a particular game, but it certainly demonstrates an overly serious interest in the act of winning. How about fouls in sports? And what about games that encourage rule-breaking as part of their play? Where do they fit into our understanding of formal transgressions? We end this chapter by looking at a series of games that incorporate rule-breaking into the game design itself.
受处罚的违规行为：职业体育
Sanctioned Violations: Professional Sports
在大多数比赛中，违反规则的行为都有可能破坏魔力圈。然而，有一类比赛，球员违反规则和对违反规则的惩罚是整个比赛结构的重要组成部分：职业体育。篮球中的双运球、曲棍球中的冰球、足球中的用手——这些都是违反规则的行为，但这些违规行为会在比赛本身中受到惩罚，以让比赛继续进行。体育比赛中发生这类事件是意料之中的，甚至是可以预料到的。整场篮球比赛没有一次犯规是极不寻常的。
In most games, rule violations threaten to destroy the magic circle. However, there is one category of game in which rule-breaking by players and punishments for violations of the rules are an important part of the overall game structure: professional sports. Double-dribbling in Basketball, icing in Hockey, using hands in Soccer—these are all rule-violations, but they are violations that are punished within the game itself, in ways that let the play continue. It is expected, and even anticipated that these kinds of events will occur in a sports game. It would be extremely unusual for an entire Basketball game to occur without a single foul being committed.
体育界处理违反规则行为的方式很有意思，不同违反规则的行为总是有不同程度的严重程度，而且屡次违反规则的行为通常会受到额外惩罚，例如，篮球运动员在犯下六次个人犯规后“被罚出场”，不能参加比赛。一次犯规可能是“无意之失”，因此处理得比较轻松。而六次犯规则形成了违反规则行为的模式，运动员将被彻底逐出魔力圈。体育裁判作为正式比赛系统的延伸，有权决定何时发生违规行为以及如何解释规则以施加惩罚。例如，如果运动员和教练的行为过于极端，裁判通常有权将他们逐出比赛。
What is interesting about the way that sports handle rule-breaking is that there is always a sliding scale of severity for different rule violations, and often extra punishment for repeated offenses, as when a basketball player “fouls out” and cannot play in a game after committing six personal fouls. A single foul might be the result of an “honest mistake” and is therefore treated somewhat lightly. Six fouls, on the other hand, creates a pattern of rule-breaking behavior, and the player is ejected from the magic circle entirely. Sports referees, as extensions of the formal system of a game, have authority to decide when violations occur and how to interpret the rules to mete out punishment. For example, referees generally have the authority to throw players and coaches out of games if their behavior becomes too extreme.
当违反规则的行为受到处罚时，就像在体育运动中一样，比赛空间中就会出现一层全新的隐性规则。在篮球场上，用肘部撞到对手被认为是攻击性行为（犯规），而用拳头打同一个对手的脸则是真正恶劣的体育精神。随着违反规则的行为融入到游戏中，它就被纳入了可能性空间。根据具体游戏的不同，玩家可能会策略性地违反规则，接受短期惩罚，以换取长期战略或心理优势。
When rule-breaking becomes sanctioned, as it is in sports, a whole new layer of implicit rules enters into the space of play. Whereas it is considered aggressive play (and a foul) to elbow an opponent on a Basketball court, it is truly bad sportsmanship to punch that same opponent in the face. As rule-breaking is integrated into a game, it is incorporated into the space of possibility. Depending on the particular game, players may strategically transgress rules, accepting a short-term punishment for a long-term strategic or psychological advantage.
这种故意违反规则的行为可能相当复杂。在篮球比赛中，球员可以试图“诱使对手犯规”。这种冒险的做法可能会导致试图诱使对手犯规的球员自己犯规。进攻时冲向篮筐希望在冲向篮筐的途中被犯规的球员经常被判“冲锋犯规”，这是一种进攻犯规，导致进攻方失去球权。
This intentional brokering of rule-breaking can be quite complex. In Basketball, the players can attempt to “draw fouls” from opponents. This risky practice can result in the player who is attempting to draw a foul committing a foul himself. Players who charge the basket on offense hoping to be fouled on their way to the hoop are often called for “charging,” an offensive foul that results in the loss of the ball for the offensive team.
在职业体育中，比赛内违规和惩罚的复杂体系也反映在专业立法机构中，这些机构可以对更严重的违规行为进行处罚。在单个比赛范围之外，这些组织还负责管理更严重的违规行为。如果一名职业运动员被发现操纵比赛或被判犯有犯罪行为，该职业运动机构可能会终身禁止他参加这项运动。
In professional sports, the complex system of violations and punishments within a game is also reflected in the professional legislative bodies which can sanction penalties for larger violations. Outside the scope of an individual game, these organizations govern more serious offenses. If a professional athlete is found to be fixing games or is convicted of a criminal act, he can be banned from the sport for life by the game’s professional body.
为什么在体育运动中，尤其是职业体育运动中，人们如此关注违反规则？答案之一是体育比赛的本质。在国际象棋棋盘上，棋子占据哪个方格几乎没有歧义；国际象棋选手不会因为车的一角偷看相邻的方格而获得优势。但在现实世界无限精细的空间中，几毫秒和几毫米就可能意味着胜负之分。跑步者不想在发令枪响前开始奔跑，但尽可能在发令枪响前冲刺肯定会带来优势。因此，比赛中会出现许多抢跑的情况。大多数体育犯规都是出于试图最大限度地提高进攻或防守优势的动机。
Why is there so much attention to breaking the rules in sports, particularly professional sports? One answer is the nature of athletic game play. On a Chess grid, there is little or no ambiguity about which square a piece occupies; a Chess player will not gain an advantage by having a little corner of his Rook peek into an adjacent square. But in the infinitely granular space of the real world, milliseconds and millimeters can mean the difference between winning and losing. The runner does not want to start running before the starting gun fires, but springing forward as close to that moment as humanly possible will certainly offer an advantage. As a result, many false starts occur in races. Most sports fouls are motivated by an attempt to maximize an offensive or defensive advantage.
在寻找体育界违反规则现象猖獗背后的动机时，我们还必须认识到体育赛事的经济成分。从球员薪水到门票销售再到网络广告，大量资本都与职业体育有关。当一场比赛的外部风险很高时，维护和执行公平的竞争环境就显得尤为重要。与大多数体育赛事相比，职业体育的前提是公平竞争。这种对公平的强调自然延伸到了它的反面：强调违反规则。
In looking for a motivation behind the prominence of rule-breaking in sports, we must also acknowledge the economic component of the games. A great deal of capital is connected to professional sports, from player salaries to ticket sales to network advertising. When the external stakes of a game are high, it is especially important to maintain and enforce the level playing field of conflict. The premise of a professional sport, even more than with most games, is that it is being played fairly. This emphasis on fairness extends naturally to its opposite: an emphasis on breaking the rules.
受制裁的作弊行为：光明会
Sanctioned Cheating: Illuminati
为了以不同的方式将违反规则融入游戏，我们来看看《光明会》，这是一款幽默的战略桌游，改编自罗伯特·安东·威尔逊的《光明会》。在游戏中，玩家扮演无所不能的光明会，他们是操纵世界政府的幕后权力掮客。《光明会》的原版包含一组可选的作弊规则：
For a different approach to the integration of rule-breaking into a game, we turn to Illuminati, a humorous strategic tabletop game based on the Illuminatus books by Robert Anton Wilson. In the game, players take on the role of all-powerful Illuminati, the shadowy power brokers pulling the strings behind world governments. The original edition of Illuminati contained an optional set of rules for cheating:
作弊：
Cheating:
有些恶毒的人认为，当没有任何东西（甚至银行）是神圣的时，光明会会更有趣。在这个游戏版本中，大多数作弊形式都是允许的。
Some fiendish people think Illuminati is even more fun when nothing, not even the bank, is sacred. In this variant of the game, most forms of cheating are permitted.
例外情况：
Exceptions:
• 您不得掀翻桌子或扰乱对立的权力结构。
• You may not tip over the table or disarrange opposing power structures.
• 您不得携带假币或其他货币入境。
• You may not bring in counterfeit money or money from other sets.
• 您不得在设置或收入阶段欺骗从银行提取的金额（这会使事情变得太慢）。
• You may not cheat on the amount of money drawn from the bank during setup or the income phase (this would slow things down too much).
• 其他任何处罚都行。任何被发现作弊的人都必须撤销作弊行为。没有其他处罚。
• Anything else goes. Anyone caught in the act must undo that cheat. There is no other penalty.
建议的作弊方法包括：
Suggested methods for cheating include:
• 意外读错骰子。
• Accidentally misread the dice.
• 从银行窃取资金（除收入阶段外）。
• Steal from the bank (other than during the income phase).
• 谎报您所在团体的权力或抵抗力量。
• Lie about the amount of power or resistance your groups have.
• 叠放牌或向前窥视。
• Stack the deck or peek ahead.
• 如果有人离开桌子，一切就都结束了！
• If anyone leaves the table, anything goes!
• 我们建议您只与非常要好的朋友或再也不会见到的人玩作弊游戏。3
• We recommend you play the cheating game only with very good friends or with people you will never see again.3
《光明会》中的这些作弊“规则”提供了一个有趣的例子，展示了遵守规则和违反规则之间的关系。通常，作弊被认为是违背游戏规则精神的行为。但在《光明会》中，游戏的正式认可系统实际上包含了作弊规则。
These “rules” for cheating in Illuminati provide a fascinating example of the relationship between rule-following and rule-breaking. Normally, cheating is considered something that runs counter to the spirit of the game rules. But in Illuminati, the sanctioned formal system of the game actually contains rules for cheating.
光明会的作弊规则与职业体育中的违规行为不同。在违反体育规则的行为中，大多数犯规行为都是由表现尽可能接近规则允许范围的运动员犯下的。在现实世界的运动表现中，有时运动员会计算错误并最终违反规则。但在光明会中，建议的作弊方式明确侧重于运动员欺骗。上述规则直接建议彻头彻尾、赤裸裸的作弊行为。这些规则并不是对犯规处罚的描述：它们是对不同作弊方式的禁令！事实上，除了消除作弊的影响外，对被发现作弊没有明确的惩罚。
Illuminati’s rules for cheating are different than rule-breaking in professional sports. In sports rule violations, most fouls are committed by players performing as close as possible to the limits of what the rules allow. In the real-world context of athletic performance, sometimes players miscalculate and end up breaking a rule. But in Illuminati, the suggested modes of cheating focus explicitly on player deception. The rules above directly suggest out-and-out, down-and-dirty cheating. The rules are not descriptions of penalties for fouls: they are proscriptions for different ways to cheat! In fact, there is no explicit penalty for being caught cheating, other than undoing the effect of the cheat.
受到认可的作弊行为很容易毁掉一场比赛。光明会的“作弊规则”是导致混乱的根源，还是规则手册其他部分的精心延伸？规则本身包含对违规行为的建议，这似乎自相矛盾。但仔细观察规则就会发现，光明会的正式结构在制定这一部分时非常谨慎。
Sanctioned cheating can easily destroy a game. Are Illuminati’s “cheating rules” a recipe for anarchy, or are they a well-designed extension of the rest of the rulebook? It seems like a contradiction that the rules themselves contain suggestions for transgressive play. But a close look at the rules reveals the care taken in crafting this section of Illuminati’s formal structure.
光明会对可能作弊的范围施加了许多正式限制。禁止玩家推翻桌子（典型的破坏游戏规则的行为）让玩家知道他们不能完全破坏其他玩家的游戏。防止玩家夸大收入可确保游戏不会陷入数学争论。允许作弊的重点是限制违反规则的游戏，以便事情不会在魔法圈外发生太大的变化。例如，禁止玩家从其他游戏套组中偷运资金的规则发挥了许多监管功能。它保持游戏设计的经济完整，同时不让拥有“外部”资源（例如他们自己的游戏副本）的玩家获得不公平的优势。结果是，即使有作弊行为，游戏也包含在魔法圈内，因此所有玩家都有同等的机会成为熟练的作弊者。魔法圈是作弊规则的重点，当玩家从桌子上站起来离开游戏的物理空间时，规则规定“一切都可以”。显然不鼓励玩家退出正在进行的游戏。
Illuminati places numerous formal restrictions on the scope of possible cheating. Forbidding players from tipping over the table (a classic spoil-sport action) lets players know that they cannot completely disrupt the game for the other players. Keeping players from inflating their income ensures that the game will not get too bogged down in mathematical squabbling. Permitted cheating focuses on keeping the rule-breaking play constrained, so that things do not swing too wildly outside the magic circle. For example, the rule that keeps players from smuggling money in from other sets of the game performs a number of regulatory functions. It keeps the designed economy of the game intact, while not letting players with “outside” resources (such as their own copy of the game) from gaining an unfair advantage. The result is that even with cheating, the game is contained within the magic circle, so that all of the players have an equal chance of being skillful cheats. The magic circle is such a strong focus of the cheating rules that when a player actually leaves the physical space of the game by getting up from the table, the rules state that “anything goes.” Players are clearly discouraged from exiting a game in progress.
除了正式的限制之外，作弊规则甚至还塑造了可能想要使用作弊规则的玩家的欲望态度。作弊规则的开头和结尾的陈述将其置于特定的背景中。开头的陈述暗示只有“恶魔般的”玩家才会玩这个游戏变体，结尾的建议暗示只有好朋友或几乎陌生的人才能玩这个版本的游戏，这些都很有启发性。通过消除游戏冲突的人为性质，作弊可以破坏魔法圈的隐性友情，让其冲突泄露出去，感染玩家在现实世界中的关系。只有足够强大的友谊才能经受住这样的体验，或者更随意的关系，不需要进一步联系，才是合适的。
In addition to formal restrictions, the cheating rules go so far as to shape the lusory attitude of the players that might want to use them. The statements that begin and end the cheating rules place it within a particular context. The opening statement, which implies that only “fiendish” players would play this game variation, and the suggestions at the end, which imply that only good friends or near-strangers play this version of the game, are revealing. By removing the artificial nature of the game conflict, cheating can destroy the implicit camaraderie of the magic circle, letting its conflict leak out to infect the real-world relationships of players. Only friendships strong enough to weather such an experience or more disposable relationships in which further contact is not desired are appropriate.
规则可以允许作弊的想法本身就有点离谱，但它最终非常符合游戏的精神及其叙事世界。《光明会》是一款关于统治世界的隐藏组织的戏仿游戏，玩家是秘密的权力掮客，操纵政府、媒体和文化，以达到他们自己的邪恶目的。从这个角度来看，规则本身也受操纵的想法符合游戏的整体叙事轨迹。打破规则是表达《光明会》游戏所体现的对权力的幽默批判的一种方式。
The very notion that the rules could sanction cheating is a bit outrageous, but it ultimately fits the spirit of the game and its narrative world quite well. Illuminati is a parodic game about hidden organizations that rule the world, where the players are secret power brokers manipulating governments, media, and culture to their own devious ends. Seen in this light, the idea that the rules themselves are also subject to manipulation fits within the overall narrative trajectory of the game. Rule-breaking is a way of expressing the humorous critique of power that Illuminati the game embodies.
在适当的环境下，认可作弊可以成为丰富游戏设计的一种创新方式。但必须非常小心地进行。在光明会规则轻松的语气之下，是经过精心设计的，只允许那些让游戏保持完整、可玩和有意义的作弊形式。光明会中的作弊不会消除游戏中的所有规则和界限：它的作用是重新绘制它们。尽管新的界限可能会变得更加模糊，但清晰的正式系统仍然存在。即使是作弊也可以被有意设计来促进有意义的游戏。
In the right context, sanctioned cheating can be an innovative way to enrich a game design. But it must be done with great care. Beneath the light-hearted tone of Illuminati’s rules is a careful design allowing only those forms of cheating that leave the game intact, playable, and meaningful. Cheating in Illuminati does not remove all rules and boundaries from the game: it serves to re-draw them. Although the new boundaries might be drawn in lines that are considerably more fuzzy, a clear formal system remains. Even cheating is something that can be intentionally designed to facilitate meaningful play.
黑客、作弊和模组：打破数字规则
Hacks, Cheats, and Mods: Digital Rule-Breaking
说到游戏设计和体验中融入的违反规则的形式，计算机和视频游戏提供了大量的例子。以下是一些数字游戏违反规则的例子，从胆怯的越轨行为到真正的违法行为。
When it comes to forms of rule-breaking incorporated into the design and experience of games, computer and video games offer a cornucopia of examples. Following are some sample instances of digital game rule-breaking, ranging from the timidly transgressive to the truly unlawful.
复活节彩蛋
Easter Eggs
复活节彩蛋是游戏中隐藏的秘密，玩家可以发现。第一个复活节彩蛋是由游戏设计师兼程序员沃伦·罗宾内特为雅达利 2600 游戏《冒险》设计的。为了反抗雅达利拒绝承认其游戏创作者的功劳，罗宾内特编写了一个秘密房间，这个房间很难找到。当玩家到达房间时，会显示他的姓名首字母。隐藏的信息、图像和空间如今已成为数字游戏的标准功能。从某种程度上说，复活节彩蛋违反了游戏规则，因为它们破坏了游戏世界原本一致的内部一致性。找到复活节彩蛋的乐趣之一是一种超越发现的感觉：通过以正确的方式改变游戏规则，玩家可以看到或体验到守规矩的玩家看不到的东西。
Easter eggs are secrets hidden in a game that players can discover. The first Easter egg was created by game designer and programmer Warren Robinett for the Atari 2600 game Adventure. In defiance of Atari’s refusal to give credit to the creators of their games, Robinett programmed a secret room that could only be found with great difficulty. When players reached it, his initials were displayed. Hidden messages, images, and spaces are now a standard feature of digital gaming. In a mild kind of way, Easter eggs break a game’s rules because they violate the otherwise internally consistent world of a game. Part of the pleasure of finding an Easter egg is a sense of transgressive discovery: by bending the rules of the game in just the right way, the player gets to see or experience something that more lawful players would not.
秘籍
Cheat Codes
虽然彩蛋通常不会影响游戏的策略性玩法，但作弊码却会。就像彩蛋一样，开发人员将作弊码设计到游戏中。一些最著名的作弊码实例来自第一人称射击游戏 DOOM，玩家可以输入特殊组合键来获得武器、生命值和无敌状态。有时作弊码是游戏开发过程中遗留下来的工具，但通常只是为了玩家的利益而添加的。虽然“作弊码”这个名字暗示这些获得权力的捷径违反了规则，但作弊码经常出现在游戏杂志和官方游戏网站上，使其成为一种官方认可的“作弊”形式。结果形成了一种丰富的游戏内幕知识文化，粉丝们在杂志和网站上搜索最新、最酷的作弊方法。
Although Easter eggs usually do not impact the strategic play of a game, cheat codes do. Like Easter eggs, developers design cheat codes into a game. Some of the best-known instances of cheat codes come from the first-person shooter DOOM, where a player can type special key combinations to gain weapons, health, and invulnerability. Sometimes a cheat code is a leftover tool from the game’s development process, but often they are added just for the benefit of players. Although the name “cheat code” implies that these shortcuts to power are rule infringements, cheat codes frequently appear in game magazines and on official game websites, making them a form of officially sanctioned “cheating.” The result is a rich culture of insider game knowledge, with fans scouring magazines and websites for the latest, coolest cheats.
游戏指南和演练
Game Guides and Walkthroughs
与作弊码相关的是玩家在玩困难或冗长的游戏时寻求帮助的信息来源。这些资源出现在网络和印刷品中，从精美的彩色地图和战略指南到粉丝生成的文本文件，涵盖了游戏的所有可能方面。游戏攻略是完成游戏的分步说明，对于具有更线性结构的冒险游戏和角色扮演游戏的玩家特别有用。一些玩家认为这些资源是不公平的技巧，违背了游戏的精神。同时，攻略提高了某些游戏类型的难度和复杂性。许多数字游戏非常具有挑战性，以至于它们似乎需要指南。
Related to cheat codes are the sources of information that players turn to for help with a difficult or lengthy game. These resources appear on the web and in print, and range from elaborate color maps and strategy guides to fan-generated text files that cover every conceivable aspect of a game. Game walkthroughs are step-by-step instructions for finishing a game, particularly useful to players of adventure games and role-playing games that have a more linear structure. Some players view these resources as unfair techniques that breach the spirit of a game. At the same time, walkthroughs have raised the bar of difficulty and complexity in certain game genres. Many digital games are so challenging that they seem designed to require a guide.
解决方法
Workarounds
数字游戏的复杂性通常使得设计师无法在向公众发布游戏之前测试或预测所有可能的游戏变化。此外，玩家在寻找“合法”绕过游戏结构的方法方面具有无限的创造力。在《游戏设计的未来》一书中，哈维·史密斯 (Harvey Smith) 写了玩家如何发现玩《杀出重围》的新方法。例如，近距离地雷物体是一种可以“粘”在游戏空间墙壁上的爆炸装置。游戏发布后，玩家意识到了游戏开发者没有预料到的事情。利用游戏的物理和互动性，玩家学会了爬上近距离地雷，并使用（或滥用）一系列这些物体（如梯子），他们可以爬上游戏的垂直表面，破坏许多精心设计的关卡。解决方法介于专注游戏和不道德游戏之间，包括堕落的策略。通过在 eBay 上购买无尽的任务角色来购买游戏能力是作弊行为，还是仅仅是一种将劳动力转化为资本的解决方法？
The complexity of digital games often makes it impossible for designers to test or anticipate every possible permutation of play before releasing a title to the public. Furthermore, players are infinitely creative in finding ways of “legally” working around game structures. In “The Future of Game Design,” Harvey Smith writes about how players discovered new ways to play Deus Ex. For example, the proximity mine object is an explosive device that can be “stuck” onto walls in the game space. After the game’s release, players realized something that the game’s developers did not anticipate. Exploiting the game’s physics and interactivity, players learned to climb up on proximity mines, and using (or misusing) a series of these objects like a ladder, they could ascend the game’s vertical surfaces, ruining many of the carefully designed levels. Workarounds are on the borderline between dedicated play and unsportsmanlike play, and include degenerate strategies. Is it cheating to purchase game power by buying an EverQuest character on eBay, or is it simply a workaround that converts labor to capital?
真正的作弊
True Cheating
除了模糊的“作弊”行为类型外，数字游戏中还有大量真正的作弊行为。真正的作弊行为比巧妙的变通方法或认可的作弊代码更能破坏游戏规则。在多人环境中，构成作弊行为的准则通常会向所有玩家公布；作弊者通常会被立即永久地从游戏中移除。在 SiSSYFiGHT 2000 中，最常见的作弊形式是多会话，即单个玩家在两台不同的计算机上打开两个游戏窗口，同时扮演两个角色并获得非常强大的游戏优势。虽然很难发现，但多会话在游戏中是被禁止的，并且有义务粉丝网站专门维护已知游戏作弊者的名单。
In addition to fuzzier types of “cheating” behavior, there is plenty of bona fide cheating in digital games. More than clever workarounds or sanctioned cheat codes, true cheating breaks the rules of the game. In a multiplayer environment, guidelines for what constitutes cheating are generally made known to all players; cheaters are usually removed immediately and permanently from a game. In SiSSYFiGHT 2000, the most common form of cheating is multi-sessioning, in which a single player opens up two game windows on two different computers, playing two characters at once and gaining very strong play advantages. Although it is difficult to spot, multi-sessioning is outlawed in the game, and there are vigilante fan websites devoted to maintaining lists of known game cheaters.
黑客
Hacks
入侵数字游戏不仅仅是破坏规则，它还通过代码层面的干预来实现。例如，玩家可能会入侵高分榜，将自己的名字放在榜首。或者，她可能会修改第一人称射击游戏的代码，以在死亡竞赛中获得不公平的优势。如果太多玩家入侵游戏，所有的公平感都会被破坏。因此，商业多人游戏的管理员会付出巨大努力，消除游戏中的作弊和黑客行为。据大型多人在线游戏设计师拉尔夫·科斯特 (Ralph Koster) 称，追踪作弊者和黑客可能占用维护和改进在线游戏所花费的所有资源的大约一半。
Hacking into a digital game goes beyond simply breaking the rules—it does so through intervention at the level of code. A player might hack a high score list, for example, to place her name at the top. Or she might modify the code of a first-person shooter to gain an unfair advantage in a deathmatch. If too many players hack a game, all sense of fairness can be destroyed. Therefore, the administrators of commercial multiplayer games put great effort into eliminating cheating and hacks from their games. According to massively multiplayer online game designer Ralph Koster, tracking down cheaters and hackers can occupy approximately half of all of the resources spent on maintaining and improving an online game.
破坏性黑客攻击
Spoil-Sport Hacking
大多数黑客行为都是出于作弊心理：玩家想要在游戏中取得好成绩，为了获得成功不惜违反规则。有时，游戏黑客也会扮演破坏者的角色，破坏整个游戏或游戏网络。在这种情况下，黑客的目的是消除所有参与玩家的魔法圈，而不是提高自己的表现。
Most hacking is done in the spirit of the cheat: players want to do well in a game and do not mind breaking the rules in order to get ahead. Occasionally, game hackers can take the role of a spoil-sport as well, bringing down an entire game or game network. In this case, the aim is to dispel the magic circle for all players involved, not to better one’s own performance.
为什么数字游戏会成为这些打破规则行为的沃土？首先，代码是一种可塑性强且柔韧的媒介。数字游戏的复杂过程赋予了其独特的自动化品质，但也为黑客入侵系统留下了漏洞，黑客可以通过官方发布的作弊代码、巧妙的变通方法或真正的代码破解来入侵系统。数字游戏的匿名性（由计算机和网络充当玩家的中介）也鼓励了打破规则的行为。其他玩家的物理存在减少，使玩家具有更强的社会自主感，从而促进了打破规则的秘密活动。最后，数字游戏是一种拥有大量粉丝的流行文化：游戏迷会解构和重构他们感兴趣的作品的代码和结构。从这个意义上讲，作弊和黑客行为类似于《星际迷航》粉丝重新混合电视节目的叙事世界以创作新的故事和人物的方式。
Why are digital games so fertile a ground for these varieties of rule-breaking? First and foremost, code is a plastic and pliable medium. The complex processes that give digital games their uniquely automated quality leave gaps for hacking into the system, whether it is through officially distributed cheat codes, clever workarounds, or genuine code-breaking. The anonymous nature of digital game play, where computers and networks mediate players, encourages rule-breaking as well. The reduced physical presence of other players permits a greater sense of social autonomy, which can facilitate the surreptitious activities of rule-breaking. Lastly, digital games are pop culture with a rich fan base: game fans deconstruct and reconstruct the codes and structures of the works that interest them. Cheating and hacking in this sense is similar to the ways that Star Trek fans re-mix the narrative universe of the television show to invent new stories and characters.
数字游戏媒体的福祉和祸害在于，它们提供了一个灵活的游戏空间。有如此多的方式可以温和地改变或强行打破游戏规则，在玩电脑或视频游戏时，玩家必须决定什么是正确的游戏行为，并在可能违反规则的空间中导航。下载攻略指南可以接受吗？你会使用作弊码来绕过艰难的游戏关卡吗？如果有人给你一个可以作弊的破解版游戏，你会使用它吗？作为一名数字游戏设计师，你需要决定你想要引发哪些类型的违反规则行为，以及你想要禁止哪些类型的违反规则行为。你能否通过提供被认可的违反游戏的方式来培养粉丝社区，而不会让事情完全失控？在这个充满违反规则可能性的空间里，道德和游戏设计发生了碰撞。
The blessing and curse of digital gaming media is that they provide a pliable space in which to play. With so many ways to gently bend and forcefully break the rules of a game, in playing a computer or video game players must decide what constitutes proper game behavior, navigating the space of possible rule violations. Is it acceptable to download a walkthrough guide? Do you use cheat codes to short-circuit your way through tough game levels? If you were offered a cracked version of the game that let you cheat, would you use it? As a digital game designer, you need to decide what kinds of rule-breaking you want to engender and what kinds you want to outlaw. Can you foster fan communities by offering sanctioned ways to violate the game without letting things get out of hand altogether? Ethics and game design collide in this rich space of rule-breaking possibility.
打破规则的游戏设计实践
Rule-Breaking as a Game Design Practice
我们对违反规则的讨论不仅仅是对玩家违反游戏规则的方式的解释。它是一种游戏设计模式，一种看待所有游戏的方式，为解决特定的游戏设计问题提供了框架。然而，它与我们在调查规则时遇到的其他正式模式不同。将游戏定义为违反规则的系统会质疑早期模式中许多不言而喻的假设。在将游戏视为新兴系统、信息或控制论反馈回路时，我们从未考虑过玩家可能会不尊重或违反规则和魔法圈的权威。
Our discussion of rule-breaking is not just an explication of the ways in which players break the rules of a game. It is a game design schema, a way of looking at all games that offers a framework for solving particular game design problems. However, it is a different kind of chapter than the other formal schema we encountered in our investigation of RULES. Framing games as systems of rule-breaking questions many of the unspoken assumptions of earlier schemas. We did not, in considering games as emergent systems, information, or cybernetic feedback loops, ever consider that players might disrespect or transgress the authority of the rules and the magic circle.
玩家行为并非普遍遵守规则。对于任何特定游戏，都有许多玩法，也有许多扭曲和打破规则的方法。对于游戏设计师来说，这意味着你永远不应该将玩家的行为视为理所当然。你需要假设你的游戏不仅会由认真遵守规则的玩家玩，还会由热心的玩家、不合时宜的不讲体育道德的玩家、聪明的秘密作弊者以及冷漠的虚无主义破坏者玩。其中一些玩家类型可以帮助扩展游戏的可能性空间，而其他玩家类型可能会破坏所有参与者的游戏。你如何在游戏设计中考虑这些可能性？一如既往，没有单一的解决方案。但将你的游戏定义为打破规则的系统可以让你制定自己的答案。
Player behavior is not universally law-abiding. Given any particular game, there are many ways to play it and many ways to bend and break its rules. For game designers, this means that you should never take players’ behavior for granted. You need to assume that your game will be played not just by earnest rule-followers, but by zealously dedicated players, inappropriately unsportsmanlike players, brilliantly secretive cheaters, and uncaringly nihilistic spoil-sports. Some of these player types can help expand your game’s space of possibility, whereas others can wreck the game for everyone involved. How do you take these possibilities into account in your game design? As always, there is no single solution. But framing your game as a system of rule-breaking lets you formulate your own answers.
还有另一种方式来定义打破规则：将其视为一种对待游戏和设计游戏的态度。我们已经看到了很多打破规则可以增强游戏意义的例子。在职业体育、数字游戏和光明会的作弊变体中，打破规则是游戏本身的一部分。在所有这些情况下，通过打破规则，可能性空间充满了替代的游戏模式。这有什么教训呢？也许它表明了我们对游戏设计的看法发生了转变。在《玩得好的游戏》一书中，伯纳德·德科文主张从根本上调整玩家对游戏规则的态度：
There is yet another way to frame rule-breaking: as an attitude toward playing and designing games. We have seen a number of examples of how rule-breaking can enhance meaningful play. In professional sports, digital games, and in the cheating variant of Illuminati, breaking rules is part of the game itself. In all of these cases, through rule-breaking the space of possibility fills with alternative modes of play. What is the lesson here? Perhaps it suggests a shift in the way that we think about game design. In The Well-Played Game, Bernard DeKoven advocates a fundamental adjustment in players’ attitudes towards the rules of a game:
你改变游戏并不是为了改变它而改变它，而是为了找到一款可行的游戏。
You’re not changing the game for the sake of changing it. You’re changing it for the sake of finding a game that works.
一旦建立了这种自由，一旦我们确定了为什么我们想要改变游戏以及我们如何去做，就会发生一件了不起的事情：我们成为了权威。
Once this freedom is established, once we have established why we want to change a game and how we go about it, a remarkable thing happens to us: We become the authorities.
无论我们创造了什么游戏，无论我们玩得有多好，它都是我们的游戏，我们可以在需要时对其进行更改。我们不需要社区外任何人的许可或批准。我们按照自己认为合适的方式玩游戏。这意味着现在我们拥有随时可以按照自己想要的方式调整游戏的手段。
No matter what game we create, no matter how well we are able to play it, it is our game, and we can change it when we need to. We don’t need permission or approval from anyone outside our community. We play our games as we see fit. Which means that now we have at our disposal the means whereby we can always fit the game to the way we want to play.
这是一种令人难以置信的自由，一种比任何游戏都更强大的自由，一种我们培育游戏社区的自由。对玩得好的游戏的追求是社区凝聚力的源泉。但改变游戏的自由才是社区力量的源泉。4
This is an incredible freedom, a freedom that does more than any game can, a freedom with which we nurture the play community. The search for the well-played game is what holds the community together. But the freedom to change the game is what gives the community its power.4
DeKoven 并不希望玩家将游戏规则视为绝对权威，而是希望玩家能够掌控规则。一旦他们感到自信并能掌控规则，他们就可以在玩游戏的过程中打破和修改规则。他们这样做并非出于破坏规则权威的恶意，而是出于创造更深层次游戏体验的有针对性尝试。这种美好的游戏愿景并不代表大多数人通常的游戏方式。然而，有一种类型的游戏玩家已经拥有这种态度：游戏设计师。游戏设计师，尤其是那些通过迭代过程进行设计的游戏设计师，已经拥有一种方法，即玩游戏意味着打破、调整和修改规则。从某种意义上说，DeKoven 主张游戏玩家变得更像游戏设计师。
Rather than obeying game rules as an ultimate authority, DeKoven would like players to assume authority over the rules. Once they feel confident and in control of the rules, players can break them and modify them in the course of playing a game. They do so not out of a mischievous desire to disrupt the authority of the rules, but out of a directed attempt to create a deeper experience of play. This beautiful vision for games does not describe the way that most people normally play. However, there is one type of game player that already has this attitude: game designers. Game designers, particularly those that design through an iterative process, already posses a methodology in which playing a game means breaking, tweaking, and modifying rules. In a sense, DeKoven is advocating that game players become more like game designers.
游戏设计师如何打破规则？作为一名游戏设计师意味着你要不断测试你正在创建的游戏的极限。规则的哪些方面有效，哪些方面无效？你是否需要添加反馈循环，或者修改游戏中的随机性？玩家是否每时每刻都面临着有意义的决定？回答这些游戏设计问题的最佳方法是改变游戏规则，尝试新的变化，然后看看会发生什么。
How are game designers rule-breakers? Being a game designer means that you are constantly testing the limits of a game you are creating. Which aspects of the rules are working and which are not? Do you need to add a feedback loop, or modify the amount of randomness in the game? Are players being faced with meaningful decisions at every moment? The best way to answer these game design questions is by changing the rules of your game, trying out new variations, and seeing what happens.
当然，DeKoven 推翻游戏权威的愿景并不仅限于专业游戏设计师。他希望看到所有游戏玩家都采取这种游戏态度。如果所有玩家都可以自由地打破游戏规则，不仅可以在游戏空间内玩游戏，还可以修改和改变游戏空间本身的形状，这意味着什么？这个重要问题的一个答案是，这需要游戏玩家和游戏设计师的态度发生根本性改变。如果玩家经常打破规则，那么这些规则真的还是规则吗？如果玩家不再呆在魔法圈内，他们真的在玩游戏吗？做出这种转变可能会让人感到自由，但它肯定会改变我们构思游戏、游戏玩法和游戏设计的方式。
Of course, DeKoven’s vision for dethroning the authority of a game extends beyond just professional game designers. He would like to see all game players adopt this attitude toward play. What would it mean if all players felt free to break the rules of a game, to play not just inside the space of a game, but to modify and change the shape of that space itself? One answer to this important question is that it would require a fundamental alteration in the attitudes of game players and game designers. If players regularly break the rules, are they really rules at all? If players no longer stay inside the magic circle, are they really playing a game? Making this shift might be liberating, but it would certainly change the way we conceive games, game play, and game design.
对 DeKoven 的挑战的另一个回答是，他所描述的现象可能已经存在。也许所有玩家都已经在玩游戏，不仅仅是在游戏框架内，而是在游戏框架本身内玩游戏。如果情况确实如此，那么所有违反规则的玩家，从专注和缺乏体育精神的玩家到作弊者和破坏者，都是游戏结构灵活性的自然延伸。违反规则只是我们玩游戏的方式之一。
Yet another answer to DeKoven’s challenge is that perhaps the phenomenon he describes already exists. Perhaps all players already play, not just inside the frame of a game, but with the frame of a game itself. If this is indeed the case, then all the varieties of rule-breaking players, from dedicated and unsportsmanlike players to cheaters and spoil-sports, are natural extensions of the flexibility of game structures. Rule-breaking is simply one of the ways that we play.
最后，打破规则不仅可以看作是一种游戏或设计游戏的方式，而且可以看作是一种对游戏设计本身的更普遍的态度。如果游戏设计的惯例和类型是大多数设计师“玩”的规则，那么创新者就是那些设法打破规则的设计师。游戏前景广阔，但前提是我们有足够的勇气真正打破我们领域的规则。这比看起来要难。我们知道，要巧妙地打破规则，需要对规则本身有深入的了解。我们希望这本书能提供一些这样的“游戏规则”——你可以毫不留情地、开玩笑地违反这些规则，以扩大游戏设计的可能性空间。
Lastly, rule-breaking can be considered not just a way to play or design games, but a more general attitude about game design itself. If the conventions and genres of game design are the rules by which most designers “play,” then the innovators are those designers that manage to break the rules. Games hold great promise, but only if we are bold enough to truly break the rules of our field. This is harder than it seems. We know that to skillfully break rules requires an intimate knowledge of the rules themselves. And our hope is that this book provides some of those “rules of play”—rules that you will mercilessly and playfully violate in order to expand the space of game design’s possibilities.
到本章，我们完成了第一个主要图式。在《规则》中，我们有意识地将目光限制在魔法圈的严格形式边界上，通常忽略玩家体验和游戏发生的更大背景。但随着我们的前进，我们将慢慢扩大调查范围，包括那些被遗漏的游戏方面。游戏规则的权威性有多稳定？魔法圈的边界有多大渗透性？如何才能不仅玩游戏，而且还能玩游戏的结构本身？我们将在即将到来的游戏和文化图式中直接解决这些问题以及更多问题。
With this chapter, we finish our first Primary Schema. In RULES, we consciously limited our gaze to the strictly formal boundaries of the magic circle, generally ignoring the player experience and the larger contexts in which a game takes place. But as we move forward, we will slowly widen the scope of our investigation, as we include those aspects of games that have been left out. How stable is the authority of a game’s rules? How permeable is the boundary of the magic circle? How is it possible to not just play a game but play with the very structures of gaming? We directly address these questions and many more in the PLAY and CULTURE schemas to come.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
《蚱蜢：游戏与生活》，作者：Bernard Suits（见第 98 页）
Grasshopper: Games, Life, by Bernard Suits (see page 98)
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第 4 章：无聊之人、欺骗之人和扫兴之人
Chapter 4: Triflers, Cheats, and Spoilsports
《精彩比赛：一名球员的哲学》，作者：Bernard DeKoven（见第 21 页）
The Well-Played Game: A Player’s Philosophy, by Bernard DeKoven (see page 21)
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第二章：指引
Chapter 2: Guidelines
第三章：游戏社区
Chapter 3: The Play Community
第 5 章：改变游戏规则
Chapter 5: Changing the Game
笔记
Notes
1. Dave Hickey，《空气吉他：艺术与民主论文集》（洛杉矶：高级批判研究基金会，1997 年），第 160-1 页。
1. Dave Hickey, Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy (Los Angeles: Foundation for Advanced Critical Studies, 1997), p. 160–1.
2. Marc Prensky，《基于数字游戏的学习》（纽约：麦格劳希尔，2001 年），第 119 页。
2. Marc Prensky, Digital Game-Based Learning (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001), p. 119.
3.《光明会：阴谋游戏》，第四版（奥斯汀：史蒂夫·杰克逊游戏，1991 年），第 9-10 页。
3. Illuminati: The Game of Conspiracy, Fourth Edition (Austin: Steve Jackson Games, 1991), p. 9–10.
4. Bernard DeKoven，《玩得好的游戏》（纽约：Doubleday，1978 年），第 68 页。
4. Bernard DeKoven, The Well-Played Game (New York: Doubleday, 1978), p. 68.
打破规则
概括
• 违反规则是几乎在每种游戏中都会发生的现象。
• Breaking the rules is a phenomenon that occurs in almost every kind of game.
• 相对于违反规则，玩家有五种类型。每种类型的玩家与游戏的以下方面都有特定的关系：
• Relative to rule-breaking, there are five player types. Each type of player has a particular relationship to the following aspects of a game:
• 遵守规则
• adherence to the rules
• 对获胜的兴趣
• interest in winning
• 厌恶态度的程度
• degree of lusory attitude
•标准玩家是典型的遵守规则的玩家，他们遵守游戏的限制并具有游戏态度。即使标准玩家只是理论上的虚构，但承认这种玩家地位也很重要，它与其他四种类型形成鲜明对比。
• The standard player is the typical rule-following player that obeys the restrictions of the game and possesses the lusory attitude. Even if the standard player is a theoretical fiction, it is important to acknowledge this player position, which stands in contrast to the other four types.
•专注型玩家与普通玩家类似，但对游戏获胜有着额外的热情。专注型玩家遵守规则，对获胜充满兴趣，并具有好胜的态度。
• A dedicated player is similar to the standard player but has an extra zealousness toward succeeding at a game. The dedicated player follows the rules, is interested in winning, and possesses the lusory attitude.
•缺乏体育精神的玩家虽然没有真正违反操作规则，但却违反了游戏的隐含规则。他们对获胜的强烈兴趣使他们有理由违反礼仪规则和正确的游戏行为。
• Unsportsmanlike players violate the implicit rules of a game without actually breaking operational rules. Their strong interest in winning gives them license to violate rules of etiquette and proper game behavior.
•作弊者为了取胜而破坏游戏的操作规则。作弊者因此对获胜抱有强烈的兴趣，但会放弃正常的取胜手段。作弊者知道其他玩家可以援引规则的权威，因此会暗中破坏规则。
• Cheaters break operational rules of a game in order to win. Cheating players thus possess a strong interest in winning, but will forgo the normal means of achieving victory. Acknowledging that other players can invoke the authority of the rules, cheaters break rules secretly.
•破坏者是指那些拒绝以任何方式承认游戏权威性的玩家。这些虚无主义的玩家会毫不犹豫地破坏游戏的魔力圈。
• A spoil-sport is a player that refuses to acknowledge the authority of a game in any way. These nihilistic players do not hesitate to destroy the magic circle of a game.
• 五种玩家类型并不总是截然不同的。在一场游戏中，玩家可以从一个类别转移到另一个类别。不同情境中的相同行为可以归入不同的玩家类别。
• The five player types are not always distinct. During a single game, a player can move from one category to another. The same behavior in different contexts can fall into different player categories.
•退化策略或漏洞是一种确保每次都能获胜的游戏方式。专注的玩家和缺乏体育精神的玩家都会使用退化策略。一般来说，退化策略对游戏不利。然而，在玩家社区中，退化策略有时可以扩大可能性空间。
• A degenerate strategy or exploit is a way of playing a game that ensures victory every time. Dedicated players and unsportsmanlike players make use of degenerate strategies. In general, degenerate strategies are detrimental to a game. However, within a community of players, degenerate strategies can sometimes act to expand the space of possibility.
• 将违反规则融入游戏设计和玩家体验的例子有很多，包括职业体育、数字游戏和允许作弊的游戏，例如《光明会》。
• There are many examples of the integration of rule-breaking into game design and player experience, including professional sports, digital games, and games that sanction cheating such as Illuminati.
• 游戏设计师需要认识到，违反规则是游戏中的常见现象，并将其纳入游戏设计思维中。新游戏运动提出的一个解决方案是，通过创建旨在打破和修改规则的游戏，让玩家更像游戏设计师。铁甲
• Game designers need to recognize that rule-breaking is a common phenomenon in gaming and incorporate it into their game design thinking. One solution, which comes from the New Games Movement, is to empower players to be more like game designers by creating games with rules that are meant to broken and modified. Ironclad
委托游戏 2
COMMISSIONED GAME 2
铁甲
Ironclad
适合 2 人玩的游戏
A game for 2 players
概述
Overview
Ironclad 是一款由巨型装甲机器人组成的对立团队之间的竞技场战斗游戏。这也是一款关于两位逻辑学家试图解决哲学分歧的游戏。这两个“子游戏”占据同一空间的不同维度。游戏板是一个网格：机器人战斗发生在网格的方格中，而哲学辩论发生在网格的交叉点上。这两个子游戏发生在独立且不相关的领域，但每个子游戏都对另一个产生微妙而关键的影响。
Ironclad is a game of arena combat between opposing teams of massive, armored robots. It is also a game about two logicians attempting to resolve a philosophical disagreement. The two “sub-games” occupy different dimensions of the same space. The gameboard is a grid: the robot combat occurs in the squares of the grid, whereas the philosophical debate occurs on the intersections of the grid. The two sub-games occur in separate and unrelated domains, but each exerts a subtle and crucial influence on the other.
规则
Rules
董事会
The Board
游戏板是一块 6 × 8（48 格）棋盘，放置在玩家之间，两个窄端朝向任一玩家。只需用遮蔽胶带标记棋盘外侧的两行，即可制作出 Ironclad 游戏板。
The gameboard is a 6 × 8 (48-square) checkerboard, positioned between the players with the two narrow ends facing either player. You can create an Ironclad gameboard simply by marking off two outside rows of a checkerboard with masking tape.
碎片
The Pieces
• 24 个棋子（或任何其他可堆叠棋子）：2 种颜色，每种颜色 12 个
• 24 checkers (or any other stackable piece): 2 colors, 12 of each color
• 64 块石头（或任何其他小标记）：2 种颜色，每种颜色 32 块
• 64 stones (or any other small marker): 2 colors, 32 of each color
• 一个 6 面骰子
• a 6-sided die
设置
Setup
每个玩家选择一种颜色的棋子和一种颜色的棋子。将棋子分成六叠，如下：两叠三枚棋子、两叠两枚棋子和两叠一枚棋子。按照下图摆放棋子。将棋子收集到两个碗中，并放在棋盘旁边。
Each player chooses a color of checker and a color of stone. Organize the checkers into six stacks as follows: two stacks of three checkers, two stacks of two checkers, and two stacks of one checker. Place the stacks according to the diagram below. Collect the stones in two bowls and set them beside the board.
• 玩家轮流行动。
• Players alternate turns.
• 在玩家的回合中，他或她选择两个子游戏之一并在该子游戏中采取行动。
• During a player’s turn, he or she chooses one of the two sub-games and makes a move in this sub-game.
• 然后，该玩家的对手在另一个子游戏中为该玩家做出任何合法的举动。
• The player’s opponent then makes any legal move for the player in the other sub-game.
• 一旦玩家在任一子游戏中达到获胜条件，该玩家就会立即赢得整个游戏。
• As soon as a player achieves a winning condition in either sub-game, that player immediately wins the overall game.
玩转铁甲舰：机械毁灭的奇观
Playing Ironclad: The Spectacle of Mechanical Destruction
网格的密封穹顶之下，是一座机械战场，到处都是重组自动机的钢铁尸体。它们每晚重新聚集起来，为早已化为尘土的观众带来恐惧和乐趣。
Beneath its hermetically sealed dome, the Grid is a clockwork battlefield littered with the steel corpses of recombinant automata. They re-assemble nightly to battle for the horror and amusement of an audience that has long since crumbled into dust.
爆炸震动了电网的根基。巨大的自动化战衣踏着雷鸣般的步伐，大步穿过烟柱和炽热的激光射击网格。一队队紧张的摄像机在他们的肩膀周围四处散落。彩色徽章装饰着烧焦的胸甲。这些巨大的捕食机器不时地静止下来，低下头盔，聆听无声的赞助话语。
Explosions shake the foundation of the Grid. With thundering tread, massive automated Warsuits stride through columns of smoke and the incandescent latticework of laser fire. Flocks of nervous cameras drift and scatter around their shoulders. Colorful insignia decorate scorched breastplates. Periodically these giant predator machines freeze, helms bowed, listening for the silent word of sponsorship.
客观的
Objective
将你的一个机器人移动到网格另一侧的六个方格中的任意一个上（对手的第一行）。
To move one of your robots onto any of the six squares on the opposite side of the grid (your opponent’s first row).
怎么玩
How to Play
你控制一个由巨型机器人组成的战斗小队，每个机器人都由一堆筹码代表。在你的回合中，你可以移动其中一个机器人或向一个敌方机器人开火。
You control a combat squad of giant robots, each robot represented by a stack of chips. During your turn you move one of your robots or fire on one enemy robot.
机器人可以向水平、垂直或对角线的任意方向移动一个方格。它们不能移动到已经被其他机器人占据的方格中。
Robots can move one square in any direction horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. They may not move into a square already occupied by another robot.
机器人运动
Robot movement
射击
Firing
机器人可以向水平、垂直或对角线上两个方格内的任何敌方机器人开火。如果至少有一个敌方机器人处于您的机器人射程内，您可以选择在您的回合中开火而不是移动。要开火，请选择目标。只有处于您的机器人射程内的敌方机器人才可以被选为目标。目标受到射程内每个机器人的一点伤害。机器人可以“穿过”友方或敌方机器人开火，而不会产生任何效果。
A robot can fire on any enemy robot that is within two squares in a straight line horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. If there is at least one enemy robot within range of one of your robots, you may choose to fire during your turn instead of moving. To fire, choose a target. Only enemy robots within range of one of your robots can be selected as a target. The target takes one point of damage from each of your robots that are within range. Robots may fire “through” friendly or enemy robots with no effect.
机器人系列
Robot range
对于机器人受到的每一点伤害，从代表该机器人的堆栈中移除一个棋子。如果在一轮中，机器人受到的伤害大于其堆栈中的棋子数量，则从该堆栈中移除所有棋子。
For each point of damage a robot takes, remove one checker from the stack representing that robot. If, during one turn, a robot takes more damage than the number of checkers in its stack, remove all of the checkers from that stack.
机器人战斗
两个黑色机器人攻击一个白色目标，并将其摧毁。
Robot combat
The two black robots attack a white target, destroying it.
地形
Terrain
网格包含地形，由位于某些网格交叉点上的石头表示。位于角点包含一个或多个石头的方格上的机器人会从该地形获得防御奖励。每块石头都会提供一个地形奖励。如果此机器人是敌方射击的目标，则射击玩家必须为每个向目标射击的机器人掷一次骰子。骰子上显示的数字必须大于目标的地形奖励，以便该机器人能够损坏目标。
The grid contains terrain represented by stones located on some of the grid intersections. A robot located on a square whose corner points contain one or more stones receives a defensive bonus from this terrain. Each stone gives one terrain bonus. If this robot is the target of enemy fire, the firing player must roll the die one time for each robot that is firing on the target. The number showing on the die must be greater than the target’s terrain bonus, in order for that robot to damage the target.
防御地形
白色目标再次受到攻击。这次，目标的地形奖励为 3。黑色玩家必须掷两次，每个攻击机器人掷一次。只有掷出 4、5 或 6 时，目标才会受到伤害。
Defensive terrain
Again, the white target is under attack. This time, the target has a terrain bonus of 3. The black player must roll twice, once for each attacking robot. The target only takes damage on a roll of 4, 5, or 6.
打铁如磐石：学术话语的技巧
Playing Ironclad: The Technique of Scholarly Discourse
网格是哲学辩论的正式系统。它由无数代为追求启蒙而生死相依的人们传承下来。网格的边界曾经刻有公理符号，现在已被上千个袖口的运动磨平。推理定律决定了网格的位置和运动。变幻莫测的星座追踪着学者们的论点，他们为确立早已被遗忘的命题的无可辩驳的真理而战。
The Grid is a formal system for philosophical disputation. It has been handed down through countless generations by the ones who live and die in pursuit of enlightenment. Its borders, once engraved with axiomatic symbols, are now worn smooth by the motion of a thousand cuffs. The Laws of Inference determine the position and motion of the stones. Shifting constellations trace the arguments of Scholars as they fight to establish the irrefutable truth of propositions whose meanings have long since been forgotten.
目的
Object
形成一串不间断的石子，从网格的任意一侧延伸到另一侧。
To form an unbroken string of stones, running from any one side of the grid to the opposite side.
怎么玩
How to Play
您正在尝试操纵网格（代表正式的哲学体系）上的石头（代表逻辑陈述）。每回合您必须将一块您颜色的石头放到网格上。如果您无法放置石头，则必须移动任一颜色的石头。
You are attempting to manipulate stones (representing logical statements) on a grid (representing a formal philosophical system). Each turn you must place a stone of your color onto the grid. If you cannot place a stone you must move one stone of either color.
获胜位置
白棋有一条完整的线从棋盘的一侧延伸到另一侧。
Winning position
White has an unbroken string running from one side of the board to the opposite side.
放置
Placing
棋子可以放在网格中任何未被占据的交叉点上，包括网格边缘周围的交叉点。棋子放置的唯一限制是“否定规则”。
Stones can be placed onto any unoccupied intersection of the grid, including those around the edges of the grid. The only limitation on stone placement is the Rule of Negation.
否定规则
The Rule of Negation
你不能将棋子放在任何包含一个或多个棋子的方格的角点上。
You may not place a stone on the corner point of any square that contains one or more checkers.
否定规则
Rule of Negation
标有“X”的交叉点上不可放置任何石头。
No stones can be placed on intersections shown marked with an X.
移动
Movement
如果在您的回合中您无法放置棋子，则必须将任一颜色的棋子从网格的一个交叉点移到另一个交叉点。为了移动棋子，棋子必须位于开放交叉点旁边。您可以将棋子朝任何开放交叉点的方向移动，直到被另一枚棋子挡住为止。否定规则对棋子移动没有影响。
If during your turn you cannot place a stone, you must move one stone of either color from one intersection of the grid to another. In order to move, a stone must be situated next to an open intersection. You may move a stone in the direction of any open intersection as far as you want, until it is blocked by another stone. The Rule of Negation has no effect on stone movement.
搬动石头
Moving a Stone
循环规则
The Rule of Circularity
如果该石头是最后移动的石头，则您不能移动该石头。
You may not move a stone if that stone was the last stone moved.
丧失
Forfeit
如果在您的回合中您无法放置或移动石头，您的对手获胜。
If during your turn you cannot place or move a stone, your opponent wins.
设计说明
DESIGN NOTES
铁甲
Ironclad
当时这似乎是个好主意。《铁甲》的最初概念是，这款游戏只有一个规则结构，但有两个完全不同的“主题”。两位玩家都会根据相同的规则操纵相同的抽象棋子和卡牌，但棋子和规则对每位玩家来说代表着不同的东西。
It seemed like a good idea at the time. The original concept for Ironclad was a game that had a single rule-structure but two completely different “themes.” Both players would manipulate identical, abstract pieces and cards according to identical rules, but the pieces and rules would represent something different for each player.
这是我最初的想法：
Here was my original idea:
这款游戏是一款双人卡牌游戏。游戏有两套不同的规则，每个玩家各一套，从某种意义上说，两个玩家玩的是不同的游戏。虽然结构相似，但两款游戏的主题和叙事表面完全不同。一个玩家在玩一款关于两位哲学家之间争论的游戏；另一个玩家在玩一款关于巨型机器人在竞技场战斗的游戏。
The game is a card game for two people. The game has two separate sets of rules, one for each player, and in a sense the two players are playing different games. Although structurally similar, the motif and narrative surface of the two games are entirely different. One player is playing a game about an argument between two philosophers; the other is playing a game about giant robots battling in arena combat.
卡片使用抽象符号和数字。在哲学游戏中代表“前提”的卡片可能在战斗机器人游戏中代表“基地”，“讽刺”与“伪装装甲”等等。所有游戏动作都共享相同的机制，但名称不同。
The cards use abstract symbols and numbers. A card that represents a “Premise” in the philosophy game might represent a “Base” in the battling robots game, “Irony” vs. “Camouflage Armor,” and so on. All game actions would share the same mechanic but have different names.
玩家们互相竞争来决定进行哪场比赛。
The players compete to determine which game is being played.
游戏机制涉及在桌子上建立一个面向玩家对手的牌网。游戏机制可能包含隐藏信息（例如隐藏在其他牌下面的牌），因为我希望有一个虚张声势的元素。它也可能包括共享资源，例如要求每个玩家设计一个牌组，两个玩家都从任一牌组中抽牌。
The game mechanic involves building a network of cards across the table towards a player’s opponent. The game mechanic will probably include hidden information (such as cards hidden underneath other cards) because I want there to be a bluffing element. Also it may include shared resources, such as asking each player to design a deck, with both players drawing from either deck.
我会尝试让游戏尽可能简单。我打算使用少于 10 种不同类型的卡牌，并添加一些变化，例如力量或方向。
I will attempt to make the game as simple as possible. I’m thinking of using fewer than 10 different card types with some variations, such as strength or direction.
多年来，我一直被这样一幅画面所困扰：巨大的、未来主义的哲学家机器人参与战斗，代表着思想和信仰的抽象冲突。（尼采的机甲：巨大而强大，但由一个萎缩的侏儒驾驶，侏儒在怪物的表面上爬行，拧下机器的零件并用它们来卡住自己的齿轮。德里达的机甲：一群机器人分散到竞技场的边缘，开始拆除它的墙壁和地板等。）这是那些我知道会在某个地方出现但不知道什么时候会出现的固定想法之一。
I have for many years been haunted by the image of massive, futuristic philosopher-robots engaging in combat that represents an abstract clash of ideas and beliefs. (The Nietzsche mech: enormous and overpowering, but piloted by a shriveled homunculus who is crawling over the monster’s surface wrenching off parts of the machinery and using them to jam his own gears. The Derridean mech: a swarm of robots who scatter to the edges of the arena and begin to disassemble its walls and floor, etc.) It’s one of those idée fixe that I knew would come out somewhere but never knew when it would appear.
我喜欢游戏中高雅文化/低俗文化之间的摩擦，我也认为这个概念触及了游戏和表现中的一些难以用语言表达但却是游戏重要而独特的方面。
I love the high-culture/low-culture friction of the game, and I also think that the concept gets at something about games and representation that is hard to put into words but is an important and unique aspect of games.
我为这款游戏考虑过许多不同的名字，包括 2-Player，或者 2-P，但最终决定采用 Ironclad 这个名字。
I considered a number of different names for this game, including 2-Player, or 2-P, but eventually decided on the name Ironclad.
我希望设计能够遵循与游戏背景相关的特定约束。由于玩家只会得到一套规则（可能还有一些印刷元素），所以我想将游戏材料保持在最低限度。我的目的是制作一款雄心勃勃、与众不同的游戏，但我希望人们真正玩它，而不仅仅是阅读它，所以我把材料做得尽可能简单。
I wanted the design to adhere to specific constraints relating to the context of the game. Because players would only be given a ruleset (and possibly some printed elements), I wanted to keep the game materials minimal. My intention was to make a game that was ambitious and unusual, but I wanted people to actually play it, not just read it, and so I made the materials as simple as possible.
Ironclad 最初是一款双人卡牌游戏，概念性很高，但游戏机制却模糊得几乎不存在。问题就在这里——我对游戏机制并不感兴趣，我完全专注于“大创意”。我可以想象规则的布局方式：两套规则，每个玩家一套。每个玩家都会得到相同的游戏目标说明以及在操纵棋子方面允许的操作类型，但他们对这些操作所代表的内容的心理印象却完全不同。
Ironclad began life as a two-player card game, with a high concept and a game play mechanic that was vague to the point of non-existence. And here was the problem—I wasn’t really interested in the mechanic, I was completely focused on the “big idea.” I could picture the way the rules would be laid out: two sets of rules, one for each player. Each player would have the same instructions about the goal of the game and the types of actions allowed in terms of manipulating pieces, but their mental image of what those actions represented would be completely different.
出于这种兴趣，我开始寻找一种简单易行的结构，这种结构足够灵活，可以双向弯曲。第一个障碍是空间问题。机器人占据空间并在其中移动，而哲学辩论则不然。任何有棋子移动的结构都会让人联想到机器人游戏，而哲学家的游戏则受到损害，所以我需要一些更抽象的东西。基于卡片的结构似乎是完美的解决方案。我在想纸牌游戏 Milles Bournes 是如何在没有任何空间操纵的情况下创造出赛车形象的。
Because of this interest, I set out to find a straightforward structure that would be flexible enough to bend both ways. The first hurdle was the problem of space. Robots occupy space and move through it, philosophical debates don’t. Any structure that had pieces moving around would evoke the robot game to the detriment of the philosophers’ game, so I needed something more abstract. A card-based structure seemed to be the perfect solution. I was thinking of how the card game Milles Bournes creates the image of a car race without any spatial maneuvering.
我最初的计划是制作一套 30 张卡片：15 张基础或前提卡片，15 张攻击或论据卡片。每张卡片都有一个数值；玩家会以各种方式将卡片放在桌子上，试图以最有效的方式摧毁对手的基础（或使他们的论据无效）。卡片中间会有抽象符号，面向每个对手的卡片上会有不同的标题和“风味文字”。一个方向写着“EMP Blast”，另一个方向写着“Occam's Razor”。想象一下理查德·加菲尔德的 NetRunner，只是没有那么有趣。
My initial plan was for a set of 30 cards: 15 base or premise cards, and 15 attack or argument cards. Each card would have a numerical value; players would lay the cards out on the table in various arrangements in an attempt to destroy their opponent’s bases (or invalidate their arguments) in the most efficient way. The cards would have abstract symbols in the center and a different caption and “flavor text” facing each opponent. One direction would say “EMP Blast” the other would say “Occam’s Razor.” Imagine Richard Garfield’s NetRunner, only not as much fun.
此时，我的游戏已经基本可以运行，但一点也不好玩。更重要的是，这款游戏应该围绕一个结构和两个我尝试过多种表示，但结构确实不适合任何一种表示。经过几周的思考，我还是无法想出一个可行的结构。更重要的是，我觉得整个项目都不对劲。通常，思考游戏系统的结构与其主题的关系很有趣，但试图想出一个可以作为两个对立主题的支点的结构并不好玩。这有点不愉快，特别牵强、过于刻意和尴尬。
At this point I had a game that was almost working but wasn’t at all enjoyable. More importantly, the game was supposed to be about one structure and two representations, but the structure really didn’t fit either representation. After a few weeks of ruminating on this problem I wasn’t able to come up with a different structure that would work. More importantly, the whole project felt wrong to me. Normally it’s a lot of fun to think about how the structure of a game system relates to its theme, but trying to come up with a structure that would serve as the fulcrum for two opposing themes was not fun. There was something unpleasant about it, something particularly forced, overly deliberate, and awkward.
我开始认真思考游戏中的结构和表现是如何运作的。我最初的想法中隐藏着一个概念，即游戏结构与游戏所代表的主题、活动或场景之间存在根本区别。这意味着你可以采用任意数量的不同结构，并将它们与各种主题相匹配，以产生不同的效果，但任何特定主题和任何特定游戏机制之间都不存在任何深刻的、本质的关系。在随后对这一概念的审视中，我意识到有一种隐藏的议程在推动它，即支持结构/反对主题的议程。议程如下：游戏真正有趣的地方在于结构、系统、数学、相空间的拓扑卷积，而主题只是虚构、幻想和假装。玩家，你真的不想挥舞巨剑杀死怪物，你想管理有限的资源并计算递归概率！这一概念想要将结构和主题分开，这样结构就可以自行发展，不再屈从于主题的表面问题，或者至少可以自由地与这些问题进行新的、更有活力的安排。想象一下 20 世纪绘画中形式与主题关系的变化，只不过是用兽人代替了裸体女人。
I began to think a lot about how structure and representation work in games. There was a notion buried in my original idea, the idea of a fundamental separation between a game’s structure and whatever subject matter or activity or setting the game represents. The implication was that you could take any number of different structures and match them up with various themes for different effects, but there wasn’t any deep, essential relationship between any particular theme and any particular game mechanic. Upon subsequent examination of this notion, I recognized that there was a kind of hidden agenda driving it, a pro-structure/anti-theme agenda. The agenda goes like this: the really interesting thing about a game is the structure, the system, the math, the topological convolutions of phase-space, whereas theme is just so much make-believe, fantasy, and pretend. Look player, you don’t really want to swing a giant sword and kill monsters, you want to manage limited resources and calculate recursive probabilities! This notion wants to pry structure and theme apart so that structure can evolve on its own, released from subservience to the surface concerns of theme, or at least freed up to enter into new and more dynamic arrangements with these concerns. Picture the changing relationship of form to subject matter in twentieth century painting, only with orcs instead of nude women.
经过几个月的苦苦思索，这个想法似乎变得不那么确定了，或者至少不那么有趣了。我的意思是，你当然可以做我打算做的事情，但它开始看起来像一个空洞而又有点怪诞的把戏，就像用电流穿过一只死青蛙的腿并称之为芭蕾一样。
After a couple months of banging my head against it, this notion seemed less certain, or at least less interesting. I mean, sure you could do what I set out to do, but it was starting to seem like an empty and somewhat grotesque trick, like running electricity through a dead frog’s legs and calling it ballet.
当然，游戏中的主题和结构之间存在许多关系。无论这些关系是否必不可少，它们都足够复杂和重要，以至于我无法轻易地改变它们。例如，主题和结构之间存在一种共生关系，通过这种关系，主题和结构可以互相帮助。主题可以提供进入复杂结构的切入点，而这种结构的回报却深藏不露：首先，一切都与剑有关——计算只是为了召唤剑。最终游戏变成了计算，剑也消失了。然后，表示可以作为体现复杂结构的捷径，否则玩家可能难以理解。如果红色方块是“熔岩”，那么玩家就不会忘记它们超出了范围。为什么俄罗斯方块中的碎片会从屏幕顶部移动到底部？它们是砖块！主题可以为结构添加任意限制，而任意限制通常是一件好事。
There are, of course, many relationships between theme and structure in a game. Whether or not any of those relationships are essential, they are complex and vital enough to resist my attempt to lightly shuffle them around. For example, there is the symbiotic relationship by which theme and structure assist each other. Theme can provide the entry point into a complex structure whose rewards are deeply buried: first it’s all about the sword—the calculations are only there to conjure up the sword. Eventually the game becomes about the calculations and the sword fades away. Then there is the fact that representation can be used as a shortcut to embody a complicated structure that might otherwise be too much for the player to assimilate. If the red squares are “lava,” then the player won’t forget they are out of bounds. Why do the pieces in Tetris move from the top of the screen to the bottom? They’re bricks! Theme can add arbitrary limitations to the structure, and arbitrary limitations are often a good thing.
有时游戏实际上就是它们所代表的东西。一幅画中画着一碗水果，无论画得多么逼真，都永远不会变成真正的水果。但是，游戏模拟的勇敢、背叛或贪婪与这些实际事物之间的界限并不那么清晰。Kory Heath 的游戏 Zendo 乍一看似乎是禅宗精神修行的一种有点异想天开的表现；但在游戏中，它可以成为一种真正的冥想形式。
Sometimes games actually are the things they represent. A painting of a bowl of fruit, no matter how realistically it’s painted, is never going to turn into actual fruit. But the line between a game’s simulation of, for example, bravery, betrayal, or greed, and those actual things is not so clear. Kory Heath’s game Zendo seems at first to be a somewhat whimsical representation of the spiritual discipline of Zen Buddhism; but in play it can become a form of actual meditation.
无论如何，我都是在这种半认可的议程的影响下运作的，这种对传统的结构与主题一一对应的半心半意的批评。具有讽刺意味的是，尽管这个议程具有支持结构的含义，但我有两个真正喜欢的主题，而没有一个我关心的结构。我四处寻找任何可以插入的旧结构，以忠实地承载我的两个宝贵主题！
In any event, I was operating under the influence of this half-recognized agenda, this kind of half-hearted critique of the conventional one-to-one correspondence of structure to theme. And ironically, despite the pro-structure implications of this agenda, I had two themes I really liked and no structure I cared about. I was grasping around trying to find any old structure I could plug in that would dutifully carry my two precious themes!
于是，我放弃了《铁甲》，带着些许轻松，退回到一个完全不同的想法上，这个想法我已经闲着没事地思考了一段时间。通常，当我看着一个网格时，我会想象一个棋盘游戏，它同时是两种不同的游戏。一组棋子会像国际象棋一样从一个方格移动到另一个方格，而另一组棋子会沿着线从一个交叉点移动到另一个交叉点。我认为这两组棋子之间应该几乎没有接触，我想象它们同时占据同一空间的两个维度，以某种微妙而间接的方式相互影响。我想象方形棋子感受到线形棋子的存在，就像鬼魂在房间里时你感受到的寒意一样。
So, I abandoned Ironclad and I retreated, with some relief, to a totally different idea that I had been idly thinking about for a while. Often, when I looked at a grid, I would imagine a board game that was two different games at once. One set of pieces would move, like Chess, from square to square, while another set of pieces would move along the lines from intersection to intersection. I thought that there should be little or no contact between the two sets of pieces, and I pictured them simultaneously occupying two dimensions of the same space, affecting each other in some subtle and oblique fashion. I imagined the square pieces feeling the presence of the line pieces like the chill you feel when a ghost is in the room.
现在，我有了一个让我兴奋的结构，以及一个从结构中浮现出来的主题，而不是一个感觉“应用”的主题。这两组棋子分别是占据网格方格物质领域的“身体”和占据方格交叉点非空间的“灵魂”。这个想法的早期版本涉及身体相互攻击和杀戮，导致释放灵魂，这些灵魂会四处飘动，巧妙地影响后续战斗。目标是让身体穿过棋盘到达对手那边。每回合，玩家都会决定移动哪种类型的棋子。我尝试了几种变化，玩起来还不错，导致了一场战略牺牲的游戏。
Now I had a structure I was excited about and a theme that emerged from the structure, rather than one that felt “applied.” The two sets of pieces were “bodies” occupying the material realm of the squares of the grid, and “spirits” occupying the non-space of the intersections between the squares. Early versions of this idea involved bodies attacking and killing each other, resulting in the release of spirits that would flutter around subtly influencing subsequent combat. The goal was to get a body across the board to your opponent’s side. Each turn a player would decide which type of piece to move. I tried a few variations of this and it played pretty well, leading to a game of strategic sacrifices.
然后我开始尝试改进这个主题：棋子和棋子、身体和灵魂、物质和形而上学、物体和思想。等等，物体和思想？无意中，我又回到了 Ironclad。对我来说，这两组棋子显然是机器人和概念。从这个洞察开始，游戏的最终形式开始成型。我需要将这两个“领域”拉开一点距离。我给棋子赋予了自己的目标——像 Hex 一样将棋盘的两个相对面连接在一起。这似乎很符合推理“链”的概念，让人想起了赫尔曼·黑塞虚构的玻璃珠游戏中的形而上学竞赛。如果棋子要变成巨大、笨拙的战斗机甲，它们需要更多地扮演这个角色——它们需要射击，需要受到伤害，而不仅仅是消失。一堆棋子似乎是显示能量或健康状况的简单方法，因此棋子变成了一堆棋子。对于机器人来说，棋子充当地形，提供防御奖励，使它们更难被击中。对于哲学家来说，机器人充当干扰，网格中的空隙，棋子无法在上面下。现在，我不再拥有一款具有两个不同“表面”的游戏（但事实并非如此），而是拥有两款占据相同空间的游戏（但事实并非如此）。《铁甲》已成为一款关于叠加的游戏，是游戏拼贴的实验。
I then began to toy with refinements to this theme: pawns and stones, bodies and souls, the material and the metaphysical, objects and ideas. Wait, objects and ideas? Without intending to, I had bounced back, hard, to Ironclad. It was obvious to me that the two sets of pieces were robots and concepts. From this insight the final form of the game began to take rough shape. I needed to pull the two “realms” apart a bit more. I gave the stones their own goal—to link two opposite sides of the board together as in Hex. This seemed to fit well with the idea of a “chain” of reasoning and was nicely reminiscent of the metaphysical contests of Herman Hesse’s fictional Glass Bead Game. If the pawns were going to become giant, lumbering battle-mechs they needed to act the part more—they needed to shoot, and they needed to take damage, not just disappear. A stack of pieces seemed like an easy way to show energy or health, so the pawns became stacks of checkers. For the robots the stones operated as terrain, giving a defensive bonus that made them harder to hit. For the philosophers the robots operated as interruptions, gaps in the grid on which no stone could be played. Now instead of having one game with two different “surfaces” (but not really), I had two games occupying the same space (but not really). Ironclad had become a game about superimposition, an experiment in game play collage.
早期的游戏测试表明，无论哪个子游戏先“升温”，它都会占据主导地位，而另一个子游戏则会处于更稳定的位置，任何单独的动作都不太可能扰乱平衡，因此价值也较低。我需要确保两个子游戏以大致相同的速度向前发展。我决定，在轮到玩家时，选择一个子游戏进行移动，而对手在另一个子游戏中替她移动，而不是强迫每个玩家在每个回合中都移动。这使得选择在哪个子游戏中移动变得更有趣：因为你的对手试图在另一个子游戏中对你做出最糟糕的举动，所以你最终肯定会做出回应。随着玩家的注意力在两个子游戏之间摇摆不定，这种结构导致了两个子游戏之间的良好来回。我也喜欢为对手移动的方式，这种方式模糊了两个玩家之间的界限，而这个游戏在很多层面上已经是双重视觉的。
Early playtesting indicated that whichever sub-game “heated up” first would dominate, leaving the other one abandoned in a more stable position, in which any individual move was less likely to disturb the equilibrium and was therefore less valuable. I needed to make sure both sub-games moved forward at roughly the same rate. Rather than force each player to move in each sub-game every turn, I decided that on her turn a player would pick a sub-game in which to move and her opponent would move for her in the other sub-game. This made the choice of which sub-game to move in more interesting: because your opponent was trying to make the worst possible move for you in the other sub-game you were sure to eventually respond. This structure led to a nice back-and-forth between the two sub-games as the players’ attention oscillated between them. I also like the way that moving for your opponent blurs the lines between the two players in a game that is already about double-vision on many levels.
最终的游戏测试让我能够解决剩余的细节问题。开发了“选择目标”射击方法，以便进行联合射击，而无需在机器人子游戏中增加额外的步骤（多个机器人可以用一个动作射击）。在设计的最后阶段，我确定了网格的大小和起始部件的数量，并消除了规则中的任何歧义。
Final playtesting enabled me to work out the remaining details. The “choose a target” method of firing was developed to allow for combined fire without adding extra steps to a turn in the robot sub-game (multiple robots can fire with a single move.) In the last stages of the design I fixed the size of the grid and the number of starting pieces, and ironed out any ambiguities in the rules.
Ironclad 立体地使用了网格，类似于国际象棋和围棋的碰撞。但两者之间还有更深层次的联系。国际象棋和围棋中的两个想法对这款游戏产生了重大影响。第一个是 Bughouse，这是国际象棋的变体，其中两个游戏同时进行，一个游戏中被捕获的棋子会在另一个游戏中显示为新棋子。第二个是围棋的 tenuki 概念。由于其复杂性，围棋几乎可以被认为是多个同时进行的游戏的集合。Tenuki 是一个术语，描述玩家离开“本地”位置移动到棋盘上的其他地方。
In its stereoscopic use of the grid, Ironclad resembles a collision between Chess and Go. But there is a deeper connection. Two ideas from Chess and Go were a major influence on the game. The first is Bughouse, the Chess variant in which two games are played simultaneously and captured pieces in one game show up as new pieces in the other. The second is the Go concept of tenuki. Because of its deep complexities, Go can almost be thought of as a collection of multiple, simultaneous games. Tenuki is a term that describes a player leaving a “local” situation to move somewhere else on the board.
最后要说的是：尽管哲学家们早已忘记了他们争论的是什么，但我碰巧知道这是心灵/身体问题。机器人在战斗，因为这就是机器人所做的事情。
A final note: although the philosophers have long ago forgotten what they are arguing about, I happen to know that it’s the mind/body problem. The robots are fighting because that’s what robots do.
弗兰克·兰兹
Frank Lantz
Frank Lantz 是纽约市的一名自由游戏设计师。过去 3 年，Frank 一直担任两家独立游戏开发商 gameLab 和 Pop 的多个项目的首席设计师。在此之前，他曾担任纽约设计公司 R/GA Interactive 的创意总监，参与了包括 PC 游戏 Gearheads 和 The Robot Club 在内的多款游戏的制作。Frank 是纽约大学互动电信项目的教员，教授游戏设计和互动叙事课程。
Frank Lantz is a freelance game designer based in New York City. For the past 3 years Frank has been lead designer on a variety of projects for two independent game developers—gameLab and Pop. Prior to that, he was Creative Director of New York design firm R/GA Interactive, where he worked on several games including the PC titles Gearheads and The Robot Club. Frank is a member of the faculty of NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, where he teaches classes in game design and interactive narrative.
第三单元：游戏
Unit 3: PLAY
定义游戏
Defining Play
游戏即体验游戏
Games as the Play of Experience
游戏即意义的游戏
Games as the Play of Meaning
游戏是快乐的游戏
Games as the Play of Pleasure
叙事游戏
Games as Narrative Play
游戏是一种模拟游戏
Games as the Play of Simulation
游戏作为社交游戏
Games as Social Play
[游戏] 是一种结构化活动，理解就是从这种活动中产生的。游戏既是我们质疑理解结构的地方，也是我们发展理解结构的地方。——詹姆斯·S·汉斯，《世界游戏》
[Play] is a structuring activity, the activity out of which understanding comes. Play is at one and the same time the location where we question our structures of understanding and the location where we develop them.—James S. Hans, The Play of the World
规则如何发挥作用？
How do the rules play out?
归根结底，游戏设计就是玩法设计。游戏规则之所以重要，是因为它们可以促进玩家的体验。在这个主要架构中，我们大大扩展了对游戏的理解，深入研究了乐趣、叙事和社交互动等主题。在从“规则”的主要架构到“玩法”的转变中，我们放松了对规则作为正式系统的严格关注，转而研究规则如何成为游戏玩家有意义的体验。
Ultimately, game design is play design. The rules of a game are relevant because they facilitate the experience of players. Within this primary schema, we expand our understanding of games considerably, delving into topics like pleasure, narrative, and social interaction. In the movement from the primary schema of RULES to PLAY, we loosen our tight focus on rules as a formal system to examine the ways that rules become a meaningful experience for the players of a game.
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定义游戏
DEFINING PLAY
游戏玩法
game play
游戏活动
ludic activities
好玩
being playful
免费玩
free play
变革游戏
transformative play
任何对游戏的认真定义都必须考虑到这样的可能性：游戏禁令可能会使其无效。—— Brian Sutton-Smith，《游戏的模糊性》
Any earnest definition of play has to be haunted by the possibility that playful enjoinders will render it invalid.—Brian Sutton-Smith, The Ambiguity of Play
介绍游戏
Introducing Play
无论游戏采用何种形式，有意义的游戏设计都需要理解规则如何演变成游戏。游戏只有在玩家体验游戏规则时才会发生。游戏开始前，游戏系统的许多正式组成部分都已准备就绪：空荡荡的足球场；棋子静止在起始位置；安装在硬盘上的游戏程序。只有当玩家进入游戏时，系统才会完全活跃起来。运动员和球迷涌入体育场；棋子从起始位置一个接一个地冲出；保存的游戏文件被加载，游戏填满屏幕。当玩家居住、探索和操纵游戏可能的游戏空间时，游戏元素之间就会出现潜在的关系。
The design of meaningful play, in whatever form the play might take, demands an understanding of how rules ramify into play. The play of a game only occurs as players experience the rules of the game in motion. Before a game begins, the many formal components of the game-system lie in wait: an empty football stadium; Chess pieces resting in their starting positions; a game program installed on a hard drive. Only when the players enter into the game does the system come fully to life. Athletes and fans spill into the stadium; Chess pieces sally forth one by one from their starting positions; a saved game file is loaded and the game fills the screen. Dormant relationships spring up between game elements as players inhabit, explore, and manipulate the game’s space of possible play.
从形式的角度来看，游戏规则确实构成了游戏的内在“本质”。但将游戏的考虑仅仅局限于其形式系统是危险的。规则的复杂性具有内在的魅力，优雅的数学和内嵌逻辑具有催眠般的诱惑力。然而，游戏设计师必须认识到，规则的制定，即使是那些优雅而创新的规则，也绝不是目的本身。规则仅仅是创造游戏的手段。如果在游戏设计过程中，你发现自己试图完善一套优雅的规则，但这种方式却无法影响玩家的体验，那么你的关注点就被误导了。游戏体验代表着游戏设计师手艺的核心和灵魂，也是游戏基本模式下所有章节的焦点。
From a formal point of view, the rules of a game indeed constitute the inner “essence” of a game. But there is a danger in limiting the consideration of a game solely to its formal system. The complexity of rules has an intrinsic fascination, the hypnotic allure of elegant mathematics and embedded logic. However, it is crucial for game designers to recognize that the creation of rules, even those that are elegant and innovative, is never an end in itself. Rules are merely the means for creating play. If, during the process of game design, you find yourself attempting to perfect an elegant set of rules in a way that fails to impact the experience of the player, your focus has become misdirected. The experience of play represents the heart and soul of the game designer’s craft, and is the focus of all of the chapters collected under the Primary Schema of PLAY.
在本介绍性章节之后是一些图式，每个图式都从不同的角度构建游戏。在PLAY中，我们将游戏探索为体验和愉悦的系统；作为意义和叙事游戏的系统；以及作为模拟和社交游戏的系统。我们知道将游戏构建为体验的方式几乎是无限的，我们并不假装我们的 PLAY图式集提供了完整的列表。有些体验图式提供了理解游戏的有效方式，但我们没有将其包括在内。例如，我们不将游戏视为一种学习体验，也不将游戏视为一种运动系统。所包含的图式为游戏设计和游戏的持续讨论提供了一个起点，而这一讨论才刚刚开始。
Following this introductory chapter are a number of schemas, each one framing games from a different perspective. Within PLAY, we explore games as systems of experience and pleasure; as systems of meaning and narrative play; and as systems of simulation and social play. We are aware of the near-infinite variety of ways to frame games as experience and we make no pretense that our set of PLAY schemas offer a complete list. There are experiential schemas that offer valid ways of understanding games which we did not include. We don’t, for example, look at play as an experience of learning, or at play as a kinesthetic system of movement. The schemas included offer a starting point for an ongoing discussion of game design and play, a discussion that is only just beginning.
什么是游戏？
What Is Play?
正如心理学家 J. Barnard Gilmore 在《儿童游戏》中所说：“尽管每个人对游戏的定义并不统一，但肯定不是每个人都知道游戏是什么。”1心理学和人类学对游戏的研究产生了一系列的定义，从将游戏表述为“不为任何超出其本身的结果而自觉进行的活动”，到概念化为“游戏是指那些伴有相对愉悦、兴奋、力量和自我主动感的状态的活动”。2尽管这些定义可能告诉我们一些关于游戏的知识，但我们希望建立一个更加以设计为中心的概念定义，以帮助我们在游戏中创造有意义的游戏体验。
As psychologist J. Barnard Gilmore notes in Child’s Play, “Certainly everyone knows what play is not even if everyone can’t agree on just what play is.”1 The psychological and anthropological study of play has resulted in a range of definitions, from a formulation of play as “activities not consciously performed for the sake of any result beyond themselves” to a conceptualization that “play refers to those activities which are accompanied by a state of comparative pleasure, exhilaration, power, and the feeling of self-initiative.”2 Although these definitions may tell us something about play, we want to build a more design-centric definition of the concept, one that will help us create an experience of meaningful play in our games.
我们先来看看 play 在日常口语中的用法。与“game”一样，“play” 一词的用法也多种多样：
Let us start by looking at how play is used in everyday speech. As with “game,” the word “play” is used in many and varied ways:
• 创作音乐的行为，例如播放广播或演奏乐器
• the act of creating music, such as playing the radio or playing a musical instrument
• 假装：假装生气，装傻
• pretending: playing at being angry, playing the fool
• 激活一个过程：将某件事付诸行动
• activating a process: putting something into play
• 采取冒险行动：反复无常
• taking a risky action: playing fast and loose
• 事件或命运的进程：顺其自然，听天由命
• the course of events or fate: letting things play out, playing into the hand of fate
• 拖延：拖延时间
• stalling: playing for time
• 开玩笑或不认真：只是开玩笑、开玩笑
• being joking or not serious: just playing around, playing tricks
• 赌博：赌马
• gambling: playing the horses
• a subtle effect: a smile playing on the lips, the play of light on the wall
• 齿轮或齿之间的间隙：汽车方向盘的间隙
• the loose space between gears or cogs: the play of a car’s steering wheel
• 愚弄或欺骗某人：利用某人的全部价值，玩弄某人的感情，讨好某人
• fooling or deceiving someone: playing someone for all they’re worth, playing on someone’s feelings, playing up to someone
• 充满艺术感、机灵、青春洋溢：穿着俏皮的服装，玩文字游戏，当然，
• being artful, clever, or youthfully jubilant: dressing in a playful style, engaging in wordplay and, of course,
•玩玩具或玩游戏
• playing with toys or playing a game
虽然我们“玩”诸如《合金装备》、《壁球》和《UNO》之类的游戏，但似乎还有许多其他活动也属于玩和玩耍的范畴。“玩”和“游戏”这两个术语之间有什么联系？当我们在第 7 章中定义游戏一词时，我们假设了游戏和玩耍之间的两种可能关系：
Whereas we “play” games such as Metal Gear Solid, Racquetball, and UNO, there seem to be many other activities that fall under the category of play and playing as well. What is the connection between the terms “play” and “game”? When we defined the word game in chapter 7, we posited two possible relationships between games and play:
游戏是玩乐的一个子集：游戏构成了我们可能认为是玩乐的一切形式化部分。玩接球或玩医生游戏都是超出我们对游戏的定义的游戏活动（具有可量化结果的力量竞赛等）。然而，虽然并非所有游戏都符合游戏类别，但我们定义为游戏的那些东西都属于更大的玩乐活动类别。
Games are a subset of play: Games constitute a formalized part of everything we might consider to be play. Playing catch or playing doctor are play activities that fall outside our definition of games (a contest of powers with a quantifiable outcome, etc.). However, although not all play fits the category of games, those things we define as games fit within a larger category of play activities.
玩是游戏的一个元素：除了规则和文化之外，玩是游戏的基本组成部分、游戏这一更大现象的一个方面，也是理解游戏的主要模式。
Play is an element of games: In addition to rules and culture, play is an essential component of games, a facet of the larger phenomenon of games, and a primary schema for understanding them.
这两种关系没有哪一种更正确。第一种是描述性的区别，将游戏现象置于现实世界游戏活动的更大范围内。第二种是概念性的区别，将游戏视为游戏的一个重要方面。然而，英语中“play”的常见用法指向了对这一概念的其他理解，这些理解完全超出了“game”和“play”这两个框架。例如，做一个好玩的手势，或者海滩上海浪的嬉戏——这些例子似乎与游戏毫无关系。或者有关系吗？纵观游戏的所有表现方式，我们可以将它们分为三类“play”：
Neither one of these two relationships is more correct than the other. The first is a descriptive distinction that places the phenomenon of games within a larger set of real-world play activities. The second is a conceptual distinction that frames play as an important facet of games. However, the common uses of “play” in English point to other understandings of the concept, which fall completely outside these two framings of “game” and “play.” Making a playful gesture, for example, or the play of the waves on the beach—these examples don’t seem to have anything at all to do with games. Or do they? Looking over all of the ways that play manifests, we can group them into three categories of “play:”
遊戲玩法
Game Play
这种形式的游戏是一种狭义的活动，只适用于我们已经定义的“游戏”。游戏是玩家遵守游戏规则并通过游戏体验游戏系统时发生的形式化互动。
This form of play is a narrow category of activity that only applies to what we defined already as “games.” Game play is the formalized interaction that occurs when players follow the rules of a game and experience its system through play.
游戏活动
Ludic Activities
单词 ludic的意思是玩耍或与游戏有关，就像 Huizinga 的书《Homo Ludens》的标题一样，它源于ludus，拉丁语中表示玩耍的意思。Ludic 活动是玩耍活动，不仅包括游戏，还包括所有我们认为是“玩耍”的非游戏行为：一只小猫在拍打毛线球，两个大学生在来回扔飞盘，孩子们在攀爬架上玩耍。
The word ludic means of or relating to play and like the title of Huizinga’s book Homo Ludens, it is derived from ludus, the Latin word for play. Ludic activities are play activities that include not only games, but all of the non-game behaviors we also think of as “playing:” a kitten batting a ball of yarn, two college students tossing a Frisbee back and forth, children playing on a jungle gym.
充满乐趣
Being Playful
第三类游戏是最广泛和最具包容性的。它不仅指典型的游戏活动，还指处于一种好玩的心态，即游戏精神被注入到其他一些行为中。例如，当我们给朋友起昵称或编造押韵的词语来取笑他们时，我们就是在玩文字游戏。我们可能会穿着俏皮的衣服，或者用俏皮的语气批评兄弟姐妹。在每一种情况下，游戏精神都会注入到原本平凡的行为中。
The third category of play is the broadest and most inclusive. It refers not only to typical play activities, but also to the idea of being in a playful state of mind, where a spirit of play is injected into some other action. For instance, we are being playful with words when we create nicknames for friends or invent rhymes to tease them. We might dress in a playful way or deliver a critique of a sibling in a playful tone. In each case, the spirit of play infuses otherwise ordinary actions.
这三种游戏类别的开放性和包容性依次增强。游戏活动包括游戏玩法，而玩乐性则包括前两种。游戏玩法实际上只是一种特殊形式化的游戏活动。同样，游戏活动是形式化、字面意义上的玩乐方式。
Each of the three categories of play is successively more open and inclusive. As a category, ludic activities includes game play, and the category being playful includes both of the previous two. Game play is really just a special kind of formalized ludic activity. Similarly, ludic activities are formalized, literal ways of being playful.
游戏的一般定义
A General Definition of Play
虽然这三个类别涵盖了游戏的多种表现形式，但我们仍然缺乏一个通用的定义来帮助我们设计有意义的游戏体验。事实上，有一种定义游戏的方法可以公平对待所有三个类别：
Although these three categories bring the many expressions of play into focus, we still lack a general definition to assist us in designing experiences of meaningful play. There is, in fact, a way of defining play that does justice to all three categories:
游戏是在更为严格的结构内的自由运动。
Play is free movement within a more rigid structure.
乍一看，对于游戏这样一个丰富而复杂的主题，这个定义似乎有些空洞和抽象。但这是思考游戏设计的一种极其有用的方法。这个定义从何而来？想想“游戏”一词在齿轮或汽车方向盘的“自由运动”意义上的用法。“自由运动”是方向盘在系统内可以自行移动的量，是方向盘在开始转动汽车轮胎之前可以转动的量。游戏本身的存在只是因为驱动系统的更实用的结构：驱动轴、车轴、车轮等。这些元素创建的“规则”使游戏的自由运动成为可能。游戏源于指导系统运作的关系，发生在其组件之间的间隙中。游戏是系统的一种表达，它利用了系统结构创造的可能性空间。
At first glance, this definition might seem a little spare and abstract for such a rich and complex topic such as play. But it is an extremely useful way to think about the design of play. Where does the definition come from? Think about the use of the word “play” in the sense of the “free play” of a gear or a car’s steering wheel. The “play” is the amount of movement that the steering wheel can move on its own within the system, the amount the steering wheel can turn before it begins to turn the tires of the car. The play itself exists only because of the more utilitarian structures of the driving-system: the drive shaft, axles, wheels, and so on. The “rules” created by these elements make the free movement of play possible. Play emerges from the relationships guiding the functioning of the system, occurring in the interstitial spaces between and among its components. Play is an expression of the system, one that takes advantage of the space of possibility created from the system’s structure.
作为概念化游戏的正式方式，此定义适用于所有三类游戏：
As a formal way of conceptualizing play, this definition applies to all three categories of play:
游戏玩法：只有当玩家将严格的游戏规则付诸行动时，才能玩《蛇梯棋》之类的游戏。但游戏玩法本身是一种舞蹈，发生在骰子、棋子、棋盘和规则本身之间，在游戏更严格的正式结构中。
Game Play: Playing a game such as Chutes and Ladders occurs only when players set the rigid rules of the game into motion. But the game play itself is a kind of dance that occurs somewhere between the dice, pieces, board, and the rules themselves, in and among the more rigid formal structures of the game.
游戏活动：想象一下将球弹向墙壁。这种游戏活动的结构不如游戏那么正式，但游戏的定义仍然适用。在体验球的游戏过程中，玩家正在与重力、球的物质特性、建筑空间以及他或她自己的投掷和接球的身体技能等结构玩耍。玩球就是玩所有这些结构，测试它们的极限和边界，找到在它们周围和内部移动的方法。
Ludic Activity: Think of bouncing a ball against a wall. This play activity has a less formal structure than a game, but the definition of play still applies. In experiencing the play of the ball, the player is playing with structures such as gravity, the material identity of the ball, the architectural space, and his or her own physical skill in throwing and catching. To play with the ball is to play with all of these structures, testing their limits and boundaries, finding ways of moving around and inside them.
玩得开心：即使在这种广泛的游戏类别中，定义也是相关的。例如，使用玩笑俚语是为了在更严格的语法规则结构中找到单词和短语的自由移动。在街上行走时玩得开心意味着与决定正确行走行为的更严格的社会、解剖和城市结构玩耍。
Being Playful: Even in this broad category of play the definition is relevant. Using playful slang, for example, is to find free movement of words and phrases within the more rigid rule structures of grammar. Being playful while walking down the street means playing with the more rigid social, anatomical, and urban structures that determine proper walking behavior.
在每种情况下，游戏的存在都得益于更为严格的结构，但又在某种程度上与它们相对立。俚语之所以是俚语，是因为它背离了语法规范。它与更为古板和保守的“官方”语言用法相对立，并通过与它们的差异获得自己的身份。同样，将球撞向墙壁也与更功利的建筑的用途。同时，行动符合建筑形式结构所提供的某些规则，从而产生特定类型的互动。正如我们详细探讨的那样，游戏的进行只有依靠规则才有可能。然而，自相矛盾的是，游戏在很多方面与规则相反。在各种形式中，游戏都反对和抵制。但它以一种好玩的方式做到这一点，利用现有的结构来发明新的表达形式。
In every case, play exists because of more rigid structures, but also exists somehow in opposition to them. Slang is only slang because it departs from the grammatical norm. It is oppositional to the more staid and conservative “official” uses of language, and gains its identity through its difference from them. Similarly, bouncing a ball against a wall is at odds with more utilitarian uses of the architecture. At the same time, the action conforms to certain rules afforded by the formal structure of the building, leading to a particular type of interaction. The play of a game, as we have explored in detail, is only possible because of rules. Yet paradoxically game play is in many ways the opposite of rules. In all of its many guises, play opposes and play resists. But it does so playfully, making use of existing structures to invent new forms of expression.
变革游戏
Transformative Play
当游戏发生时，它会溢出并压倒它所处的更为严格的结构，产生意想不到的突发事件。事实上，有时游戏的力量如此强大，以至于它可以改变结构本身。正如哲学家詹姆斯·S·汉斯所说，“游戏的作用不是在自己的结构中舒适地工作，而是不断地通过游戏来发展其结构。”3例如，一个好玩的俚语可以变成一个习语，并最终被收录进词典，成为它最初抵制的更大文化结构的一部分。我们将这种重要的游戏形式称为变革性游戏。
When play occurs, it can overflow and overwhelm the more rigid structure in which it is taking place, generating emergent, unpredictable results. Sometimes, in fact, the force of play is so powerful that it can change the structure itself. As philosopher James S. Hans notes, “The role of play is not to work comfortably within its own structures but rather constantly to develop its structures through play.”3 A playful slang term can become an idiom, for example, and may eventually be adopted into the dictionary, becoming part of the larger cultural structures it originally resisted. We call this important form of play transformative play.
变形游戏是游戏的一种特殊情况，即游戏的自由运动改变了其形成的更为严格的结构。游戏不仅占据和反对系统的间隙，而且实际上改变了整个空间。创建变性版劳拉·克劳馥的网络女权主义游戏补丁就是变形游戏的一个例子，使用 Quake 游戏引擎作为电影制作工具也是如此。
Transformative play is a special case of play that occurs when the free movement of play alters the more rigid structure in which it takes shape. The play doesn’t just occupy and oppose the interstices of the system, but actually transforms the space as a whole. A cyberfeminist game patch that creates transsexual versions of Lara Croft is an example of transformative play, as is the use of the Quake game engine as a movie-making tool.
尽管每个游戏都涉及在更严格的结构内自由移动，但并非所有游戏都是变革性的。通常，我们是否可以将游戏视为变革性游戏取决于我们构建游戏体验的方式。以国际象棋为例。国际象棋游戏的某些方面总体上根本不具有变革性。与大多数游戏一样，国际象棋的正式规则不会因下棋而改变。如果将国际象棋游戏纯粹视为国际象棋战略逻辑的练习，那么系统（规则）在每次游戏时都保持不变。然而，一旦人类玩家加入其中，变革性游戏就可以在多个层面上发生。玩家的思维技能可能会因长时间下国际象棋而发生变化。与其他玩家（或非玩家）的社会关系可能会发生变化。国际象棋游戏甚至可能改变玩家感知空间物体的方式。（只要问问任何俄罗斯方块迷就知道了！）
Although every instance of play involves free movement within a more rigid structure, not all play is transformative. Often, whether or not we can consider play as transformative play depends on the way we frame the play experience. Take the familiar example of Chess. Some aspects of play in Chess are, by and large, not transformative at all. As with most games, the formal rules of Chess do not change as a result of playing a game of Chess. If the play of Chess is considered purely as an exercise in the strategic logic of Chess, then the system (the rules) remains the same each time the game is played. However, once human players come into the equation, transformative play can occur across many levels. A player’s thinking skills might be transformed as a result of playing Chess over a long period of time. Social relationships with other players (or non-players) might undergo a transformation. The play of Chess might even transform the way a player perceives objects in space. (Just ask any Tetris addict!)
变革性游戏可发生在所有三种类型的游戏中：
Transformative play can occur in all three categories of play:
游戏玩法：在职业篮球比赛中，随着球员找到新的比赛方式，规则也会进行调整，以保持比赛的挑战性和娱乐性。从 Flux 到 1000 Blank White Cards，有许多游戏的例子，其中规则的发明和改变是游戏设计的一部分。
Game Play: In professional Basketball, as players find new ways of playing the game, the rules are adjusted to keep the game challenging and entertaining. There are many examples of games, from Flux to 1000 Blank White Cards, where inventing and transforming the rules are part of the game’s design.
游戏活动：在非正式的、富有想象力的儿童游戏中，例如“过家家”或“警察与强盗”，游戏规则和可能的行为通常是即兴的，从而改变了游戏的玩法。
Ludic Activity: In informal, imaginative children’s games, such as House or Cops and Robbers, the rules and possible behaviors are often improvised, transforming the play of the game from session to session.
玩得开心：在我们通常认为的游戏和游戏之外的领域和活动中，玩得开心可以产生变革性的影响。在时装设计中，边缘服装形式与时尚机构之间存在着一种反身关系。亚文化风格的服装可以挑战品味和礼仪的概念（想想朋克），同时有助于在其反对的背景下定义新的表达形式。
Being Playful: In fields and activities outside what we normally think of as play and games, being playful can have a transformative effect. In fashion design, there is a reflexive relationship between marginal forms of dress and the fashion establishment. A subcultural style of dress can challenge notions of taste and etiquette (think Punk), while helping to define new forms of expression within the very context it opposes.
在本章的剩余部分中，我们将更详细地探讨这三种类型的游戏，以期发现每个类别如何与我们对游戏、变革性游戏和游戏设计的一般定义相交叉。
In the remaining sections of this chapter, we explore the three types of play in more detail, with an eye to discover how each category intersects with our general definition of play, transformative play, and game design.
充满乐趣
Being Playful
如果我们研究“play”这个词是如何使用的，并集中精力研究它所谓的转移意义，我们会发现人们谈论光的游戏、波浪的游戏、轴承箱部件的游戏、肢体内部的游戏、力量的游戏、蚊虫的游戏，甚至是文字游戏……这与“spiel”一词的原始含义“舞蹈”相符，该含义仍出现在许多词形中。——Brian Sutton-Smith，《Play 的歧义》
If we examine how the word “play” is used and concentrate on its so-called transferred meanings we find talk of the play of light, the play of the waves, the play of the components in a bearing case, the inner play of limbs, the play of forces, the play of gnats, even a play on words . . . . This accords with the original meaning of the word “spiel” as “dance,” which is still found in many word forms.—Brian Sutton-Smith, The Ambiguity of Play
我们从三个类别中最大的一个开始：单纯的玩耍。前面引用的 Sutton-Smith 的话指出了游戏、玩具和嬉戏行为之外的许多背景，我们可以将“玩耍”的一般定义应用于这些背景。就像齿轮的“自由玩耍”一样，Sutton-Smith 所确定的玩耍实例都是系统处于运动状态的时刻，是一种舞蹈。（正如 Sutton-Smith 指出的那样，“Spiel”是德语中“玩耍”的意思，最初的意思是舞蹈。）
We start with the largest of the three categories: simply being playful. The preceding quote from Sutton-Smith points to some of the many contexts outside of games, toys, and ludic behavior to which we can apply our general definition of “play.” Like the “free play” of a gear, the instances of play identified by Sutton-Smith are all moments when a system is in motion, in a kind of dance. (“Spiel,” the German word for play, originally meant dance, as Sutton-Smith points out.)
以 Sutton-Smith 的“文字游戏”为例。文字游戏有很多种，从苏斯博士的无意义押韵诗，到自由式说唱的节奏错综复杂，再到儿童谜语的语义加倍。在每种情况下，文字游戏都体现了在更严格的结构中的自由流动。如果您不介意这种俗气的幽默，请考虑以下笑话：
Take Sutton-Smith’s example of a “play on words.” There are many kinds of wordplay, from the nonsense rhymes of Dr. Seuss, to the rhythmic intricacies of freestyle rap, to the semantic doubling of a children’s riddle. In every case, the wordplay embodies free movement within a more rigid structure. If you will pardon the cheesy humor, consider the following joke:
问：为什么六害怕七？
Q: Why is six afraid of seven?
答：因为七个人吃了九个。
A: Because seven ate nine.
这个笑话的“玩法”在于“吃”和“八”是同音词。说“七八九”只是在数数，而“七吃九”却真正引起了我们拟人化数字的警惕。这个玩法中发生了什么？在更为严格和固定的语言意义集合中，这个笑话成功地开辟出了一个游戏空间，在这个运动中，意想不到的角色栩栩如生，表达了通常在更为功利的交流中被压抑的双重含义。这个笑话“玩弄”了我们对语言的期望。但是，如果没有笑话形成的更广泛的传统语言使用背景，这个笑话就会失去幽默感和游戏感。游戏的存在既是因为赋予它生命的结构，也是对立的。
The “play” of this particular joke rests in the fact that “ate” and “eight” are homonyms. Saying “seven eight nine” is merely counting, whereas “seven ate nine” becomes a genuine cause of alarm for our personified numerals. What is happening in this instance of play? Within the more rigid and fixed sets of linguistic meanings, the joke has managed to carve out a space of play, a movement in which unexpected characters come to life and express double meanings usually repressed within more utilitarian communication. The joke “plays” on our expectations of language. But without the larger context of conventional language use in which the joke takes shape, the joke would lose its humor and sense of play. The play exists both because of and in opposition to the structures that give it life.
即使我们使用萨顿·史密斯的一些更抽象的例子，比如光的游戏，我们对游戏的定义仍然适用。想象一下，光从你的手表反射出来，在墙上形成一个亮点：我们说光在墙上游戏。从光的物理结构、感知和建筑结构中，出现了一个不寻常的情况，即墙上有一个漂浮的光点。光以嬉戏的方式引起人们的注意，改变了你的手表和建筑空间之间的关系。你的本能是玩弄光，哪怕只是片刻，去体验你的身体运动和墙面之间的这组新关系。光的游戏，以及你对光的游戏，只有通过这种游戏实例所改变的普通体验关系集才有可能实现。
Even if we use some of Sutton-Smith’s more abstract examples, such as the play of light, our definition of play still applies. Imagine light reflecting from your wristwatch to make a bright spot on the wall: we say that the light is playing on the wall. From within the structures of the physics of light, perception, and architecture emerges the unusual circumstance of a floating speck of light on the wall. The light playfully calls attention to itself, changing the relationship between your wristwatch and the architectural space. Your instinct is to play with the light, even for just a moment, to experience this new set of relationships between the movements of your body and the surface of the wall. The play of the light, and your play with the play of the light, is only made possible by the ordinary sets of experiential relationships that this instance of play transforms.
这些“玩耍”的例子是否也具有变革性？有可能。也许光的玩耍改变了你的行为：也许你会养成第二天同一时间坐在同一个房间里享受玩耍的习惯。或者也许在晚餐时讲“七吃九”的笑话会导致一整晚的数学笑话，否则这些笑话就不会发生了。每一次玩耍都带有变革性玩耍的种子。
Are these examples of “being playful” transformative as well? Possibly. Maybe the play of the light transforms your behavior: perhaps you make a habit of sitting in the same room at the same time the next day to enjoy the possibilities of the play. Or maybe telling the “seven ate nine” joke at dinner leads to an entire evening of math jokes that wouldn’t otherwise have occurred. Every instance of play carries with it the seeds of transformative play.
这种对好玩的普遍理解与游戏设计有什么关系呢？当你设计一款游戏时，你应该尽可能地让参与者在每一个可能的时刻都玩得有意义。通常，这意味着要思考如何将适当的好玩精神注入到原本平凡的行为中。例如，《你不知道杰克》将通常像家务一样的输入玩家姓名、加载游戏数据和概述游戏规则的例行工作变成了一系列有趣的活动，即使是经验丰富的游戏玩家也会继续享受其中的乐趣。你能制作一整套你能从通常平凡乏味的体验中创造出一款游戏吗？那设计一款在排队时玩的游戏怎么样？或者在看新闻时？或者在开车时？一旦你明白了游戏潜藏在任何人类活动中，你就可以在任何地方找到游戏行为和情境的灵感。
How is this general understanding of being playful relevant to game design? When you are designing a game, you should maximize meaningful play for your participants at every possible moment. Often, this means thinking about how you can inject the proper spirit of playfulness into an otherwise ordinary behavior. You Don’t Know Jack, for example, took the normally chore-like routine of entering in player names, loading game data, and outlining game rules and turned it into an entertainingly playful series of events that even experienced players of the game continue to enjoy. Could you make an entire game out of an experience that is typically ordinary or tedious? How about a game designed to be played while waiting in line? Or watching the news? Or driving a car? Once you understand that play is latent in any human activity, you can find inspiration for play behaviors and contexts anywhere.
游戏活动
Ludic Activities
第二类游戏，即游戏活动，使我们更接近游戏游戏。游戏代表一种游戏活动，一种特别形式化的游戏。但也有许多不太正式的游戏形式，从两只狗在公园里互相追逐，到婴儿和父亲玩躲猫猫。游戏与其他形式的游戏最常区别开来的是，游戏有目标和可量化的结果。一般来说，非游戏形式的游戏活动没有目标和可量化的结果。
The second category of play, ludic activities, brings us closer to the play of games. Games represent one type of ludic activity, a particularly formalized variety of play. But there are many less formal versions of play as well, from two dogs chasing each other in a park to an infant playing peek-a-boo with his father. What most often distinguishes games from these other forms of play is the fact that games have a goal and a quantifiable outcome. Generally speaking, non-game forms of ludic activities do not.
尽管游戏活动是一种比单纯的游戏更狭义的游戏现象，但这一类别中仍然包含着相对广泛的活动。如何在游戏的更大范畴内组织和理解这些活动？人类学家 Roger Caillois 提出了一个有用的模型来组织各种形式的游戏。在他的著作《人、游戏和游戏》中，他提供了一个强大的框架来对游戏活动进行分类。Caillois 的模型是组织多种游戏形式的最具理论野心的尝试之一。
Even though ludic activities constitute a type of play phenomena more narrow than simply being playful, there is still a relatively wide range of activities contained within this category. How might these activities be organized and understood within the larger rubric of play? Anthropologist Roger Caillois suggests a useful model for organizing various forms of play. In his book Man, Play, and Games, he provides a powerful framework for classifying play activities. Caillois’ model is one of the most theoretically ambitious attempts to organize the many forms of play.
Caillois 的模型始于游戏的四个“基本类别”：4
Caillois’ model begins with four “fundamental categories” of play:4
• Agôn：竞争性游戏，如国际象棋、体育运动和其他比赛
• Agôn: Competitive play, as in Chess, sports, and other contests
• Alea：基于机会的游戏，基于概率游戏
• Alea: Chance-based play, based in games of probability
•模仿：角色扮演和假装游戏，包括戏剧和其他想象力练习
• Mimicry: Role-playing and make-believe play, including theater and other exercises of the imagination
• Ilinx：玩弄身体上的眩晕感，就像孩子不停旋转直到摔倒一样
• Ilinx: Playing with the physical sensation of vertigo, as when a child spins and spins until he falls down
以下是 Caillois 对每个基本类别的一些看法：
Here are some of Caillois’ thoughts about each fundamental category:
再说一遍。整个游戏组看起来都具有竞争性，也就是说，像一场战斗，其中人为地创造了平等的机会，以便对手在理想的条件下相互对抗，容易为胜利者的胜利赋予精确且无可争辩的价值。5
Agôn. A whole group of games would seem to be competitive, that is to say, like a combat in which equality of chances is artificially created, in order that adversaries should confront each other under ideal conditions, susceptible of giving precise and incontestable value to the winner’s triumph.5
Alea。这是掷骰子游戏的拉丁名称。我借用它表示与agôn相对的所有游戏，这些游戏基于独立于玩家的决定，玩家无法控制结果，获胜是命运的结果，而不是战胜对手。更确切地说，命运是胜利的唯一工匠，而竞争意味着胜利者比失败者更受命运的青睐。6
Alea. This is the Latin name for the game of dice. I have borrowed it to designate, in contrast to agôn, all games that are based on a decision independent of the player, an outcome over which he has no control, and in which winning is the result of fate rather than triumphing over an adversary. More properly, destiny is the sole artisan of victory, and where there is rivalry, what is meant is that the winner has been more favored by fortune than the loser.6
模仿。游戏不仅可以包括在想象的环境中采取行动或听天由命，还可以自己变成一个虚幻的角色并做出相应的行为。因此，一个人会面临一系列不同的表现，其共同点是主体使人相信或使他人相信他是自己以外的人。他忘记、伪装或暂时摆脱自己的个性，以假装另一个人。7
Mimicry. Play can consist not only of deploying actions or submitting to one’s fate in an imaginary milieu, but of becoming an illusory character oneself, and of so behaving. One is thus confronted with a diverse series of manifestations, the common element of which is that the subject makes believe or makes others believe that he is someone other than himself. He forgets, disguises, or temporarily sheds his personality in order to feign another.7
Ilinx。最后一类游戏包括那些以追求眩晕为基础的游戏，这些游戏试图暂时破坏感知的稳定性，并给清醒的头脑带来一种感官上的恐慌……每个孩子都很清楚，通过快速旋转，他会达到离心飞行状态，从这种状态中，他很难恢复身体的稳定性和感知的清晰度。8
Ilinx. The last kind of game includes those which are based on the pursuit of vertigo and which consist of an attempt to momentarily destroy the stability of perception and inflict a kind of voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind . . . . Every child very well knows that by whirling rapidly he reaches a centrifugal state of flight from which he regains bodily stability and clarity of perception only with difficulty.8
Caillois 的分类涵盖了广泛的游戏活动。其中一些，如 agôn 的游戏竞赛和 alea 的机会游戏，与我们已经讨论过的许多游戏相似。他提到的其他活动，如模仿的假装游戏和跳蛙和华尔兹显然不属于游戏的范畴。尽管许多游戏都包含模仿和互动元素，但这些类别超出了对游戏的描述——但它们确实勾勒出了一个理解多种游戏活动的模型。
Caillois’categories cover a wide range of play activities. Some of them, such as the game contests of agôn and the chance-based games of alea, resemble many of the games we have already discussed. Other activities he mentions, such as the make-believe play of mimicry and ilinx activities like leapfrog and waltzing, clearly fall outside the boundaries of games. Although many games include elements of mimicry and ilinx, these categories go beyond a description of games—but they do outline a model for understanding many kinds of ludic activities.
Caillois 并没有将他的分类系统限制在这四个类别中。他通过添加paida和ludus 这两个概念来丰富他的分类法。Paida代表狂野、自由、即兴的游戏，而 ludus 代表有规则、有规范、正式的游戏。Caillois 写道：“这种即兴和欢乐的原始力量，我称之为paida ，与我提议称之为ludus 的对无端困难的品味相结合，以便涵盖各种游戏，毫不夸张地说，这些游戏可以归因于文明品质。”9 Caillois 将他的四种基本游戏类别与paida和ludus概念交叉，从而形成了一个网格，他在这个网格上绘制了各种各样的游戏活动。像轮盘赌这样有规则的碰运气游戏属于他模型中的 alea/ludus 部分。像戴面具这样无组织的假装游戏则属于模仿/paida。
Caillois doesn’t limit his classification system to these four categories. He enriches his taxonomy by adding the pair of concepts paida and ludus. Paida represents wild, free-form, improvisational play, whereas ludus represents rule-bound, regulated, formalized play. Caillois writes: “Such a primary power of improvisation and joy, which I call paida, is allied to the taste for gratuitous difficulty that I propose to call ludus, in order to encompass the various games to which, without exaggeration, a civilizing quality can be attributed.”9 Caillois crosses his four fundamental categories of play with the concepts of paida and ludus, resulting in a grid on which he charts a wide variety of ludic activities. A rule-bound game of chance such as Roulette falls into the alea/ludus section of his model. Unstructured make-believe play like wearing a mask would fall under mimicry/paida.
术语旁白：法语中的“玩”和“游戏”
Terminological Aside: “Play” and “Games” in French
《人、游戏和游戏》是用法语写的，法语是凯洛伊斯的母语。许多语言中没有单独的单词“游戏”和“游戏”。例如，在法语中，游戏是“jeu”，游戏是“jouer”，是同一个词的动词形式。他的书的原名是《游戏/游戏和人》；书名的英文翻译为《人、游戏和游戏》，很好地表达了凯洛伊斯研究的广泛游戏形式。
Man, Play, and Games was written in French, Caillois’native tongue. Many languages do not have separate words for “game” and “play.” In French, for example, game is “jeu,” and play is “jouer,” the verb form of the same word. The original title of his book is Les Jeux et les Hommes (Games/Play and Man); the English translation of the title as Man, Play, and Games does an admirable job of expressing the broad array of play forms Caillois investigates.
需要注意的是，Caillois 的书的法语和英语标题之间存在差异，因为尽管英语翻译通常使用“游戏”来描述 Caillois 所研究的内容，但就我们的目的而言，他实际上是在研究游戏。Caillois 列出的一些现象是真正的游戏和运动。其他现象，如戏剧和公共节日，不符合我们对游戏的狭隘定义。然而，它们都是娱乐活动。
It is important to note the difference between the French and English titles of Caillois’ book because although the English translation generally uses “game” to describe what Caillois is studying, for our purposes he is, in fact, studying play. Some of the phenomena listed by Caillois are bona fide games and sports. Others, like theater and public festivals, do not fit our narrow definition of game. They are all, however, ludic activities.
例子取自《人、游戏和游戏》
Examples taken from Man, Play, and Games
Caillois 的模型如何符合我们对游戏的定义？看看游戏的四个基本类别，就会发现每个类别都体现了更为严格的结构中的自由运动：
How does Caillois’model fit into our definition of play? A look at the four fundamental categories of play shows that each embodies free movement within a more rigid structure:
• Agôn和alea是通常包含游戏的类别。因此，游戏从玩家通过游戏的严格规则结构进行移动而产生。在竞争性游戏中，玩家通过在规则系统设定的行为界限内玩游戏来尽最大努力获胜。在机会游戏中，玩家通过参与来启动游戏，希望系统以偶然的方式进行。
• Agôn and alea are categories that generally contain games. As a result, play emerges from the players’ movement through the rigid rule-structures of the game. In a competitive game, players do their best to win by playing within the behavioral boundaries set by the system of rules. In a game of chance, players set the game in motion through their participation, hoping the system plays out in a fortuitous manner.
•模仿的自由发挥就是表征的发挥。如果你摆动食指说“你好”，假装你的手指是一个会说话的小人，你就是在玩弄手指和人的固定表征类别，通过富有想象力的游戏在这些更典型的僵硬符号系统中寻找自由运动。
• The free of play of mimicry is the play of representation. If you wiggle your index finger and say “hello,” pretending that your finger is a little person that can talk, you are playing with the fixed representational categories of finger and person, finding free movement within these more typically rigid sign systems through imaginative play.
• ilinx中的游戏是物理和感官结构中的游戏。旋转的玩家放弃了更典型的驯服行为，在身体运动和感知输入的相互作用中寻找新的感觉。
• Play in ilinx emerges as the play within physical and sensual structures. The spinning player abandons more typically tame behavior to find new sensation in the interplay between bodily movement and perceptual input.
此外，鲁杜斯和拍打游戏的类别直接涉及对游戏的结构理解，即结构和游戏之间关系的连续性。例如，当游戏越接近鲁杜斯的范围时，规则就越严格，影响力就越大。而拍打游戏则位于范围的另一端，它避开了严格的形式结构，转而追求更加自由的游戏。在这两种情况下，卡洛伊斯都根据游戏的结构特性来定义游戏。
Furthermore, the categories of ludus and paida directly address a structural understanding of games, a continuum of relationships between structure and play. As play edges closer to the ludus end of the spectrum, for example, the rules become tighter and more influential. Located on the other end of the spectrum, paida-based play eschews rigid formal structures in exchange for more freewheeling play. In both cases, Caillois defines play by virtue of its structural identity.
Caillois 的模型与我们的模型有很多相似之处。然而，这两个模型并没有提供完全相同的游戏概念化方式。例如，我们对游戏、娱乐活动和玩耍的区分与 Caillois 对游戏活动的组织无关。虽然我们可以将他的分类纳入我们的“自由运动”定义，但他从未以这种方式明确构建游戏。
There is a good deal of correspondence between Caillois’ model and our own. However, the two models do not offer identical ways of conceptualizing play. For example, our distinction among game play, ludic activities, and being playful is not relevant to Caillois’ organization of play activities. Although we can frame his categories under the rubric of our “free movement” definition, he never explicitly constructs play in this way.
Caillois 是一位非常重要的游戏学者。他的游戏形式分类系统是我们遇到过的最全面、最强大的系统之一。此外，Caillois 的模型对于理解您的游戏提供和不提供的游戏体验类型非常有用。尽管 Caillois 倾向于将整个游戏或游戏活动放入网格的单个部分，但大多数游戏都有来自他的几个类别的元素。也许您的硬核策略游戏可以加入更多元素。或者，您可以通过考虑玩家在关键戏剧性时刻可能体验到的各种情感来丰富您的基于模仿的角色扮演游戏。任何帮助您以新方式构建设计问题的模型都可以成为有价值的游戏设计工具。
Caillois is a tremendously important game scholar. His system for classifying forms of play is one of the most inclusive and robust we have encountered. Furthermore, Caillois’ model can be very useful for understanding the kinds of play experiences your game is and is not providing. Although Caillois tends to place an entire game or play activity into a single section of his grid, most games have elements from several of his categories. Maybe your hardcore agôn strategy game could be leavened with a bit more alea. Or perhaps you could enrich your mimicry-based role-playing game by considering the kinds of ilinx sensations your players might experience at key dramatic moments. Any model that helps you to frame your design problems in a new way can be a valuable game design tool.
遊戲玩法
Game Play
第三个也是最后一个游戏类别是游戏玩法。正如游戏活动构成了更大的游戏类别的一个特殊子集一样，游戏玩法也是游戏活动类别的一个特殊子集。游戏玩法只发生在游戏中。它是通过玩家的参与而展开的游戏体验。其他两类游戏，即游戏活动和嬉戏活动，包含大量且多样的游戏形式。尽管游戏是这三类游戏中最小的一类，但游戏也有多种形式：《卡坦岛》中的战略竞争游戏；《猜字谜》中的表演性社交游戏；《板球》中的体育竞技游戏；《最终幻想 X》中的华丽叙事游戏——所有这些都是游戏的例子。
The third and final category of play is game play. Just as ludic activities constitute a special subset of the larger category of being playful, game play is a special subset of the category of ludic activities. Game play only occurs within games. It is the experience of a game set into motion through the participation of players. The other two categories of play, being playful and ludic activities, contain a vast and diverse array of play forms. Yet even though game play is the smallest category of the three, the play of games takes on a multitude of forms as well: the strategic competitive play of Settlers of Catan; the performative social play of Charades; the physical sporting play of Cricket; the lush narrative play of Final Fantasy X—all are examples of game play.
游戏玩法明显体现了游戏是在更严格的结构中自由移动的理念。游戏玩法的独特风味直接源于游戏规则。以文字形式写在纸上的猜谜游戏规则与游戏本身的热情、自由活动截然不同。然而，这些规则提供了游戏所处的严格结构，这些规则指导和塑造了游戏体验。正如 Caillois 自己所说，在游戏中，玩家“在规则规定的范围内自由活动”。10
Game play clearly embodies the idea of play as free movement within a more rigid structure. The particular flavor of a game’s play is a direct result of the game’s rules. The rules of Charades, written out as text on paper, could not be more different from the exuberant, free-wheeling activity of the game itself. Yet these rules provide the rigid structure within which the play resides, the rules that guide and shape the game play experience. As Caillois himself states, within a game a player is “free within the limits set by the rules.”10
由于游戏涉及人类的参与，因此它是一个丰富而复杂的研究领域。即使在单个游戏中，也有无数种方法来描述它的玩法。在以下摘录中，摘自《游戏研究》，诺曼·雷德开始深入研究国际象棋，触及它的许多特点：
Because play involves human participation, it is an endlessly rich and complex locus for study. Even within a single game, there are innumerable ways to delineate its play. In the following excerpt, taken from The Study of Games, Norman Reider begins an in-depth study of Chess by touching on many of its characteristics:
对游戏的迷恋和沉迷程度；其历史发展中所涉及的心理因素；其社会价值和治疗价值；其法律含义；其与爱和侵略的关系；国际象棋中的天才问题；棋手的性格问题及其下棋风格；以及游戏中体现的自我功能，特别是游戏的心理意义、棋子和规则与棋手心理之间的区别。11
The fascination and the extent of the addiction to the game; the psychological factors involved in its historical development; its social and therapeutic value; its legal involvements; its relation to love and aggression; the problem of genius in chess; the characterological problem of its players and their style of play; and ego functions as manifested in play, especially the distinctions between the psychological meanings of the game, its pieces and rules, and the psychology of the players.11
赖德列出的大多数或所有“方面”都是理解游戏中玩法的方式。游戏的心理、爱和侵略性的表达、游戏促进个人游戏风格的方式，都是国际象棋游戏体验的一部分。理解由规则产生并通过游戏赋予生命的游戏体验品质，是本初级图式其余部分的重点。你准备好玩了吗？
Most or all of the “facets” Reider lists are ways of understanding the operation of play in a game. The psychology of play, the expression of love and aggression, the way that the game facilitates individual styles of play, are part of the play experience of Chess. Understanding the experiential qualities of play, engendered by rules and given life through game play, is the precise focus of the rest of this Primary Schema. Are you ready to play?
我们的项目边界划分
Delimitation of our project
尽管关于游戏设计的著作数量有限，但在过去几十年中，对游戏的性质和功能进行了大量的研究。学术研究来自各个领域：动物行为学家研究游戏的适应性优势，发展心理学家研究儿童通过游戏学习的认知和社交技能，社会学家研究游戏如何满足更广泛的社会需求。
Although the number of writings on game design is somewhat limited, in the past few decades, there has been a tremendous amount of study on the nature and function of play. Scholarship comes from a wide variety of fields: animal behaviorists studying the adaptive advantages of play, developmental psychologists studying the cognitive and social skills that children learn through play, sociologists studying the way play fits into larger social needs.
总体而言，这些游戏研究侧重于确定游戏的功能或目的。隐含的假设是游戏对个人心理、社会单位、课堂、物种等具有更大的作用。在《儿童游戏》一书中，弗兰克·A·比奇列举了游戏在许多领域中通常具有的一些功能：
By and large, these studies of play focus on identifying the function or purpose of play. The implicit assumption is that play serves a larger purpose for the individual psyche, the social unit, the classroom, the species, and so on. In Child’s Play, Frank A. Beach indexes some of the functions that are typically associated with play across many fields:
• 释放多余的能量
• a release of surplus energy
• 普遍兴高采烈或生活乐趣的表达
• an expression of general exuberance, or Joie-de-vivre
• 性欲、攻击性或焦虑的表现
• expression of sex drive, aggression, or anxiety
• 年轻人“练习”成人的生活技能
• youthful “practice” for adult life skills
• 探索和实验的必要背景
• necessary context for exploration and experimentation
• 一种社交方式
• a means of socialization
• 自我表达和消遣的工具12
• tool for self-expression and diversion12
研究游戏的功能和目的是一项重要且有趣的工作，但我们不会在本书中讨论它。我们为理解游戏和游戏的其他方面而提出的方案侧重于创造有意义的游戏所面临的挑战，而不是研究游戏的社会或心理目的。关于游戏功能的文献有很多，我们已将其中许多参考文献纳入我们的参考书目，因为它应该是游戏设计师理解游戏的一部分。
Studying the function and purpose of play is important and fascinating work, but we will not address it in this book. The schemas we present for understanding play and other aspects of games focus on the challenges of creating meaningful play, rather than on investigating the social or psychological purpose of games. There is a tremendous amount of literature available on the function of play and we have included many of these references in our bibliography, as it should be a part of the way that game designers understand games.
笔记
Notes
1 . J. Barnard Gilmore，《玩耍：一种特殊的行为》。《儿童游戏》，RE Herron 和 Brian Sutton-Smith 编辑（纽约：John Wiley & Sons，1971 年），第 311 页。
1. J. Barnard Gilmore, “Play: A Special Behavior.” In Child’s Play, edited by R. E. Herron and Brian Sutton-Smith (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1971), p.311.
2.同上。
2. Ibid.
3.詹姆斯·S·汉斯，《世界的游戏》（波士顿：马萨诸塞大学出版社，1981年），第5页。
3. James S. Hans, The Play of the World (Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 1981), p.5.
4. Roger Caillois，《人、游戏和游戏》（伦敦：泰晤士和哈德逊，1962 年），第 12 页。
4. Roger Caillois, Man, Play, and Games (London: Thames and Hudson, 1962), p.12.
5.同上，第14页。
5. Ibid. p.14.
6.同上，第17页。
6. Ibid. p.17.
7.同上，第19页。
7. Ibid. p.19.
8.同上，第23页。
8. Ibid. p.23.
9.同上，第27页。
9. Ibid. p.27.
10.同上，第 8 页。
10. Ibid. p. 8.
11. Norman Reider，《国际象棋、俄狄浦斯和痛苦之母》。《游戏研究》，由 Elliott Avedon 和 Brian Sutton-Smith 编辑（纽约：John Wiley & Sons，1971 年），第 440 页。
11. Norman Reider, “Chess, Oedipus, and the Mater Dolorosa.” In The Study of Games, edited by Elliott Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1971), p.440.
12 . Frank A. Beach，《动物玩耍的当前概念》。《儿童游戏》，RE Herron 和 Brian Sutton-Smith 编辑（纽约：John Wiley & Sons，1971 年），第 311 页。第 204–208 页。
12. Frank A. Beach, “Current Concepts of Play in Animals.” In Child’s Play, edited by R. E. Herron and Brian Sutton-Smith (New York: John Wiley & Sons,1971), p.311. p. 204–208.
定义游戏
概括
•游戏玩法是游戏的体验方面。游戏玩法是指游戏规则付诸实施并由玩家体验的过程。
• The play of a game is the experiential aspect of a game. Play in a game occurs as the game rules are set into motion and experienced by the players.
• 游戏与玩乐之间的关系可以通过两种方式构建：
• The relationship between games and play can be structured in two ways:
•游戏是玩乐的一个子集：游戏是所有被视为玩乐的活动的正式组成部分。
• Games are a subset of play: Games constitute a formalized part of all activities considered to be play.
•游戏是游戏的一个元素：游戏是构建游戏复杂现象的一种方式。
• Play is an element of games: Play is one way to frame the complex phenomenon of games.
• 所有不同的游戏行为现象可分为三类：
• All of the different phenomena of play behavior can be organized into three categories:
游戏玩法：玩家遵守游戏规则进行游戏时发生的正式化、集中性的互动。
Game Play: the formalized, focused interaction that occurs when players follow the rules of a game in order to play it.
游戏活动：参与者“玩耍”的非游戏行为，例如两只动物打架或一群孩子围成一圈抛球。游戏是游戏活动的一个子集。
Ludic Activities: non-game behaviors in which participants are “playing,” such as two tussling animals or a group of children tossing a ball in a circle. Game play is a subset of ludic activities.
好玩：处于好玩的状态，例如将游戏精神注入其他活动。此类别包括游戏和娱乐活动。
Being Playful: the state of being in a playful state of mind, such as when a spirit of play is injected into some other action. This category includes both game play and ludic activities.
• 游戏的一般定义：游戏是在更严格的结构中自由活动。游戏的出现既是因为更严格的结构，也是对更严格的结构的反对。
• A general definition of play: play is free movement within a more rigid structure. Play emerges both because of and in opposition to more rigid structures.
•变革性游戏是一种特殊的游戏，当游戏的自由运动改变其形成的更严格的结构时就会发生。游戏实际上以某种方式改变了僵硬的结构。并非所有游戏都是变革性的，但所有形式的游戏都具有变革的潜力。
• Transformative play is a special kind of play that occurs when the free movement of play alters the more rigid structure in which it takes shape. The play actually transforms the rigid structure in some way. Not all play is transformative, but all forms of play contain the potential for transformation.
• 人类学家 Roger Caillois 将游戏分为四个“基本类别”：
• Anthropologist Roger Caillois classifies play according to four “fundamental categories:”
•再次：竞技比赛
• agôn: competitive play
• alea：基于机会的游戏
• alea: chance-based play
•模仿：模拟或假装游戏
• mimicry: simulation or make-believe play
• ilinx：眩晕或基于身体的游戏
• ilinx: vertigo or physically-based play
每一个类别都可以沿着一条轴线绘制，从ludus（有规则的游戏）到paida（自由形式的游戏）。许多游戏同时具备这些游戏的几个特点。
Each of these categories can be plotted along an axis that runs from ludus, or rule-bound play to paida, or free-form play. Many games possess several of these characteristics of play at once.
23
23
游戏是体验游戏
GAMES AS THE PLAY OF EXPERIENCE
互动性
interactivity
输入/输出/内部过程
input/output/internal processes
核心机制
core mechanic
重复
repetition
二阶设计
second-order design
核心机制变化
core mechanic variations
我第一枪就跳了起来，没问题，我把头抬向球的上升点，球击中了砖头。没有。我希望它击中路障，希望它向前冲，向后冲，这样当我向前冲，推着球，向后退时，就不会有那些空白，而我要等球赶上来或落在后面。它的节奏充满了空灵的时间，而我的节奏紧凑、饱满、密集……
I rise with the first shot, no problem, pushing my head up toward the peak of its ascent, and the ball hits the brick. No it doesn’t. I wish it struck the barricade, wish it surged forward and surged back, so as I surge along pushing and recoiling there wouldn’t be those blank spaces while I wait for the ball to catch up or fall behind. It has a rhythm filled with empty time, while mine is compacted, full and dense . . . .
当时我随着球飞起，音量调到最大，房间里响起哔哔声，我把肩膀和头部投入到动作中，用这个十秒的序列唱一首歌……哼唱着球击中球拍、砖块和侧墙时发出的哔哔声所形成的十六音符旋律。哔，发球……嘟嘟，回球……嘟嘟哔……一块砖头迅速地从侧墙上弹下来……嘟嘟，拍完后又一次回球，然后上、下、从侧面下上。全身心投入展开的旋律中，将手从一个点平稳地移到另一个点，和球一起穿过全部五个地方。——大卫·苏德诺，《微观世界的朝圣者》
I’m rising with the shot then, the volume turned up high now, filling the room with bleeps, and I’m putting the shoulders and head into the action, singing a song with this ten-second sequence . . . . Hum the sixteen-note melody created by the bleeps when the ball hits paddle, bricks, and side wall. Bleep, the serve . . . . bloop, the return . . . . blapbleep . . . . a quick brick bounce off the side wall down to . . . . bloop, the next return after the beat, and then up, down, off the side down up. Throw yourself into the unfolding melody, carry the hand smoothly from one point to the next, ride with the ball through the whole five places.—David Sudnow, Pilgrim in the Microworld
引入经验
Introducing Experience
玩游戏就是体验游戏：看、摸、听、闻和尝游戏；在游戏过程中移动身体，对正在展开的结果产生情绪，与其他玩家交流，改变正常的思维模式。与清晰的数学规则不同，游戏的体验式玩法是模糊、不清晰和混乱的。然而，正是在这个领域，玩家真正参与游戏，进行有意义的游戏。在《游戏作为体验的游戏》中，我们以游戏这一较为抽象的定义为基础，即在更为严格的结构内自由移动，以具体地研究游戏为玩家构建体验的方式。为了做到这一点，我们的关注点缩小了。在上一章中，我们不仅定义了游戏中的游戏，还定义了这个词的最广义。在接下来的章节中，我们将把研究范围限制在游戏中发生的游戏。
To play a game is to experience the game: to see, touch, hear, smell, and taste the game; to move the body during play, to feel emotions about the unfolding outcome, to communicate with other players, to alter normal patterns of thinking. Unlike the clean mathematical forms of rules, the experiential play of a game is fuzzy, murky, and messy. Yet it is in this realm that players actually take part in a game, engaging in meaningful play. In Games as the Play of Experience, we build on the somewhat abstract definition of play as free movement within a more rigid structure to look concretely at the ways that games build experiences for players. In order to do so, our focus narrows. In the previous chapter, we defined play not just in games, but in the broadest sense of the word. As we move forward, we will limit the scope of our investigation to the play occurring in games.
体验游戏意味着什么？本章的开篇段落摘自《微观世界里的朝圣者》，这本书详细描述了玩家对视频游戏《打砖块》的沉迷与消逝。《打砖块》是最早的视频游戏之一，1976 年由雅达利公司首次作为街机游戏发行，几年后为雅达利 2600 家用视频游戏系统发行。在这个类似乒乓球的游戏中，玩家在屏幕底部来回移动挡板，将球弹到屏幕顶部的一排排砖块上。每次球撞到砖块时就会消失；游戏的目标是穿过尽可能多的屏幕，清除屏幕上的所有砖块。
What does it mean to experience game play? The passage that opens this chapter is from Pilgrim in the Microworld, a book that describes, in loving detail, a player’s waxing and waning addiction to the video game Breakout. Breakout was one of the earliest video games, first released as an arcade game in 1976 by Atari, and then published for the Atari 2600 home video game system a few years later. In this Pong-like game, a player moves a paddle back and forth across the bottom of the screen, bouncing a ball into rows of bricks positioned along the top of the screen. Each time the ball hits a brick it disappears; the goal of the game is to move through as many screens as possible, clearing every brick on the screen.
在这本非凡的著作中，作者大卫·苏德诺生动地描述了玩 Breakout 的体验。他高度个人化的叙述以游戏写作中罕见的细微差别和洞察力描述了复杂的游戏体验。苏德诺在他的观察中发现了一系列体验元素：他在玩游戏时身体的运动知觉运动；他多层次的希望和焦虑情绪，他对时间的改变；游戏的视觉和听觉节奏；他的手在球拍上的细微控制动作；甚至对球本身的一种感知认同。
Throughout his extraordinary book, author David Sudnow vividly evokes the experience of playing Breakout. His highly personal account describes the complex experience of play with a nuance and insight rarely found in writing about games. In his observations, Sudnow uncovers a flurry of experiential elements: the kinesthetic movement of his body as he plays; his multi-layered emotions of hope and anxiety, his altered sense of time; the visual and audio rhythms of the game; the minute controlling motions of his hand on the paddle; and even a kind of perceptual identification with the ball itself.
在游戏的感官模糊中，游戏的形式系统只能通过其体验效果来展现。编程代码、桨式控制器、控制台硬件、电视屏幕和音频扬声器成为包括玩家本身在内的更大系统的元素。对于 Sudnow 来说，可能性空间是一个体验潜力的内在空间，一个他通过游戏探索的空间，他的存在状态在某种程度上通过游戏的输入、输出和逻辑得到延伸。
In the sensory blur of game play, the formal system of the game only reveals itself through its experiential effects. The programmed code, paddle controller, console hardware, television screen, and audio speakers become elements of a larger system that includes the player himself. The space of possibility for Sudnow is a visceral space of experiential potential, a space he explores through play, his state of being in some way extended though the input, output, and logic of the game.
游戏体验就是：一种体验。“体验”一词通常指：
The experience of play is just that: an experience. The word “experience” commonly refers to:
1. 通过感官或思维对物体、思想或情感的理解；
1. The apprehension of an object, thought, or emotion through the senses or mind;
2. 积极参与活动，从而获得知识或技能；
2. Active participation in events or activities, leading to knowledge or a skill;
3. 参与或经历的一项或一系列事件。1
3. An event or a series of events participated in or lived through.1
换句话说，体验就是参与。每款游戏都会创造出自己的体验，从真人角色扮演的戏剧性干预，到奥运会的国际盛会，再到《梦幻之星在线》的庞大虚拟社区。没有一种体验是所有游戏都应该尝试提供的。然而，我们可以将有意义的游戏原则应用于各种设计环境中的游戏。在本章以及随后的PLAY模式中，我们将探讨体验设计作为游戏设计的基本原则。
In other words, experience is participation. Every game creates its own kind of experience, from the theatrical interventions of live-action role playing, to the international spectacle of the Olympics, to the vast virtual communities of Phantasy Star Online. There is no single, proper kind of experience that all games should try and provide. Yet there are principles of meaningful play that we can apply to games in a variety of design contexts. In this chapter, and in the PLAY schema that follow, we investigate the design of experience as a fundamental principle of game design.
经验品质
Qualities of Experience
游戏体验的形式多种多样，因此创建一个涵盖所有形式的目录是不可能的。然而，这并不意味着游戏分类系统不能成为解决设计问题的有用工具。上一章概述了 Roger Caillois 开发的分类模型，它为游戏中的各种体验提供了一种类型学。在玩具作为文化，2 Brian Sutton-Smith 提出了另一个模型，该模型列出了游戏体验的心理过程。尽管 Sutton-Smith 专门研究视频游戏，但他的模型也适用于其他类型的游戏。他提出的游戏体验五要素是：
The experience of play comes in so many diverse forms that creating a single catalog that takes all of them into account would be an impossible task. However, this does not mean that systems for categorizing play cannot be a useful tool for solving design problems. The classification model developed by Roger Caillois, outlined in the previous chapter, provides one typology for the variety of experiences found in games. In Toys as Culture,2 Brian Sutton-Smith presents another model, one that lists the psychological processes by which games are experienced. Although Sutton-Smith is looking specifically at video games, his model is relevant to other kinds of games as well. His five elements of game experience are:
•视觉扫描：视觉感知，尤其是一次扫描整个屏幕。
• Visual scanning: visual perception, especially scanning the entire screen at once.
•听觉辨别：聆听游戏事件和信号。
• Auditory discriminations: listening for game events and signals.
•运动反应：玩家使用游戏控制进行的身体动作。
• Motor responses: physical actions a player takes with the game controls.
•专注：高度集中精力玩游戏。
• Concentration: intense focus on play.
•学习的感知模式：了解游戏本身的结构。
• Perceptual patterns of learning: coming to know the structure of the game itself.
Sutton-Smith 提供了一个相对简洁的列表，列出了构成数字游戏体验的元素。视觉扫描和听觉辨别代表玩家的感官活动，运动反应代表玩家的身体动作，其他两个元素（注意力和感知学习模式）代表玩家内部将这些输入和输出联系起来的认知机制。这些类别如何适用于特定游戏的体验？如果我们再回顾一下 Sudnow 对 Breakout 的观察，我们可以从 Sutton-Smith 的五个体验类别中找到例子：
Sutton-Smith offers a relatively succinct list of the elements that constitute the experience of play within a digital game. Visual scanning and auditory discrimination represent the sensorial activities of the player, motor responses represent the player’s physical actions, and the other two elements (concentration and perceptual patterns of learning) represent cognitive mechanisms internal to the player that link these inputs and outputs. How do these categories apply to the experience of a particular game? If we look back at Sudnow’s observations of Breakout one more time, we can find examples from all of Sutton-Smith’s five categories of experience:
集中注意力和听觉辨别能力： “当时我随着投篮起身，现在音量调高，房间里充满了哔哔声，我把肩膀和头部投入到动作中，用这个十秒的片段唱一首歌。”苏德诺全身心投入比赛，以至于他觉得自己是比赛系统的一部分。他的身体与屏幕上的动作同步，随着哔哔声和哔哔声哼唱，将所有动作和精力集中在对球的控制上。
Concentration and auditory discriminations: “I’m rising with the shot then, the volume turned up high now, filling the room with bleeps, and I’m putting the shoulders and head into the action, singing a song with this ten-second sequence.” Sudnow is deeply engaged in play, to the point where he feels like he is part of the game system. He moves his body in synch with the action on screen, humming along to its blips and bleeps, focusing all movement and energy on control of the ball.
视觉扫描和运动反应： “全身心投入到展开的旋律中，将手从一个点平稳地移到另一个点，带着球穿过全部五个地方。” Sudnow 将屏幕视为一个单一的空间场，他可以在其中引导球。当他的眼睛扫描屏幕时，他通过游戏控制器采取行动，将球拍移到战略位置。 Sudnow 在心理上将屏幕上虚拟球拍的水平移动与旋转游戏控制旋钮的物理动作结合起来。
Visual scanning and motor responses: “Throw yourself into the unfolding melody, carry the hand smoothly from one point to the next, ride with the ball through the whole five places.” Sudnow perceives the screen as a single field of space within which he guides the ball. As his eyes scan the screen he takes action through the game controller, moving the paddle into strategic position. Sudnow psychologically integrates the horizontal movement of the virtual paddle onscreen with the physical motion of twisting the game control knob.
感知学习模式： “一开始感觉就像是我的眼睛告诉我的手指该去哪里。但随着时间的推移，我知道流畅的旋转手部动作反过来又在帮助眼睛和手指观察，这是一种双向的合作。” Sudnow 在感知和动作之间实现的协调是深度参与游戏的品质。他的眼睛与双手协同工作，控制屏幕上的动作。由此产生的游戏体验提供了输入和输出、玩家选择的动作和结果之间的无缝过渡。
Perceptual patterns of learning: “At first it felt like my eyes told my fingers where to go. But in time I knew the smooth rotating hand motions were assisting the look in turn, eyes and fingers, in a two-way partnership.” The coordination Sudnow achieves between perception and action is a quality of deeply engaging play. His eyes work in concert with his hands to control the action onscreen. The resulting experience of play offers a seamless transition between input and output, between the action and outcome of player choice.
尽管 Sutton-Smith 的五个类别很好地描述了早期单人游戏机游戏的体验，但它们肯定不包括所有游戏。例如，可能会发明一款涉及基于气味的感官输入的游戏。还有很多游戏涉及玩家之间的社交交流，而 Sutton-Smith 的模型并未考虑到这一点。
Although Sutton-Smith’s five categories do a good job of describing the experience of early, single player console games, they are certainly not inclusive of all games. A game might be invented, for example, that involves smell-based sensory input. There are also plenty of games that involve social communication between players, which Sutton-Smith’s model does not take into account.
然而，我们可以从 Sutton-Smith 的思想中抽象出更广泛适用的元素。他的模型本质上假设了输入、输出和内部玩家机制之间的关系。这个由三部分组成的模型是一个有用的通用结构，可以理解玩家如何体验游戏。玩家感知游戏和采取行动的方式总是特定于特定设计。但这些细节包含在更大的体验系统中，该系统始终包括某种感官输入、玩家输出和内部玩家认知。
However, we can abstract elements from Sutton-Smith’s thinking that are more widely applicable. His model in essence posits relationships between inputs, outputs, and internal player mechanisms. This three-part model is a useful general structure for understanding how players experience a game. The way that a player perceives a game and takes action in it is always going to be specific to a particular design. But these details are contained within a larger system of experience that always includes some kind of sensory input, player output, and internal player cognition.
该模型的所有三个组成部分都可以单独考虑，但它们只能作为更大设计系统的一部分来产生有意义的游戏。您想要创造什么样的游戏体验？诸如 Bust-A-Groove 之类的基于节奏的舞蹈游戏将玩家体验定位在一组精细调整的视觉、听觉和身体提示中，旨在让玩家全身心地参与结构化节拍的节奏。诸如 Scrabble 之类的文字游戏迫使玩家进行战略性和语言性思考，扫描棋盘寻找空缺，在头脑和手中重新排列字母，通过操纵光滑的木质瓷砖使语言具有触感。诸如 House of the Dead 之类的街机射击游戏强调快速扫描和分离屏幕上的元素的能力，以快速和重复的运动反应来响应游戏事件。确定您希望玩家体验的游戏品质是构建任何游戏设计问题的有效方法。
All three components of this model can be considered in isolation, but they only generate meaningful play as part of a larger designed system. What kind of play experience do you want to create? A rhythm-based dance game such as Bust-A-Groove locates player experience within a finely tuned set of visual, auditory, and physical cues designed to involve players within the full-body rhythms of structured beats. A word game such as Scrabble forces players to think strategically and linguistically, scanning the board for openings, rearranging letters in their head and in their hand, making language tactile by manipulating smooth wooden tiles. An arcade shooter such as House of the Dead emphasizes the ability to quickly scan and isolate elements on screen, responding to game events with rapid and repetitive motor responses. Identifying the qualities of play you want your players to experience is a useful way of framing any game design problem.
设计互动体验
Designing Interactive Experiences
当然，挑战在于游戏体验并不是游戏设计师直接创造的。相反，游戏是玩家与系统互动时产生的一种新兴属性。游戏设计师创建了一套规则，玩家可以适应、探索和操纵这些规则。玩家通过适应、探索和操纵游戏的形式结构来体验游戏。我们在前面的章节中提到了这一点，但在体验的背景下再次重复这一点非常重要。游戏设计师只是通过直接设计规则来间接设计玩家的体验。
The challenge, of course, is that the experience of play is not something that a game designer directly creates. Instead, play is an emergent property that arises from the game as a player engages with the system. The game designer creates a set of rules, which players inhabit, explore, and manipulate. It is through inhabiting, exploring, and manipulating the game’s formal structure that players experience play. We made this point in earlier chapters, but it is important enough to repeat here within the context of experience. The game designer only indirectly designs the player’s experience, by directly designing the rules.
那么游戏设计师如何塑造玩家体验呢？我们已经介绍了基础知识。在“互动性”一章中，我们详细讨论了游戏中动作 > 结果单元的序列如何构成一个更大的有意义的游戏系统，尤其是当结果既可辨别又融入整个游戏时。如果我们强调这些基于选择的机制的体验维度，我们可以将游戏定义为系统，其意义源于玩家在游戏中做出选择时的体验。选择的每个组成部分，从显示动作和相关结果的表征元素到确定选择结果内部逻辑的系统元素，都具有体验相关性。
So how do game designers shape player experience? We have already covered the basics. In the chapter on Interactivity, we discussed in detail how sequences of action > outcome units in a game add up to a larger system of meaningful play, especially when the outcome is both discernable and integrated into the game as a whole. If we highlight the experiential dimensions of these choice-based mechanisms, we can frame games as systems whose meaning emerges from the experience of players as they make choices in a game. Every component of a choice, from the representational elements displaying actions and related outcomes, to the systemic elements determining the internal logic of a choice’s result, are experientially relevant.
为玩家创造出色的游戏体验（为玩家创造有意义的体验）需要了解游戏的形式系统如何转变为体验系统。这样做意味着要考虑微观和宏观两个维度，从玩家面临的微小的瞬间互动到这些核心互动如何结合起来形成更大的体验轨迹。在PLAY中，我们涵盖了设计游戏玩法的微观和宏观组成部分的许多维度。本章的其余部分将非常仔细地研究游戏的基本微交互，即核心机制。
Creating great game experiences for players—creating meaningful experiences for players—requires understanding how a game’s formal system transforms into an experiential one. Doing so means considering both micro- and macro-dimensions, from the small moment-to-moment interactions confronting a player to the way these core interactions combine to form a larger trajectory of experience. Throughout PLAY, we cover the many dimensions of the micro- and macro-components of designed game play. The rest of this chapter will take a very close look at the fundamental micro-interactions of a game, known as the core mechanic.
核心机制
The Core Mechanic
每个游戏都有一个核心机制。核心机制是玩家在游戏中反复执行的基本游戏活动。有时，游戏的核心机制是一个单一的动作。例如，在赛跑中，核心机制是跑步。在益智游戏中，核心机制是回答问题。在《大金刚》中，核心机制是使用操纵杆和跳跃按钮来操纵屏幕上的角色。然而，在许多游戏中，核心机制是由一系列动作组成的复合活动。在第一人称射击游戏（如《雷神之锤》）中，核心机制是一组相互关联的动作，包括移动、瞄准、射击和管理资源（如健康、弹药和装甲。棒球的核心机制由一系列击球、跑动、接球和投掷技能组成。在《星际争霸》等实时战略游戏中，核心机制将资源管理与战争策略以及快速鼠标和键盘命令技能相结合。
Every game has a core mechanic. A core mechanic is the essential play activity players perform again and again in a game. Sometimes, the core mechanic of a game is a single action. In a footrace, for example, the core mechanic is running. In a trivia game, the core mechanic is answering questions. In Donkey Kong, the core mechanic is using a joystick and jump button to maneuver a character on the screen. However, in many games, the core mechanic is a compound activity composed of a suite of actions. In a first-person-shooter game such as Quake, the core mechanic is the set of interrelated actions of moving, aiming, firing, and managing resources such as health, ammo, and armor. Baseball’s core mechanic is composed of a collection of batting, running, catching, and throwing skills. In a real-time strategy game such as Starcraft, the core mechanic combines resource management with wargame strategy and rapid mouse and keyboard command skills.
游戏的核心机制包含玩家互动的体验构建块。它代表玩家每时每刻的基本活动，是整个游戏中不断重复的活动。在游戏过程中，核心机制会创建行为模式，这些模式会表现为玩家的体验。核心机制是游戏活动的基本要素，是玩家做出有意义的选择并获得有意义的游戏体验的机制。因此，在设计过程开始时就确定核心机制非常重要，即使它会随着游戏的发展而发生变化。确定游戏的核心机制可以让设计师生成游戏互动性的概要。很多时候，当游戏玩起来毫无乐趣时，问题就出在核心机制上。
A game’s core mechanic contains the experiential building blocks of player interactivity. It represents the essential moment-to-moment activity of players, something that is repeated over and over throughout a game. During a game, core mechanics create patterns of behavior, which manifest as experience for players. The core mechanic is the essential nugget of game activity, the mechanism through which players make meaningful choices and arrive at a meaningful play experience. It is therefore very important to be able to identify the core mechanic at the beginning of the design process, even if it changes as the game develops. Pinpointing the core mechanic of the game allows designers to generate a summary profile of the game’s interactivity. Very often, when a game simply isn’t fun to play, it is the core mechanic that is to blame.
核心机制的概念是游戏设计中一个至关重要的概念，在设计过程中经常被忽视。游戏概念，尤其是数字游戏，通常始于一个故事或角色的想法，并发生在一个既定的商业类型中。这是一种开始设计过程的有效方法。然而，在专注于游戏的“高水平”叙事元素时，游戏设计师可能会忽略与核心机制和游戏体验有关的同样基本的问题。游戏设计师不仅为玩家创造内容，他们还为玩家创造活动，即玩家在游戏过程中采取的行动模式。
The notion of a core mechanic is a crucial game design concept, and one frequently taken for granted in the design process. Concepts for games, particularly digital games, often begin with an idea for a story or character, to take place within an established commercial genre. This is a valid way to start a design process. However, in focusing on the “high level,” narrative elements of a game, game designers can miss equally fundamental questions that concern the core mechanic and play experience. Game designers don’t just create content for players, they create activities for players, patterns of actions enacted by players in the course of game play.
核心机制背景
Core Mechanics in Context
设计游戏活动意味着创建一个系统，该系统包括游戏对玩家的感官输出和玩家的输入能力，以及引导玩家做出决定的内部认知和心理过程。核心机制不仅限于此体验过程的一个组成部分，而是作为贯穿所有三个组成部分的活动而存在。以下是几个游戏示例，每个游戏都使用了一个截然不同的核心机制。
Designing the activity of play means creating the system that includes the game’s sensory output to the player and the player’s ability to make input, as well as guiding the internal cognitive and psychological processes by which a player makes decisions. The core mechanic is not limited to just one component of this experiential process, but exists as an activity that permeates all three. Following are several game examples, each one utilizing an extremely different core mechanic.
标签
Tag
在 Tag 游戏中，一名玩家是“它”。该玩家在有限的范围内追逐所有其他玩家；当另一名玩家被“它”标记时，他或她就成为“它”。Tag 的核心机制非常简单：追逐和被追逐。由于 Tag 是一款物理游戏，因此体验部分非常丰富。作为输入，玩家会感知整个游戏场地、其他玩家（尤其是作为“它”的玩家）的位置以及他或她自己的疲惫状态。输出涉及玩家的整个身体，通常包括奔跑、躲闪和其他躲避动作。
In Tag, one player is “It.” This player chases all of the other players within a limited boundary; when another player is tagged by “It,” he or she becomes “It.” The core mechanic of Tag is incredibly simple: chase and be chased. Because Tag is a physical game, the experiential component is very rich. As input, the player senses the entire field of play, the position of other players (especially the player that is “It”), as well as his or her own state of exhaustion. The output involves a player’s entire body, and usually involves running, dodging, and other evasive maneuvers.
简单的规则不会留下任何歧义。如果你不是“它”，你就得不惜一切代价避免被标记。如果你是“它”，你的目标是摆脱这个角色，把它交给另一个人。追逐和奔跑。奔跑和追逐。然后，偶尔标记。在游戏过程中重复实施的核心机制会形成更大的体验模式，因为玩家会在场地上奔跑，避开“它”的玩家，在标记发生时交换猎人和猎物的角色。作为一个经验丰富的游戏系统，Tag 的神话般的简单性是其吸引力的一部分。
The simple rules leave no room for ambiguity. If you are not “It,” you avoid being tagged at all costs. If you are “It,” your goal is to shed this role by giving it to another. Chasing and running. Running and chasing. And then, the occasional tag. The repetition of the core mechanic enacted over the course of a game builds into larger patterns of experience as players run about the field, avoiding the player that is “It,” exchanging roles of the hunter and the hunted when a tag takes place. As an experienced game system, Tag’s mythic simplicity is part of its appeal.
言语网球
Verbal Tennis
言语网球是一种不同寻常的游戏，游戏中两名玩家进行对话，轮流发表声明。唯一的规则是，每条声明都必须以问题的形式出现，并且不能重复已经发表过的另一条声明。如果一名玩家卡住了，无法对之前的声明做出连贯的回应，他或她就输了。游戏可能以以下方式开始：
Verbal Tennis is an unusual game in which two players carry on a conversation, taking turns making statements. The only rules are that each statement must be in the form of a question and cannot repeat another statement that has already been made. If a player gets stuck and cannot make a coherent response to the previous statement, he or she loses. A game might begin as follows:
PLAYER 1: Are you feeling well today?
玩家 2：我看上去不太好吗？
PLAYER 2: Don’t I look well?
玩家 1：如果我知道，为什么还要问你？
PLAYER 1: If I knew that, why would I have asked you?
玩家 2：你为什么关心我的感受？
PLAYER 2: Why do you care how I’m feeling?
玩家 1：问这个是不是太不礼貌了？
PLAYER 1: Is it impolite to ask?
玩家 2：你自己想不出来吗？
PLAYER 2: Can’t you figure that out for yourself?
玩家 1：什么？
PLAYER 1: What?
玩家2：你没听见我说的话吗？
PLAYER 2: Didn’t you hear what I said?
ETC。
etc.
言语网球的娱乐挑战在于以逻辑语句链的形式继续对话。参与对话或在游戏中采取行动涉及一种独特而引人入胜的核心机制。玩家的体验输入和输出是简单的对话语句。但玩家的内部过程涉及复杂的思考，在这个过程中，他或她会快速吸收之前的语句并编写一个新的语句来扩展对话，将他或她的回答塑造成一个问题。
The entertaining challenge of verbal tennis is to continue the conversation as a logical chain of statements. Taking part in the conversation, or taking an action in the game, involves a uniquely engaging core mechanic. The player’s experiential input and output are simple conversational statements. But the internal process of the player involves complex thinking, in which he or she quickly assimilates the previous statement and composes a new one that extends the conversation, shaping his or her response into a question.
在《言语网球》中，玩家的实际活动仅仅是倾听和说话，这是玩家在日常生活中每天多次做的事情。游戏的优雅之处在于，一套简单的规则将这种动作转化为《言语网球》的解谜体验，从而带来智力挑战和戏剧性引人入胜的游戏体验。
In Verbal Tennis, the actual activity of the player is merely to listen and to speak, something that players do in their ordinary lives many times a day. The elegance of the game is that a simple set of rules transform this action into the puzzle-like experience of Verbal Tennis, resulting in an intellectually challenging and theatrically engaging game experience.
环形
LOOP
LOOP 是一款单人电脑游戏，玩家使用鼠标在飞舞的蝴蝶周围画线并捕捉它们。蝴蝶有不同的颜色，玩家只能捕捉相同颜色的蝴蝶组。游戏中还有其他得分方式、特殊奖励、危险和奖励等级，但核心机制——循环——在整个游戏中保持不变。
The game of LOOP is a single-player computer game where the player uses the mouse to draw lines around fluttering butterflies and capture them. Butterflies come in different colors, and a player can only capture groups of butterflies of the same color. There are additional ways to score, special bonuses, hazards, and bonus levels, but the core mechanic—looping—remains the same throughout the game.
计算机或视频游戏的核心机制在某种程度上涉及硬件输入设备，LOOP 也不例外。游戏的基本活动是使用鼠标在屏幕上滚动光标，画线以在移动的蝴蝶周围形成环路。玩家感知屏幕上的视觉信息并通过运动做出响应，从而产生额外的音频和视觉反馈。LOOP 不是拖放式点击、光标式交互，而是产生一系列流畅的手腕和手臂手势。LOOP 的设计始终强调这一核心活动：如果玩家在游戏过程中点击，游戏就会暂停；在游戏的主菜单上，玩家不会点击按钮，而是围绕按钮进行选择。
The core mechanic of a computer or video game involves a hardware input device in some way, and LOOP is no exception. The essential activity of the game is to use the mouse to roll the cursor about the screen, drawing lines to make loops around the moving butterflies. The player perceives visual information on the screen and responds through motor movement, generating additional audio and visual feedback. Instead of a drag-and-click, cursorstyle interaction, LOOP engenders a fluid series of wrist and arm gestures. The design of LOOP emphasizes this core activity throughout: if the player clicks during a game, the game pauses; on the game’s main menu, the player does not click on a button but instead loops around it to make a selection.
设计电脑游戏互动性的一个挑战在于发明新的玩家互动形式，即带来另类游戏体验的新核心机制。正如 Verbal Tennis 将普通对话变成决斗文字游戏一样，LOOP 借用了传统的鼠标互动，并将其转变为有趣的效果。
One challenge of designing computer game interactivity lies in inventing new forms of player interaction, new core mechanics that lead to alternative game experiences. Just as Verbal Tennis turns an ordinary conversation into dueling wordplay, LOOP appropriates conventional mouse interaction and twists it to playful effect.
一款游戏的输入仅限于鼠标和键盘或控制台控制器输入，并不意味着它必须依赖其他游戏的惯例。如果鼠标移动与光标移动相反会怎样？如果键盘被用作物理输入网格会怎样？如果玩家必须倒着拿着控制台控制器会怎样？无论是在电脑上还是电脑外，设计创新的核心机制通常都源于对现有惯例的质疑。
Just because a game’s input is limited to mouse and keyboard or console controller input does not mean that it has to rely on the conventions of other games. What if mouse movement was the inverse of cursor movement? What if the keyboard was used as a physical input grid? What if the player had to hold the console controller upside-down? Designing inventive core mechanics, on or off the computer, often comes from questioning existing conventions.
突破突破
Breaking Out of Breakout
将伸出的手指与电视屏幕左下角对齐，保持六英尺的距离。然后沿着底部边框来回移动几次，并将该宽度的运动投射到手中一个想象的直径为一英寸半的线轴上。这就是旋钮和拨片的配合方式，身体运动、设备和界面中保留的环境之间的自然比例对应。那边是那个世界空间，那边是这个，我们用动作穿越有线间隙，尽管如此，我们仍然感觉到与事物保持平衡的伸展接触。——大卫·苏德诺，《微观世界的朝圣者》
Line up your extended finger with the lower left corner of the TV screen a comfortable six feet away. Now track back and forth several times in line with the bottom border and project a movement of that breadth onto an imagined inch and a half diameter spool in your hands. That’s how knob and paddle are geared, a natural correspondence of scale between the body’s motions, the equipment, and the environs preserved in the interface. There’s that world space over there, this one over there, and we traverse the wired gap with motions that make us nonetheless feel in a balanced extending touch with things.—David Sudnow, Pilgrim in the Microworld
本章最后详细介绍了两款数字游戏，并分析了核心机制如何帮助创造有意义的游戏体验。第一款游戏是 Atari 2600 的 Breakout，David Sudnow 在他的书中详细介绍了这款游戏。Breakout 的核心机制既简单又优雅；这是让游戏玩起来如此有意义的关键之一。玩家使用桨式控制器左右移动屏幕底部的栏，试图拦截在游戏空间中弹跳的“球”。
This chapter concludes with a detailed look at two digital games, and an examination of how the core mechanic helps create an experience of meaningful play. The first game is Breakout for the Atari 2600, the game David Sudnow details in his book. Breakout’s core mechanic is both simple and elegant; it is one of the keys to what makes the play of the game so meaningful. The player uses a paddle controller to move a bar on the bottom of the screen left and right, trying to intercept a “ball” that is bouncing around the game space.
很难找到比 Breakout 更精简的核心机制。在游戏中，玩家不是在纹理丰富的 3D 空间中移动动画角色；他们甚至不是在 2D 中移动。玩家沿着一条线在一维空间中移动块状矩形。玩家没有一系列动作和能力。他们没有复杂的任务要完成或资源要管理。玩家所做的只是转动旋钮、移动线并避免错过球。尽管这种交互方案很少，但 Breakout 仍设法创造了有意义的游戏体验。
It would be difficult to find a core mechanic more stripped down than in Breakout. In the game, players are not moving an animated character through a richly textured 3D space; they are not even moving in 2D. Players are moving a blocky, rectangular shape in one dimension along a line. Players don’t have a range of actions and powers. They don’t have a complex set of tasks to complete or resources to manage. All players do is turn the knob, move the line, and avoid missing the ball. Despite this spare interactive scheme, Breakout manages to generate meaningful play.
设计的简单性和即时性在玩家和游戏之间创建了一个互动回路。屏幕上的拨片对玩家手中旋钮移动的响应是直观且即时的。屏幕、控制器和玩家进入了更大的体验关系集，形成了一个系统，弥合了 Sudnow 所说的玩家世界和电视游戏世界之间的“有线鸿沟”。但是，如果 Breakout 的全部内容就是屏幕上的一条线移动，那么它就不是游戏了。它不会具有有意义的玩法。当然也不会产生 Sudnow 记录的那种强迫性依恋。除了这个核心机制，即旋钮转动和球阻挡的简单动作之外，Breakout 还构建了更复杂的游戏体验。
The simplicity and immediacy of the design creates an interactive circuit between the player and the game. The response of the paddle on the screen to the movements of the knob in the player’s hand is intuitive and instantaneous. The screen, the controller, and the player enter into a larger set of experiential relationships, forming a system that bridges the “wired gap,” as Sudnow puts it, between the player’s world and the televised world of the game. But if that were everything there was to Breakout, a line moving on a screen, it wouldn’t be a game. It wouldn’t have meaningful play. And it certainly wouldn’t generate the obsessive attachment Sudnow documents. On top of this core mechanic, the simple action of knob-turning and ball-blocking, Breakout builds a more complex game experience.
爆发
Breakout
当然，灯光并不遵循控制固体物体（比如台球）的物理定律。但 Atari 相当不错地模拟了固体感。光（球）从某个角度射向侧壁，然后按照三角测量的方向朝你预测的真实球的方向移动。那球拍呢？击中网球拍或手的偏心部分，球会偏向不同的路径，你就可以击球。当然，他们已经对轨迹和球拍表面的不同部分进行了编程以匹配，因此光球的行为就像一个有形物体，会折射和偏转，所以看起来你至少可以在一定程度上控制球的方向。3
Of course the lights didn’t obey the laws of physics governing solid objects, like billiard balls, say. But Atari had rather decently simulated a sense of solidity. The light [ball] came from a certain angle toward the side wall, and then followed out the triangulation by going in the direction you’d predict for a real ball. What about the paddle? Hit on an off-centered portion of a tennis racket or hand, a ball will deflect on a different path and you can thereby place shots. Sure enough they’d programmed the trajectories and different parts of the paddle surface to match, so the light-ball behaved rather like a tangible object, refracting and deflecting so it seemed you could at least somewhat control the ball’s direction.3
一开始，玩 Breakout 只是击球，尽量不要让球从挡板旁经过。如果玩家五次击球失败，游戏就结束了。但随着游戏的继续，游戏玩法更加深入。挡板分为五个部分，每个部分都会以不同的角度反弹球。利用游戏的模拟物理，玩家可以学习如何引导球。当球击中砖块时，砖块会消失，玩家获得积分。游戏的目标是引导球尽可能多地移除砖块，并在过程中获得积分。由于每次玩家击中和移除砖块时，屏幕顶部的砖块图案都会发生变化，因此随着关卡的进展，游戏场逐渐从满变为空，每种新的排列方式都为球提供了不同的可能轨迹。
At first, playing Breakout is simply a matter of hitting the ball, trying not to let it pass by the paddle. If a player misses the ball five times, the game is over. But as play continues, the gameplay grows deeper. The paddle is divided into five sections, each of which ricochets the ball at a different angle. Using the simulated physics of the game, players can learn to direct shots. When the ball hits a brick, it disappears and the player gains points. The goal of the game is to direct the ball to remove as many bricks as possible, gaining points along the way. Because the brick patterns at the top of the screen change each time the player hits and removes a brick, the playfield gradually shifts from full to empty as a level progresses, each new arrangement offering different possible trajectories for the ball to follow.
游戏模式和节奏多种多样。熟练的玩家会将注意力集中在屏幕的一侧，在砖墙上打一个洞，让球“破墙而出”，在屏幕顶部来回弹跳。游戏结束时，只剩下几块砖，玩家需要采取其他策略：使用球拍中心以近乎垂直的轨迹击球，在屏幕上缓慢划出一条通往剩余砖块的路径。游戏规则不仅仅是一个简单的互动系统，它创造了多层次的游戏体验，在核心机制的物理和感知组件之上，叠加了战略思维和逐步掌握技能。
Many patterns and rhythms of play emerge. A skilled player will concentrate on one side of the screen, creating a hole in the wall of bricks that allows the ball to “break out” and bounce back and forth along the top of the screen. Other kinds of strategies are required for the endgame, in which only a few bricks remain: the center of the paddle is used to hit the ball in a nearly vertical trajectory, cutting a slow path across the screen toward the remaining bricks. More than just a simple system of interaction, the game rules create multiple levels of play experience, layering strategic thinking and gradual skill acquisition on top of the physical and perceptual components of the core mechanic.
如此简单的游戏却包含如此多的体验复杂性！然而，玩家的动作、基本活动、核心机制仍然非常简单：用手腕旋转旋钮。从这种基本的互动性中，可以形成整个游戏结构。这正是有意义的游戏在体验层面上出现的方式：通过玩家的动作、输入和输出。最终，游戏系统不仅仅是其各部分的总和。
All of this experiential complexity in such a simple game! Yet the player’s action, the essential activity, the core mechanic, remains strikingly spartan: rotate the knob with the wrist. Out of this basic interactivity blossoms an entire structure of play. This is precisely how meaningful play emerges on the level of experience: through player action, input, and output. In the end, the system of play becomes more than the sum of its parts.
核心机制的变种
Variations on a Core Mechanic
使用现有的核心机制是游戏设计中常见的问题。也许有某种核心机制你想借用。或者也许发行商正在资助一个需要模仿现有游戏类型的数字游戏项目。或者你可能已经设计了原创的核心机制，但不知道如何将其扩展为完整的游戏体验。在本节中，我们将以 Breakout 为试金石，介绍如何修改和重新混合核心机制以创造新的游戏体验。Sudnow 描述的游戏版本是 Atari 2600 的 Breakout。虽然他只玩“基本”版的游戏，但原始的 Atari 卡带包含许多玩法变化。
Working with an existing core mechanic is a common game design problem. Perhaps there is a core mechanic that you want to borrow. Or maybe a publisher is funding a digital game project that needs to resemble an existing game genre. Or it could be that you have already designed an original core mechanic, but you don’t know how to extend it into a full game experience. In this section, we look at examples of how to modify and re-mix a core mechanic to create new game experiences, using Breakout as a touchstone. The version of the game Sudnow describes is Breakout for the Atari 2600. Although he only plays the “basic” version of the game, the original Atari cartridge includes many play variations.
包含游戏变体是早期主机游戏（例如 Atari 2600）的常见设计策略。通常，设计师会扩展基本的游戏交互，从而创建多种游戏变体。因此，Atari 游戏是采用核心机制并衍生出多种变体的游戏设计的绝佳范例。替代版本可能巧妙而引人入胜，也可能毫无意义且无法玩。但是，从创建核心机制变体的成功和失败尝试中，我们可以学到很多东西。在最初的 Atari 2600 Breakout 卡带上，有 12 种不同的游戏变体。我们在下面列出了每种变体的机制：
The inclusion of game variations was a common design strategy in early console games for platforms such as the Atari 2600. Typically, designers extended the basic game interaction, creating numerous variations for play. For this reason, Atari games are excellent examples of game designs that take a core mechanic and spin out many variants. The alternate versions can be clever and engaging or gratuitous and unplayable. But there is much to learn from both successful and unsuccessful attempts at creating core mechanic variations. On the original Atari 2600 Breakout cartridge, there are twelve different game variations. We list the mechanics for each below:
限时播放
Timed Play
Atari 2600 上的 Breakout 是一款有限游戏。游戏的目标是清除一个屏幕上的砖块，然后进入第二个砖块屏幕。如果清除了该屏幕，游戏就结束。由于玩家每消除一个砖块都会得分，因此游戏结束时的得分始终相同（864 分）。这种游戏设计的一个问题是，专业玩家将能够清除两个屏幕，并最终对游戏失去兴趣。尽管核心机制可能足够吸引人，可以鼓励重复玩游戏，但玩家更有可能感觉游戏已被“解决”。游戏的可能性空间将变得过于熟悉，并且不太可能提供任何更令人惊讶的挑战。
Breakout on the Atari 2600 is a finite game. The goal is to clear the bricks from one screen, which leads to a second screen of bricks. If that screen is cleared, the game ends. Because players score points for each brick eliminated, the score at the end of a finished game is always the same (864 points). One problem with this game design is that an expert player will be able to clear both screens and will eventually lose interest in the game. Even though the core mechanic might be engaging enough to encourage repeat play, it is more likely that the player will feel as if the game has been “solved.” The game’s space of possibility will become too familiar, and is unlikely to offer any more surprising challenges.
为了解决这个潜在问题，卡带中包含了“计时”版游戏。除了积分，游戏还会记录玩家玩了多长时间。计时游戏的目标不仅是达到最高分数，而且要尽快达到最高分数。尽可能地增加一个可量化的工具来判断相同的基本游戏玩法。结果是限时 Breakout 成为一款更吸引高级玩家的游戏，他们可能已经达到了得分上限。游戏变体允许玩家继续探索减少总时间的策略。
To address this potential problem, the cartridge includes a “timed” version of the game. In addition to a point score, the game keeps track of how long a player has been playing. The goal of a timed game becomes not only reaching the maximum number of points, but doing so as quickly as possible, adding a quantifiable tool for judging performance to the same essential game play. The result is that timed Breakout becomes a more engaging game for advanced players, who may have reached a scoring ceiling in terms of points. The game variation allows players to continue exploring strategies for reducing their overall time.
值得注意的是，计时器也可以包含在基本游戏中。计时器不会从结构上改变实际交互——它只是显示一种新数据。但计时器确实改变了游戏体验，随着时间的流逝，玩家在心理上承受的压力更大。对于初学者来说，Breakout 可能是一款非常困难的游戏，将计时器元素排除在基本游戏之外是一个明智的设计决定。这样，初学者在学习游戏的基本交互时会感觉更舒服一些。相反，高级玩家在玩计时版游戏时会感觉自己已经“毕业”到一个新的水平。
It is significant to note that the timer could have been included in the basic game as well. The timer doesn’t structurally change the actual interaction—it merely displays a new kind of data. But the timer does change the experience of the game, psychologically placing players under more pressure as the seconds tick by. Breakout can be a very difficult game for beginners, and it was a smart design decision to keep the timer element out of the basic game. That way, beginners feel a bit more comfortable as they learn the game’s basic interaction. Conversely, advanced players feel as if they have “graduated” to a new level when they take up the timed version of the game.
突破
Breakthru
Breakout 核心机制的另一个变体是“突破”版本。在这个游戏中，玩家与挡板的核心互动保持不变，但游戏中元素的行为发生了变化。当球击中砖块时，它会消除砖块 - 但球不会反弹，而是继续前进直到撞到墙壁。这意味着球将穿过彩色砖块墙，在穿过砖块时留下一串空砖点。
Another variant on the Breakout core mechanic is the “Breakthru” version. In this game, the player’s core interaction with the paddle remains the same, but the behavior of the elements in the game change. When the ball hits a brick, it eliminates the brick—but instead of bouncing back, the ball keeps on going until it hits a wall. That means that a ball will travel right through the wall of colored bricks, leaving a trail of empty brick spots as it plows through them.
这种设计变化的原因是什么？在普通版的 Breakout 中，消除砖块会让人感到满足，这种满足感会贯穿整个游戏过程。你会一块一块地、一砖一瓦地凿墙。Breakthru 会加速这种满足感，让你不仅可以凿墙，还可以用一个手势凿出整个部分。虽然它让游戏变得容易得多，但这种变化为游戏增加了一种新的体验乐趣。设计师选择基本版中更延迟的满足感作为游戏的默认结构，这一点很重要。
What is the reason for this design variation? In the normal version of Breakout, it feels satisfying to eliminate bricks, a satisfaction that extends over the course of the game. One by one, brick by brick, you chip away at the wall. Breakthru accelerates this satisfaction, allowing you not just to nip at the wall, but to gouge out whole sections in a single gesture. Although it makes the game much easier, this variation adds a new degree of experiential pleasure to the game. It is significant that the designers chose the more delayed gratification of the basic version to be the default structure for play.
转向、接球和隐形砖块
Steering, Catching, and Invisible Bricks
Atari 2600 Breakout 还包含其他变体。在某些变体中，玩家可以使用挡板影响空中的球，将其路径向左或向右推移。在其他变体中，玩家使用挡板上的按钮“接住”球，使其粘在挡板上直到被释放。在第三种变体中，砖块在被击中之前是不可见的，此时所有剩余的砖块都会亮起。
Atari 2600 Breakout includes other variations as well. In some, the player can use the paddle to affect the ball while it is in the air, nudging its path to the left or right. In others, the player uses a button on the paddle to “catch” the ball, making it stick to the paddle until it is released. In a third variation, the bricks are invisible until they are hit, at which point all of the remaining bricks light up.
每种版本的 Breakout 都对游戏玩法产生重大影响。操控和接球为玩家提供了控制球的额外方式，略微增加了互动的复杂性，同时也降低了游戏的整体难度。隐形砖块的变化使游戏难度大大增加，尤其是当只剩下几块砖块时，玩家必须依靠记忆来瞄准它们。
Each of these versions of Breakout has a strong impact on the play of the game. Steering and catching give the player an additional way to control the ball, increasing the complexity of the interaction slightly, while also decreasing the game’s overall level of difficulty. The invisible brick variations make the game much harder, especially when there are only a few bricks left and players must use their memory to aim at them.
所有这些变体（计时器、突破、操纵、捕捉和隐形砖块）不仅提供单独的变体，而且可以混合搭配以提供许多版本的 Breakout。卡带上的十几个游戏都是基本 Breakout、计时 Breakout 或 Breakthru；这三种一般类型中的每一种都出现四次：无需额外修改、可操纵的球、可捕捉的球或隐形砖块。该系统总共提供十二种不同的 Breakout 游戏，基本版本有十一种变体，每种变体都修改了游戏的核心游戏机制。显然，包括变体的一个效果是大大扩展了整体游戏空间；游戏的每个版本都提供了新的战略和体验可能性。玩 Breakout 分为两个层次：玩家不仅要探索单个变体的结构，还要探索整个变体集。
All of these variations (timer, breakthru, steering, catching, and invisible bricks) offer not only individual variants, but are mixed and matched to provide many versions of Breakout. Each of the dozen games on the cartridge is either basic Breakout, timed Breakout, or Breakthru; each of these three general types manifests four times: with no additional modifications, steerable balls, catchable balls, or invisible bricks. This system offers a total of twelve different Breakout games, eleven variants on the basic version, each one modifying the game’s core game mechanic. Obviously, one effect of including variations is to greatly expand the overall space of play; each version of the game provides new strategic and experiential possibilities. Playing Breakout takes place on two levels: not only do players explore the structure of an individual variant, but they also explore the larger set of variants as a whole.
例如，也许你喜欢 Breakthru 版本的游戏，但你觉得它太简单了。你可以通过使用隐形砖块来平衡难度。如果你是一个喜欢时钟压力的战略玩家，那么带有可操纵或可接球的计时版本游戏可能很适合你。为玩家提供变化让他们可以以有限的方式设计自己的体验。虽然它不是每个游戏的正确解决方案，但它无疑是许多 Atari 2600 卡带的吸引力之一。在 Breakout 的情况下，变化提供了一个很好的教训，即改变核心机制以扩大可能性空间。
For example, perhaps you like the satisfaction of the Breakthru version of the game, but you find it too easy. You might balance the difficulty by playing Breakthru with invisible bricks. If you are a strategic player that enjoys the pressure of the clock, timed versions of the game with steerable or catchable balls might work well for you. Providing variations for players lets them design their own experiences in a limited way. Although it is not the right solution for every game, it is certainly part of the appeal of many Atari 2600 cartridges. In the case of Breakout, the variations offer a great lesson in altering a core mechanic in order to enlarge the space of possibility.
除了最初的 Breakout 街机游戏和 Atari 2600 版 Breakout 之外，还有许多其他版本的游戏借用了相同的核心机制。例如，续集发行的 Atari 2600 版 Super Breakout 在许多方面改进了游戏玩法。在 Super Breakout 中，游戏不再局限于两面砖墙，而是可以无限继续。Super Breakout 还增加了新的游戏变体，例如一次玩多个球、屏幕上同时显示多个桨、砖块缓慢向下移动到玩家，以及一个特殊的“儿童版”，其中球移动得更慢。可以为 Breakout 的核心机制设计的变化数量几乎是无限的。
Beyond the original Breakout arcade game and the Atari 2600 version of Breakout, there are many other versions of the game that borrow the same core mechanic. For example, the sequel release, Super Breakout for the Atari 2600, refines the play in many ways. In Super Breakout, games are no longer limited to two walls of bricks, but can continue on indefinitely. Super Breakout also adds new game variants, such as more than one ball in play at once, more than one paddle on the screen at the same time, bricks that slowly move downward toward the player, and a special “children’s version,” in which the ball moves more slowly. The number of variations that could be designed for the core mechanic of Breakout is nearly infinite.
最后再来看看《Breakout》，我们来看看《Alleyway》，这是一款 1989 年为任天堂 Game Boy 发布的游戏。游戏的基本原理与 Atari 2600 版本相同：玩家使用 Game Boy 上的方向键来回移动屏幕底部的挡板，让球弹到砖墙上，使砖墙消失。《Alleyway》提供了自己的游戏变体，同时仍然忠实于《Breakout》的核心机制。
For a last look at Breakout, we turn to Alleyway, a game published in 1989 for the Nintendo Game Boy. The essentials of the game are the same as in the Atari 2600 version: the player uses the directional pad on the Game Boy to move a paddle back and forth at the bottom of the screen, bouncing the ball into a wall of bricks to make them disappear. Alleyway offers its own variation on the game, while still remaining true to the Breakout core mechanic.
突破
Breaking Out
在 Breakout 中，当球真正“破门而出”时，即玩家开辟一条狭窄的路径，让球沿着屏幕顶部弹跳，这是游戏体验的高潮之一。当球破门而出时，球会疯狂地清除砖块，而玩家则坐在后面观看系统的工作。在 Atari 2600 游戏中，破门很难实现，这意味着只有高级玩家才能体验到它的刺激。有时，当玩家到达屏幕顶部时，只剩下零散的砖块，因此令人满意的快速破门弹跳永远不会发生。
The moment in Breakout when the ball actually “breaks out,” when a player carves a narrow path that allows the ball to bounce along the top of the screen, is one of the experiential climaxes of the game. When breakout happens, the ball goes into a brick-clearing frenzy, as the player sits back and watches the system do the work. In the Atari 2600 game, breakout is difficult to achieve, meaning that only advanced players get to experience its thrill. Sometimes, by the time a player hits the top of the screen, there are only scattered bricks remaining, so that the satisfying rapid-fire breakout bouncing never occurs.
Alleyway 通过提供鼓励玩家逃脱的关卡来解决这一设计挑战。例如，游戏的第一个关卡采用了经典的砖墙，但砖墙左右两侧的砖柱被移除。砖墙不是沿着屏幕长度封闭的墙，而是有开放的侧面。放置得当的球可以倾斜进入这个缝隙，移动到屏幕顶部，并逃脱。这种砖块排列使得在游戏早期逃脱的可能性大大增加。
Alleyway addresses this design challenge by providing levels that encourage breakouts to occur. For example, the very first level of the game features the classic wall of bricks, but with columns of bricks removed from the left and right sides of the brick wall. Instead of a closed wall that stretches the length of the screen, the wall of bricks has open sides. A well-placed ball can angle into this gap, travel to the top of the screen, and achieve breakout. This brick arrangement makes it much more likely for breakout to occur early in the game.
此外，当发生越狱事件时，游戏的音频设计会向玩家强调事件本身。与原版《越狱》一样，当球撞到墙壁或砖块时，会出现碰撞音效。在《小巷》中，当球撞到屏幕上边框时，屏幕顶部边框会发出非常不同的高音调铃声。这意味着当球越狱时，快速的来回弹跳会产生恰如其分的庆祝声“叮！叮！叮！”
Furthermore, when breakout happens, the audio design of the game highlights the event for the player. As in the original Breakout, when the ball hits a wall or brick, there is a collision sound effect. In Alleyway, the top border of the screen makes a very different, high-pitched bell-like sound when the ball hits it. This means that when the ball breaks out, the speedy back-and-forth bouncing produces an appropriately celebratory “ding! ding! ding!”
设计的第一个变化——从初始游戏关卡中移除砖块图案的侧面——改变了游戏的结构逻辑，以便更有可能获得令人满意的突破体验。音频反馈有助于在事件发生时强调这一事件。
The first variation on the design—removing the sides of the brick pattern from the initial game level—changes the game’s structural logic in order to make the satisfying breakout experience more likely. The audio feedback helps emphasize this event when it does occur.
人们普遍批评早期的数字游戏（如 Breakout）过于重复。尽管游戏的核心机制本身就相当令人满意，但每个关卡本质上都是一样的。Breakout 和 Super Breakout 中的核心游戏可能有很多变化，但一旦玩家选择了某个版本的游戏，每组砖块在不同的屏幕上都会是相同的。
One common criticism of early digital games like Breakout is that they are too repetitive. Although the core mechanic of the game is quite satisfying on its own, each level is essentially identical. There might be many variations of the core game in Breakout and Super Breakout, but once a player has selected a version of the game to play, each set of bricks will be the same from screen to screen.
Alleyway 解决这一设计问题的方法是设计许多不同的关卡变化，这样每次玩家通关并获得新的砖墙时，砖块的排列（有时行为）都会有所不同。Alleyway 当然不是第一款为 Breakout 风格的游戏创建独特关卡的游戏，但关卡的进展设计得特别好。
Alleyway’s solution to this design problem was to design many different level variations, so that each time a player clears a level and gets a new wall of bricks, the arrangement (and sometimes behavior) of the bricks is different. Alleyway is certainly not the first title to create unique levels for a Breakout-style game, but the progression of levels is particularly well-designed.
Alleyway 中的某些关卡中，砖块会从右向左稳定地飞过屏幕。其他关卡中，砖块会缓慢地沿屏幕向下移动到玩家的挡板。在限时奖励关卡中，墙壁会被用砖块制成的任天堂角色肖像所取代，玩家必须以突破式方式消除这些角色：球会直接穿过砖块，只有撞到墙壁时才会反弹。
Some levels in Alleyway feature bricks that fly steadily across the screen from right to left. Others have bricks that slowly move down the screen toward the player’s paddle. In the timed bonus levels, the walls are replaced by portraits of Nintendo characters made out of bricks that the player must eliminate, breakthru style: the ball passes straight through the bricks and only bounces back when it hits a wall.
Alleyway 中的关卡遵循重复模式。对于每一种砖块结构排列（例如第一关的开放式墙壁），玩家都会先玩“标准”版游戏，然后玩水平移动砖块的版本，然后玩垂直移动砖块的版本，最后进入奖励关卡。下一关引入了一种新的结构排列，玩家再次循环体验这组变化，然后进入另一个奖励关卡。这种关卡模式创造了一种奇妙的异质游戏体验，既提供了熟悉感（变化以一致的方式循环），又提供了新鲜感（每四个关卡就会出现一个新结构）。Breakout 引人入胜、可重复的核心机制通过关卡系统得到增强，该系统为整体体验增加了探索元素。
The levels in Alleyway follow a repeating pattern. For each structural arrangement of bricks (such as the open-sided wall of the first level), the player plays a “standard” version of the game, then a version with horizontally moving bricks, then vertically moving bricks, before reaching a bonus level. The next level introduces a new structural arrangement, and the player cycles through the set of variations again, followed by another bonus level. This pattern of levels creates a wonderfully heterogeneous playing experience, providing both familiarity (the variations cycle in a consistent way) and newness (every four levels, a new structure appears). The engaging, repeatable core mechanic of Breakout is enhanced through a system of levels that adds an element of discovery to the overall experience.
小巷
Alleyway
无论是在数字游戏还是非数字游戏中，对核心机制的调整可以是微妙的，也可以是明显的。它们可以为现有游戏或全新的游戏创造有意义的变化。在游戏中采用核心机制并对其进行修改的关键在于迭代过程。在尝试变化时，问问自己现有核心机制的成功之处和失败之处。然后尝试你最好的猜测，看看对核心机制的调整是否会带来更有意义的游戏体验。
Adjustments to a core mechanic, whether in a digital or nondigital game, can be subtle or overt. They can create meaningful variations on an existing game, or a new game altogether. The key to taking a core mechanic and modifying it within a game relies on an iterative process. As you experiment with variations, ask yourself what is successful or unsuccessful about the existing core mechanic. Then try out your best guesses to see whether or not adjustments to the core mechanic result in more meaningful play.
综合起来
Putting It All Together
本章介绍了一些思考游戏体验的一般框架：规则如何成为游戏、核心机制以及游戏输入、输出和内部玩家机制。在接下来的PLAY模式中，我们将采用更具体的方法来理解玩家在游戏过程中如何占据游戏空间。但在继续之前，我们想在最后详细了解一款特定的数字游戏：Centipede 时，将我们对体验游戏的想法汇总在一起。
This chapter has introduced some general frameworks for thinking about the experience of play: how rules become play, the core mechanic, and game inputs, outputs, and internal player mechanisms. In the PLAY schemas that follow, we take more specific approaches to understanding how a player occupies the space of a game during play. But before moving on, we would like to bring our ideas about the play of experience together in a final, detailed look at a particular digital game: Centipede.
在早期的街机游戏 Centipede 中，玩家通过轨迹球设备和一个射击按钮进行输入。玩家使用轨迹球在屏幕上移动一个类似虫子的角色，向各种物体向上射击。玩家在 Centipede 中的输入非常简单：移动和射击。输出以视频屏幕和音频扬声器的形式出现，这是街机游戏的典型形式。由此产生的核心机制有些通用：射击敌人得分并避开敌人以保持生命。尽管构成核心机制的元素看似简单，但 Centipede 的游戏设计在多个层面上吸引玩家。以下对 Centipede 的分析主要依赖游戏设计师 Richard Rouse III 在其著作《游戏设计：理论与实践》中的观察。4他用整整一章的篇幅来描述《Centipede》，对该游戏的设计进行了极为细致的解读。
In the early arcade game Centipede, the player’s input occurs though a trackball device and a single button for firing. The player uses the trackball to move a bug-like character on the screen, firing shots upward at a variety of objects. Player input in Centipede is very simple: move and fire. Output, in the form of a video screen and audio speakers, is typical for an arcade game. The resulting core mechanic is somewhat generic: shoot enemies to score points and avoid enemies to stay alive. Despite the seemingly simple elements that make up the core mechanic, the game design of Centipede engages the player on a number of levels. The following analysis of Centipede relies heavily on observations made by game designer Richard Rouse III in his book Game Design: Theory and Practice.4 He devotes an entire chapter to Centipede, providing a rigorously detailed reading of the game’s design.
玩家如何在 Centipede 中采取行动？游戏中设计了一些奇妙的限制。轨迹球本身在 Centipede 首次发布时还是一种新奇玩意，即使在今天，大球也能带来触觉流畅的动作。然而具有讽刺意味的是，玩家无法将角色移动到任何地方：移动范围被限制在屏幕底部的 20%。通过以这种方式限制角色，游戏保持了紧密的结构重点。与 Space Invaders 和 Breakout 等游戏（其他玩家沿屏幕底部移动的游戏）一样，游戏对象占据了玩家上方的其余空间。在 Centipede 中，这个空间既包含惰性障碍物（如 Breakout 砖块），也包含降落的敌人（如 Space Invaders 中的外星人）。尽管移动受到限制，但玩家可以在垂直维度上稍微移动这一事实增加了战略机会，并且比将移动限制在单一空间维度的游戏给玩家带来了更大的自由感。然而，移动自由度是刚好足够的：如果玩家可以访问整个屏幕，那么游戏中的敌人和障碍物（集中向下朝向玩家狭窄的自由行动区域）就不会那么成功发挥作用。
How does a player take action in Centipede? There are some wonderful restrictions designed into the game. The trackball itself was a novelty when Centipede was first released, and even today, the large ball promises tactile, fluid motion. Ironically, however, the player cannot move the character anywhere: movement is restricted to the bottom 20 percent of the screen. By limiting the character in this way, the game retains a tight structural focus. As in games such as Space Invaders and Breakout (other games where the player moves along the bottom of the screen), game objects occupy the rest of the space above the player. In Centipede, this space contains both inert obstacles like Breakout bricks, as well as descending enemies like the aliens of Space Invaders. Even though movement is limited, the fact that the player can maneuver a little bit in the vertical dimension increases strategic opportunities and gives the player a much greater sense of freedom than in games that limit movement to a single spatial dimension. Yet the freedom of movement is just enough: if the player was given access to the entire screen, the game enemies and obstacles (which are focused downward towards the player’s narrow strip of free action), would not function as successfully.
Centipede 的射击机制也对玩家的行动施加了重要的限制。玩家可以按住射击按钮进行连续射击，但屏幕上一次只能出现一枪。由于物体可能离玩家很近，也可能很远，因此射击时机成为游戏玩法的重点。有时，需要连续快速、短距离射击。但是，如果一枪一直射到屏幕顶部，玩家会不耐烦地等待获得再次射击的能力，这会浪费大量时间。这种简单的设计决策（屏幕上一次只能出现一枪）迫使玩家像管理资源一样管理他们的射击，极大地丰富了玩家的决策过程。
Centipede’s shooting mechanism also places important restrictions on player action. The player can hold down the fire button for a continuous stream of shooting, but only one shot can appear on the screen at a time. Because objects can be very close to the player or very far away, timing shots becomes a focus of game play. Sometimes, a stream of rapid, short-range shots are necessary. However, a shot that goes all the way up to the top of the screen can waste a maddening amount of time, as a player impatiently waits to gain the ability to fire again. The result of this simple design decision (only one shot on the screen at once) forces players to manage their shots like a resource, greatly enriching the decision-making process of the player.
Centipede 精心设计的玩法与更普通的 2D 射击游戏的区别在于 Rouse 所说的游戏中出现的元素的“相互关联性”。除了玩家的单位外，还有五个基本游戏元素：
What distinguishes Centipede’s well-designed play from a more generic 2D shooter is what Rouse calls the “interconnectedness” of the elements that appear in the game. There are five basic game elements, apart from the player’s unit:
•蘑菇是无法移动的物体，会占据整个屏幕。玩家需要射击四次才能摧毁一个蘑菇，每次射击都会摧毁蘑菇的四分之一。
• Mushrooms are immobile objects that clutter up the screen. It takes four shots from the player to destroy a mushroom, each shot taking away a quarter of the mushroom.
•蜈蚣是多节生物，它们从屏幕顶部降落，来回移动，朝玩家降落。当蜈蚣碰到蘑菇时，它会朝玩家方向下降一行，这意味着屏幕上的蘑菇越多，蜈蚣降落的速度就越快。如果蜈蚣蜈蚣的某个部分被击中后，会变成蘑菇，从而形成一个游戏循环，玩家不断尝试清除屏幕上的蘑菇以减缓蜈蚣的下降速度，但同时也通过射击蜈蚣来产生更多蘑菇。当玩家射击蜈蚣的头部或尾部以外的部分时，蜈蚣会分裂成两个生物，成为多重威胁。
• Centipedes are multi-segmented creatures that descend from the top of the screen and move back and forth, descending toward the player. When a centipede hits a mushroom, it drops a row downward, toward the player, meaning that the more mushrooms there are onscreen, the more quickly the centipede will descend. If a centipede segment is shot, it turns into a mushroom, creating a game play loop in which the player is constantly trying to clear mushrooms from the screen in order to slow the centipede’s descent, but is also creating more mushrooms by shooting the centipede. When a player shoots a segment of a centipede that is not the head or tail, the centipede splits into two creatures, becoming a multiple threat.
•跳蚤从屏幕顶部直线降落，身后留下一排密集的蘑菇。只有当屏幕下半部分的蘑菇数量低于一定数量时，跳蚤才会出现，以确保始终有足够的蘑菇来创造一个具有挑战性的游戏场。
• Fleas descend in a straight line from the top of the screen, leaving behind a dense column of mushrooms in their wake. Fleas only appear when the number of mushrooms in the lower half of the screen is below a certain amount, ensuring that there will always be enough mushrooms to create a challenging playfield.
•蜘蛛在屏幕底部附近以之字形移动，直接威胁玩家的单位。但是蜘蛛吃蘑菇，所以玩家必须始终决定是立即杀死蜘蛛还是冒着与蜘蛛相撞的风险让它吃蘑菇。
• Spiders move in a zig-zag style near the bottom of the screen, directly threatening the player’s unit. But spiders eat mushrooms, so the player always has to decide whether it is better to kill a spider right away or to let it eat mushrooms while risking a collision with it.
•蝎子在玩家上方水平穿过屏幕，因此不会构成直接威胁。但是，它们会给遇到的任何蘑菇下毒。如果蜈蚣碰到有毒蘑菇，它会立即直接向下朝玩家移动。因此，最好将有毒蘑菇从屏幕上移除。
• Scorpions cross the screen horizontally above the player, so they do not pose a direct threat. However, they poison any mushrooms they encounter. If a centipede hits a poisoned mushroom, it will immediately move directly downward toward the player. As a result it is best to remove poisoned mushrooms from the screen.
五种元素在游戏的严密系统中都发挥着作用。游戏体验是玩家做出的所有决定的综合体，它来自该系统规划出的各种可能性。例如，最好将蘑菇的总数保持在较低水平，因为屏幕上的蘑菇越多，蜈蚣下降的速度就越快，蝎子可能毒害的蘑菇就越多。屏幕顶部的蘑菇特别难够到，因为它们被较低的蘑菇挡住了，而且玩家的射击速度有限，很难快速清除屏幕上远处的蘑菇。清除屏幕底部的蘑菇比较容易，但如果玩家清除的蘑菇太多，跳蚤就会下降，蘑菇会落在屏幕的整个高度，包括顶部，那里很难清除。玩家必须小心地从游戏场上剪除蘑菇，同时保留足够的蘑菇以防止跳蚤出现。
Each of the five elements plays a role in the game’s tightly designed system. The experience of play, a composite of all of the decisions made by the player, emerges from the possibilities mapped out by this system. For example, it is best to keep the overall number of mushrooms low, because the more mushrooms that are on the screen, the more rapidly a centipede will descend and the more mushrooms a scorpion is likely to poison. The mushrooms at the top of the screen are particularly difficult to reach, because they are blocked by lower mushrooms, and the limitation on the player’s rate of fire makes it difficult to rid the screen quickly of mushrooms that are far away. It is easier to clear mushrooms from the bottom of the screen, but if the player clears too many, a flea will descend, dropping mushrooms across the entire height of the screen, including the top, where they are difficult to clear. The player must carefully prune mushrooms from the field of play, while retaining just enough to keep the flea from appearing.
正如 Rouse 所写，“……游戏中的每个生物都与蘑菇有着特殊而独特的关系。这些关系的相互作用为玩家带来了挑战。”5他列举了许多这种相互作用的例子：
As Rouse writes,” . . . each of the creatures in the game has a special, unique relationship to the mushrooms. It is the interplay of these relationships that creates the challenge for the player.”5 He cites many examples of this interplay:
如果玩家在距离屏幕顶部太近的地方杀死蜈蚣，它会留下一团蘑菇，在这样的距离很难摧毁，这将导致未来的蜈蚣以更快的速度到达屏幕底部。然而，如果玩家等到蜈蚣到达屏幕底部，蜈蚣就更有可能杀死玩家。由于蘑菇几乎充当了拼图碎片，《蜈蚣》成为了街机射击游戏和实时益智游戏的混合体。6
If the player kills the centipede too close to the top of the screen, it will leave a clump of mushrooms which are difficult to destroy at such a distance and which will cause future centipedes to reach the bottom of the screen at a greater speed. However, if the player waits until the centipede is at the bottom of the screen, the centipede is more likely to kill the player. With the mushrooms almost functioning as puzzle pieces, Centipede becomes something of a hybrid between an arcade shooter and a real-time puzzle game.6
看看 Centipede 的系统，我们会惊讶地发现，一套简单的规则如何产生复杂的游戏体验。这些规则不仅仅是一个复杂的形式系统，它们还衍生出一种特定的体验，即赋予玩家行为意义的一系列关系。射击这个蘑菇还是那个蘑菇？杀死屏幕顶部或底部的蜈蚣？让蜘蛛吃蘑菇还是不吃？此外，Centipede 是一款动作游戏：所有这些丰富的决策都发生在极其紧凑的时间空间内，从而产生了 Rouse 所描述的动作射击和策略解谜体验的融合。
In looking at the system of Centipede, it is striking to see how a simple set of rules generates complex play. More than just a complex formal system, such rules ramify into a particular experience, a set of relationships that give the player’s actions meaning. Shoot this mushroom or that one? Kill the centipede at the top of the screen or the bottom? Let the spider eat mushrooms or not? Furthermore, Centipede is an action game: all of this rich decision making happens in an extremely compressed space of time, resulting in the blend of action-shooter and strategy-puzzle experience Rouse describes.
但还有更多。在对游戏的解释中，罗斯不仅描述了游戏元素之间的基本关系，还描述了它们如何随着时间的推移创造他所说的“不断升级的紧张感”。《蜈蚣》的设计精心安排了游戏体验，同时在游戏的多个层面上创造了紧张感。例如，跳蚤和蜈蚣被击中时的反应方式立即产生了一种紧张感：
But there’s more. In his explication of the game, Rouse goes on to describe not just the basic relationships between game elements, but also how they create what he calls “escalating tension” over time. Centipede’s design carefully orchestrates the experience of play, creating tension across many levels of the game at once. For example, there is an immediate sense of tension created through the way that the flea and the centipede respond to being hit:
• 跳蚤第一次被射击时，会加速下降，只有第二次射击才会被消灭。
• The first time the flea is shot, it will accelerate its descent, only being destroyed by a second shot.
• 击中蜈蚣的中心部分就会产生两只蜈蚣。
• Hitting a central segment of the centipede creates two centipedes.
在这两种情况下，射击的结果都会让敌人更接近毁灭，从而帮助玩家，但同时也增加了游戏的危险。随着蜈蚣向屏幕底部下降，玩家的焦虑感会逐渐增加。如果蜈蚣到达底部，就会出现额外的蜈蚣头，让游戏变得异常拥挤。然而，一旦完成一个关卡，玩家就会在下一个关卡开始前获得短暂的喘息，这种放松只会加剧紧随其后的紧张感。
In both of these cases, the result of a shot helps the player by bringing an enemy closer to destruction, but also adds additional danger to the game. As the centipede descends toward the bottom of the screen, anxiety slowly builds up. If the centipede reaches the bottom, extra centipede heads appear, making things dangerously crowded. However, once a level is complete, the player gains a brief respite before the next level begins, a relief that only accentuates the escalating tension that will immediately follow.
整个游戏的紧张感也会不断升级。随着游戏的进行，越来越多的蘑菇挤满了游戏空间，直到屏幕顶部密密麻麻。当然，这在几个方面使游戏变得更加困难。此外，随着游戏的进行，这些生物变得更具挑战性：蜈蚣移动得更快，最终开始一个已经分成几个独立部分的关卡；蜘蛛移动得更快，模式更紧凑，更难杀死。蜈蚣创造了压力和解脱、沮丧和成就的重叠节奏，无论是在单个游戏时刻、单个游戏关卡还是整个游戏中。这就是游戏：规则的体验。玩家体验这个系统：屏幕上闪烁的像素、扬声器发出的尖锐电子声、轨迹球和按钮上汗湿的手指、闪电般的战略规划。游戏在玩家的头脑和身体中以感知和情感、思想和反应的旋转达到高潮。
Tension also escalates across an entire game. As the game proceeds, more and more mushrooms crowd the game space, until the top of the screen is quite dense with them. Of course, this makes the game more difficult in several ways. Additionally, the creatures become more challenging as the game wears on: the centipede moves faster and eventually begins a level already split into several independent pieces; the spider travels more quickly and in a tighter pattern, making it more difficult to kill. Centipede creates overlapping rhythms of pressure and relief, frustration and achievement, whether in a single game moment, on an individual game level, or across the game as a whole. This is play: the experience of rules set in motion. Players experience this system: as blinking pixels on a screen, as sharp electronic sounds from a speaker, as sweaty fingers on a trackball and button, as lightning-fast strategic planning. Play culminates in a whirl of perceptions and emotions, thoughts and reflexes, inside the mind and through the body of the player.
游戏设计师常常忘记，他们首先是在创造一种游戏体验。光讲故事是不够的。光创造漂亮的画面或使用令人眼花缭乱的技术也是不够的。游戏设计师要创造一个互动系统、一组选择、一项活动。当你制作游戏时，要问自己一些基本问题：玩家在游戏中每一刻都在做什么？这些时刻在更大的体验轨迹中是如何联系在一起的？游戏体验如何变得有意义？最重要的是，游戏的玩法是什么？虽然这些问题没有简单的答案，但专注于游戏核心机制的玩法是设计强大玩家体验的良好起点。
Too often, game designers forget that they are creating, above all, an experience of play. It is not enough to tell a story. It is not enough to create pretty pictures or use dazzling technology. A game designer creates an interactive system, a set of choices, an activity. When you are making a game, ask yourself fundamental questions: What is the player actually doing from moment to moment in the game? How are these moments connected in a larger trajectory of experience? How does the experience of play become meaningful? What, above all, is the play of the game? Although there are no easy answers to these questions, focusing on the play of a game’s core mechanic is a good starting point for designing powerful player experiences.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
《形式抽象设计工具》，作者：Doug Church（见第 68 页）
“Formal Abstract Design Tools,” by Doug Church (see page 68)
《人、游戏和游戏》，作者：Roger Caillois（见第 82 页）
Man, Play, and Games, by Roger Caillois (see page 82)
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
一、游戏的定义
I. The Definition of Play
二、游戏的分类
II. The Classification of Games
《微观世界的朝圣者》，大卫·苏德诺著（见第 68 页）
Pilgrim in the Microworld, by David Sudnow (see page 68)
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
记忆
Memory
界面
Interface
精神贯注
Cathexis
眼球
Eyeball
硬币
Coin
笔记
Notes
1.美国传统词典（波士顿：霍顿·米夫林，2000 年）。
1. American Heritage Dictionary (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000).
2. Brian Sutton-Smith，《玩具作为文化》（纽约：加德纳出版社，1986 年），第 69-72 页。
2. Brian Sutton-Smith, Toys as Culture (New York: Gardner Press, 1986), p. 69–72.
3.大卫·萨德诺，《微观世界的朝圣者》（纽约：华纳图书，1983年），第37页。
3. David Sudnow, Pilgrim in the Microworld (New York: Warner Books, 1983), p.37.
4. Richard Rouse III，《游戏设计：理论与实践》（德克萨斯州普莱诺：Wordware Publishing，2001 年），第 68 页。
4. Richard Rouse III, Game Design: Theory and Practice (Plano, TX: Wordware Publishing, 2001), p. 68.
5.同上，第68页。
5. Ibid. p.68.
6.同上，第68页。
6. Ibid. p.68.
游戏即体验游戏
概括
• 游戏是通过参与来体验的。当玩家与游戏互动时，形式系统通过体验效果体现出来。
• Play is experienced through participation. When a player interacts with a game, the formal system is manifest through experiential effects.
• Sutton-Smith 关于电子游戏体验心理过程的模型：
• Sutton-Smith’s model for the psychological processes by which video games are experienced:
•专注
• Concentration
•视觉扫描
• Visual scanning
•听觉辨别
• Auditory discriminations
•运动反应
• Motor responses
•学习的感知模式
• Perceptual patterns of learning
• 该模型可以抽象为构成任何游戏体验系统的三个组成部分：
• This model can be abstracted into three components that constitute the system of experience of any game:
•玩家采取行动的输入
• input by which a player takes action
•系统向播放器的输出
• output of the system to the player
•玩家做出决定的内部过程
• internal processes by which a player makes decisions
• 游戏设计是二阶设计问题。游戏设计师只能通过直接设计规则来间接设计玩家的体验。创造有意义的体验意味着了解游戏形式系统转变为体验系统的方式。
• Game design is a second-order design problem. A game designer only indirectly designs the player’s experience, by directly designing the rules. Creating meaningful experiences means understanding the ways a game’s formal system transforms into an experiential one.
•游戏的核心机制是玩家每时每刻进行的基本活动。核心机制在游戏过程中不断重复，以创建更大的体验模式。
• The core mechanic of a game is the essential moment-to-moment activity players enact. A core mechanic is repeated over and over in the course of a game to create larger patterns of experience.
• 核心机制可以是一项单一活动，例如赛跑。核心机制也可以是一项复合活动，例如实时战略游戏中的军事战术、资源管理以及鼠标和键盘技能。
• A core mechanic can be a single activity, such as running in a footrace. A core mechanic can also be a compound activity, such as the military tactics, resource management, and mouse and keyboard skills of a real-time strategy game.
• 游戏设计师往往不从核心机制的层面来考虑游戏设计，而是依靠传统的交互性来确定关键玩家活动。
• Too often, game designers do not consider a game design on the level of the core mechanic, instead relying on conventional interactivity to determine the key player activity.
• 核心机制可以通过设计变体来扩展和扩大。Breakout 是一个很好的例子，它提供了一种简单的核心机制，本质上是成功的，但已成功修改为多种变体。
• A core mechanic can be extended and enlarged through the design of variations. Breakout provides a good example of a simple core mechanic that is intrinsically successful, but which has been successfully modified into many variations.
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游戏是一种娱乐活动
GAMES AS THE PLAY OF PLEASURE
自成目的的
autotelic
外在与内在
extrinsic vs. intrinsic
双重诱惑
double seduction
快乐的类型学
typologies of pleasure
流动
flow
相同但不同
same-but-different
夹带
entrainment
短期和长期目标
short- and long-term goals
调理
conditioning
强化计划
reinforcement schedules
并不是说你必须“关心”才能变得优秀，而是你必须保持关心。你必须保持正确的状态，这样你才能一直进步一点点，这样目标才能一直向前推进，让你一直想要实现它，而不必花很多钱。——大卫·苏德诺，《微观世界的朝圣者》
It’s not that you have to “care” in order to get good, but rather that you have to be kept caring. You’ve got to be kept in the right state so you’ll get to some places a little bit better all the time, so that a goal remains alive by always moving just ahead out of reach and you keep wanting to attain it without having to spend a fortune.—David Sudnow, Pilgrim in the Microworld
引入愉悦游戏
Introducing the Play of Pleasure
电子游戏厅是利润丰厚的程序化关怀场所，充满乐趣的世界，似乎源源不断的硬币、代币和塑料刷卡滋养着它。玩家进入，玩游戏，如果游戏设计师的工作做得好，他们会留下来继续玩。精心设计的奖惩机制吸引玩家进入游戏并让他们继续玩下去，将乐趣与盈利联系在一起。
Video game arcades are sites of lucratively programmed caring, worlds of fun nourished by a seemingly endless stream of quarters, tokens, and plastic swipe cards. Players enter, they play, and if the game designers have done their job well, they stay to play some more. The carefully crafted arc of rewards and punishments that draws players into games and keep them playing connects pleasure to profitability.
如此复杂的娱乐和玩乐游戏并非街机游戏所独有。娱乐也许是游戏最内在的体验。从在线死亡竞赛的激动人心到围棋棋子在木头上发出的令人满意的叮当声，游戏提供了丰富多样的乐趣。我们常常想当然地认为游戏很有趣，它们能带来乐趣，它们体现了令人愉快的体验。玩家从游戏中获得多种满足感，从叙事角色扮演游戏中富有想象力的冒险到团队运动比赛的社交情谊。但是，游戏吸引力背后的乐趣是什么，游戏玩法的核心乐趣是什么，提供开始游戏和继续游戏的诱惑的乐趣是什么？什么将乐趣与有意义的游戏设计联系起来？
Such intricate games of pleasure and play are not unique to the arcade. Pleasure is, perhaps, the experience most intrinsic to games. From the visceral excitement of an online death-match to the satisfying clink of a Go stone on wood, games provide an abundant variety of pleasures. We often take it for granted that games are fun to play, that they provide pleasure, that they embody enjoyable experience. Players derive many kinds of satisfaction from play, from the imaginative adventures of a narrative role-playing game to the social camaraderie of a team sports match. But what is the pleasure that underlies the appeal of games, the pleasure at the core of game play, the pleasure that provides the enticement to begin play and to continue playing? What connects pleasure to the design of meaningful play?
“愉悦”一词让人联想到休闲活动或自我放纵。性、毒品和丰盛的食物，以及偷来的午睡、深厚的友谊或随着喜爱的歌曲跳舞。愉悦通常被理解为一种难以定义但人们渴望体验的基本感觉。1诸如喜悦、娱乐、满足、满意或幸福之类的词语描述了愉悦所引起的各种感觉。当我们谈论游戏中的愉悦时，我们指的是记忆游戏的高度集中、获胜触地得分的兴奋、扭扭乐中充满社交性和性欲的动作、俄罗斯方块中催眠般令人满意的图案所带来的基本感觉。愉悦可以包括任何身体、情感、心理或意识形态的感觉。当然，愉悦的反义词（痛苦、沮丧、绝望）对于理解游戏中愉悦的作用同样重要。
The word “pleasure” evokes associations with activities of leisure or self-indulgence. Sex, drugs, and rich foods come to mind, as do stolen naps, deep friendships, or dancing to a favorite song. Pleasure is commonly understood as a fundamental feeling that is hard to define but that people desire to experience.1 Words such as delight, amusement, gratification, satisfaction, or happiness describe the kinds of feelings pleasure evokes. When we speak of pleasure in games, we are referring to the fundamental feelings derived from the intense concentration of a game of Memory, the exhilaration of a winning touchdown, the charged socio-sexual maneuvers of Twister, the hypnotically satisfying patterns of Tetris. Pleasure can include any physical, emotional, psychological, or ideological sensation. Of course, pleasure’s opposites (pain, frustration, despair) are equally important in understanding the play of pleasure in a game.
在“游戏即愉悦游戏”中，游戏的可能性空间不仅仅是一个数学实体。它是一个玩家的情绪和欲望感经历操纵和胁迫、戏弄和诱惑、挫折和奖励的空间。作为可能愉悦空间的塑造者，游戏设计师面临着一系列真正具有挑战性的问题。管理游戏玩家的愉悦意味着将规则的形式复杂性转化为引人入胜的游戏体验。虽然正式规则集的新兴数学可能很复杂，但愉悦和欲望的纠结之谜无疑是更高级别的谜团。
Within Games as the Play of Pleasure, a game’s space of possibility is defined as more than a mathematical entity. It is a space in which a player’s emotions and sense of desire undergoes manipulation and coercion, teasing and seduction, frustration and reward. As the sculptor of the space of possible pleasure, the game designer faces a truly challenging set of problems. Managing the pleasure of a game’s players means translating the formal intricacies of the rules into an engaging experience of play. Although the emergent math of formal rulesets may be complex, the tangled puzzles of pleasure and desire are surely enigmatic dilemmas of an even higher order.
受规则约束
Rule-Bound
想象一个孩子兴奋地站在赛跑的起跑线上，准备沿着跑道奔跑，气喘吁吁地等待着起跑信号。她没有屈服于从起跑线上跳起的强烈欲望，而是等待着比赛开始的信号。这是怎么回事？为什么我们的玩家在真正想要跑步的时候却焦虑地退缩了呢？
Picture a child poised excitedly at the starting line of a footrace, ready to run down the track, breathlessly awaiting the starting signal. Rather than giving in to her intense desire to leap from the starting line, she waits for the signal that the race has begun. What’s going on here? Why does our player anxiously hold back when she really desires to run?
发展心理学家LS维果茨基指出：“游戏不断地要求儿童克服眼前的冲动，即在最强阻力的方向上行动。”2当然，我们例子中的孩子想要开始跑步，但游戏规则要求她等待。与此同时，跑步者知道规则是人为的，描述的系统在某种程度上超出了日常生活。那么为什么要遵守规则呢？维果茨基认为，玩家接受游戏规则不是为了限制乐趣，而是为了最大化“遵守游戏规则比满足即时的冲动能带来更大的游戏乐趣。”3通过约束机制和抑制即时冲动，游戏将玩家的约束体验转化为丰富的快乐体验。
Developmental psychologist L. S. Vygotsky notes that “Play continually creates demands on the child to act against immediate impulse, i.e., to act on the line of greatest resistance.”2 Certainly the child in our example wants to begin running, but the rules of the game order her to wait. At the same time, the runner knows that the rules are artificial, describing systems that are in some way outside ordinary life. So why follow the rules? Vygotsky argues that players accept the rules of the game not in order to restrict pleasure, but instead to maximize it. “To observe the rules of the play structure promises much greater pleasure from the game than the gratification of an immediate impulse.”3 Through mechanisms of restraint and the withholding of immediate impulses, games transform the player’s experience of constraint into one of abundant pleasure.
脚注的脚注
Footnote to a Footnote
在《游戏定义》中，我们指出，本书不会探讨游戏的目的或功能。相反，从游戏设计的角度来看，我们关注游戏如何为玩家创造有意义的体验。同样，在研究愉悦游戏时，我们不会提出根本原因或机制，也不会争论愉悦的统一理论。目前有大量关于愉悦的哲学、心理分析、认知和文化品质的研究，我们在本章中引用了其中一些研究。
In Defining Play, we noted that we would not be investigating the purpose or function of play in this book. Rather, we focus on the way that play creates meaningful experiences for players, when considered from a game design perspective. Likewise, in the study of the play of pleasure, we will not suggest a root cause or mechanism, nor argue a unified theory of pleasure. There is a tremendous amount of existing research on the philosophical, psychoanalytic, cognitive, and cultural qualities of pleasure, some of which we reference in this chapter.
愉悦是遵守游戏规则的结果，延迟和限制的愉悦是增强的愉悦，这一观点为理解各种愉悦提供了一个强有力的模型。想想你自己的经历中的例子：等到吃完主菜后再吃特别诱人的甜点，或者不要直接跳到悬念重重的谋杀悬疑故事的结尾。高潮的延迟满足在最初受到抵制时会得到增强，就像在葡萄酒未陈化之前打开它的冲动一样。
The notion that pleasure is an effect of submitting to the rules of a game, that pleasure delayed and constrained is pleasure enhanced, offers a powerful model for understanding all kinds of pleasure. Think of examples from your own experience: waiting to eat a particularly enticing dessert until completing the main course, or not skipping ahead to the end of a suspenseseful murder mystery. The delayed gratification of orgasm is heightened when it is initially resisted, as is the urge of opening a fine wine before it has properly aged.
服从约束当然不是理解快乐的唯一方式，但它是讨论游戏中快乐发挥的合适起点。例如，考虑一下约束的概念如何与几个核心游戏设计概念相交叉：
Submission to constraint is certainly not the only way to understand pleasure, but it is an appropriate starting point for a discussion of the play of pleasure in games. Consider, for example, how the notion of constraint intersects with several core game design concepts:
•规则与游戏。游戏的一个基本方面是让玩家将自己的行为服从于规则的限制，以便体验游戏及其乐趣。规则的限制促进了游戏，从而为玩家带来了乐趣。
• Rules and Play. The idea that players subordinate their behaviors to the restrictions of rules in order to experience play—and its pleasures—is a fundamental aspect of games. The restrictions of rules facilitate play, and in doing so, generate pleasure for players.
•自由游戏。玩家的愉悦感显然源自成为游戏系统的一部分，源自在游戏更严格的结构中“玩耍”。在《人、游戏和游戏》一书中，Caillois 明确将玩家在规则限制内的自由行动与玩家满足感联系起来：“玩家的这种自由度，这种给予其行动的余地对游戏至关重要，并部分解释了游戏所激发的乐趣。”4自由发挥依赖于但又抵制产生它的严格结构。
• Free Play. A player’s sense of pleasure is explicitly derived from being a part of the system of a game, from being “at play” within the more rigid structures of a game. In Man, Play, and Games, Caillois makes an explicit link between a player’s free action within the limits set by the rules and player gratification: “This latitude of the player, this margin accorded to his action is essential to the game and partly explains the pleasure which it excites.”4 Free play is dependant on, yet also resists, the rigid structures that give rise to it.
•玩乐态度。玩游戏意味着要遵守人为的限制，这使得游戏行为看起来效率低下。跑步者不仅要等待发令枪响，而且正如 Bernard Suits 在《Grasshopper》中指出的那样，他们还要绕着环形跑道跑，而不是从中间穿过，率先到达终点线。游戏是由这些限制构成的，它们既限制了乐趣，又带来了乐趣。玩家愿意进入这些人造系统以体验由此产生的乐趣，这是玩乐态度的核心。
• The Lusory Attitude. Playing a game means abiding by artificial restrictions, which make game actions seemingly inefficient. Runners not only wait for the starting gun, but, as Bernard Suits points out in Grasshopper, they also run around a circular track, instead of cutting through the middle of the field to reach the finish line first. Games are constituted by these kinds of constraints, which simultaneously restrain and enable pleasure. The willingness of players to step into these artificial systems in order to experience the resulting pleasure is at the heart of the lusory attitude.
•风格化的行为。虽然游戏是一种自由而即兴的活动，但游戏规则以非常特殊的方式将玩家的动作和行为风格化。想想乒乓球比赛中玩家的模式化动作，或者《西蒙说》中严格限制的动作。游戏通过仪式化的、集体的动作和行动编排将游戏风格化，这让人感到非常愉快。孩子们不仅从比赛开始时的戏剧性紧张中获得乐趣，而且还从集体体验中获得乐趣，即一起排成队形奔跑、挥动手臂、踢向终点线。
• Stylized Behavior. Although play is a free and improvisational activity, the rules of a game stylize the actions and behaviors of players in very particular ways. Think about the patterned movement of players engaged in a game of Ping Pong, or the tightly constrained movements of Simon Says. There is something very pleasurable in the way that games stylize play through a ritualistic, collective orchestration of movement and action. Children derive pleasure not just from the dramatic tension at the start of a race, but also from the collective experience of running together in formation, pumping their arms and kicking their heels toward the finish line.
规则产生了戏剧性的愉悦结构，约束和愉悦之间的联系将游戏的形式和体验品质紧密地结合在一起。但玩家不会简单地陷入游戏中。与其他形式的玩乐活动（例如玩玩具）不同，游戏要求玩家在开始游戏之前了解规则。是什么吸引了玩家开始游戏？是什么让玩家在游戏开始后留在游戏中？
Rules give rise to the dramatic structure of pleasure, the link between constraint and pleasure binding tightly the formal and experiential qualities of a game. But players don’t simply stumble into a game. Unlike other forms of ludic activities (such as playing with a toy), a game demands that players know the rules before play begins. What provides the enticement to begin play? What makes players stay in a game once it starts?
自成目的的游戏
Autotelic Play
游戏的魔法圈从定义上来说，在某种程度上脱离了胡伊津哈所说的“日常生活”。玩家在游戏中经历的胜利和失败，在非常真实的意义上都包含在魔法圈中。正如德科文所说，游戏提供了“一个共同的目标，其成就与游戏之外的任何事物均无关。”5当然，我们知道，游戏的输赢会以多种方式影响玩家：影响他们的生活方式、自我意识、与朋友的关系，甚至游戏结束时口袋里的钱数。当然，赢得游戏也很重要。同时，每款游戏都隐含着这样的前提：游戏的价值是内在的，游戏是自足的，魔法圈的虚构将得到维护，游戏的输赢与日常生活体验无关。
The magic circle of a game is, by definition, removed in some way from what Huizinga calls “ordinary life.” The victories and losses, the triumphs and failures that a player experiences in a game are in a very real sense contained within the magic circle. As DeKoven puts it, a game provides “a common goal, the achievement of which has no bearing on anything that is outside the game.”5 We know, of course, that there are many ways winning or losing games can impact players: affecting their lifestyles, their sense of self, their relationships to friends, even the amount of money they have in their pockets when the game is over. There are certainly extrinsic ways that winning a game matters. At the same time, every game implicitly asserts the premise that the value of the game is intrinsic, that the game is self-contained, that the fiction of the magic circle will be upheld, that winning or losing the game is separate from everyday lived experience.
如果考虑到魔法圈的自足性，以及游戏创造自身意义和提供自身目标的方式，那么很明显游戏具有很强的自成目的性。我们借用心理学家米哈里·契克森米哈赖的术语，他在其著作《心流》中解释说：“‘自成目的’一词源于两个希腊词，auto表示自我，telos表示目标。它指的是一种自成目的的活动，这种活动不是期望未来能得到什么好处，而只是因为做这件事本身就是回报。”6当体验是自成目的的，参与活动本身才是最重要的。游戏或多或少是为了游戏本身，为了游戏本身的内在刺激而进行。虽然玩游戏总是有一些外在原因，但也总是有内在动机。在玩游戏时，部分动机就是玩游戏——而且通常，这是主要的动机。
If one considers the self-contained nature of the magic circle, the way that games create their own meanings and provide their own goals, it is clear that games are strongly autotelic. We borrow the term from psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who in his book Flow explains that “The term ‘autotelic’ derives from two Greek words, auto meaning self and telos meaning goal. It refers to a self-contained activity, one that is done not with the expectation of some future benefit, but simply because the doing itself is the reward.”6 When an experience is autotelic, it is participation in the activity alone that counts. Games are, to a greater or lesser extent, pursued for their own sake, for their own intrinsic stimulation. Although there are always some extrinsic reasons for play, there are always intrinsic motivations as well. In playing a game, part of the incentive is simply to play—and often, it is the prime motivator.
由于游戏具有如此强大的自成目的性成分，因此它们在很大程度上是非功利性的。大多数形式的设计都具有外部功能或效用。建筑为我们的家庭、政府和行业提供住房和庇护。排版实现了视觉交流。汽车设计通过汽车设计支持移动性。另一方面，游戏设计只是实现了自己的游戏。请注意，在说游戏设计与其他形式的设计形成对比时，我们并不是说游戏不具有外部功能，或者其他形式的设计也不具有非功利性的目的。我们的观点是，游戏假定了它们自己的内在需求或目标，例如抽象的获胜条件，这赋予了它们明显的人为和非功利性地位。
Because they have such a strong autotelic component, games are largely non-utilitarian. Most forms of design serve an external function, or utility. Architecture houses and shelters our families, government, and industries. Typography enables visual communication. Automotive design supports mobility through the design of cars. Game design, on the other hand, simply enables its own play. Please note, in saying that game design exists in contrast to other forms of design, we are not proposing that games do not serve external functions, or that other forms of design don’t also serve non-utilitarian ends. Our point is that games posit their own intrinsic needs or goals, such as abstract winning conditions, which gives them a distinctly artificial and non-utilitarian status.
将在线医疗数据库程序与在线多人游戏进行对比。寻找特定患者记录的医院工作人员在使用该软件时，心中有一个明确的外在目标，例如找出患者当天需要服用哪些药物。数据库不包含自己的目标集；它支持用户的目标。数据库程序被用作一种工具，一种达到目的的手段，而不是目的本身。当工作人员找到他正在寻找的记录并提取处方信息时，数据库已成功实现了从外部环境带给系统的目标。另一方面，在在线多人游戏中，游戏没有明确的功利目的。为什么玩家要探索游戏世界、定制角色、杀死怪物和积累宝藏？因为她在玩游戏。游戏不是用来满足外部功利需求的工具。玩家玩游戏不是为了喂猫或调整汽车引擎。游戏的明确互动并非达到目的的手段，就像医疗数据库程序的情况一样；相反，游戏本身就是目的。在某种程度上，我们玩游戏是为了游戏本身。
Contrast an online medical database program with an online multiplayer game. A hospital worker looking for a particular patient’s record comes to the software experience with a clear extrinsic goal in mind, such as finding out what meds the patient needs to take that day. The database does not contain its own set of goals; it supports the goals of the user. The database program is used as a tool, as a means to an end, rather than as an end in itself. When the worker finds the record he is looking for and extracts the prescription information, the database has successfully fulfilled a goal that was brought to the system from an external context. In an online multiplayer game, on the other hand, there is no clear utilitarian purpose that the game serves. Why is the player exploring the game world, customizing her character, killing monsters, and accumulating treasure? Because she is playing the game. The game is not a tool being used to fill an external, utilitarian need. The player is not playing the game in order to feed her cats, or tune her car’s engine. The explicit interaction of the game is not a means to an end, as in the case of the medical database program; rather, the play of the game represents an end in itself. We play, in some measure, for play’s own sake.
想想游戏体验作为目的而非手段对数字游戏技术发展的影响。游戏如此具有创新性的原因之一（推动计算机处理能力的极限、创建实验性硬件界面、开创图形渲染和空间音频）是因为游戏必须提供自己的动机和乐趣。医务工作者将忍受笨拙的界面和丑陋的视觉设计，以找到他需要的记录。另一方面，游戏玩家是一个更加善变的用户：为什么要玩一款不好玩的游戏？计算机和视频游戏行业不断受到渴望越来越精彩的游戏的观众的刺激以及更有意义的互动。人们玩游戏是因为他们想玩；游戏设计师必须创造既能满足这种渴望又能激发这种渴望的体验。
Consider the way that the experience of play as an end, rather than a means, has affected the development of digital game technology. One of the reasons why games have been so innovative—pushing the envelope of computer processing power, creating experimental hardware interfaces, pioneering graphics rendering and spatial audio—is because games must provide their own motivations and pleasures. The medical worker will suffer through an awkward interface and ugly visual design in order to find the record he needs. A game player, on the other hand, is a much more fickle user: why play a game that isn’t fun? The computer and video game industry is continually spurred on by an audience hungry for ever-more spectacular games and ever-more meaningful interaction. People play games because they want to; game designers must create experiences that both feed and satisfy this sense of desire.
进入。玩。留下。
Enter. Play. Stay.
为什么要花这么大的篇幅来强调游戏的非功利性呢？为了更深入地阐述吸引玩家并让他们继续玩游戏的挑战。由于游戏是基于游戏内在需求的，因此游戏设计师既要吸引玩家跨越魔法圈的边界，又要让他们留在魔法圈内，直到游戏目标达成。
Why go to such lengths about the non-utilitarian nature of games? In order to make a larger point about the challenge of bringing players into a game and keeping them at play. Because games are premised on needs intrinsic to the game, it is necessary for game designers to both entice the player into crossing the boundary of the magic circle and also keep them there until the goals of the game have been met.
开始游戏意味着进入魔法圈。玩家跨越这个边界，采取游戏中人为的行为和仪式。在游戏过程中，魔法圈一直存在，直到游戏结束。然后魔法圈消失，玩家回到普通世界。进入魔法圈和维持魔法圈的存在这两个动作代表了设计有意义的游戏的两个主要挑战。这两个动作需要精心策划的双重诱惑。首先，玩家被引诱进入游戏的魔法圈。其次，玩家被引诱继续玩游戏。
Beginning a game means entering into the magic circle. Players cross over this boundary to adopt the artificial behaviors and rituals of a game. During the game, the magic circle persists until the game concludes. Then the magic circle dissolves and players return to the ordinary world. These two actions, crossing into the magic circle as well as maintaining its existence, represent two of the chief challenges of designing meaningful play. The two actions require a carefully orchestrated double seduction. First, players are seduced into entering the magic circle of a game. Second, players are seduced into continuing to play.
这两个活动的设计都具有挑战性。第一个诱惑是将玩家带入魔法圈，这要求玩家跨越一道门槛，让他们脱离日常生活，进入游戏世界。实现这一点的困难在于游戏玩法的形式质量。在非游戏的娱乐活动中，人们更容易进入或退出。你在吃花生时感到好玩吗？只要扔一个，看看你能不能用嘴接住它。桌子上的积木怎么样？把它们堆起来，推倒，或者就让它自己去吧。在《魔法圈》中，我们研究了孩子玩洋娃娃的方式，玩家进入和退出游戏的流畅程度，以及玩和不玩之间的界限有多模糊。然而，在游戏中，不玩游戏和开始玩游戏之间的过渡定义得更明确。游戏通常需要正式的准备：寻找玩家、阅读规则、打开保存的游戏文件、洗牌、设置棋盘等等。玩家必须学习系统并“正式”进入游戏并开始游戏。这对你的游戏玩家来说是一个真正的障碍：他们必须完成魔法圈边界上的初始任务；他们必须正确执行进入仪式。
Both events are challenging to design. The first seduction, bringing players into the magic circle, requires players to cross a threshold that will take them out of their ordinary lives and into the world of the game. The difficulty in making this happen comes from the formal quality of game play. It is much easier to slip into and out of ludic activities that aren’t games. Are you eating peanuts and feeling playful? Just toss one up and see if you can catch it in your mouth. How about those building blocks on your desk? Stack them up, knock them down, or just let them be. In The Magic Circle, we looked at the way a child might play with a doll, at how smoothly a player can slip in and out of play, at how permeable the borders are between playing and not playing. In games, however, the transition between not playing the game and starting to play the game is more clearly defined. Games usually require formal preparation: finding players, reading the rules, opening a saved game file, shuffling cards, setting up the board, and so on. Players must learn the system and “officially” enter into the game and begin play. This is a genuine hurdle for players of your game: they must attend to the initial set of chores that lie on the border of the magic circle; they must properly perform the rituals of entry.
这对游戏设计师意味着什么？设计师不仅要创造游戏本身，还要创造玩家进入游戏系统的方式。这一事件不仅要考虑游戏的形式元素，还要考虑游戏与外部环境交互的方式。玩家如何以及何时进入游戏？最初的诱惑从哪里开始？它是从玩家第一次看到广告或阅读游戏评论开始的，这些评论鼓励或阻止玩家购买游戏吗？诱惑是来自同龄人的压力和社会价值观吗（芭比时装设计师适合女孩！雷神之锤很酷！每个人都在玩 POX！）？它是从安装下载的游戏、第一次阅读游戏规则或控制台标题的菜单屏幕开始的吗？它是从新手射击他的第一个怪物的那一刻开始的吗？
What does this mean for game designers? Designers create not just the game itself, but also the ways that players enter into the game system. This event involves consideration of not just the formal elements of the game, but also the way that the game interfaces with external contexts. How and when does a player enter into a game? Where does the initial seduction begin? Does it begin the first time a player sees a commercial or reads a review of a game that encourages or discourages the player to make a purchase? Does the seduction emerge from peer pressure and social values (Barbie Fashion Designer is for girls! Quake is cool! Everybody is playing P.O.X.!). Does it begin with the installation of a downloaded game, the first reading of a game’s rules, or the menu screen of a console title? Does it start the moment a newbie shoots his first monster?
显然，诱惑行为没有单一因素可以归因，玩家决定开始玩游戏也没有单一、孤立的时刻。设计游戏的诱惑意味着了解影响玩家体验的所有正式、社会和文化因素。例如，了解游戏行业的营销、推广和发行方式很重要。了解其他游戏开发商正在制作什么以及它们如何影响您正在设计的游戏很重要。了解整个文化如何看待和看待游戏以及如何吸引新观众到您的游戏中也很重要。对于玩家是否会决定开始玩您的游戏这个问题，没有简单的答案。这是游戏设计师面临的另一个挑战。
Clearly, there is no single factor to which the act of seduction can be attributed and no single, isolated moment when the player decides to begin play. Designing the seduction of a game means understanding all of the formal, social, and cultural factors that contribute to the player’s experience. It is important, for example, to understand how marketing, promotion, and distribution work in the game industry. It is important to scout out what other game developers are creating and how it may impact the game you are designing. It is important to understand how the culture at large perceives and regards games and how new audiences might be brought to your games. There are no simple answers to the question of whether or not a player will decide to begin playing your game. This is one more challenge game designers face.
另一方面，一旦玩家开始玩你的游戏，他们就走出了广阔的世界，进入了游戏设计的魔力圈。正如我们所看到的，让玩家留在游戏中，理解和塑造他们的快乐体验，至少与一开始就让他们玩游戏一样具有挑战性。
On the other hand, once players start playing your game, they have stepped out of the world at large and entered into the magic circle of the game’s design. As we will see, keeping players in a game, understanding and sculpting their experience of pleasure, offers at least as great a challenge as getting them to play in the first place.
快乐的类型
Typologies of Pleasure
很难笼统地谈论快乐。尤其难以找到词语来描述我们在游戏中体验到的快乐。
It is difficult to generally speak about pleasure. It is especially hard to find the words that describe the pleasures we experience in games.
游戏会激发人们的斗争和竞争情绪。你感受到的这些情绪在我们日常用语中通常没有常用的名字，但它们是我们感受到、经历和享受的重要情绪，并且以某种神秘的方式发现它们会扩大我们的精神。当你意识到自己将成为一名大师时，你的胸口突然膨胀，你会感到焦虑吗？当你集中所有精力和身体的各个部位克服障碍时，你会感到自我意识增强吗？当你彻底失败时，你会感到沮丧和绝望吗？当你真正成功时，你会感到狂喜和胜利的感觉吗？有时，当你发现那条路时，你会感到一丝敬畏。这些情绪还有另一个名字，游戏开发者称之为乐趣。7
Games evoke emotions of struggle, of competition. The kinds of things you feel aren’t often given common names in our usual everyday parlance but they are important emotions that we feel and go through and enjoy and find in some mysterious ways enlarge our spirit. How about the anxiety that you feel when your chest suddenly swells as you realize you are going to be a master? How about the sense of self that develops as you concentrate all your being and the various parts of your body upon the task of overcoming obstacles? How about the dejection you feel, the despair when you fail utterly? And how about the exultation and the sense of triumph you feel when you actually succeed? And sometimes a little bit of awe as you maybe find that path out there. And there’s another name for these emotions and game developers call them fun.7
游戏设计师哈尔·巴伍德 (Hal Barwood) 将游戏所能引发的各种情绪归结为“乐趣”。这个词确实有一定道理。好游戏就是乐趣。好玩的游戏是玩家想要的。好玩的游戏能带来愉悦的体验，这也是人们玩游戏的原因。但并不是每个人都看到了这个词的价值。游戏设计师马克·勒布朗 (Marc LeBlanc) 就是讨厌“乐趣”这个词。在游戏开发者大会的几次演讲中，他都呼吁暂停使用这个词。勒布朗认为，“乐趣”只是一个更复杂现象的替代词，没有人真正理解这种现象。
Game designer Hal Barwood organizes all the varied emotions a game can produce under the heading of “fun.” This term does make some sense. Good games are fun. Fun games are what players want. A fun game makes for a pleasurable experience, which is why people play. But not everyone sees the value of this word. Game designer Marc LeBlanc simply hates the term “fun.” In several of his talks at the Game Developers Conference, he has called for a moratorium on the word. “Fun,” according to LeBlanc, is merely a stand-in term for a more complex phenomenon that no one really understands.
也许勒布朗是对的。也许我们使用“乐趣”一词时也陷入了类似的陷阱。是否有可能解开更普遍的乐趣概念并创建一个对乐趣进行分类的结构？勒布朗在这方面做了一些思考，并创建了自己的类型学，作为对“乐趣”单一概念的解药。在他的类型学中，勒布朗列出了八个类别，描述了玩家从玩游戏中获得的体验乐趣。
Perhaps LeBlanc is right. Perhaps we are falling into a similar trap by our use of the word “pleasure.” Is it possible to unpack the more general notion of fun and create a structure for categorizing pleasure? LeBlanc has done some thinking along these lines and has created his own typology, proposed as an antidote to the singular concept of “fun.” In his typology LeBlanc lists eight categories that describe the kinds of experiential pleasure players derive from playing games.
1. 感觉：游戏是一种感觉愉悦
1. Sensation: Game as sense-pleasure
2. 幻想：游戏是虚构的
2. Fantasy: Game as make-believe
3. 叙事：游戏即戏剧
3. Narrative: Game as drama
4. 挑战：障碍赛游戏
4. Challenge: Game as obstacle course
5. 友谊：游戏作为社交框架
5. Fellowship: Game as social framework
6. 探索：游戏是未知领域
6. Discovery: Game as uncharted territory
7. 表达：游戏即自我发现
7. Expression: Game as self-discovery
8. 屈服：游戏即受虐狂8
8. Submission: Game as masochism8
这些类别中的大多数都是不言自明的。但请注意，“受虐狂”并不是指性快感，而是指更普遍的服从系统的快感。例如，《宝石迷阵》或《纸牌》的部分催眠快感来自以规则为基础的程式化行为的仪式化行为。这就是勒布朗所说的“服从”类别的意思。
Most of these categories are self-explanatory. Note, however, that “masochism” doesn’t refer to sexual pleasure, but instead to the more general pleasure of submission to a system. Part of the hypnotic pleasure of Bejeweled or Solitaire, for example, comes from the ritualized act of behaving in a rule-based, stylized manner. That is what LeBlanc means by his category of Submission.
LeBlanc 的模型不仅旨在帮助游戏设计师了解“乐趣”可以采取的各种形式，而且还为数字游戏的营销提供通用语言。例如，他提出，通过对这些类别中的每一个进行 0 到 10 的评分，并将这些信息放在产品包装的背面，消费者可以快速了解游戏提供的乐趣类型。例如，第一人称射击游戏在感觉、幻想和挑战方面的评分可能很高，但在表达、叙事和友谊方面的评分却很低。当然，挑战在于许多类别似乎有重叠。例如，幻想和叙事之间的界限非常模糊。其他模糊性也仍然存在。诸如发现和表达之类的类别可能很容易应用于其他类别：社交框架难道不是未知领域吗？自我发现不是在挑战中发生的吗？此外，即使这些理论问题可以解决，“正式”以这种方式对游戏的乐趣进行评级也将是一项高度主观的努力。然而，尽管有这些批评，勒布朗的八个类别确实确定了游戏引起的乐趣的许多组成部分，并且有助于理解游戏提供的各种乐趣。
LeBlanc’s model is intended not only to assist game designers in understanding the range of forms that “fun” can take, but also to provide a common language for marketing digital games. He has proposed, for example, that by rating each of these categories on a zero-to-ten scale and putting that information on the back of a product package, a consumer could quickly get a sense of the kinds of pleasures the game provides. A first-person shooter, for example, might have a high rating in Sensation, Fantasy, and Challenge, but a low rating in Expression, Narrative, and Fellowship. The challenge, of course, is that many of the categories seem to overlap. There is a very fuzzy line, for example, between Fantasy and Narrative. Other ambiguities persist as well. Categories such as Discovery and Expression might easily be applied to other categories: can’t a social framework be uncharted territory? Doesn’t self-discovery occur in a challenge? Moreover, even if these theoretical problems could be resolved, “officially” rating a game’s pleasure in this way would be a highly subjective endeavor. Despite all of these criticisms, however, LeBlanc’s eight categories do identify many of the components of game-induced pleasure and are useful as a way of understanding the range of pleasures games provide.
心理学家迈克尔·J·阿普特（Michael J. Apter）在其论文《游戏的结构现象学》中提出了不同的方法。在关注游戏提供的认知唤醒时，阿普特编制了以下列表，并以斜体字进行了简要解释：
A different approach comes from psychologist Michael J. Apter, in his essay “A Structural-Phenomenology of Play.” In focusing on the cognitive arousal play provides, Apter compiles the following list, amended with our brief paraphrasing in italics:
1. 接触令人激动的刺激：强烈而势不可挡的感觉
1. Exposure to Arousing Stimulation: intense and overwhelming sensation
2. 虚构与叙事：角色认同引发的情感唤起
2. Fiction and Narrative: emotional arousal from character identification
3. 挑战：竞争中遇到的困难和挫折
3. Challenge: difficulties and frustrations arising from competition
4. 探索：走出常规路线，进入新领域
4. Exploration: moving off the beaten track into new territory
5. 消极主义：故意和挑衅性地破坏规则
5. Negativism: deliberate and provocative rule-breaking
6. 认知协同：富有想象力的游戏
6. Cognitive Synergy: imaginative play
7. 面对危险：游戏“保护框架”内的风险9
7. Facing Danger: risk within the “protective frame” of play9
阿普特在他的文章中承认，这些类别仅列出了认知唤醒的部分内容，而且类别之间存在相当大的重叠。尽管存在这些界限，但阿普特的模型为我们提供了另一个框架来考虑游戏中的乐趣，该框架强调认知。他的一些类别，如挑战和探索，似乎与勒布朗的相似。其他类别，如消极主义和面对危险，清楚地指明了替代方法。
Apter admits in his essay that these categories offer only a partial list of cognitive arousals, and that there is considerable overlap between categories. Despite these delimitations, Apter’s model gives us another framework within which to consider pleasure in games, one that emphasizes cognition. Some of his categories, such as Challenge and Exploration, appear similar to LeBlanc’s. Others, such as Negativism and Facing Danger, clearly identify alternate approaches.
第三种快乐类型学来自人类学家 Roger Caillois 对游戏的分类。在《游戏的定义》中，我们介绍了他的四个“基本类别”，旨在描述游戏现象：
A third typology of pleasure comes from the classification of games by anthropologist Roger Caillois. In Defining Play, we introduced his four “fundamental categories,” which purport to describe the phenomena of play:
1. Agôn：竞争和竞争斗争
1. Agôn: competition and competitive struggle
2. Alea：顺从命运的安排
2. Alea: submission to the fortunes of chance
3.模仿：角色扮演和假装游戏
3. Mimicry: role-playing and make-believe play
4. Hinx：眩晕和身体感觉
4. Hinx: vertigo and physical sensation
在某些方面，Caillois 的紧凑类别提供了 LeBlanc 和 Apter 提出的模型的简洁提炼。在 agôn、alea、mimicry 和 ilinx 中，经验和认知成分融合在一起，形成了一个有用的批判框架。
In some ways, Caillois’compact categories offer a succinct distillation of the models LeBlanc and Apter propose. In agôn, alea, mimicry, and ilinx, there is a fusion of experiential and cognitive components that creates a useful critical framework.
我们还可以考虑许多其他类型。上一章，我们研究了 Brian Sutton-Smith 描述视频游戏玩家心理过程的五个类别：注意力、视觉扫描、听觉辨别、运动反应和感知学习模式。这些也可以被视为游戏产生和支持乐趣的手段列表。没有必要选择单一类型来表示游戏中的乐趣。你应该根据你的设计需要，随意混合和搭配不同的体验和乐趣模型。这些类型对于理论化乐趣或对游戏进行分类不太有用，但它们可以非常方便地组织关于特定游戏提供的乐趣类型的观察。一种模型不一定比其他模型更好；每个模型都提供了思考乐趣及其多种动机的不同方式。
There are many other typologies we could consider as well. Last chapter, we looked at Brian Sutton-Smith’s five categories describing the psychological processes of video game players: concentration, visual scanning, auditory discriminations, motor responses, and perceptual patterns of learning. These too might be considered a list of the means by which games generate and support pleasure. There is no need to choose a single typology to represent pleasure in games. You should feel free to mix and match different models of experience and pleasure, depending on the needs of your design. These typologies are less useful for theorizing about pleasure or for classifying games, but they can be very handy as a way of organizing observations about the kinds of pleasures that a particular game provides. One model is not necessarily better than the others; each offers a different way of thinking about pleasure and its many motivations.
例如，让我们采用这些类型之一——Caillois 的四个类别——来观察虚幻死亡竞赛。它们适用于玩虚幻的乐趣吗？当然，游戏包含大量竞争性、激烈的斗争。模仿也发挥了重要作用，因为每个玩家都通过虚构的虚拟空间中的可定制化身来代表其他玩家。虚幻及其同类游戏虚幻引擎以实时表现三维空间中的物理运动而闻名，经常以晕动症的形式产生眩晕感。虚幻引擎中甚至可能存在偶然因素，例如碰巧加入在线死亡竞赛的特定玩家，或关卡中物品的布局和分布。
For example, let us employ one of these typologies—Caillois’ four categories—in looking at an Unreal deathmatch. Do they apply to the pleasures of playing Unreal? Certainly the game contains a great deal of competitive, agônistic struggle. Mimicry plays a strong role as well, in the fact that each player is represented to the others through a customizable avatar in a fictional, virtual space. Unreal and games of its ilk are well known for representing physical movement through three-dimensional space in real-time, often creating vertigo in the form of motion sickness. There are arguably even elements of chance in Unreal as well, such as the particular players that happen to join an online deathmatch, or the layout and distribution of items on a level.
我们可以类似地应用勒布朗和阿普特的分类。虚幻游戏也提供了他们列出的所有乐趣，从激烈竞争中产生的护戒使者，到作弊、黑客和模组的创造性消极主义。乐趣总是已经非常复杂：我们在游戏中找到一种乐趣，我们几乎总会找到其他乐趣。一般来说，大多数游戏都提供了任何游戏体验类型中列出的许多或所有乐趣。但与此同时，总是存在着各种因素的平衡，某种成分的比例，这些成分加起来形成了个人游戏体验的独特风味。你的游戏提供了什么有意义的乐趣，或者未能提供什么？这就是“乐趣”类型学的实用性：提供一个词汇表来绘制复杂的乐趣游戏。
We can similarly apply the categories of LeBlanc and Apter. A game of Unreal provides all of the pleasures they list too, from the Fellowship that emerges out of hard-fought competition, to the creative Negativism of cheats, hacks, and mods. Pleasure is always already exceedingly complex: where we find one form of pleasure in a game, we will almost always find others. In general, most games provide many or all of the pleasures listed in any typology of game play experience. But at the same time, there is always a balance of factors, a particular ratio of ingredients that adds up to the unique flavor of an individual game experience. What meaningful pleasures is your game providing, or failing to provide? This is the utility of a typology of “fun:” offering a vocabulary for charting out the complex play of pleasure.
游戏流程
Game Flow
列出类别是描述游戏乐趣的一种方法。还有其他方法吗？是否有可能以更抽象的方式看待游戏乐趣，将游戏的各种乐趣综合成一个概念？再想想玩游戏的体验。游戏乐趣的一个方面在于体验的强度，几乎势不可挡的游戏感觉。无论乐趣是存在于认知反应、情感影响还是身体反应中，游戏体验，尤其是游戏体验，都可以非常深刻。正如作家 JC Herz 在经典街机游戏中所写的那样，“仅仅是电子游戏的情感、生存本质——你就是在利用人类最强大的本能。生存。战斗或逃跑。这种感觉如此强烈，以至于在某些方面变得过于强烈。人们真的生活在游戏中。他们梦想着游戏。”
Listing categories is one approach to describing pleasure in a game. Are there other approaches? Is it possible to look at game pleasure in a more abstract way to synthesize the diverse pleasures of gaming into a single concept? Think again about the experience of playing a game. One aspect of game pleasure lies in the intensity with which it is experienced, the almost overwhelming sensation of play. Whether the pleasure rests in a cognitive response, an emotional effect, or a physical reaction, the experience of play, and especially play in games, can be strikingly deep. As writer J. C. Herz writes of classic arcade gaming, “Just the emotion, the survival nature of the videogame—you’re tapping into the most powerful human instinct. Survival. Fight or flight. That is so hugely intense that in some ways it becomes too intense. People really lived the games. They dreamed the games.”
所有游戏玩家都曾经历过这种感觉，即使时间很短。这种程度的游戏参与度表明玩家已经超越了普通的心理状态，与游戏建立了更深刻的关系。心理学家和理论家米哈里·契克森米哈赖最出名的是他对所谓的心流状态的研究——这是一种参与者高度专注和享受的特殊精神状态。他的书《心流：最佳体验心理学》对他的思想进行了很好的总体介绍。心流充满了个人达到心流状态的轶事，这些轶事记录了契克森米哈赖多年来的研究。
All game players have experienced this feeling at one time or another, even if for only a short time. This level of engagement with a game suggests that the player has transcended an ordinary psychological state to arrive at a more profound relationship with the game. The psychologist and theorist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is best known for his research on what he calls the flow state—a particular state of mind in which a participant achieves a high degree of focus and enjoyment. His book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience offers a great general introduction to his ideas. Flow is filled with anecdotal accounts of individuals achieving a flow state, documented over the years of Csikszentmihalyi’s research.
心流现象有多种形式。有些人向 Csikszentmihalyi 报告说，他们通过完成流水线工作任务的严格要求，或通过沉浸式地解决法律图书馆研究中的问题而达到心流状态。其他人则说，他们在独自攀岩时或通过严苛的外科手术工作而达到心流状态。心流到底是什么？ Csikszentmihalyi 认为心流是我们所有人都经历过的。这是一种控制我们行为、主宰我们自己命运的感觉。虽然很少见，但当我们达到心流状态时，我们会感到非常兴奋。Csikszentmihalyi 将此现象称为最佳体验。
The phenomenon of flow comes in many forms. Some people reported to Csikszentmihalyi that they reached flow through the rigors of perfecting an assembly line work task, or through the immersive problem-solving of law library research. Others say they achieved flow during the solitary exertion of rock climbing or through the exacting vocation of surgery. What exactly is flow? Csikszentmihalyi suggests that flow is something we have all experienced. It is a feeling of being in control of our actions, masters of our own fate. Although rare, when we achieve a state of flow we are deeply exhilarated. Csikszentmihalyi refers to this phenomenon as an optimal experience.
这就是当风吹过头发、当小船像小马一样冲过波浪时，水手紧紧把握航向的感觉——船帆、船体、风和大海发出和谐的嗡嗡声，在水手的血管里震动。这就是当画布上的色彩开始相互产生磁性张力时，画家的感觉，当一个新事物、一个活生生的形式在惊讶的创作者面前成形时。11
It is what the sailor holding a tight course feels when the wind whips through her hair, when the boat lunges through the waves like a colt—sails, hull, wind, and sea humming a harmony that vibrates in the sailor’s veins. It is what a painter feels when the colors on the canvas begin to set up a magnetic tension with each other, and a new thing, a living form, takes shape in front of the astonished creator.11
心流是一种专注、投入的幸福的情感和心理状态，当一个人感受到成就感和成就感，以及更强烈的自我意识时，心流对游戏设计有什么意义？在许多方面，游戏体验的提升和游戏设计师希望为玩家建立的正是心流状态的参与度。事实上，Csikszentmihalyi 的许多例子都来自游戏，例如职业国际象棋选手，这是他早期研究的重点。游戏设计与心流体验之间的联系在 Csikszentmihalyi 对心流组成部分（使心流成为可能的条件）的描述中清晰可见。他列出了八个组成部分：
Flow is, more than anything else, an emotional and psychological state of focused and engaged happiness, when a person feels a sense of achievement and accomplishment, and a greater sense of self. What might be the relevance of flow for game design? In many ways, the heightened enjoyment and engagement of the flow state is exactly what game designers seek to establish for their players. In fact, many of Csikszentmihalyi’s examples come from games, such as professional Chess players, which were an early focus of his research. The connection between game design and the flow experience clearly appears in Csikszentmihalyi’s description of the components of flow, the conditions that make flow possible. He lists eight components:
首先，这种体验通常发生在我们面对有机会完成的任务时。其次，我们必须能够集中精力于我们正在做的事情。第三和第四，集中精力通常是可能的，因为所承担的任务有明确的目标，并能提供即时反馈。第五，一个人以深度但毫不费力的投入行动，从意识中消除了日常生活的烦恼和挫折。第六，愉快的体验让人们对自己的行为产生一种控制感。第七，对自我的关注消失了，但矛盾的是，在心流体验结束后，自我意识会变得更强烈。最后，时间长度的感觉发生了改变；几个小时就像几分钟一样过去，而几分钟可以延长到几个小时。12
First, the experience usually occurs when we confront tasks we have a chance of completing. Second, we must be able to concentrate on what we are doing. Third and fourth, the concentration is usually possible because the task undertaken has clear goals and provides immediate feedback. Fifth, one acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life. Sixth, enjoyable experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control over their actions. Seventh, concern for the self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over. Finally, the sense of the duration of time is altered; hours pass by like minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem like hours.12
这八个组成部分中的每一个都与游戏的一个方面相对应，这一点应该会立即引起人们的注意。我们可以利用 Csikszentmihalyi 自己的语言更详细地研究每一个部分。十三
It should be immediately striking how every one of these eight components corresponds to an aspect of games. We can look at each in more detail, making use of Csikszentmihalyi’s own language.13
需要技能的具有挑战性的活动： Csikszentmihalyi 强调，心流活动不是被动体验的；它需要主动和有针对性的参与。“据报道，绝大多数最佳体验发生在有目标导向且受规则约束的一系列活动中。”这听起来非常像对游戏的描述。
A Challenging Activity that Requires Skills: Csikszentmihalyi emphasizes the fact that the flow activity is not passively experienced; it requires active and directed engagement. “The overwhelming proportion of optimal experiences are reported to occur within sequences of activities that are goal-directed and bounded by rules.” This sounds remarkably like a description of a game.
行动与意识的融合：心流状态的一个显著特征是，一个人如此专注于活动，以至于活动变得“自发、几乎是自动的；他们不再意识到自己与正在执行的行动是分开的。”心流体验的这一组成部分也可以在游戏中发生。大卫·苏德诺 (David Sudnow) 对他参与 Breakout 的描述清楚地描述了这种精神状态。
The Merging of Action and Awareness: One distinctive feature of the flow state is that a person is so absorbed in the activity that it becomes “spontaneous, almost automatic; they stop being aware of themselves as separate from the actions they are performing.” This component of the flow experience is something that can occur in games as well. David Sudnow’s account of his engagement with Breakout clearly describes this state of mind.
明确的目标和反馈：这两个要素体现了游戏的目标导向性以及做出有意义选择所必需的可辨别的行动结果顺序。有意义的游戏似乎与心流密切相关。
Clear Goals and Feedback: These two components evoke the goal-oriented nature of games and the discernable action-outcome sequence necessary for making meaningful choices. Meaningful play seems to be intimately related to flow.
专注于手头的任务：心流的常见效果是“将注意力完全集中在手头的任务上，从而不会在头脑中留下无关信息的空间。”就像一款脱离“普通生活”的游戏一样，心流活动为参与者开辟了自己的体验空间。
Concentration on the Task at Hand: A common effect of flow is “a complete focusing of attention on the task at hand, thus leaving no room in the mind for irrelevant information.” Like a game that removes itself from “ordinary life,” flow activities carve out their own experiential spaces for participants.
控制悖论：在最佳体验中，参与者能够进行控制，但不能完全控制局面。如果没有失败的机会，活动就不够困难。“只有当结果不确定，并且一个人能够影响结果时，一个人才能真正知道自己是否处于控制之中。”当游戏玩家与人为冲突系统斗争时，他们会试图通过采取行动来维护控制。然而，游戏的结果总是不确定的。
The Paradox of Control: In an optimal experience, the participant is able to exercise control without completely being in control of the situation. If there is no chance of failure, the activity is not difficult enough. “Only when a doubtful outcome is at stake, and one is able to influence that outcome, can a person really know whether she is in control.” As game players struggle against the system of artificial conflict, they attempt to assert control by taking actions. Yet the outcome of a game is always uncertain.
自我意识的丧失：在心流中，参与者的自我意识服从于整体体验。“当一个人将她所有的心理能量投入到互动中时……她实际上就成为了一个比个人自我之前更大的行动系统的一部分。这个系统的形式来自活动的规则；它的能量来自于人的注意力。”Csikszentmihalyi 强调参与者与心流活动之间的联系的系统性，这一事实让人想起了游戏基于系统的性质。
The Loss of Self-Consciousness: In flow, the participant’s sense of self becomes subservient to the greater whole of the experience. “When a person invests all her psychic energy into an interaction . . . she in effect becomes part of a system of action greater than what the individual self had been before. This system takes its form from the rules of the activity; its energy comes from the person’s attention.” The fact that Csikszentmihalyi emphasizes the systemic quality of a participant’s connection with the flow activity is reminiscent of the system-based nature of games.
当我们将游戏视为一种体验系统时，玩家就是该系统的一个组成部分——Csikszentmihalyi 也持同样的观点。
When we consider a game as an experiential system, the player is a component of that system—a formulation echoed by Csikszentmihalyi.
时间的转变：参与者的时间感可以延长或缩短。有时这种感觉直接来自活动本身：“大多数心流活动不依赖于时钟时间；就像棒球一样，它们有自己的节奏，有自己的事件序列，标志着从一种状态到另一种状态的过渡，而不考虑相等的时间间隔。”游戏不仅改变了我们对时间的感知，而且还让我们摆脱了时间的束缚；在完全投入的状态下，忘记时间会让我们感到更加兴奋。
The Transformation of Time: The participant’s sense of time can stretch or shrink. Sometimes this feeling comes directly from the activity itself: “Most flow activities do not depend on clock time; like baseball, they have their own pace, their own sequences of events marking transitions from one state to another without regard to equal intervals of duration.” Games not only change our perception of time but also offer freedom from its tyranny; losing track of time adds to the exhilaration we feel during a state of complete involvement.
Csikszentmihalyi 提到的心流活动的八个组成部分中的每一个都与游戏有明显的相似之处。这并不意味着心流仅适用于游戏，也不意味着每个游戏都会为玩家产生心流状态。它确实意味着游戏是产生心流的最佳活动之一。游戏的规则、目标、反馈、不确定的结果和其他特质使其成为心流体验开花结果的沃土。我们相信游戏玩法和心流之间存在内在联系。虽然 Csikszentmihalyi 描述的最大心流“最佳体验”很少实现，但所有形式的游戏都以某种方式参与了心流体验。当玩家找到刚性结构的间隙，参与规则以玩游戏并改变规则时，心流的条件就建立了。心流是理解吸引玩家参与游戏并让他们留在游戏中的乐趣的一种方式。
In each of the eight components of the flow activity Csikszentmihalyi mentions, there are clear parallels with games. This doesn’t mean that flow applies only to games, or that every game produces a flow state for its players. What it does mean is that games are one of the best kinds of activities to produce flow. The rules, goals, feedback, uncertain outcome, and other qualities of games make them fertile terrain for the flowering of a flow experience. We believe there is an intrinsic connection between game play and flow. Although the maximum flow “optimal experience” that Csikszentmihalyi describes is rarely achieved, all forms of play in some way partake of the flow experience. The conditions for flow are established as players find the interstices of a rigid structure, engaging with rules in order to play with them and transform them. Flow is one way of understanding that pleasure which draws players to a game and keeps them there.
尽管 Csikszentmihalyi 没有这样组织，但他的八个类别可以分为两组。心流的八个组成部分中有四个描述了心流状态的影响：
Although he does not organize them this way, Csikszentmihalyi’s eight categories can be divided into two groups. Four of the eight components of flow describe the effects of the flow state:
• 行动与意识的融合
• the merging of action and awareness
• 专注
• concentration
• 丧失自我意识
• the loss of self-consciousness
• 时间的转变
• the transformation of time
一旦心流开始，所有这些效果都会在玩家的体验中发生。心流的这四个方面可以诊断玩家是否已达到心流状态。如果你不确定你的游戏是否真正产生了心流，请按照列表进行操作。如果缺少列出的四种体验中的部分或全部，你可能需要调整你的设计。但需要进行哪些调整？这就是其他四个组成部分发挥作用的地方。它们不是心流的效果，而是心流的先决条件：
All of these effects occur in the player’s experience once flow commences. These four facets of flow can diagnose whether a player has reached the flow state. If you are not sure if your game is truly producing flow, go down the list. If some or all of the four experiences listed are missing, you may need to adjust your design. But what kinds of adjustments are necessary? That’s where the other four components come into play. Rather than being effects of flow, they represent flow’s prerequisites:
• 一项具有挑战性的活动
• a challenging activity
• 明确目标
• clear goals
• 清晰的反馈
• clear feedback
• 在不确定的情况下拥有控制权的悖论
• the paradox of having control in an uncertain situation
这四个心流的先决条件元素是心流活动本身的特征。它们是设计游戏心流的关键。你的游戏是否包含心流的先决条件？是否有足够的挑战来创造真正的不确定性？玩家是否清楚地了解目标？当他们在系统中移动时，他们的动作是否提供清晰的反馈和控制感？如果你的游戏提供了所有这些机制，那么你就已经在为心流创造必要条件的道路上迈出了一大步。
These four prerequisite elements of flow are characteristics of the flow activity itself. Within them is the key to designing flow in games. Does your game contain the prerequisites of flow? Is there enough challenge to create real uncertainty? Do the players clearly understand the goals? As they move through the system, do their actions provide clear feedback and a sense of control? If your game supplies all of these mechanisms, you are well on your way to creating the necessary conditions for flow.
如果你的目标是为玩家创造一种心流状态，我们可以简单地总结一下我们的建议：设计有意义的游戏。心流的四个先决条件与有意义的游戏的关键组成部分有着惊人的相似之处。“清晰的反馈”是另一种表达方式，即在互动体验中需要可辨别的选择和结果。游戏的目标、挑战和不确定性提供了更大的背景，选择在其中被整合并变得有意义。这并不是说有意义的游戏和心流是一回事。心流是一种心理状态，有意义的游戏是一种游戏设计方法。但就游戏而言，这两者是紧密交织在一起的。如果你想要在游戏中创造流动感，就必须有有意义的玩法。如果你想设计有意义的玩法，流动感可以成为游戏制作过程中一个有用的诊断工具。
If your aim is to create a flow state for your players, we can summarize our advice quite simply: design meaningful play. The four prerequisites of flow bear a striking resemblance to the key components of meaningful play. “Clear feedback” is another way of stating the need for discernable choices and outcomes in an interactive experience. The goals, challenge, and uncertainty of a game provide the larger context within which choices are integrated and become meaningful. This is not to say that meaningful play is the same thing as flow. Flow is a state of mind and meaningful play is an approach to game design. But when it comes to games, the two are closely intertwined. If you want to create flow in a game, meaningful play must be present. If you want to design meaningful play, flow can be a useful diagnostic tool in the process of making your game.
为什么游戏设计师想要为玩家创造一种心流状态？心流代表着对手头活动的丰富而有意义的参与。一般来说，作为一名游戏设计师，你正在创建用于深度探索的游戏系统。我们都应该如此幸运，因为我们的游戏玩家投入了足够的努力和注意力来实现心流状态。请记住，心流并不只是指一种体验。外科医生感受到的心流在感觉和情感上与 LARP 战斗的心流完全不同。然而，所有形式的心流的共同点是参与者体验到的最佳幸福感。作为创造游戏的体验目标，传播幸福、专注和幸福感无疑是值得追求的。
Why would game designers want to create a flow state for their players? Being in flow represents a rich and meaningful engagement with the activity at hand. Generally, as a game designer, you are creating game systems meant for deep exploration. We should all be so lucky that players of our games invest enough effort and attention to achieve a state of flow. Remember that flow doesn’t refer to just one kind of experience. The flow that surgeons feel is by all accounts radically different in sensation and emotion than the flow of a LARP combat. What unites all forms of flow, however, is the optimal happiness that participants experience. As an experiential goal for creating games, spreading happiness, focus, and a sense of well-being is certainly a worthy pursuit.
塑造欲望
Sculpting Desire
如果心流概念的一个问题是它并不像我们所希望的那样特定于游戏，那么以游戏为中心来看待愉悦感意味着什么呢？将游戏视为愉悦感系统意味着游戏设计师是欲望的工匠，塑造游戏玩家的愉悦感。游戏设计的系统由玩家的参与启动，不仅仅是一种游戏体验，也是一种感官、情感和心理愉悦的体验。
If one problem with the concept of flow is that it is not as game-specific as we would like, what would it mean to take a more game-centric look at pleasure? Thinking of games as systems of pleasure implies that the game designer is an artisan of desire, shaping the pleasure of the players of a game. The designed system of the game, set in motion by the participation of players, becomes not just an experience of play, but also an experience of sensual, emotional, and psychological pleasure.
要实现这样的体验，游戏设计师不仅要关注游戏可能产生的即时愉悦感，还要关注玩家的愉悦感在单场游戏或多场游戏过程中的演变方式。
Achieving such an experience requires that a game designer not only pay attention to the immediate feelings of pleasure a game may produce, but also the way that a player’s pleasure evolves and changes over the course of a single game, or across many games.
任何人都可以坐在 Quake 前开始射击。随着经验的积累，他意识到如果站在原地，就会被杀死，所以他学会了边移动边射击。然后他学会了绕圈射击。然后，他学会了边向后跑边射击。然后，他学会了近距离或远距离射击哪种武器更好。
Anyone can sit down at Quake and start shooting things. As he gains more experience, he realizes that if he stands in one place, he’ll get killed, so he learns to start moving while shooting. Then he learns to circle-strafe. Then, to shoot while running backwards. Then, to figure out which weapons are better up close or far away.
免责声明：Flow 的极限
Disclaimer: The Limits of Flow
尽管心流概念很有用，但它并不是解开游戏中玩法和乐趣的所有谜团的万能钥匙。考虑将心流应用于游戏设计的一些挑战：
As useful as it is, the concept of flow is not a skeleton key to unlock every mystery surrounding play and pleasure in games. Consider a few of the challenges in applying flow to game design:
心流并非游戏所独有。正如 Csikszentmihalyi 从艺术、工作和非游戏休闲中举出的许多例子所表明的那样，心流可以发生在许多类型的活动中。为什么这是一个问题？如果作为游戏设计师，我们的目标之一是了解和分离只有游戏才能提供的独特乐趣，那么心流状态就没什么帮助了。
Flow is not unique to games. As Csikszentmihalyi’s many examples from art, work, and non-game leisure demonstrate, flow can occur in many kinds of activities. Why is this a problem? If one of our goals as game designers is to understand and isolate the unique kinds of pleasures that only games can provide, then the flow state is not of much help.
心流更多地与玩家有关，而不是游戏本身。根据 Csikszentmihalyi 的说法，心流至少与活动本身一样取决于个人参与者的态度。国际象棋大师可能达到心流，但大多数国际象棋选手却达不到。你设计的游戏不一定会被准备好或能够体验心流的玩家使用。玩家的个人心理不受游戏设计师的控制。
Flow is more about the player than the game. According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow depends at least as much on the attitude of the individual participant as the activity itself. Chess masters may achieve flow, but most Chess players do not. There is no guarantee that the game you design will be put to use by players that are ready or able to experience flow. A player’s individual psyche is out of a game designer’s control.
心流并非普遍现象。人们很容易被误导，认为心流状态是每个游戏设计都应该尝试诱导的终极体验。但事实并非如此。正如 Sutton-Smith 在对 Csikszentmihalyi 作品的批评中指出的那样，“说心流是普遍的，可能就像说所有高潮性爱在任何地方都是一样的，‘心流’之于游戏就像性高潮之于性爱。但是谁会对所有让性爱有意义的不同背景和行为一无所知，并说出这样的话呢？”
Flow is not a universal phenomenon. It is easy to get carried away and assume that the flow state is the ultimate experience that every game design should try and induce. That is simply not the case. As Sutton-Smith points out in a critique of Csikszentmihalyi’s work,” To say flow is universal might be like saying that all peak sex is everywhere the same, and that ‘flow’ is to play what orgasm is to sex. But who would be innocent enough of all the different contexts and acts that make sex meaningful to say something like that?”
尽管心流是创造游戏乐趣的有用概念工具，但它只是众多可能工具之一。心流提供了对一种有意义的参与的严格调查，即使它并不代表一种普遍的心理状态，即使它并非完全是游戏所独有的。
Although flow is a useful conceptual tool for creating pleasure in games, it is but one of many possible tools. Flow offers a rigorous investigation into one kind of meaningful engagement, even if it doesn’t represent a universal state of mind and even if it isn’t completely unique to games.
然后他学会了火箭跳。随着他的进步，他了解了每种武器的特点。他学会了“引导”他的对手。任何人都可以拿起《雷神之锤》并在几分钟内开始享受游戏乐趣，但他花在掌握游戏上的时间越长，游戏就越有趣。15
Then he learns to rocket jump. As he progresses, he learns the characteristics of each weapon. He learns to “lead” his opponent. Anyone can pick up Quake and start having a good time within minutes, yet the longer he spends mastering the game, the more enjoyable it becomes.15
Quake 易学难精。正如游戏设计师 Bob Bates 指出的那样，它为玩家提供了一种既能短期享受又能长期享受的游戏体验。由于核心机制相对简单（移动和射击），玩家可以立即享受游戏带来的乐趣。由于玩好游戏需要一些微妙的技巧，而这些技巧只能通过反复游戏来培养，因此长期参与游戏可以带来一种愉悦的回报。
Quake is easy to learn but difficult to master. As game designer Bob Bates points out, it offers players a gaming experience that is pleasurable in both the short and long term. Because the core mechanic is relatively simple—move and shoot—players gain immediate access to the pleasures the game affords. Because playing the game well requires subtle skills that can only develop through repetitive play, long-term engagement with the game brings its own kind of pleasurable reward.
游戏中的乐趣是如何产生并随着时间的推移而演变的？游戏的所有可能状态和体验都包含在称为可能性空间的理论构造中。游戏玩家每次在可能性空间中的旅程都从同一个地方开始：游戏的起点。但玩家在空间中采取的体验路径在每次玩游戏时都会有所不同。即使游戏规则（其正式结构）保持不变，但每次游戏玩法都是独一无二的。游戏的这种品质，即游戏每次提供相同的一致结构，但每次玩游戏时体验和结果都不同，是维持和鼓励游戏的强大引擎。我们用简称“相同但不同”来指代这一概念。
How does pleasure emerge and evolve over time in a game? All of the possible states and experiences of a game are contained within the theoretical construct called the space of possibility. A game player begins his or her journey through the space of possibility at the same place every time: the start of the game. But the experiential path that a player takes through the space will vary each time the game is played. Every play of the game will be unique, even though the rules of the game, its formal structure, remain fixed. This quality of games, that a game provides the same consistent structure each time but a different experience and outcome every time it is played, is a powerful engine that sustains and encourages play. We refer to this concept by the shorthand term same-but-different.
相同但不同的游戏体验既发生在单个游戏中，也发生在多个游戏中。在 Breakout 游戏中，玩家一遍又一遍地参与核心机制，在不断变化的游戏环境中多次探索其排列组合。一次又一次地击球。你能从侧面第二次打出那个擦板球吗？或者通过击打球拍中间的方块来放慢速度？你能控制截击的流动吗？在游戏中，给定相同的重复游戏动作，维持游戏的部分乐趣在于玩家能够以相同的互动方式反复参与——但结果不同。
The same-but-different experience of play occurs both within an individual game, as well as across more than one game. Inside a game of Breakout, the player engages with the core mechanic over and over, exploring its permutations many times within the changing context of the game. Hit the ball again and again. Can you get that bank shot a second time from the side? Or slow things down by hitting the square in the middle of the paddle? Can you control the flow of the volley? Within a game, given the same repetitive action of play, part of the pleasure that sustains the game is the player’s ability to engage repeatedly with the same kind of interactivity—but with different results.
游戏的核心机制本身就提供了乐趣，无论是 Tiddley-Winks 翻转的感官点击，还是纸牌游戏 War 中每轮简单、随机的戏剧性。如果游戏的核心机制设计得当，玩家甚至可能不在乎是否获胜。玩家可以只为打出一记漂亮的截击而享受网球，也可以为挑战熟练的哑剧和聪明的猜测而享受猜谜游戏。但要想长期保持乐趣，核心机制的重复动作需要体现相同但不同的概念。它需要继续提供新的变化和体验，即使它们像 Tiddley-Winks 技能的逐渐积累或 War 中命运的确定性发挥一样微妙。
The core mechanic of a game provides its own inherent pleasure, whether it takes the form of the sensual click of a Tiddley-Winks flip or the simple, randomized drama of each round of the card game War. If a game’s core mechanic is well-designed, players may not even care about winning. Players can enjoy Tennis just for the sake of a good volley, or Charades for the challenge of skillful pantomime and clever guessing. But to sustain pleasure over time, the repeated action of the core mechanic needs to embody the concept of same-but-different. It needs to continue to offer up new variations and experiences, even if they are as subtle as the gradual build-up of Tiddley-Winks skill or the deterministic playing-out of fate in War.
从更大的层面上看，当玩家多次玩游戏时，也会出现同样的现象。在这种情况下，重复的不是核心机制，而是整个游戏的形式结构。规则保持不变，但玩法不同。这种情况并不总是发生，但如果玩法足够有意义，如果乐趣丰富而流畅，那么玩家就会想再次玩游戏。随着反复玩游戏，结构越来越熟悉，玩家继续体验游戏中可能出现的体验变化。在游戏内部和游戏之间，玩家会发现固定结构的舒适熟悉感以及不确定结果的挑战和危险。这种相同但不同的机制成为一种极其强大的欲望引擎。正是相同但不同的渴望让你一次又一次地回来，只为再玩一轮。
On a larger level, the same phenomenon occurs as a player plays a game more than one time. In this case, it is not the core mechanic that is repeated, but the entire formal structure of the game. The rules remain the same, but the play is different. It doesn’t always happen, but if the play is meaningful enough, if the pleasure is rich and flowing, then a player will want to play a game again. With repeated play, the structure is increasingly familiar, and the player continues to play out the possible experiential permutations of the game. Within and between games, players discover the comforting familiarity of a fixed structure and the challenge and danger of an uncertain outcome. This same-but-different mechanism makes for an extremely powerful engine of desire. It is the itch of the same-but-different that brings you back, time and time again, for just one more round of play.
此外，变革性游戏有助于这一过程。在《游戏的定义》中，我们将变革性游戏确立为游戏的特殊情况，即游戏的自由运动改变了其形成的更为严格的结构。当游戏的结构随着游戏的改变，可重玩性的可能性也随之增加。即使是在简单的博彩游戏中，变革性游戏也能确保新的体验不断出现，因为玩家会发现新的博彩模式、新的博彩场所、适合博彩活动的新生活模式、支持博彩活动的新朋友圈。尽管游戏发生了变化，但它仍然是熟悉的。哲学家詹姆斯·S·汉斯很好地表达了这种相同但不同的游戏体验的概念：
Furthermore, transformative play assists this process. In Defining Play, we established transformative play as the special case of play, when the free movement of play alters the more rigid structure in which it takes shape. When the structure of the game is altered, the possibilities for replayability increase. Even in a simple betting game, transformative play can ensure that new experiences continue to arise, as a player finds new patterns of betting, new places in which to bet, new patterns of life into which the betting activity fits, new circles of friends to support the activity. Still, the game remains familiar, even as it changes. Philosopher James S. Hans expresses this notion of the same-but-different experience of play quite well:
在这方面，所有游戏都具有一个共同点：熟悉的结构，允许人们玩陌生的东西。这种熟悉的结构并不是普遍适用的；它取决于游戏的特定环境。这种熟悉的结构也并非一成不变。事实上，它每次玩的时候都会发生变化，因为新的游戏场合会将不同的元素引入到活动中，这些元素会成为任何未来游戏结构的一部分……熟悉的结构允许引入不同的元素；从某种意义上说，游戏只不过是差异对熟悉事物的感染。16
In this regard, all play shares one thing with games: a familiar structure that allows one to play with the unfamiliar. This familiar structure is not universal; it is contingent upon the particular context of play. Nor is this familiar structure always the same. Indeed, it changes every time it is played with, for the occasion for new play introduces different elements into the activity that become part of the structure of any future play . . . . The structure of the familiar then permits the introduction of the different; play in one sense is no more than the infection of the familiar by difference.16
虽然汉斯谈论的是各种游戏，但根据我们的定义，每种游戏都具有这种特性。他明确指出，游戏具有变革性，通过重复，游戏本身会发生变化。汉斯将这种欲望游戏称为“差异对熟悉事物的感染”——这或许是游戏令人愉悦的核心。在魔法圈中，规则赋予动作以意义。但游戏的自由运动会改变这些意义，即使它们是体验出来的，也会让游戏的每时每刻都充满乐趣。
Although Hans is talking about all kinds of play, every game by our definition shares this quality. He makes explicit the idea that play is transformative, that through repetition, play itself changes. Hans calls this play of desire “the infection of the familiar by difference”—perhaps the heart of what makes games pleasurable. Within the magic circle, rules endow actions with meanings. But the free movement that is play transforms these meanings, even as they are experienced, putting pleasure “at play” at each moment of a game.
快乐模式
Patterns of Pleasure
游戏内部和游戏之间出现的愉悦模式提供了特殊的享受。游戏设计师 Brian Moriarty 用entrainment这个词来指代这种有节奏的愉悦。Entrainment 源自法语单词“entrainer”，有两个含义：携带和诱捕。这个词通常适用于一系列物理和自然现象，从昼夜睡眠节律到雷雨的声波。整体思想家 Stephan Rechtschaffen 博士认为：“节奏夹带是世界上最伟大的组织原则之一，与引力一样不可避免。它解释了一种节奏如何与另一种节奏协同工作，以及从分子到恒星的各个实体如何像脉搏跳动或蝴蝶扇动翅膀一样自动进入节奏。”17
The patterns of pleasure that emerge within and between games offer special kinds of enjoyments. Game designer Brian Moriarty uses the word entrainment to refer to this kind of rhythmic pleasure. Entrainment comes from the French word “entrainer” and has two meanings: to carry along, and to trap. The word has commonly been applied to a range of physical and natural phenomena, from circadian sleep rhythms to the sonic play of a thunderstorm. According to holistic thinker Dr. Stephan Rechtschaffen, “Rhythmic entrainment is one of the great organizing principles of the world, as inescapable as gravity. It explains how one rhythm works with another, and how separate entities, from molecules to stars, will fall into rhythm as automatically as a pulse beats or a butterfly flaps its wings.”17
按照 Moriarty 的说法，同步是指陷入一种模式化活动的过程，例如棒球迷在多人游戏场景中自发地在体育场范围内形成“人潮”。人们还可以将这一概念应用于玩游戏时引发的游戏节奏。1998 年，Moriarty 在游戏开发者大会上发表了关于同步和游戏设计的演讲：
As used by Moriarty, entrainment is the process of falling into a patterned activity, such as when baseball fans spontaneously create a stadium-wide “wave” in a co-authored, massively multiplayer spectacle. One can also apply the concept to the play rhythms evoked when playing a game. In 1998, Moriarty gave a talk at the Game Developers conference about entrainment and game design:
如果你观察，你会发现所有游戏都有节奏和模式。看看别人玩游戏。不是游戏本身，以免你沉迷其中，而是玩家和他或她周围的空间。观察节奏的出现，以及玩家和游戏如何互动。你会清楚地发现，游戏实际上是一个娱乐引擎。因此，游戏设计师的工作是强化模式，并抑制不和谐。18
Rhythms and patterns exist in all games, if you watch. Watch someone playing a game sometime. Not the game itself, lest you be sucked in, but the player, and the space around him or her. Watch the rhythms emerge, and how the player and the game interact. It will become clear that a game is really an entrainment engine. The job of the gamewright, therefore, is to reinforce patterns, and dampen dissonance.”18
夹带的概念将游戏的模式、互动性和相同但不同的品质融合成一个丰富而强大的设计概念。如果夹带是一种乐趣，那么它既是一种结构性的乐趣，也是一种体验性的乐趣，既有数学上的规律性，又有游戏上的灵活性。夹带并不是游戏独有的现象，但它确实非常接近于识别所有游戏体验似乎都包含的奇特的结构性乐趣：俄罗斯方块的冥想模式；台球的轮流、咔嗒声节奏；太空侵略者的节奏射击模式；二十一点的纸牌、命中和筹码的脉动流动。这些游戏体验中的每一种——每种游戏体验——都可以被定义为夹带的一个例子。
The notion of entrainment combines pattern, interactivity, and the same-but-different quality of games into a rich and powerful design concept. If entrainment is a form of pleasure, it is a pleasure at once structural and experiential, both mathematically regular and playfully flexible. Entrainment is not a phenomenon completely unique to games, but it does come very close to identifying the curious structural pleasure that all game experiences seem to contain: the meditative patterns of Tetris; the turn-taking, clacking cadence of Billiards; the rhythmic shooting pattern of Space Invaders; the pulsing flow of cards, hits, and chips of Blackjack. Each of these game experiences—every game experience—can be framed as an instance of entrainment.
同步是一种相同但又不同的体验。当玩家探索可能的游戏乐趣空间时，通过有规律的重复在空间中前进，鼓声驱动着游戏体验的核心。同步有时实际上会以某种形式出现：激光爆炸的反复哔哔声，或马拉松运动员脚步的无情悸动。但最终，同步以更普遍的方式表现出来，不仅占据了知觉，还占据了思维和感觉模式。同步这个词的双面定义，即携带和诱捕，是完全准确的。游戏的模式最初吸引我们，推动我们前进，鼓励我们玩游戏。但不知何故，在某个时刻，事情发生了变化。我们发现自己不仅在玩游戏，而且还被游戏玩弄。快乐是一种强大的力量，它可以携带那些被困在它后面的人。
Entrainment is the experience of the same-but-different. As players explore the space of possible game pleasures, progress through the space occurs through patterned repetition, the drumbeat driving the heart of a game experience. Entrainment sometimes literally takes on form: the recurrent bleep of a laser blast, or the relentless throb of a marathon runner’s steps. But ultimately, entrainment manifests in a more pervasive fashion, occupying not just perceptual sensations, but modes of thinking and feeling as well. The double-sided definition of the word entrainment, to carry along and to trap, is entirely accurate. The patterns of a game initially draw us in, moving us forward, encouraging us to play. But somehow, at some point, something changes. We find ourselves not just playing a game, but being played by the game as well. Pleasure is a mighty force, and it can carry along those trapped in its wake.
目标的作用
The Role of the Goal
这种转变是如何发生的？游戏如何能吸引我们并俘获我们？游戏所包含的一些最强大的愉悦机制源自其组成部分。游戏与其他形式的游戏之间的区别通常在于游戏具有目标和可量化的结果。当谈到理解游戏的乐趣时，目标起着绝对关键的作用。
How does this transition come about? How is it that a game can draw us in and take us hostage? Some of the most powerful mechanisms of pleasure that a game contains are derived from their constituent parts. The difference between games and other forms of play is most often the fact that a game has a goal and a quantifiable outcome. When it comes to understanding the pleasure of a game, the goal plays an absolutely crucial role.
游戏目标通常是驱动玩家乐趣的最大单一因素。目标是玩游戏的表面原因，但目标从来都不是轻易实现的；相反，它是模糊的欲望对象，是触手可及的胡萝卜，通过游戏的各种乐趣吸引玩家前进。目标帮助玩家穿越可能性空间，这个空间延伸到游戏的起始状态和结果之间，就像一块固定在地面上的滚滚布料。目标的作用是引导玩家沿着由开始和结束定义的轴线前进或落后。在《蛇梯棋》中，玩家在棋盘上的位置清楚地表明了他们距离胜利还有多远。在中国跳棋中，玩家目标内的棋子积累是获胜的竞争标志。在在线死亡竞赛中，按碎片数对玩家进行排名可以显示哪些玩家最接近胜利。
A game’s goal is often the largest single element that drives the pleasure of a player. The goal is the ostensible reason for playing, but the goal is never easily attained; rather, it is the obscure object of desire, the carrot held just out of reach, pulling players forward through the varied pleasures of game play. The goal helps move players through the space of possibility, a space stretched between the starting state of the game and its outcome like a billowing cloth staked to the ground. The goal acts to guide the players along the axis defined by the beginning and the end, letting them know if they are advancing or falling behind. In Chutes and Ladders, the player’s position on the board clearly communicates proximity to achieving victory. In Chinese Checkers, the accumulation of pieces within a player’s goal serves as a competitive marker toward winning. In an online deathmatch, ranking players by frag count shows which players are closest to victory.
游戏乐趣的核心要素在于创造和维持玩家与目标之间的关系。游戏设计师通过制定游戏规则，间接地设计了这种关系。您想创造一场结局戏剧性的势均力敌的游戏吗？那么设计一个负反馈循环，惩罚领先的玩家并缩小与落后玩家之间的差距。或者，您可能想利用隐藏的信息，这样结果直到最后都是不确定的。在益智游戏 Mastermind 中，每个回合都会让玩家更接近赛道的终点，在一定数量的回合后，玩家就会失败。每个回合还会为玩家提供反馈和一线希望，黑色和白色桩子代表着希望，玩家需要努力找出正确的解决方案。在不可避免的、无法控制的回合移动和有时倒退的解决问题的过程中，游戏以玩家渴望的旅程展开。结果是 Mastermind 真正引人入胜，其中的物理结构记录了玩家在游戏中的进度。
A core component of pleasure in games lies in the creation and maintenance of a player’s relationship to the goal. The game designer, by creating the game rules, indirectly engineers this relationship. Do you want to create a close game with a dramatic finish? Then engineer a negative feedback loop that punishes the lead player and closes the gap with players at the rear. Or perhaps you want to make use of hidden information, so that the outcome is in doubt until the very end. In the puzzle game Mastermind, each turn brings the player closer to the end of the track, where failure awaits after a set number of turns. Each turn also offers the player feedback and a glimpse of hope, signified by the black and white pegs, as he tries to puzzle out the correct solution. Between the inevitable, uncontrollable turn-by-turn movement, and the sometimes-backpedaling advancement toward the solution, the game unfolds as a journey of the player’s desire. The result is the genuinely compelling play of Mastermind, in which the physical structure charts the player’s progress through the game.
经典街机游戏《导弹指挥部》是游戏为玩家打造戏剧性体验的另一个例子。正如 JC Herz 在《操纵杆国度：电子游戏如何赢得我们的心并吞噬我们的财富》一书中所写：
The classic arcade game Missile Command offers yet another example of the way games engineer dramatic experiences for players. As J. C. Herz writes in Joystick Nation: How Videogames Won Our Hearts and Ate Our Quarters:
不过，《导弹指挥部》最紧张的部分是结尾处那个怪异而疯狂的时刻，当洲际弹道导弹如雨点般落下，你知道你即将失败时，那种感觉简直令人欣喜若狂。因为你知道你会死，几秒钟后一切都会变黑。三秒钟后你就会死。你现在就会死。你快死了。你死了。然后你可以看到所有漂亮的爆炸。然后烟花表演之后，你可以按下重启按钮，然后你又活了过来，直到下一次与自己的死亡相撞。19
The most intense thing about Missile Command, though, was this weird crazy moment near the end, when the ICBMs were raining down and you knew you were just about to lose it, that was totally euphoric. Because you knew that you were going to die, that you were within seconds of everything going black. You’re gonna die in three seconds. You’re gonna die at this instant. You’re dying. You’re dead. And then you get to watch all the pretty explosions. And after the fireworks display, you get to press the restart button, and you’re alive again, until the next collision with your own mortality.19
在游戏中，目标具有极其重要的意义，但目标本身作为一种正式结构并不是重点：目标只有在它有助于塑造玩家体验时才重要。目标是玩家接受为最终目标的人为、虚构的条件。在确定目标的性质以及玩家克服逆境努力实现目标的方式时，游戏设计师对打造游戏体验的特征具有巨大的影响力。
Within the game the goal takes on enormous importance, but the goal itself as a formal construct is not the point: the goal is important only insofar as it serves to shape a player’s experience. The goal is an artificial, invented condition that the players accept as their ultimate objective. In establishing the nature of that goal and the way that players overcome adversity to work toward it, the game designer has tremendous influence on crafting the character of the play experience.
目标中的目标
Goals Within Goals
目标并不是游戏中唯一的乐趣来源。除了追求胜利的刺激（或失败的痛苦！）之外，游戏还提供了许多与胜利并行甚至间接的乐趣。与最终的胜利条件（宏观目标）同样重要的是引导玩家完成游戏的微小时刻，即推动玩家完成游戏的微交互。这些较小的游戏时刻会在玩家反复参与核心机制时出现，相同但不同的体验会维持玩家的兴趣和欲望。
The goal is not the only source of pleasure in a game. In addition to the thrill that the pursuit of victory (or the agony of defeat!) can provide, games offer many pleasures that are parallel, or even tangential, to winning. Just as important as the final win condition, the macro-level goal, are the tiny moments of directed play, the micro-interactions that move a player through a game. These smaller moments of play emerge as the player engages repeatedly with the core mechanic, the same-but-different experience sustaining the interest and desire of the player.
如果游戏乐趣的宏观层面是玩家对目标的追求，微观层面是玩家对核心机制的参与，那么是什么将这两个游戏层面联系起来呢？答案是短期目标。游戏从不只提供一个长期目标。在此过程中，玩家努力实现短期目标，每个目标都提供一种乐趣，这种乐趣不像核心机制的即时满足那样直接，但比游戏长期延迟的最终结果更快获得。即使在像井字棋这样的简单游戏中，也有短期目标可以帮助玩家衡量他们在系统中的进度。将一个“O”与另一个“O”放在同一行以形成两个连续是一个短期目标，必须先达到这个目标，然后才能实现三个连续（并获胜）。这个短期目标听起来可能简单得无趣，对于成年玩家来说通常就是这样。但对于那些难以理解游戏战略复杂性的幼儿来说，理解短期目标以及这些目标如何将标记的核心机制与三连胜的长期目标联系起来，对于他们享受游戏的乐趣至关重要。
If the macro-level of a game’s pleasure is the player’s pursuit of the goal, and the micro-level is the player’s engagement with the core mechanic, then what is it that links these two levels of play? The answer is short-term goals. A game never simply provides a single long-term goal. Along the way, a player struggles toward short-term goals, each one providing a kind of pleasure that is less immediate than the instant gratification of the core mechanic, but more rapidly obtained than the long-delayed ultimate outcome of the game. Even in a simple game like Tic-Tac-Toe, there are short-term goals that help players gauge their progress through the system. Placing an “O” in the same row as another “O” to form two-in-a-row is a short-term goal that must be reached before one can achieve three-in-a-row (and victory). This short-term goal may sound uninterestingly simple, and for adult players it usually is. But for young children struggling to comprehend the strategic complexities of the game, understanding short-term goals and the way these goals link the core mechanic of mark-making with the long-term goal of three-in-a-row is crucial to their enjoyment of the game.
玩家可以实现的短期目标类型取决于游戏的性质以及目标在核心机制和获胜之间的悬置方式。在诸如 Tanktics 之类的战争游戏中，短期目标可能是包抄敌人的队伍，以削弱他们在战场上的防御地位。在 SiSSYFiGHT 2000 中，短期目标可能是与另一个女孩结成社会联盟，将玩家暴徒的愤怒转移到特定玩家身上。在数字交易游戏 Dope Wars 中，短期目标可能是攒够钱，从贩卖大麻升级为贩卖海洛因。
The kinds of short-term goals that a player can achieve depend on the nature of the game and the way the goals are suspended between the core mechanic and winning. In a wargame such as Tanktics, the short-term goal might be outflanking the enemy’s ranks in order to weaken their defensive position on the battlefield. In SiSSYFiGHT 2000, it might be making a social alliance with another girl to shift the wrath of the player mob onto a particular player. In the digital trading game Dope Wars, a short-term goal might be saving up enough cash to move up from selling pot to selling heroin.
游戏可以明确提供短期目标，例如 Pokémon 玩家通过击败特定道馆中最好的训练师定期获得的奖牌。然而，玩家根据当前情况自己设定短期目标也很常见。Pokémon 玩家可能关心赢得游戏中的每一枚奖牌，但他也许会发明一个不同的短期目标，例如捕捉所有种类的 Pokémon，或将他的 Pidgeotto 升级到 50 级。
A game can explicitly provide short-term goals, such as the medals a Pokémon player periodically earns by beating the best trainers in particular gyms. However, it is also very common for players to generate short-term goals themselves, in response to their current situation. A Pokémon player might be concerned with earning every medal in the game, but perhaps he invents a different short-term goal, such as capturing every species of Pokémon, or moving his Pidgeotto up to level 50.
鼓励玩家构思并实现目标会让玩家在游戏中产生一种掌控感，正如 Doug Church 在其文章《正式抽象设计工具》中指出的那样：
Encouraging players to conceive and achieve goals gives them a sense of control in the game, as Doug Church points out in his essay “Formal Abstract Design Tools:”
鼓励玩家制定自己的目标并付诸行动的方法有很多。关键在于让玩家知道对世界有什么期望，从而让他们感到自己可以掌控局面。目标和控制可以在多个层面提供和创建，从快速、低级目标（如“越过你面前的桥”）到长期、高级目标（如“获得世界上所有的红色硬币”）。玩家通常会在不同层面和不同时间尺度上为多个目标而努力。这种过程积累目标、了解世界、制定计划并付诸行动，是让玩家投入并参与的强大手段。20
There are many ways in which players are encouraged to form their own goals and act on them. The key is that players know what to expect from the world and thus are made to feel in control of the situation. Goals and control can be provided and created at multiple scales, from quick, low-level goals such as “get over the bridge in front of you” to long-term, higher-level goals such as “get all the red coins in the world.” Often players work on several goals, at different levels, and on different time scales. This process of accumulating goals, understanding the world, making a plan and then acting in it, is a powerful means to get the player invested and involved.20
玩家在玩游戏时参与目标的方式是一个复杂的过程。正如丘奇所提到的，在游戏的任何时刻，玩家都可能正在努力实现几个嵌套的、相互关联的目标。当玩家构建并努力实现短期和长期目标时，他们正在积极地规划游戏可能性空间的路线。
The way that players engage with goals as they play is a complex process. As Church mentions, at any moment during a game a player might be working on several nested, interrelated goals. As players construct and work toward short-term and long-term goals, they are actively charting a course through the space of possibility of a game.
在由可能性空间定义的游戏场景中，短期目标是帮助玩家通过两种相关的体验功能进行定位的导航灯塔。首先，玩家使用短期目标来制定计划。短期目标允许玩家提前计划，侦察未来的行动，产生关于他们应该如何玩游戏的假设。（我正在玩 Risk。如果我专注于下一轮征服南美洲会发生什么？）其次，短期目标是玩家满足感的来源。承担短期目标是一回事，但真正实现它又是另一回事。（我做到了！现在我将获得控制整个大陆的额外增援。）短期目标通过这两种功能产生乐趣：制定计划以及实现计划。
In the landscape of a game defined by the space of possibility, short-term goals are navigational beacons that help orient players through two related experiential functions. First, players use short-term goals to make plans. Short-term goals allow players to plan ahead, scouting out future actions, generating hypotheses about how they should play the game. (I’m playing Risk. What happens if I focus on conquering South America next turn?) Second, short-term goals are sources of satisfaction for players. It is one thing to take on a short-term goal, but it is another thing to actually attain it. (I did it! Now I’ll get bonus reinforcements for controlling a whole continent.) Short-term goals generate pleasure through both of these functions: making plans as well as achieving them.
短期目标是必要的，因为没有它们，玩家可能会迷失在游戏世界中。你的玩家是否对下一步该做什么感到困惑？也许你需要调整设计以鼓励他们制定短期目标。像 Ultima Online 这样的开放式大型多人在线角色扮演游戏拥有令人生畏的广阔可能性空间，但它也为短期目标提供了无数的机会。玩家是否试图加入公会？换取一套令人印象深刻的盔甲？还是只是探索世界的某个特定部分？游戏结构鼓励这些短期目标中的每一个，而玩家可以通过这种方式创作自己的体验，这也是 UO 为其忠实玩家提供如此强烈乐趣的原因之一。
Short-term goals are necessary because without them, a player can get lost in the landscape of a game. Are your players confused about what to do next? Perhaps you need to adjust the design to encourage the creation of short-term goals. An openended, massively multiplayer online role-playing game such as Ultima Online has an intimidatingly vast space of possibility, but it also provides innumerable opportunities for short-term goals. Are players trying to work their way into a guild? Trade up for an impressive suit of armor? Or just explore a particular section of the world? The game structure encourages each of these short-term goals, and the fact that players can author their own experiences in this way is part of the reason why UO provides such intense pleasure to its dedicated players.
玩家在游戏中体验到的乐趣来自许多同时发生的因素：从即时的核心机制到游戏的短期成就，再到游戏的最终结果。这些相互关联的因素都以自己的方式产生乐趣。核心机制可能提供感官享受，短期目标提供逐步掌握技能的满足感，赢得炫耀权的乐趣。但将这些乐趣层次联系起来的是有意义的游戏。没有有意义的游戏，玩家将永远无法采取具有可预测结果的行动，无法选择这个而不是那个，也无法知道选择的结果。如果玩家没有进步的能力，没有成就感，不知道他们何时接近或远离胜利，你的游戏体验就会一文不值。玩乐可能看起来是自由和自发的，与精心、有意识的设计过程相去甚远，但创造一款可以滋养深度乐趣的游戏——可以真正吸引和迷住玩家，可以带来新形式的乐趣和意义——始终是一个敏感和详细的游戏设计的问题。
The pleasure a player experiences in a game arises from many simultaneous factors: from the moment-to-moment core mechanic to the short-term accomplishments of play to the final outcome of the game. Each of these interrelated factors generates pleasure in its own way. The core mechanic might provide sensual entrainment, the short-term goals the satisfaction of gradual skill mastery, and the pleasure of winning the spoils of bragging rights. But what links these levels of pleasure is meaningful play. Without meaningful play, a player will never be able to take actions that have predictable outcomes, to choose this over that with a sense of how the choice plays out. Without the ability of players to progress, to have a sense of achievement and accomplishment, to know when they are moving toward or away from victory, your game’s play experience will be dead in the water. The play of pleasure may seem free and spontaneous, the farthest thing from a careful, conscious design process, but creating a game that can nourish deep pleasure—that can truly entrain and enrapture players, that can lead to new forms of pleasure and meaning—is always a matter of sensitive and detailed game design.
条件性愉悦
Conditioned Pleasure
有意义的游戏是设计游戏乐趣的关键，但只有通过做出选择，有意义的游戏才会出现。如果你还记得交互性，就会知道选择由两个主要部分组成：玩家采取的行动和行动的结果。我们对核心机制的探索集中在等式中行动的那一半：玩家执行的实际活动。那么另一半——结果呢？一种构建选择时刻这一方面的方法是，每当玩家采取行动时，她最终都会得到游戏的奖励或惩罚。
Meaningful play is key to designing pleasure in games, but it is only by making choices that meaningful play emerges. If you recall from Interactivity, a choice is made up of two primary components: the action that the player takes and the outcome of that action. Our exploration of the core mechanic focused on the action half of the equation: the actual activity that the player performs. So what about the other half—the outcome? One way of framing this facet of the moment of choice is that whenever a player takes an action, she ends up being rewarded or punished by the game as a result.
心理学家在各种情况下研究了选择、行动、奖励和惩罚之间的关系。一种有用的方法被称为行为理论，它强调可观察的行为，特别是与他人互动的方式环境塑造行为。伊万·巴甫洛夫和约翰·B·沃森是行为理论的早期支持者，他们设计了一系列旨在研究习得行为的实验。在一个著名的实验中，狗在吃饭时会响起铃声。最后，狗会把铃声与食物联系起来，听到铃声就会流口水。即使没有食物，狗也已经“适应”了对食物的自然反应（流口水）。巴甫洛夫和沃森认为同样的原则可以应用于人类行为。这种将先天反射反应与新刺激联系起来的条件反射被称为经典条件反射。21
Psychologists have studied the connection between choice, action, reward, and punishment in a variety of contexts. One useful approach, known as behavior theory, emphasizes observable behavior, specifically the way that interaction with an environment shapes behavior. Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson were early proponents of behavior theory and developed a series of experiments designed to study learned behavior. In one famous experiment, a bell would ring as dogs were fed a meal. Eventually, the dogs came to associate the bell-ringing with food, and would salivate at the sound of the bell. The dogs had been “conditioned” to provide their natural response to food (which was to salivate) even when the food was not present. Pavlov and Watson believed that the same principles could be applied to human behavior. This kind of conditioning, in which innate reflex responses are tied to a new stimulus, became known as classical conditioning.21
心理学家 BF Skinner 改进了 Watson 和 Pavlov 的思想，摒弃了他们对反射和自然条件作用的过分强调。相反，Skinner 赋予学习主体更积极的作用。根据 Skinner 的操作行为理论，人们学会以自己的方式行事，是因为某种行为在过去得到了奖励。如果实验室老鼠知道按下杠杆会导致食物颗粒出现，那么随着时间的推移，它将形成按下杠杆的强烈倾向。
Psychologist B. F. Skinner refined the ideas of Watson and Pavlov by rejecting their exclusive emphasis on reflexes and natural conditioning. Instead, Skinner attributed a more active role to the learning subject. According to Skinner’s theory of operant behavior, people learn to behave the way that they do because a certain kind of behavior has been rewarded in the past. If a lab rat learns that pressing a lever results in a food pellet appearing, it is going to develop a strong tendency to press that lever over time.
行为理论区分了正强化（积极的奖励，例如老鼠得到食物颗粒）、负强化（消除不愉快的事物，例如消除高声调的噪音）和惩罚（增加不愉快的事物，例如突然的电击）。每种强化在特定情况下都有效，通常是在强化或惩罚事件紧随其要调节的行为之后。强化之所以起作用，通常是因为它们的痛苦和快乐效果与先天的生物反应有关。然而，在社会和文化层面起作用的惩罚和强化也会对人们产生强烈的影响。例如，老师的点头和微笑可以起到强有力的正强化作用。在游戏中，这些非生物强化作为游戏选择的结果很常见。例如，游戏中的正强化可能涉及给予玩家奖励积分或额外的生命；负强化可能是消除游戏角色的衰弱疾病；惩罚可能是对玩家角色的破坏性攻击。
Behavior theory distinguishes between positive reinforcements (a positive reward, such as a rat getting a food pellet), negative reinforcements (the removal of something unpleasant, like silencing a loud, high-pitched noise), and punishments (the addition of something unpleasant, such as a sudden electric shock). Each kind of reinforcement can be effective in a particular context, usually when the reinforcement or punishment event immediately follows the behavior it is meant to condition. Reinforcements often function because their effects of pain and pleasure are linked to innate biological responses. However, punishments and reinforcements that operate on social and cultural levels can also have strong effects for people. For example, a nod and smile from a teacher can serve as powerful positive reinforcement. In games, these kind of non-biological reinforcements as the outcome of a game choice are common. For example, positive reinforcement in a game might involve giving a player bonus points or an extra life; a negative reinforcement might be eliminating a debilitating disease from a game character; a punishment might be a damaging attack on a player’s character.
游戏是意义系统。在人为设定的界限内，奖励和惩罚被解读为积极或消极，并产生影响玩家行为的力量。操作性条件反射提醒游戏设计师注意游戏鼓励或阻止某些行为的方式。在创造奖励和惩罚时，游戏设计师塑造了玩家未来可能采取的行动。这是一个重要的游戏设计概念，尤其是在数字游戏中，程序自动执行了大部分游戏活动。
Games are systems of meaning. It is within their artificial boundaries that rewards and punishments are interpreted as positive or negative and gain force to shape player behavior. Operant conditioning reminds game designers to pay attention to the way a game encourages or discourages certain behaviors. In creating rewards and punishments, game designers shape the actions players are likely to take in the future. This is an important game design concept, especially in digital games, where the program automates so much of the play activity.
奖励和时间表
Rewards and Schedules
操作性条件反射不仅影响玩家在游戏过程中做出的选择，还影响他们继续玩游戏的总体动机。奖励和惩罚不仅塑造了好坏行为，还塑造了玩家的愉悦感和整体游戏体验。游戏设计师 Neal 和 Jana Hallford 指出了这一设计挑战：
Operant conditioning not only affects the kinds of choices players make during the course of a game, but also their general motivation to continue playing. More than just shaping good and bad behaviors, rewards and punishments shape a player’s sense of pleasure and overall play experience. Game designers Neal and Jana Hallford point out this design challenge:
令人惊讶的是，许多开发者都忘记了，最初吸引人们玩游戏的不是障碍，而是胜利和宝藏。如果你停止提供让玩家兴奋的诱饵，或者更糟的是，如果你开始因为他们的好奇心而惩罚他们，你只会赶走那些想要享受你的游戏的人。22
It’s surprising how many developers forget that it’s the victories and the treasures—not the obstacles—that make people interested in playing in the first place. If you stop giving out the carrots that will keep players excited, or even worse, if you start punishing them for their curiosity, you’re only going to drive away the very people who want to enjoy your game.22
让玩家在玩游戏时全神贯注是游戏设计的两个诱惑中的第二个。Hallford 和 Hallford 完全正确地指出，玩家需要得到奖励，他们需要完成任务并在玩游戏时感到满足。虽然惩罚很重要，但总的来说，游戏体验需要令人愉悦。否则，没有人会感到有趣。
Keeping players engrossed in your game as they play is the second of the two seductions of game design. Hallford and Hallford are absolutely correct that players need to be rewarded, that they need to accomplish tasks and feel satisfaction as they play. Although punishments are important, on balance a play experience needs to be pleasurable. Otherwise, nobody is having any fun.
游戏能为玩家提供哪些奖励？游戏形式多种多样，奖励也多种多样。Hallford 和 Hallford 列出了四种一般奖励类型。虽然这些类别是针对电脑角色扮演游戏而写的，但它们也暗示了其他类型的游戏可能包含的奖励类型。
What kinds of rewards can games offer players? There are as many kinds of rewards as there are forms of play. Hallford and Hallford list four general types. Although these categories were written about computer role-playing games, they suggest the kinds of rewards other kinds of games might contain.
•荣耀奖励。荣耀奖励是您要给予玩家的所有东西，它们对游戏本身完全没有影响，但最终会让他们从游戏体验中受益。这包括一路走到最后赢得游戏、完成特别困难的支线任务或击败邪恶怪物的阴谋。
• Rewards of Glory. Glory rewards are all the things you’re going to give to the player that have absolutely no impact on the game play itself but will be things they end up taking away from the experience. This includes winning the game by getting all the way to the end, completing a particularly difficult side quest, or defeating the plots of evil monsters.
•维持生计的奖励。提供这种性质的奖励是为了让玩家维持其角色的现状并保留他们迄今为止在游戏中获得的所有东西。这可能包括治疗伤口的健康包、增加玩家魔法能力的魔法药水、保护玩家免受电子辐射的高科技装甲、消除诅咒或疾病的机器人，甚至是允许玩家角色随身携带更多资源的储物箱或驮畜。
• Rewards of Sustenance. Rewards of this nature are given so the player can maintain their avatar’s status quo and keep all the things they’ve gained in the game so far. This might include health packs that heal injuries, mana potions that increase a player’s magical abilities, high-tech armor that shields a player from e-mag radiation, robots that remove curses or diseases, or even storage boxes or beasts of burden that allow a player’s avatar to carry more resources along with them.
•访问奖励。访问奖励有三个关键特征：允许玩家访问以前无法访问的新位置或资源；通常只能使用一次；使用后对玩家没有其他价值。钥匙、撬锁和密码是此类奖励的典型例子。
• Rewards of Access. Rewards of access have three critical features: they allow a player access to new locations or resources that were previously inaccessible, they are generally used only once, and they have no other value to the player once they’ve been used. Keys, picklocks, and passwords are typical examples of this kind of reward.
•能力奖励。能力奖励使玩家的角色能够做他们以前做不到的事情或增强他们已经拥有的能力。如果处理得当，它们应该会增加玩家在玩游戏时拥有的策略和选项的数量。能力奖励的一个很好的例子可能是让角色穿过石墙的魔法球或让他们从远处关闭敌人炮塔的控制论软件升级。23
• Rewards of Facility. Rewards of facility enable a player’s avatar to do things they couldn’t do before or enhance abilities they already possess. When well handled, they should increase the number of strategies and options that player will have for playing the game. A good example of a facility reward might be a magic orb that lets an avatar walk through a stone wall or a cybernetic software up-grade that lets them shut down enemy gun turrets from a distance.23
惩罚、负面强化和正面强化都是重要的游戏设计工具。它们不仅教会玩家在游戏中应该采取什么行动和不应该采取什么行动，而且还能构建更大的乐趣结构。这些结构确保玩家因花时间参与为他们设计的体验而获得适当的奖励。但在游戏中成功使用强化不仅仅意味着知道要提供什么样的乐趣。知道如何将奖励和惩罚融入游戏的体验结构也同样重要。强化发生的频率是多少？奖励或惩罚有多大的力量？强化因素会随着时间的推移而改变还是保持不变？
Punishments, negative reinforcement, and positive reinforcement are important game design tools. They not only teach players what actions to take and not to take in a game, but also craft larger structures of pleasure. These structures assure that players are properly rewarded for spending the time to take part in the experience designed for them. But using reinforcement successfully in a game means more than just knowing what kinds of pleasures to provide. It is equally important to know how to integrate rewards and punishments into the experiential structures of a game. How often does reinforcement occur? How powerful is the reward or punishment? Do reinforcement factors change over time or remain the same?
行为理论对强化计划进行了大量研究。强化计划是指受试者在一段时间内获得强化的速率。这些强化模式以及综合奖励和惩罚网络有助于塑造任何游戏体验的结构。强化有两种基本类型：固定和可变。
Behavior theory has devoted much study to reinforcement schedules. A reinforcement schedule refers to the rate a subject is given reinforcement over time. These reinforcement patterns, along with a network of integrated rewards and punishments, help shape the fabric of any game experience. There are two basic kinds of reinforcement: fixed and variable.
固定强化意味着奖励或惩罚以稳定、连续的速率发生。固定比率意味着结果在行为执行的一定次数内发生，例如玩家每击败五波外星人就会获得一个 V 形徽章。固定间隔是指强化之间的固定时间间隔，例如只要玩家还活着，游戏中每 30 秒就会出现一次强化。
Fixed reinforcement means that rewards or punishments are occurring at a steady, continuous rate. A fixed ratio means that the outcome occurs a set number of times that the behavior is performed, such as a player getting a chevron for every five waves of aliens defeated. A fixed interval refers to a regular amount of time between reinforcements, as when a power-up appears in a game every 30 seconds as long as a player can stay alive.
对于可变强化，奖励和惩罚的间隔是不规则的。可变比率意味着结果在不规则的间隔后发生，就像老虎机以随机速率支付一样。对于可变间隔，奖励或惩罚以随机的时间间隔发生，就像在儿童机械游戏中一样，比如“别叫醒爸爸”，爸爸会在一段随机的时间后醒来（并产生负面后果）。
With variable reinforcement, the rewards and punishments are coming at irregular intervals. Variable ratio means that the outcome happens after an irregular number of intervals, like slot machine payoffs that occur at a random rate. With a variable interval, the reward or punishment occurs at random time intervals, as in mechanical children’s games like Don’t Wake Daddy, in which daddy will wake up (with negative consequences) after a random amount of time.
假设案例研究
A Hypothetical Case Study
一款名为“Unlocker”的游戏
A Game Called Unlocker
让我们虚构一个叫做 Unlocker 的游戏来说明关于经典条件作用的几点。Unlocker 是一款简单的 2D 电脑游戏，玩家从上到下的视角控制一个角色。在一系列房间中移动，玩家必须避开陷阱、收集武器、与追击的敌人战斗，并收集钥匙以打开通往其他房间和关卡的门。虽然可以进行战斗，但这并不是游戏的重点。Unlocker 的目标是在死亡前尽可能多地打开门并获得最高分。
Let’s invent a fictional game called Unlocker to illustrate several points about classical conditioning. Unlocker is a straightforward 2D computer game where the player controls an avatar seen from a top-down point of view. Moving through a series of rooms, the player must avoid traps, collect weapons, fight pursuing enemies, and collect keys that unlock doors to additional rooms and levels. Although combat can occur, it is not the intended focus of the game. The goal of Unlocker is to unlock as many doors as possible and earn the most points before dying.
即使是这个相对简单的游戏也包含多种对象和事件：打开和锁定的门、隐藏的钥匙、移动的敌人、移动、战斗、库存操作等等。由于许多玩家不会阅读说明（并且许多人在阅读后很快就会忘记），您如何教玩家在游戏中应该做什么？奖励和惩罚是塑造他们行为的一种手段。
Even this relatively simple game contains many kinds of objects and events: open and locked doors, hidden keys, mobile enemies, movement, combat, manipulation of an inventory, and so on. Because many players will not read the instructions (and just as many will forget them soon after reading), how do you teach players what they are supposed to do in the game? Rewards and punishments are one means of shaping their behavior.
游戏的总体轨迹是打开门，进入新的房间和新的游戏关卡。所以你希望你的玩家打开那些门。想象一下玩家第一次找到钥匙并用它打开一扇锁着的门。精灵动画播放，玩家看到门在游戏空间中打开。问题是游戏中没有任何东西可以让玩家知道开门是一个有价值的动作，可以让玩家更接近积极的结果。解决方案？奖励玩家！为玩家解锁门提供奖励积分，并确保添加 Ka -ching！声音来强调事件。当玩家解锁门时，让金色星星出现在界面上 - 也许五颗金色星星可以获得额外的生命。或者在屏幕上闪现一条消息，祝贺玩家并显示下一扇锁着的门的地图。这些可能的解决方案中的每一个都代表了奖励玩家解锁动作的不同方式。它们都将内部的、基于系统的奖励（积分、额外生命、关于隔壁位置的信息）与外部的、视听奖励（音效、金星、祝贺文字）相结合。如果你能为玩家制作适当的奖励，你就会再次产生实现令人满意的奖励事件的愿望，玩家的行动也会随之而来。
The overall trajectory of the game is to open doors and move on to new rooms and new game levels. So you want your players to open those doors. Imagine the first time a player finds a key and uses it on a locked door. A sprite animation plays and the player sees the door swing open in the game space. The problem is that there is nothing in the game to let a player know that unlocking the door is a valuable action that brings the player closer to a positive outcome. The solution? Reward the player! Give the player bonus points for unlocking a door and make sure to add a Ka-ching! sound to emphasize the event. Make a gold star appear in the interface when a player unlocks a door—maybe five gold stars earn an extra life. Or flash a message on the screen that congratulates the player and shows a map to the next locked door. Each of these possible solutions represents a different way to reward the player for the action of unlocking. All of them combine internal, system-based rewards (points, extra lives, information about the next door location) with external, audiovisual rewards (sound effects, gold stars, congratulatory text). If you can craft the proper reward for your player, you will create a desire to achieve that satisfying reward event again, and the player’s actions will follow suit.
负面强化和惩罚也是如此。通过提供不愉快的反馈，你可以教会玩家在游戏中不该做什么。假设你的意图是 Unlocker 的游戏玩法更多的是寻找钥匙和打开门，而不是与敌人战斗。在这种情况下，你可能需要找到惩罚违反游戏规则的玩家的方法。如果战斗奖励太多，无论是在结构方面（如赚取积分）还是在体验方面（如酷炫的战斗效果），你的玩家都会继续战斗，因为游戏本质上鼓励他们这样做。
The same is true of negative reinforcements and punishments. By providing unpleasant feedback, you can teach your player what not to do in your game. Let’s say your intention is that the game play of Unlocker is more about finding keys and unlocking doors than about combating enemies. In this case, you may need to find ways to punish players that go against the grain of the game. If combat is too rewarding, either in terms of structure (such as earning points) or experience (such as cool combat effects), your players will keep on fighting because the game intrinsically encourages them to do so.
解锁者
Unlocker
有什么办法可以解决这一困境呢？你可以让敌人变得更强大，但这可能只会鼓励玩家迎接挑战。有更好的“惩罚”可以让玩家远离战斗。例如，也许玩家不会因为杀死敌人而获得积分，只有找到物品和打开门才能获得积分。或者当他们在战斗中死亡时，他们会被送回较早的级别。或者当他们死亡时，他们会失去积分和游戏资源。显然，你不想因为玩家战斗或死亡而惩罚他们太严厉，但你确实想让他们朝着你为他们设计的方向前进。当然，如果你继续观察到你的 Unlocker 游戏测试员参与了太多的战斗而没有足够多的开门，这可能说明了其他问题。也许游戏的核心机制让战斗比你打算作为游戏重点的狩猎和解锁活动更引人注目。也许你应该把 Unlocker 变成一款战斗游戏。另一方面，你可以完全删除战斗组件。这是你的设计。你决定。
What are some solutions to this dilemma? You could make the enemies tougher, but that might simply encourage players to rise to the challenge. There are better “punishments” that can steer your players away from fighting. For example, maybe players earn no points from killing enemies, only from finding objects and unlocking doors. Or perhaps when they die as a result of combat, they are sent back to an earlier level. Or when they die, they lose points and game resources. Obviously, you do not want to punish the player too harshly for fighting or dying, but you do want to nudge them in the direction that you designed for them. Of course, if you continue to observe your Unlocker playtesters engaging in too much combat and not enough door unlocking, it might be telling you something else. Maybe something about the game’s core mechanic makes combat more compelling than the hunt-and-unlock activities you intended as the game’s focus. Perhaps you should turn Unlocker into a combat game. On the other hand, you could always remove the combat component entirely. It’s your design. You decide.
如果受试者受到惩罚，固定时间表最能塑造行为：每次孩子做出不良行为时都送他回房间比只在某些时候送他回房间更有效。另一方面，对于许多类型的强化，尤其是积极的强化，可变时间表更有效。在赌博中，玩家通常以可变比率获得奖励。赌徒的重复游戏是可变强化力量的有力证据。
Fixed schedules are best at shaping behavior if the subject is being punished: sending a child to his room every time he performs an undesired behavior is much more effective than sending him to his room only some of the time. On the other hand, for many kinds of reinforcements, especially positive ones, variable schedules are more effective. In gambling, players are usually rewarded at variable ratios. The repeat play of gamblers is strong evidence of the power of variable reinforcement.
一位以将操作性条件反射和强化计划的理念融入其作品而闻名的游戏设计师是电脑游戏《半条命》的首席设计师加布·纽维尔 (Gabe Newell)。在麻省理工学院游戏会议的小组讨论中，纽维尔讨论了《半条命》的设计如何整合这些概念：
One game designer known for integrating ideas of operant conditioning and reinforcement schedules into his work is Gabe Newell, lead designer on the computer game Half-Life. During a panel discussion at an MIT conference on gaming, Newell discussed the way that Half-Life’s design integrates these concepts:
《半条命》中的奖励包括看到新怪物、情节推进、获得新武器、看到一些非常酷的东西……你要确保在整个游戏过程中玩家都能获得奖励……你要从强化计划的角度来看待它，然后说，好的，这是有道理的。我的意思是，在我们发布之前，游戏中有一些点，那里有一段很长的停顿期，基本上你所做的都是你以前已经做过的事情，在我们看来，这并不代表奖励。所以我们说我们必须在这里放更多有趣的东西，或者从游戏中删除这个部分。24
The rewards in Half-Life are getting to see new monsters, the plot is moving forward, getting to have a new fun weapon, getting to see something really cool . . . . You want to make sure that throughout the course of the game that they’re getting rewards . . . . You want to look at it from the point of view of a reinforcement schedule and say OK, that makes sense. I mean there were points in the game before we shipped where there were long lulls where basically all you were doing was stuff that you’d already done before, which in our view didn’t represent a reward. So we said we’ve got to put more fun stuff in here or eliminate that section from the game.24
纽厄尔提出了一些重要的观点。他首先列出了《半条命》为玩家提供的一些主要奖励，其中包括霍尔福德和霍尔福德所说的设施奖励（新的有趣武器）、访问权奖励（遇到新的怪物并体验情节转折）和荣耀奖励（“看到一些非常酷的东西”）。他还强调，正是奖励让玩家在游戏过程中保持活力。当他的设计团队觉得玩家没有持续获得实质性奖励时，他们要么增加该部分的奖励，要么将其完全从游戏中移除。
Newell makes a number of important points. He begins by listing some of the chief rewards that Half-Life provides for players, which include what Hallford and Hallford call rewards of facility (new fun weapons), access (meet new monsters and experience plot twists), and glory (“getting to see something really cool”). He also emphasizes the fact that it is rewards that sustain players through the course of a game. When his design team felt like players were not consistently receiving substantive rewards, they either increased rewards in that section or removed it entirely from the game.
《半条命》还以其他方式运用了操作性条件反射原理。《半条命》的成功很大程度上归功于它塑造玩家体验的方式，在慢慢将玩家带入危险而神秘的空间的同时，营造出惊悚般的紧张感。例如，游戏中激烈的战斗时刻与平淡无奇的片段交织在一起。与典型的“每扇门后都潜伏着敌人”结构相反，《半条命》创造了游戏中可怕的变异怪物何时何地出现的不确定性。在某些游戏关卡中，大多数门不会向对手打开，而是向空旷的空间打开。在这些关卡中，《半条命》使用可变比率惩罚。有时玩家在打开门或拐弯时会受到攻击，但通常不会。这种设计策略的体验结果是，在《半条命》中，致命威胁似乎潜伏在每个黑暗阴影中和每扇关闭的门后。有节制地部署敌人，创造稀疏的意外、恐怖遭遇模式，通过使用更少的游戏元素带来更强大的体验。
Half-Life utilizes principles of operant conditioning in other ways as well. Much of the success of Half-Life has been attributed to the way that it shapes player experience, creating a thriller-like tension while drawing the player slowly into its dangerous and mysterious spaces. For example, the intensely combative moments in the game are interspersed with uneventful stretches. As opposed to a typical “enemy lurking behind every door” structure, Half-Life creates uncertainty about when and where the terrifying mutant monsters of the game will appear. In some game levels, most doors do not open up to an opponent but instead to empty space. In these levels, Half-Life uses variable ratio punishments. Sometimes the player will be attacked when he opens a door or rounds a corner, but usually he is not. The experiential result of this design strategy is that in Half-Life, deadly threats seem to lurk in every dark shadow and beyond every closed doorway. Deploying enemies with restraint, creating a sparse pattern of unexpected, horrifying encounters, results in a more powerful experience through the use of fewer game elements.
问题来了：如果奖励和乐趣是让玩家参与游戏的关键，那么为什么诸如各种怪物攻击之类的紧张惩罚不会让玩家离开呢？看似消极的情绪如何能创造出诱人的积极游戏体验呢？我们可以参考其他媒体中的类似乐趣来回答：令人恐惧的鬼故事或扣人心弦的科幻惊悚电影。但其中还有更深层次的原则。玩游戏就是体验它的乐趣。同时，我们从诱惑态度中知道，玩游戏的一部分就是接受人为的挑战，采用低效率没有任何逻辑上的原因，只是因为它们使游戏成为可能。将高尔夫球打进果岭上几码远的一个小洞里确实很有挑战性，但这几乎不会阻止高尔夫球手打球，就像《半条命》的焦虑不会导致玩家退出游戏一样。相反：挑战和挫折是游戏乐趣的必要条件。没有它们，就不会有游戏冲突需要对抗，也不会从克服逆境的过程中产生乐趣。
The question arises: if rewards and pleasure are the keys to keeping players involved in a game, why don’t tension-inducing punishments such as variable monster attacks drive players away? How can seemingly negative emotions create seductively positive play? We could answer by referring to similar pleasures in other media: the frightening ghost story or the gripping sci-fi cinema thriller. But there is a deeper principle at work. To play a game is to experience its pleasure. At the same time, we know from the lusory attitude that part of playing a game is to take on artificial challenges, inefficiencies adopted for no logical reason except that they make play possible. It is surely challenging to get a golf ball into a tiny little hole so many yards away on the green, but that hardly stops golfers from playing, just as the anxiety of Half-Life doesn’t cause players to exit the program. On the contrary: challenge and frustration are essential to game pleasure. Without them, there would be no game conflict to struggle against and no pleasure would emerge from the process of overcoming adversity.
奖励和惩罚是一枚硬币的两面，两者都是为玩家打造有意义的体验结构所必需的。在积极和消极体验（焦虑和愉悦之间）之间找到难以捉摸的平衡是游戏设计中最深层次的挑战之一。在下一节中，我们将直接探讨这些重要问题。
Reward and punishment are two sides of a coin, both of them necessary to craft the structure of meaningful experience for players. Finding that elusive balance between positive and negative experience—between anxiety and pleasure—is one of the deepest challenges of game design. In the following section, we engage directly with these important questions.
无聊与焦虑：心流重现
Boredom and Anxiety: Flow Redux
行为心理学中的概念——操作性条件反射、强化计划、正强化和负强化——描述了个体奖励和惩罚如何影响玩家的当前和未来行为。将这些概念付诸实践的挑战在于，游戏的实际环境总是比任何个体行为条件反射实例更复杂。
The concepts that come from behavioral psychology—operant conditioning, reinforcement schedules, positive and negative reinforcement—describe how individual rewards and punishments can affect a player’s present and future behavior. The challenge of putting these concepts to use is that the actual context of a game is always more complex than any individual instance of behavioral conditioning.
在游戏的任何时刻，玩家都会同时被推向和拉向多个方向，体验到复杂的混合乐趣。想想《半条命》的多层乐趣：潜伏未知的恐惧、在 3D 空间中移动的眩晕乐趣、逐渐掌握技能的满足感、对战斗可能性的战略探索、胜利完成游戏的荣耀。其中一些乐趣让玩家感到沮丧；另一些则提供感官享受的盛宴。还有一些在游戏之外的环境中找到了它们的主要意义。为了将多种乐趣纳入对游戏体验的单一理解，我们再次转向心理学家米哈里·契克森米哈赖的作品。在他的书《心流》中，契克森米哈赖提供了一种通用的启发式方法，用于理解参与者如何进入和退出心流状态。虽然我们知道心流并不等同于有意义的游戏（甚至不是一般的游戏），但该模型对于概念化游戏中的乐趣游戏非常有用。
At any moment in a game, a player is pushed and pulled in many directions at once, experiencing a complex mix of pleasures. Think about the layered pleasures of Half-Life: the terror of the lurking unknown, the vertiginous pleasure of moving in a 3D space, the satisfaction of gradual skill mastery, the strategic exploration of combat possibilities, the glory of finishing the game victorious. Some of these pleasures frustrate the player; others provide banquets of sensual delight. Yet others find their main significance in contexts outside the game. In order to bring the diversity of pleasure into a single understanding of the play experience, we turn once more to the work of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. In his book Flow, Csikszentmihalyi provides a general heuristic for understanding how a participant is pulled into and out of the flow state. Although we know that flow is not identical to meaningful play (or even play in general), the model is extremely useful for conceptualizing the play of pleasure in games.
Csikszentmihalyi 特别关注潜在心流活动所提供的挑战程度。活动提供的任务是否符合参与者的能力？当活动太难或不够难时会发生什么？在什么条件下人们可以参与活动并进入心流状态？在回答这些问题时，Csikszentmihalyi 沿着两个轴绘制了一个人的经历。一个轴代表活动提供的挑战程度。另一个轴代表参与者拥有的技能。
Csikszentmihalyi looks specifically at the degree of challenge that a potential flow activity provides. Does the activity provide tasks that meet the abilities of the participant? What happens when an activity is too difficult, or not difficult enough? What are the conditions under which someone can engage with the activity and enter a flow state? In answering these questions, Csikszentmihalyi charts a person’s experience along two axes. One axis represents the degree of challenge an activity offers. The other axis represents the skills a participant possesses.
术语旁注：行为理论和控制论
Terminological Aside: Behavior Theory and Cybernetics
如果所有这些关于正强化和负强化的讨论听起来很熟悉，那确实如此。控制论在谈论反馈回路时使用了类似的语言，我们在《游戏即控制论系统》中第一次遇到过这种语言。虽然行为理论和控制论之间存在联系，但也存在语言混淆的可能性。
If all of this talk about positive and negative reinforcement sounds familiar, it should. Cybernetics uses similar language when talking about feedback loops, which we first encountered in Games as Cybernetic Systems. Although there is a connection between behavior theory and cybernetics, there is also the possibility for linguistic confusion.
行为理论和控制论都探讨了重复动作和结果如何影响系统状态。如果恒温器不断指示加热器将热风吹入房间，则该正反馈控制论系统将继续向越来越高的温度发展。如果一只狗因表演技巧而不断获得食物奖励，它将继续尝试表演技巧以获得更多食物。
Behavior theory and cybernetics both address the way that repeated actions and outcomes affect the state of a system. If a thermostat keeps telling a heater to blow hot air into a room, that cybernetic system of positive feedback will continue to progress toward higher and higher temperatures. If a dog is continually rewarded with food for performing tricks, it will keep trying to perform tricks in order to get more food.
然而，两者研究的现象类型也存在差异。控制论关注的是偏离稳定状态：负反馈使系统恢复稳定，正反馈使系统远离稳定。行为理论关注的是智能学习行为，它将具体行动与结果联系起来。尽管它们在结构上有些相似，但这两种思维方式并不完全相同。
However, there are also differences in the kind of phenomena studied by each. Cybernetics is concerned with deviation from a stable state: negative feedback returns a system to stability and positive feedback moves the system away from stability. Behavior theory is concerned with intelligent learning behavior, which makes associations between specific actions and outcomes. Although they share some structural affinity, these two ways of thinking are not at all identical.
在使用“积极”和“消极”这两个术语的方式上也有差异。在行为理论中，“积极”一词有快乐的含义，例如老师表扬学生。同样，“消极”有不愉快的含义，甚至暗示惩罚。但在控制论中，积极和消极这两个术语是数学上的，任何一个都可能给玩家带来积极或消极的情感体验。如果在赛车游戏机中，排名最后的汽车自动获得加速，这就是负反馈系统（趋向于所有汽车都处于平等位置的稳定状态）的一个例子。加速很可能会对失败的玩家产生积极的情感影响。“正强化”和“负强化”不是通用术语，根据你指的是控制论还是心理学，它们的含义非常不同。使用时要小心！
There are also differences in the way that each uses the terms “positive” and “negative.” The term “positive” has happy connotations in behavior theory, as when a teacher rewards students with praise. Similarly, “negative” has unpleasant connotations, even implying punishment. But in cybernetics, the terms positive and negative are mathematical, and either one might result in an emotionally positive or negative experience for a player. If, in a car racing console game, the car in last place is given an automatic boost, that is an example of a negative feedback system (tendency toward a stable state where all cars are in equal place). The boost will most likely have a positive emotional impact on the losing player. “Positive reinforcement” and “negative reinforcement” are not universal terms, and mean very different things depending on whether you’re referring to cybernetics or psychology. Be careful how you use them!
这两个因素的值都从低到高不等，当玩家移动到图表上的不同位置时，他或她会经历不同的活动体验。窄对角线代表潜在的心流状态，即玩家的技能与活动的挑战相等的时刻。这条线的一侧是焦虑状态，活动的测试超出了参与者的技能。另一侧是无聊状态，即玩家的能力超出了活动所能提供的挑战。
Both factors can range from a low to a high value, and as a player moves to different positions on the chart, he or she is navigating through different experiences of the activity. The narrow diagonal strip represents a potential flow state, those moments when a player’s skills equally meet the challenges of the activity. On one side of this strip is the state of anxiety, where the activity’s tests exceed the participant’s skills. On the other side is boredom, the state in which the player’s abilities outstrip what challenge the activity can provide.
Csikszentmihalyi 举了一个学习打网球的人的例子。当一名网球运动员开始学习时，她在图表上的位置是 1，技能较低，但也面临着与她能力相称的挑战，这意味着她可能有一些初步的流畅体验。然而，随着她的进步，她很可能会脱离流畅状态。如果她的网球技能超过了课程的挑战，结果就是体验无法完全吸引她，她会发现自己处于位置 2（无聊）。另一方面，如果她从网球中感受到的挑战感是压倒性的，结果就是一次消极而令人生畏的体验，位置 3（焦虑）。只有在技能和挑战之间找到新的平衡，网球运动员才能到达位置 4 并重新获得流畅状态。
Csikszentmihalyi uses the example of someone learning to play Tennis. When a Tennis player begins her study, she is at position 1 on the chart, possessing low skills, but also facing challenges appropriate to her abilities, meaning that she may have some initial experiences of flow. As she proceeds, however, she is likely to fall out of flow. If her Tennis skills exceed the challenge of her lessons, the result is an experience that does not fully engage her, and she finds herself in position 2 (boredom). On the other hand, if the sense of challenge she feels from Tennis is overwhelming, the result is a negative and intimidating experience, position 3 (anxiety). Only by finding a new balance between skill and challenge can the Tennis player arrive at position 4 and regain the flow state.
Csikszentmihalyi 的模型与游戏设计有很大的相关性。有多少次你在玩游戏时体验不佳，要么是因为游戏太难学，要么是因为游戏挑战性不足以满足你的技能水平？请记住，对于游戏而言，技能和挑战的概念应该被广泛地解释。技能不仅仅意味着手眼协调能力或运动能力。技能的提高可能表现为对游戏系统规则的更多了解、对游戏叙事世界的更详细映射，或者在赌桌上下更大赌注的信心增加。
Csikszentmihalyi’s model has a great deal of relevance to game design. How many times have you played a game and had a negative experience, either because it was too difficult to learn or play, or because it was not challenging enough for your skill level? Remember that for games, the concepts of skill and challenge should be interpreted broadly. Skill does not only mean hand-eye coordination or athletic ability. Increasing skill might take the form of greater knowledge of a game system’s rules, more detailed mapping of the game’s narrative world, or increasing confidence to bet larger and larger sums of money at a gambling table.
从 Csikszentmihalyi 的方法中可以得出一个有用的见解，那就是他的模型不仅仅解决游戏中的某个孤立时刻，而是在多次游戏过程中跟踪玩家的体验。最好的游戏会设法扩大对玩家的挑战。理想情况下，游戏应该简单易学但难以精通，为初学者和高级玩家提供适当的挑战程度。设计不佳的游戏可能会陷入两个“陷阱”——无聊和焦虑——这是思考玩家游戏体验的非常有用的方式。你能否在游戏的每个阶段为所有级别的玩家提供适当的挑战？在游戏测试期间，密切关注遇到无聊和焦虑的玩家，并注意这些时刻发生的时间。背景是什么？在这些时刻发生了什么样的决定和结果？什么样的玩家策略导致了无聊或焦虑？
One of the useful insights gleaned from Csikszentmihalyi’s approach is that his model doesn’t simply address an isolated moment in a game, but tracks a player’s experience over time, over the course of many games. The best games manage to scale their challenge to the player. Ideally, games are simple to learn but difficult to master, providing an appropriate degree of challenge for beginners and advanced players alike. The two “traps” into which poorly designed games can fall—boredom and anxiety—are extremely useful ways of thinking about your players’ game experience. Can you provide proper challenge at every stage of the game, for all levels of players? During playtesting, keep a sharp eye out for players encountering boredom and anxiety and note when these moments occur. What was the context? What kinds of decisions and outcomes were happening during these moments? What kinds of player strategies led to boredom or anxiety?
我们也可以从有意义的游戏的角度来定义无聊和焦虑。这两种状态都代表了设计不当的选择时刻。例如，如果玩家感到无聊，那么她就没有在有意义地探索游戏的可能性空间。
We can also frame boredom and anxiety in terms of meaningful play. Both states represent poorly designed moments of choice. If a player is feeling boredom, for example, she is not meaningfully exploring the space of possibility of a game.
也许决策结果与行动的联系不够紧密，因此游戏中的事件让人感觉很随意。无聊是游戏中的“死角”，是当玩家没有在引人入胜的体验模式中面对丰富的选择时，紧张的可能性空间变得松散的时刻。玩游戏是玩家与游戏系统之间的舞蹈。当游戏无聊时，玩家的舞伴感觉就像一团没有生命的物质，不得不在舞池里被拖着走。这听起来不太有趣。
Perhaps the outcome of a decision is not tied closely enough to the action, and so events in the game feel arbitrary. Boredom is “dead space” in a game, moments when the taut space of possibility falls limp, when the player is not being confronted with a rich set of choices in an entraining pattern of experience. Playing a game is a dance between a player and the system of the game. When a game is boring, the player’s dance partner feels like a lifeless mass that has to be dragged about the dance floor. That doesn’t sound like much fun.
游戏中的无聊感可能来自许多不同的来源。在 Gabe Newell 的文章中，他回忆了令人失望的发现：“在长时间的沉寂中，你基本上所做的一切都是以前已经做过的事情。”尽管玩家实际上非常忙碌，但缺乏新的奖励并不能为玩家创造足够的动力。但太多的奖励也会产生无聊感。玩家通常渴望权力，Hallford 和 Hallford 称之为能力和维持的奖励。但过多的权力会让玩家感到无所不能和极度无聊，尽管他们拥有出色的能力。
Boredom can come from many different sources in a game. In the passage from Gabe Newell, he recalled the disappointing discovery of “long lulls where basically all you were doing was doing stuff that you’d already done before.” Even though the player was actually quite busy, the lack of new kinds of rewards wasn’t creating sufficient motivation for the player. But too many rewards can create boredom as well. Players often crave power, what Hallford and Hallford would call rewards of facility and sustenance. But too much power leaves players feeling tediously omnipotent and enormously bored, despite their fantastic abilities.
焦虑感也以类似的方式发挥作用。正如《半条命》中所指出的，戏剧性的紧张感可以成为设计的绝佳体验工具。但有意义的挑战和真正令人不快的焦虑之间的界限非常模糊。想象一下，如果《半条命》中的紧张感永不缓解，如果玩家从未获得奖励来平衡各种惩罚，如果玩家从未感受到真正的成就感。游戏体验就像一系列无端的攻击，没有理由，也看不到尽头。
Anxiety operates in a parallel manner. Dramatic tension, as noted in Half-Life, can be a wonderful experiential tool for design. But there is a very thin line between meaningful challenge and truly unpleasant anxiety. Imagine if the tension in Half-Life never let up, if the player never received rewards to balance variable punishments, if the player was never able to feel an actual sense of accomplishment. The game experience would feel like a series of gratuitous attacks, with no justification or end in sight.
当玩游戏成为焦虑的代名词时，这种体验与无聊惊人地相似。无论玩家做出什么选择，感觉总是会产生负面结果，因此游戏中的选择感觉很随意。可能性空间变得令人窒息和呆滞。再次使用舞蹈隐喻，当游戏体验成为焦虑的代名词时，游戏系统会完全接管舞蹈，就像一个压倒性的机器人，玩家被困在一系列无法控制的动作中。再一次，有意义的游戏无法发生。
When the play of a game becomes synonymous with anxiety, the experience is surprisingly similar to boredom. No matter what choice a player makes, it feels like negative outcomes will always result, and choices in the game therefore feel arbitrary. The space of possibility becomes stifling and inert. To use the dancing metaphor once again, when game experience becomes synonymous with anxiety, the system of the game takes over the dance completely, like an overpowering robot, and the player is trapped in a series of actions over which she has no control. Once again, meaningful play fails to occur.
焦虑有时是由于游戏设计师在寻求设计具有挑战性的游戏时，所设计的游戏过于具有挑战性，尤其是对于新手玩家而言。还记得《游戏作为冲突系统》中冲突的公平竞争环境吗？重要的是，玩家在玩游戏时感受到公平感，他们的输赢取决于他们在公平的游戏系统中运用自己的能力。这就是为什么许多游戏都有让分规则或玩家等级，以便技能相同的玩家可以相互匹配。对于单人数字游戏，预测和平衡挑战与焦虑会更具挑战性。在《游戏作为控制论系统》中，我们研究了一种重要的挑战管理方法，称为动态难度调整，该方法用于《古惑狼》和《杰克与达斯特》等游戏。
Anxiety sometimes results because in seeking to design a challenging game, game designers create games that are too challenging, especially for novice players. Remember the level playing field of conflict from Games as Systems of Conflict? It is important that players feel a sense of fairness as they play, that they win or lose because of the application of their own abilities within an equitable game system. This is why many games have handicapping rules or player classes, so that players of equal skill can be matched up against each other. With single-player digital games, it can be more challenging to anticipate and balance challenge and anxiety. In Games as Cybernetic Systems, we looked at an important approach to challenge management called Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment, used in games like Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter.
Csikszentmihalyi 的无聊和焦虑模型在很多方面都适用于游戏。例如，它可以帮助我们了解玩家如何在单个游戏中应对技能和挑战，或者了解游戏技能是如何随着时间的推移逐渐积累起来的。Csikszentmihalyi 的模型还可以作为游戏设计过程中的工具。迭代设计过程允许游戏设计师在游戏中找出无聊和焦虑的时刻，并重塑游戏体验，以最大限度地减少无意义的游戏时刻。
Csikszentmihalyi’s model of boredom and anxiety applies to games in many ways. It can help us understand how a player navigates the terrain of skill and challenge within a single game, for example, or to understand the way game skills are slowly built up over time. Csikszentmihalyi’s model can also serve as a tool within the game design process. An iterative design process allows game designers to locate moments of boredom and anxiety in their game and re-shape the game experience to minimize moments of less meaningful play.
公海上的焦虑与无聊
Anxiety and Boredom on the High Seas
在 Gamasutra.com 上发表的一篇精彩文章中，迪士尼幻想工程的 Jesse Schell 和 Joe Shochet 介绍了《加勒比海盗——海盗金币之战》的设计过程。这是一款游戏“游乐设施”，一群玩家站在一艘被视频投影环绕的动感平台海盗船上。在游戏过程中，一名玩家驾驶海盗船，其他玩家操作多门大炮，向怪物、堡垒和敌舰开火。《加勒比海盗》被设计为一种浓缩的五分钟体验，让玩家在游戏的每一刻都感受到适当的挑战至关重要。
In a wonderful essay published on Gamasutra.com, Jesse Schell and Joe Shochet of Disney Imagineering write about the process of designing Pirates of the Caribbean—Battle for the Buccaneer Gold, a game “ride” where a group of players stands on a motion-platform pirate ship surrounded by video projections. During the game, one player steers the ship while the other players operate a number of cannons, firing at monsters, forts, and enemy vessels. Pirates of the Caribbean is designed as a condensed five-minute experience, and it was essential that players feel properly challenged at every moment of the game.
在设计分析中，Schell 和 Shochet 详述了为最大限度地提高玩家的乐趣而必须克服的一系列设计问题。例如，在游戏测试期间，他们发现一个问题，即驾驶飞船的玩家可能会将飞船带到他们所谓的“无聊的地方”，从而导致所有玩家的体验都不太有趣。在以下精选引言中，Schell 和 Shochet 概述了解决此问题的一些方法：
In their design analysis, Schell and Shochet detail a number of design problems that had to be overcome in order to maximize player enjoyment. For example, during playtesting they identified as a problem the fact that the player steering the ship could take the ship to what they call “dull places,” leading to a less engaging experience for all of the players. In the selected quotes below, Schell and Shochet outline some solutions to this problem:
建筑小雕像： “小雕像”是华特·迪士尼自己创造的一个短语。它指的是电影片场中用举起香肠的一部分来引导舞台狗的技术……在《加勒比海盗》中，有三个主要的“小雕像”，每个岛屿一个：一座火山、一座巨大的堡垒和一座燃烧的城镇冒出的浓烟。无论船朝哪个方向行驶，至少可以看到其中一个“小雕像”。由于最酷的活动发生在岛屿上，[我们想]引导船长前往那里。
Architectural Weenies: “Weenie” is a phrase coined by Walt Disney himself. It refers to the technique used on movie sets of guiding stage dogs by holding up part of a sausage . . . . In the case of Pirates, [there are] three main “weenies,” one for each island: a volcano, an enormous fort, and a plume of smoke coming from a burning town. No matter which way the boat is facing, at least one of these “weenies” is in view. Since the coolest action takes place at the islands, [we wanted] to guide the captains to go there.
引导船：由于游戏的短期目标是向其他海盗船开火，因此船长们努力靠近这些船只，以便他们的炮手能够获得清晰的射击。海盗世界中的许多船只都在“前往”上述岛屿的途中。许多船长只是试图靠近这些船只，却发现他们刚刚摧毁了船只，就到达了其中一个岛屿，甚至没有尝试到达那里。
Guide Ships: Since the short-term goal of the game is to fire on other pirate ships, captains strive to get near these ships so that their gunners can get a clear shot. Many of the ships in the Pirates world are “on their way” to the islands mentioned above. Many captains, in just trying to stay near these ships find that just as they have destroyed the ship, they have arrived at one of the islands, without even trying to get there.
偷袭：如果船长无视引导船会怎么样？即使他朝其中一艘“小船”驶去，也可能意味着在长达一分钟的时间里，炮手们几乎无力射击。出于这个原因，[我们]创造了特殊的“偷袭”船，它们会“神奇地”出现在玩家船的后面，并在没有其他船只在射程内时迅速靠拢。
Sneak attacks: What if the captain ignores the guide ships? Even if he heads toward one of the “weenies” it might mean as long as a minute during which the gunners have little to shoot at. For this reason, [we] created special “sneak attack” ships that “magically” appear behind the players’ ship, and quickly pull up alongside, when no other boats are in range.
水龙卷：这是环绕游戏区域的“最后一道防线”力场的昵称。如果船长试图驶出主游戏区域并驶向公海，他们就会撞上力场，船就会“神奇地”回到行动地点。看到这种情况的少数客人甚至没有意识到发生了什么不寻常的事情。他们只是很高兴他们的船能去某个很酷的地方。二十五
The Waterspout: This was [a] nickname for [a] “last ditch” forcefield that surrounds the game play area. If a captain tries to sail out of the main game play area and out to open sea, they hit the forcefield, and the ship is “magically” pointed back to where the action is. The few guests who see this don’t even realize that anything unusual has happened. They are just pleased to have their boat going somewhere cool.25
Schell 和 Shochet 的思维方式非常注重体验，他们使用巧妙的技巧巧妙地引导玩家的行动朝着有意义的方向发展。《加勒比海盗》在发行时是一部高科技作品，具有实时 3D 图形、引人入胜的炮火界面以及模拟海盗船在海浪中摇晃的大型运动平台。在这些情况下，通常希望“正确”模拟连贯的 3D 空间或“正确”输出计算机控制角色的逻辑行为，而忽略了实际游戏体验的设计。但 Schell 和 Shochet 毫不犹豫地让海盗船“神奇地”出现来引导玩家，或者放弃“现实”物理，让玩家的船瞬间转弯以方便航行。正如他们所说，“通过选择较少关注现实，更多地关注什么是有趣的，我们创造了一种体验……更容易适应，更快学习，也更精彩。”在游戏设计中，玩家体验应该始终高于所谓的“真实感”。
Schell and Shochet are thinking in very experiential terms, using clever techniques to subtly guide player action in meaningful directions. At the time of its release, Pirates was a very high-tech production, featuring real-time 3D graphics, physically engaging cannon-firing interfaces, and a large motion platform to simulate a pirate ship rocking on the waves. Often in these instances, a desire to “properly” simulate a coherent 3D space or “correctly” output logical behavior for computer-controlled characters overshadows the design of the actual play experience. But Schell and Shochet had no hesitation in making pirate ships “magically” appear to guide the player, or abandoning “realistic” physics to have the player’s ship turn on a dime to facilitate navigation. As they put it,” By choosing to be less concerned with reality and more concerned with what was fun, we created an experience that . . . . is easier to adapt to, quicker to learn, and is a better show.” In game design, player experience should always trump so-called “realism.”
作为游戏设计的关键词，无聊和焦虑非常精彩，因为它们直接与玩家体验相关。当你塑造和塑造玩家的乐趣时，你正在引导他们在焦虑和无聊的两难境地之间徘徊。这项任务变得更加困难，因为我们知道，游戏体验只能间接设计。你如何创建一套规则来最大限度地提高观众的游戏乐趣？
Boredom and anxiety, as game design watchwords, are wonderful because they speak directly to player experience. As you shape and sculpt your players’ pleasure, you are guiding them between the Scylla and Charybdis of anxiety and boredom. This task is made all the more difficult because, as we know, the experience of play can only be indirectly designed. How do you create a set of rules that maximizes the play of pleasure for your audience?
有意义的快乐
Meaningful Pleasure
我们可以通过重复和娱乐、短期和长期目标、奖励和惩罚以及焦虑和无聊等概念来识别愉悦游戏的元素。然而，最终，玩家会体验到一种更普遍的愉悦感和享受感；一种直接源于游戏的全身心投入感，体验式整体大于部分之和。乐趣是自然产生的。构建游戏规则，即产生这种乐趣的正式系统，是游戏设计的挑战。像往常一样，理解的关键是有意义的游戏。
We can identify elements of the play of pleasure through concepts such as repetition and entrainment, short-term and long-term goals, rewards and punishments, and anxiety and boredom. Ultimately, however, a player experiences a more pervasive sense of pleasure and enjoyment; a total feeling of engagement that arises directly from play, the experiential whole that is more than the sum of the parts. Pleasure is emergent. Constructing the rules of a game, the formal system that produces this pleasure, is the challenge of game design. As usual, the key to understanding is meaningful play.
有意义的游戏的核心在于行动与结果之间的关系。当玩家使用核心机制采取行动时，结果就会累积。这些结果有多种形式：感官反馈、战略成就、情感满足、社会关系等等。当玩家在游戏中前进时，游戏在每一刻提供有意义的游戏至关重要。例如，当玩家实现短期目标时，朝着目标、完成目标和超越目标的行动应该是清晰的。游戏必须传达目标在哪里、如何实现目标、玩家是否正在朝着目标前进、实现和完成目标的确切时间以及它对未来游戏的影响。这种体验中存在不确定性和模糊性，但游戏中的每个动作都必须具有某种清晰度。即使在快乐和欲望的模糊、混乱的领域中，每个游戏选择都必须是可辨别和整合的。
The core of meaningful play lies in the relationship between action and outcome. As a player uses core mechanics to take action, outcomes accumulate. These outcomes take many forms: sensory feedback, strategic achievement, emotional gratification, social relationships, and so on. As a player advances through a game, it is crucial that the game provide meaningful play at every moment. For example, as a player achieves a short-term goal, the movement toward, through, and beyond that goal should be clear. The game must communicate where the goal is, how it might be achieved, whether the player is making progress toward it, exactly when it was reached and completed, and its impact on future play. There is room in this experience for uncertainty and ambiguity, but a certain kind of clarity must underlie every action in a game. Even in the inexact, messy realms of pleasure and desire, every game choice must be discernable and integrated.
当游戏动作可辨别时，游戏事件和选择结果总是显而易见的。可辨别的结果推动了有意义的游戏体验并促进了乐趣。例如，在《DOOM》中，玩家战斗的怪物对手几乎是独立存在的。在玩家进入一个满是怪物的房间之前，它们会“闲着”，原地走动，等待玩家进入，这样它们就可以活跃起来并发起攻击。尽管有些玩家认为《DOOM》的这个方面很可笑，但事实上，这是游戏成功的关键。因为怪物在“镜头外”几乎没有生命，所以它们所有的重要活动都发生在玩家在战斗中遇到它们时“面对”玩家的时候。游戏事件导致玩家的奖励和惩罚总是被清楚地传达出来，因为它们几乎总是在玩家面前发生。
When game actions are discernable, the events of a game and the outcomes of choices are always evident. Discernable outcomes drive the experience of meaningful play and facilitate pleasure. In DOOM, for example, the monster opponents that players battle hardly exist on their own. Until the player enters a room full of monsters, they will “idle,” walking in place, waiting for the player to enter so that they can spring to life and attack. Although some players regard this aspect of DOOM as comically impoverished, in fact it is key to the successful play of the game. Because monsters have little or no life “off camera,” all of their important activity happens “in the face” of the player as he encounters them in battle. The game events that result in rewards and punishments for the player are always clearly communicated because they almost always occur in the presence of a player.
在维持玩家乐趣方面，将事件整合到游戏体验的更大结构中的需求可能比可辨别性更重要。只要玩家理解游戏的奖惩系统的含义，他或她就可以利用这些知识设定新的短期目标。这让玩家能够保持对长期目标（例如获胜）的总体进步感。在流行的在线游戏 NeoPets 中，玩家会因采取游戏行动、探索游戏世界、照顾宠物、玩简单游戏和与其他玩家互动而不断获得奖励。这些简单的活动中的每一个都会为玩家奖励少量积分。然后，这些积分用于促进新的购买，从而使新的活动成为可能。稳定的增量奖励流形成了一个紧密的欲望循环，一个令人信服的快乐系统，其中短期和长期目标不断在玩家行动的视野中形成。
The need for events to be integrated into the larger fabric of the game experience is perhaps even more important than discernability in sustaining player pleasure. As long as a player understands the implications of the game’s system of rewards and punishments, he or she can use that knowledge to set new short-term goals. This allows the player to maintain an overall sense of progress toward a long-term goal, such as winning. In the popular online game NeoPets, a player is continually rewarded for taking game actions, exploring the game world, caring for her pets, playing simple games, and interacting with other players. Each of these simple activities rewards the player with a small amount of points. These points are then used to facilitate new purchases, which in turn make new activities possible. The steady stream of incremental rewards forms a tight loop of desire, a compelling system of pleasure where short-term and long-term goals are constantly forming on the horizon of player action.
当游戏事件不可辨别或无法整合时，就会产生无聊和焦虑，而这正是愉悦心流的天敌。游戏程序知道玩家刚刚采取了行动吗？为什么所有这些重要事件都发生在屏幕外？玩家刚刚移动的棋子重要吗？为什么游戏这么难？有意义的游戏设计归根结底就是在游戏的每个时刻都非常关心和关注玩家。例如，数字游戏往往感觉不对劲。界面笨拙，玩家不确定游戏开始时该做什么，或者第一个关卡太难。零售数字游戏通常设计为 30 到 40 小时的游戏时间。这种承诺需要极大的信任。如果前五分钟不愉快，玩家为什么还想继续玩下去？
When game events are not discernable or integrated, boredom and anxiety, the enemies of pleasurable flow, can result. Does the game program know that a player just took an action? Why did all of those important events happen off-screen? Does it matter which piece a player just moved? Why is the game so hard? Designing for meaningful play comes down to treating players with great care and concern at every moment of the game. Too often, for example, a digital game just doesn’t feel right. The interface is clunky, the player is not sure what to do when the game begins, or the first level is too hard. Retail digital games are usually designed for 30 to 40 hours of play. That kind of commitment demands a tremendous amount of trust. If the first five minutes are unpleasant, why would a player want to continue?
Myst 优于其后的所有 CD-ROM 多媒体游戏克隆，或者为什么 Super Mario 64 仍然比每年发布的 3D 过肩角色主机游戏更胜一筹，这是有原因的。Myst和《超级马里奥 64》虽然在游戏体验上大相径庭，但有一个共同点：它们都对玩家非常细心。从游戏开始的那一刻起，玩家就有了明确的方向和目的。随着玩家探索广阔的世界，这两款游戏都提供了令人满意的挑战性增加，同时又不会让玩家感到迷失或困惑。这些游戏构建玩家乐趣的方式非常清晰。
There is a reason why Myst was superior to all of the CD-ROM multimedia game clones that followed it, or why Super Mario 64 is still better than the scores of 3D over-the-shoulder, character-based console games that are released every year. Myst and Super Mario 64, although very different in the experiences they provide, have one thing in common: they both treat the player with a tremendous amount of care. From the moment the game begins, the player has clear direction and purpose. As players explore their expansive worlds, both games provide a satisfying increase in challenge, while never leaving the player feeling lost or confused. There is clarity to the way that these games construct player pleasure.
新宠物
Neo pets
创造这种程度的乐趣极具挑战性。乐趣很难设计，因为它是一个开放、多面且极其复杂的概念。但这也是为什么它是游戏设计师探索的沃土。你可以创造多种游戏乐趣：深入玩家内心的乐趣；改变玩家及其理解世界的方式的乐趣；扩展游戏媒介本身的乐趣。发现和发明这些乐趣的过程本身就是一种独特的幸福：游戏设计的无限乐趣。
Crafting this degree of pleasure is extremely challenging. Pleasure is difficult to design because it is an open-ended, multifaceted, and exceedingly complex concept. But that is also why it is such a fertile avenue for exploration by game designers. There are multitudes of game pleasures for you to create: pleasures that go deep into the hearts of your players; pleasures that transform your players and the ways that they understand the world; pleasures that expand the very medium of games. The process of discovering and inventing these pleasures is itself a unique form of bliss: the boundless joy of game design.
对抗“成瘾”。
Against “Addiction.”
那些深受国际象棋困扰的人对国际象棋游戏的强烈谴责。没有人能像一位牧师那样，如此令人信服地表达出他悲伤而听天由命的自我否定。1680 年，一位牧师写了一封信，列举了十个拒绝玩国际象棋的理由。其中包括英国文学中最美丽的诗句之一：“我玩完它，它并没有结束我。”这句话确实可以成为所有成瘾者的座右铭。——诺曼·雷德，《国际象棋俄狄浦斯和痛苦之母》
The great damnation of the game [of Chess] has come from those who have been plagued by it. None has expressed so convincingly his sad and resigned self-denial as a minister who in 1680 wrote a letter, giving ten reasons why he refused to play the game. Among them is one of the most beautiful lines in English literature: “It hath not done with me when I have done with it.” Truly this one sentence could be the motto for all addictions.—Norman Reider, “Chess Oedipus, and the Mater Dolorosa”
游戏中的乐趣非常复杂，但我们已经尽力勾勒出它的轮廓。在结束本章之前，我们必须解决另一个问题：成瘾。成瘾和成瘾游戏可能意味着很多事情。但总的来说，在游戏设计师中，成瘾被认为是一种积极的特质，是引人入胜的游戏的标志。从商业角度来看，大量上瘾的玩家意味着游戏更有可能获得商业成功。
The play of pleasure in games is immensely complex, but we have done our best to trace some of its contours. Before ending this chapter, there is an additional issue we must address: addiction. Addiction and addictive play can mean many things. But by and large, among game designers, addiction is considered a positive trait, the mark of compelling play. In business terms, lots of addicted players mean that a game has a greater chance of being a commercial success.
有意义的游戏会让人上瘾。如果玩家喜欢玩一款游戏，他或她可能会想再次玩这款游戏。如果你创造了一个奖励玩家探索的可能性空间，那么你很可能会让玩家想要看到规则如何发挥作用的更多变化。所有游戏固有的相同但不同的品质是游戏吸引玩家并一次又一次地将他们带回魔法圈的核心。从这个意义上讲，“上瘾”只是能够支持这种有意义的游戏深度的游戏体验的简称。
Meaningful play can become addictive. If a player enjoyed the play of a game, he or she will probably want to play it again. If you create a space of possibility that rewards players for exploration, then you are likely to have players that want to see more permutations of how the rules play out. The same-but-different quality intrinsic to all games is at the core of a game’s ability to engross players and bring them back into the magic circle again and again. “Addiction” in this sense is merely shorthand for a game experience that can support this depth of meaningful play.
作为一名游戏设计师，发现玩家沉迷于你的游戏是一件令人欣慰的事。他们可能经常玩你的游戏来放松或解压。也许他们发现你的游戏是与朋友互动的好方法。或者他们围绕你的游戏情节创作小说，并参与你的游戏所催生的粉丝文化。所有这些所谓的“上瘾”都是忠实玩家的标志，是真正参与其中并体验游戏乐趣的人。
As a game designer, it is flattering to find that players are addicted to your game. It might be that they use your game regularly to relax or unwind. Maybe they find your game a great way to interact with friends. Or perhaps they write fiction around your game’s storyline and participate in the fan culture your game has spawned. All of these forms of so-called “addiction” are the mark of dedicated players, of meaningfully engaged people experiencing the play of pleasure provided by a game.
与此同时，“成瘾”一词也有负面含义。从医学角度来说，成瘾是一种真正的疾病，无论是对酒精或毒品等物质的成瘾，还是对欺凌或偷窃等负面行为的成瘾，还是对运动或阅读等通常被认为是积极的行为的成瘾。可以这么说，游戏行业的专业人士使用“成瘾”一词时，并不是描述医学上的病理行为。相反，它指的是沉迷和重复玩游戏，即玩家喜欢一款游戏，因此会玩不止一次。
At the same time, there are negative connotations to the word “addiction” as well. Medically speaking, addiction is a genuine disorder, whether the addiction is to substances like alcohol or drugs, to negative behaviors like bullying or shoplifting, or to behaviors that are generally considered positive, like exercise or reading. Suffice it to say that the use of term “addiction,” when used by professionals in the game industry, does not describe medically pathological behavior. Instead, it refers to engaged and repeated play, to players that enjoy a game and therefore play it more than one time.
由于该术语的负面含义，人们有时会天真地将重复玩游戏与真正的疾病相提并论。但正如游戏学者 Brian Sutton-Smith 指出的那样，“成瘾”一词是一种误称：
Because of the negative connotations of the term, the repeatable play of games is sometimes naïvely compared to a genuine medical disorder. But the word “addiction” is a misnomer, as play scholar Brian Sutton-Smith points out:
我们所说的持续专注有时会被误认为是成瘾。但其强迫性与那些坠入爱河、沉迷于某种爱好或运动的人的经历是一样的……它不是成瘾，成瘾是指向自己无法控制的外部力量屈服。我们必须将这种强迫性爱好与成瘾区分开来。电子游戏属于第一种。因此，我们的建议是，电子游戏与所有其他形式的刺激性游戏一样，会导致人们强迫性地、持续地参与游戏本身。在这方面，它们与所有游戏和所有游戏一样，长期以来一直以吸引孩子们的注意力而闻名，而孩子们本应该进屋吃晚饭，或者离开操场去上学。二十六
The persistent concentration we are talking about is sometimes mistaken for addiction. But its compulsive quality is the same experience by those who have fallen in love, or are taken by some hobby or sport . . . . It is not an addiction where what occurs is a surrender to outside forces over which one has no control. We must distinguish such compulsive avocations from addiction. Video games are of this first kind. Our proposal, then, is that video games, like all other forms of exciting play, lead to a compulsive and persistent attendance on the games themselves. In this, they are like all games and all play which has long been noted for holding children’s attention when they should be coming inside for their supper, or leaving the playground to go into school.26
游戏本质上是一种吸引力。但这并不意味着它会产生负面成瘾。有些形式的游戏确实会变成病态。人们可能会成为赌徒，或者他们会在网络 MUD 上花费大量时间，以至于忽视了游戏之外的生活。这些罕见的情况往往被大肆宣传，但它们却是证明这一规则的例外。绝大多数游戏现象并不会产生破坏性的成瘾。即使是最常与病态成瘾相关的游戏形式，比如赌博，也是如此。在《游戏的模糊性》一书中，Sutton-Smith 对赌博进行了广泛的研究，并得出结论：“大多数玩家适度赌博，这对家庭生活和娱乐都有积极的影响。”27存在游戏成瘾症并不意味着所有游戏都对你有害。饮食失调和成瘾现象比比皆是。但这并不意味着你应该避免就餐的乐趣。
Play is intrinsically engaging. But that doesn’t mean that it is negatively addictive. It is true that some forms of play can become pathological. People can become compulsive gamblers, or they can spend so many hours in an online MUD that they neglect aspects of their life outside the game. These rare cases, often highly publicized, are the exceptions that prove the rule. The overwhelming majority of play phenomena are not destructively addictive. This is true even for forms of play most commonly associated with pathological addiction, such as gambling. In The Ambiguity of Play, Sutton-Smith presents extensive research on gambling with the conclusion that “the majority of players gamble moderately and with positive results for family life and pleasure.”27 The existence of addictive play disorders doesn’t mean that all play is bad for you. Eating disorders and addictions abound. But that doesn’t mean that you should avoid the pleasure of dining.
游戏就是在更为严格的结构中寻找自由活动。当游戏活动变得病态上瘾时，这种活动就会受到谴责：自由活动被关闭，自由选择的感觉消失，有意义的游戏也随之减弱。从这种体验意义上讲，当玩家对某种形式的游戏产生医学上的上瘾时，我们所定义的游戏就不复存在了。换句话说，医学界所用的负面意义上的上瘾游戏根本不是真正的游戏。
To play is to find free movement within a more rigid structure. When a game activity becomes pathologically addictive, this movement is censured: free movement is shut down, the sense of free choice evaporates, and meaningful play abates. In this experiential sense, when a player becomes medically addicted to some form of play, play as we have defined it no longer exists. In other words, addictive play, in the negative sense used by the medical community, is not really play at all.
案例研究：L 游戏
Case Study: The L Game
每条规则都有例外
An Exception to Every Rule
有一款游戏与我们对有意义的游戏和乐趣的一些想法背道而驰，那就是 L 游戏，它是由爱德华·德·博诺 (Edward de Bono) 设计，他是一位作家兼研究员，专注于横向思维和创造性解决问题。规则总结如下。二十八
One game that flies in the face of some of our ideas about meaningful play and pleasure is the L Game, designed by Edward de Bono, a writer and researcher who focuses on lateral thinking and creative problem-solving. The rules are summarized below.28
如何玩 L 游戏
How to play the L Game
•棋子。棋盘由 16 个方格组成。每个玩家（只能 2 个）都有一个 L 型棋子，轮到自己时必须移动。另外还有两个中立棋子，任何一方都可以移动。
• Pieces. The Board is made up of 16 squares. Each player (only 2 can play) has an L piece that he must move when it is his turn. There are also two neutral pieces that either player can move.
•目标。游戏的目标是将对方玩家引导至棋盘上无法移动其 L 棋子的位置。
• Object. The object of the game is to maneuver the other player into a position on the board where he cannot move his L piece.
•起始位置。从起始位置开始，第一个玩家（以及此后每一步的每个玩家）必须先移动 L 棋子。移动时，玩家可以滑动、转动或拾起并翻转 L 棋子，将其移到除移动前所处位置以外的任何空位。移动 L 棋子后，玩家可以将任意一个（但只能一个）中立方格棋子移到棋盘上的任何空位。移动中立棋子不是必需的，这取决于玩家！如果对手无法移动其 L 棋子，则玩家获胜。
• Starting Position. Proceeding from the starting position, the first player (and each player on each move thereafter) must move the L piece first. When moving, a player may slide, turn or pick up and flip the L piece into any open position other than the one it occupied prior to the move. When the L piece has been moved, a player may move either one (but only one) of the neutral square pieces to any open square on the board. It is not required that the neutral piece be moved, this is up to the player! A player wins the game when his opponent cannot move his L piece.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
“设计互动主题公园游乐设施：从迪士尼海盗黄金之战中吸取的教训”，作者：Jesse Schell 和 Joe Shochet（见第 68 页）
“Designing Interactive Theme Park Rides: Lessons From Disney’s Battle for the Buccaneer Gold,” by Jesse Schell and Joe Shochet (see page 68)
《心流：最优体验心理学》，作者：米哈里·契克森米哈赖
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
游戏的最大乐趣之一就是心流感——一种全身心投入手头活动的状态。Csikszentmihalyi 研究了心流的特质和条件，这与游戏的特质和条件有很多联系。
One of the great pleasures of games is the feeling of being in flow—a state of deep and all-encompassing absorption with the activity at hand. Csikszentmihalyi studies the qualities and conditions that allow for flow, which have many connections to the qualities and conditions of game play.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第三章：享受和生活质量
Chapter 3: Enjoyment and the Quality of Life
第 4 章：流动的条件
Chapter 4: The Conditions of Flow
第 7 章：工作流
Chapter 7: Work as Flow
笔记
Notes
1.普林斯顿大学 Wordnet。
1. Wordnet, Princeton University.
2. LS Vygotsky，《游戏及其在儿童心智发展中的作用》。《游戏——其在发展和进化中的作用》 ，由 JS Bruner、A. Jolly 和 K. Sylva 编辑（纽约：企鹅出版社，1976 年），第 548 页。
2. L. S. Vygotsky, “Play and its Role in the Mental Development of the Child.” In Play—Its role in Development and Evolution, edited by J. S. Bruner, A. Jolly, and K. Sylva (New York: Penguin, 1976), p. 548.
3.同上，第548页
3. Ibid. p.548
4. Roger Caillois，《人、游戏和游戏》（伦敦：泰晤士和哈德逊，1962 年），第 8 页。
4. Roger Caillois, Man, Play, and Games (London: Thames and Hudson, 1962), p.8.
5. Bernard DeKoven，《玩得好的游戏》（纽约：Doubleday，1978 年），第 3 页。
5. Bernard DeKoven, The Well-Played Game (New York: Doubleday, 1978), p.3.
6.米哈里·契克森米哈赖，《心流：最优体验心理学》（纽约：哈珀柯林斯出版社，1991 年），第 67 页。
6. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991), p. 67.
7. Hal Barwood，“计算机和视频游戏已成熟。全国会议探讨娱乐媒体的现状。”2000 年 2 月 10-11 日。麻省理工学院比较媒体研究系。文字记录。亨利·詹金斯。
7. Hal Barwood, “Computer and Video Games Come of Age. A National Conference to Explore the Current State of an Entertainment Medium.” February 10–11, 2000. Comparative Media Studies Department, MIT. Transcripts. Henry Jenkins.
8. Marc LeBlanc，游戏开发者大会，2000 年。
8. Marc LeBlanc, Game Developers Conference, 2000.
9. Michael J. Apter，《游戏的结构现象学》。《成人游戏：一种逆转理论方法》，JH Kerr 和 Michael J. Apter 编辑（阿姆斯特丹：Swets & Zeitlinger，1991 年），第 18-20 页。
9. Michael J. Apter, “A Structural-Phenomenology of Play.” In Adult Play: A Reversal Theory Approach, edited by J. H. Kerr and Michael J. Apter (Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger, 1991), p. 18–20.
10. JC Herz，《操纵杆国家：电子游戏如何吞噬我们的财富、赢得我们的心并重塑我们的思想》（纽约：Little, Brown & Company，1997 年），第 79 页。
10. J. C. Herz, Joystick Nation: How Videogames Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds (New York: Little, Brown & Company, 1997), p.79.
11 . Csikszentmihalyi，《流》，第 14 页。 3.
11. Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, p. 3.
12.同上，第49页。
12. Ibid. p.49.
13.同上，第49-67页。
13. Ibid. p.49–67.
14. Brian Sutton-Smith，《游戏的模糊性》（波士顿：哈佛大学出版社，2001年），第185页。
14. Brian Sutton-Smith, The Ambiguity of Play (Boston: Harvard University Press,2001), p.185.
15. Bob Bates，《游戏设计：游戏创作的艺术与商业》（加利福尼亚州罗斯维尔：Prima Publishing，2001 年），第 37 页。
15. Bob Bates, Game Design: The Art and Business of Creating Games (Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing, 2001), p. 37.
16.詹姆斯·S·汉斯，《世界的游戏》（波士顿：马萨诸塞大学出版社，1981年），第28页。
16. James S. Hans, The Play of the World (Boston: University of Massachusetts Press,1981), p.28.
17 . Stephan Rechtschaffen 博士，欧米茄研究所。 < www.omega-institute.com >。
17. Dr. Stephan Rechtschaffen, The Omega Institute. <www.omega-institute.com>.
18 . < http://www.xyzzynews.com/xyzzy.16f.shtml >。
18. <http://www.xyzzynews.com/xyzzy.16f.shtml>.
19 . 赫茨，《操纵杆国度》，第 64 页。
19. Herz, Joystick Nation, p. 64.
20. Doug Church，《正式抽象设计工具》。< www.gamasutra.com >，1999 年 7 月 16 日。
20. Doug Church, “Formal Abstract Design Tools.”<www.gamasutra.com>, July 16, 1999.
21. Henry Gleitman，《心理学》，第 2 版。（纽约：WW Norton & Company，1986 年）。
21. Henry Gleitman, Psychology, 2nd ed. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1986).
22. Neal Hallford 与 Jana Hallford 合著，《剑与电路：计算机角色扮演游戏设计师指南》（加利福尼亚州罗斯维尔：Prima Publishing，2001 年），第 158 页。
22. Neal Hallford with Jana Hallford, Swords and Circuitry: A Designer’s Guide to Computer Role Playing Games (Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing, 2001), p.158.
23.同上，第 157–160 页
23. Ibid. p.157–160
24 . Gabe Newell，《计算机和视频游戏已成熟。探讨娱乐媒介现状的全国会议》。2000 年 2 月 10-11 日。麻省理工学院比较媒体研究系。文字记录。亨利·詹金斯。
24. Gabe Newell, “Computer and Video Games Come of Age. A National Conference to Explore the Current State of an Entertainment Medium.” February 10–11, 2000. Comparative Media Studies Department, MIT. Transcripts. Henry Jenkins.
25 . Jesse Schell 和 Joe Shochet，《设计互动主题公园游乐设施：从迪士尼的海盗黄金之战中吸取的教训》。< www.gamasutra.com/features/20010706/schell_01.htm >。
25. Jesse Schell and Joe Shochet, “Designing Interactive Theme Park Rides: Lessons From Disney’s Battle for the Buccaneer Gold.” <www.gamasutra.com/features/20010706/schell_01.htm>.
26. Brian Sutton-Smith，《玩具作为文化》（纽约：加德纳出版社，1986 年），第 69-70 页。
26. Brian Sutton-Smith, Toys as Culture (New York: Gardner Press, 1986), p. 69–70.
27 . Sutton-Smith，《游戏的模糊性》，第 67 页。
27. Sutton-Smith, The Ambiguity of Play, p. 67.
28 . < http://www.edwdebono.com/debono/lgame.htm >。
28. <http://www.edwdebono.com/debono/lgame.htm>.
如果不亲自玩 L 游戏，很难理解它的含义，但这款游戏的本质是玩家试图以某种方式放置棋子，以阻止对手做出合法的移动。两名玩家最终在小而拥挤的棋盘上洗牌，轮流下棋，直到其中一人找到获胜的一步。
It is difficult to get a sense of the L game without actually playing it, but the game essentially consists of players trying to place their pieces in such a way so as to keep their opponents from making a legal move. The two players end up shuffling pieces on the small but crowded board, taking turn after turn, until one of them hits upon a winning move.
L 游戏的挑战在于，它无法在玩家朝着目标前进时为他们提供清晰的反馈。在跳棋中，即使是初学者也能感受到游戏的进展：如果白棋已经失去了大部分棋子，而黑棋的棋子仍然在棋盘上，那么黑棋显然正在朝着胜利的方向前进。但在 L 游戏中，由于棋子永远不会被移除，也不会一步步朝着胜利的方向前进，因此很难分辨哪个玩家正在取得优势或失去优势。玩 L 游戏感觉更像是在解决一个任意的、令人沮丧的难题，而不是在玩游戏。
The challenge of the L Game is that it does not provide clear feedback for players as they progress towards the goal. In Checkers, even a beginner can get a sense of the game’s progress: if white has lost most of its pieces and black’s pieces are all still on the board, then black is clearly progressing toward victory. But in the L Game, because the pieces are never removed and do not progress step by step toward a victory condition, it is very difficult to tell which player is gaining or losing ground. Playing the L Game can feel more like taking on an arbitrary, frustrating puzzle than playing a game.
杰夫·费德森是埃里克·齐默曼和弗兰克·兰茨教授的班上的一名学生，他分析了这款游戏。他发现这款游戏的策略非常晦涩难懂，于是他编写了一个程序，让玩家自己玩 L 游戏。他为计算机玩家试验了各种策略，并发现了几种模式：例如，那些试图占据棋盘中心四个方格并避免将 L 形的长边放在棋盘边缘的程序在玩游戏时表现更好。
Jeff Fedderson, a student in a class taught by Eric Zimmerman and Frank Lantz, analyzed the game. He found the game strategy so opaque that he wrote a program to play the L Game against itself. He experimented with strategies for his computer players and identified several patterns: for example, programs that attempted to occupy the center four squares of the board and avoided putting the long edge of an L shape on the edge of the board were much better at playing the game.
但即使有了这些非常短期的战略目标，L 游戏仍然顽固地拒绝提供有关实现最终目标的进展的有意义的反馈。然而，L 游戏的这一奇怪特征实际上使其成为一种独特而引人注目的游戏体验。尽管 L 游戏似乎违背了我们关于有意义的游戏的一些最基本的想法，但它仍然提供了乐趣。有时，当设计规则以一种非常新颖的方式被打破时，可以发明全新的游戏模式。
But even armed with these very short-term strategic goals, the L Game remains stubbornly resistant to providing meaningful feedback about progress toward the end goal. However, this strange feature of the L Game is actually what makes it so distinctive and compelling as a play experience. Despite the fact that the L Game seems to violate some of our most basic ideas about meaningful play, it still provides pleasure. Sometimes, when design rules are broken in a very original way, whole new modes of play can be invented.
游戏是快乐的游戏
概括
•游戏本身就具有愉悦感，这一点在许多方面都体现了出来。玩游戏、遵守游戏规则本身就是一种愉悦感。限制游戏行为所带来的约束可以增强玩家的愉悦感。
• Pleasure is intrinsic to games in many ways. The act of playing a game, submitting to a set of rules, is itself a form of pleasure. The restraint that limiting game behavior affords heightens the player’s sense of pleasure.
• 游戏提供自成目的的乐趣，即玩家为了游戏本身而追求的体验。尽管游戏确实提供了影响玩家游戏之外生活的外在乐趣，但所有游戏也都提供了内在的、自成目的的乐趣，这些乐趣只有在游戏创造的人为意义中才有意义。
• Games provide autotelic pleasures, experiences that are pursued for their own sake. Although it is true that games provide extrinsic pleasures that affect a player’s life outside the game, all games also provide intrinsic, autotelic pleasures that are significant only within the artificial meanings that the game creates.
• 游戏必须为玩家提供双重诱惑。首先，必须引诱玩家进入魔法圈。其次，必须不断引诱玩家留在游戏圈内。
• Games must provide a double seduction for players. First, players must be seduced into entering the magic circle. Second, players must be continually seduced into remaining inside the circle of play.
• 有许多既定的类型学来描述游戏提供的乐趣形式。游戏乐趣的类型学通常对理论化乐趣用处不大，而对组织对游戏体验的观察更有用。
• There are many established typologies that address the forms of pleasure provided by games. Typologies of game pleasure are generally less useful for theorizing pleasure and more useful for organizing observations about game experience.
• 心理学家米哈里·契克森米哈赖将最佳体验描述为心流。心流是指当某人参与某项活动并感到能够控制自己的行为时产生的令人振奋的愉悦感。尽管心流并非游戏所独有，但它是一种思考游戏乐趣创造的有用方式。
• Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes optimal experience as flow. Flow is the exhilarating pleasure that occurs when someone is engaged with an activity and feels in control of his or her actions. Although flow is not unique to games, it is a useful way of thinking about the creation of game pleasure.
• Csikszentmihalyi 列出了心流的八个特征，每个特征都与游戏有着密切的联系。八个特征中有四个描述了心流的效果：
• Csikszentmihalyi names eight characteristics of flow, each of which has a strong connection to games. Four of the eight characteristics describe the effects of flow:
• 行动与意识的融合
• the merging of action and awareness
• 专注
• concentration
• 丧失自我意识
• the loss of self-consciousness
• 时间的转变
• the transformation of time
• 其他四个特征描述了产生心流的活动类型的先决条件：
• The other four characteristics describe the prerequisites of the kind of activity that will result in flow:
• 一项具有挑战性的活动
• a challenging activity
• 明确目标
• clear goals
• 清晰的反馈
• clear feedback
• 在不确定的情况下拥有控制权的悖论
• the paradox of having control in an uncertain situation
• 游戏具有一种我们称之为“相同但不同”的特质。每次玩游戏时，形式结构都保持不变，但规则的执行方式却不同。游戏的这种特质使玩家能够愉快地探索可能性空间。由于游戏往往具有变革性，因此对游戏的持续探索可以改变游戏结构本身，从而带来无穷无尽的相同但不同的乐趣。
• Games possess a quality we call same-but-different. Every time one plays a game, the formal structure remains the same, but the way the rules play out are different. This quality of games makes it pleasurable for players to explore the space of possibility. Because play is often transformative, the continued exploration of a game can change the game structure itself, leading to a potentially endless sequence of same-but-different pleasures.
•同化既意味着带着走，也意味着陷入。同化是陷入游戏所能提供的快乐节奏模式的过程。
• Entrainment means both to carry along and to trap. Entrainment is the process of falling into the rhythmic patterns of pleasure that games can provide.
•游戏的目标是塑造愉悦体验的关键要素。目标是吸引玩家继续玩游戏的欲望对象。
• The goal of a game is a key component in shaping the experience of pleasure. The goal is the object of desire held out to entice players to continue playing.
•短期目标位于即时核心机制和最终目标之间。短期目标可帮助玩家在游戏中制定计划，并在实现目标时带来满足感。
• Suspended between moment-to-moment core mechanics and the ultimate end goal are short-term goals. Short-term goals help players make plans in a game as well as provide moments of satisfaction when they reach them.
•行为理论是心理学的一个分支，研究可观察的行为。条件反射是通过奖励和惩罚习得的行为。奖励和惩罚可用于教导玩家如何在游戏中时刻表现，以及创造一种体验，奖励玩家的参与。
• Behavior theory is a branch of psychology that studies observable behavior. Conditioning is the acquisition of learned behaviors through rewards and punishments. Rewards and punishments can be used to teach players how to behave in a game from moment-to-moment, as well as create an experience that rewards players for their participation over time.
•强化计划是指玩家获得奖励和惩罚的速率。计划可以是固定的，也可以是可变的，具体来说，可以是时间间隔，也可以是行动与结果的比率。一般来说，可变强化比固定强化更能有效地塑造行为。
• Reinforcement schedules refer to the rate at which players receive rewards and punishments. Schedules can be either fixed or variable in regard to an interval of time or the ratio of action to outcome. Generally, variable reinforcement shapes behavior more powerfully than fixed reinforcement.
•挑战是塑造玩家乐趣的重要方式。如果游戏的挑战性对于玩家的技能来说太高，就会产生焦虑。如果挑战性不够，就会产生无聊。理想情况下，游戏应该在任何时候都提供平衡的挑战。
• Challenge is an important way to shape player pleasure. If the challenge of a game is too high for a player’s skills, anxiety results. If there is not enough challenge, boredom results. Ideally, games provide a balanced challenge at all moments.
• 游戏设计师只能通过制定游戏规则来间接设计游戏的愉悦体验。为了提供有意义的游戏和愉悦感，玩家采取的行动必须是可辨别且可整合的。
• A game designer can only indirectly design the pleasurable experience of a game through the creation of a game’s rules. To provide meaningful play and pleasure, the actions a player takes must be discernable and integrated.
•成瘾一词在医学界和游戏界有着不同的含义。对于游戏设计师来说，成瘾是一种积极的品质，代表玩家与游戏有意义的互动。当游戏中出现病态成瘾行为时，游戏就不再可能了。
• The word addiction has different meanings in the medical community and the game community. For game designers, addiction is a positive quality that signifies players’ meaningful interaction with a game. When pathologically addictive behavior emerges from a game, play is no longer possible.
二十五
25
游戏是意义的游戏
GAMES AS THE PLAY OF MEANING
表示
representation
意义系统
systems of meaning
表征空间
representational spaces
涌现意义
emergent meaning
认知框架
cognitive frame
元沟通
metacommunication
我们必须确定游戏如何赋予意义。——沃伦·斯佩克特，REPLAY
It’s vital that we determine how games make meaning.—Warren Spector, REPLAY
引入意义游戏
Introducing the Play of Meaning
游戏发生在一个具象的宇宙中，充满了对物体、互动和想法的描述，玩家可以从中理解其中的含义。在“石头剪刀布”游戏中，拳头表示“石头”，伸出的手表示“布”，两根手指呈 V 形张开表示“剪刀”。在“黑手党”游戏中，刺客指向另一个玩家的手势表示“杀！”，而“在晚上”闭上眼睛的动作则表明玩家是“村民”。在第一人称射击游戏中，从屏幕底部伸出的枪管不仅代表“一把大枪”，还表示“你”，即玩家。
Game play takes place within a representational universe, filled with depictions of objects, interactions, and ideas out of which a player makes meaning. In Rock-Paper-Scissors a fist means “rock,” an outstretched hand means “paper,” and two fingers spread in a V-shape means “scissors.” In the game of Mafia, an assassin’s hand gesture that points to another player represents “kill!” and the act of keeping one’s eyes closed “at night” marks a player as “villager.” In a first-person shooter, the gun barrel emerging out of the bottom of the screen represents not only “a big-ass gun,” but also denotes “you,” the player.
玩游戏就是依赖游戏生成的表征并与之互动。表征、意义和游戏之间的这种交集引发了一系列重要的游戏设计问题。玩家如何体验游戏的表征？游戏表征与“现实世界”之间的关系是什么？游戏可以提供哪些表征模式？这些问题是本图式的重点：游戏即意义的游戏。
To play a game is to rely on and interact with representations the game generates. This intersection between representation, meaning, and play raises a series of important game design questions. How does a player experience the representation of a game? What is the relationship between a game representation and the “real world?” What modes of representation can games provide? These questions are the focus of this schema: Games as the Play of Meaning.
我们首先在《设计》中谈到了游戏作为表征系统的方式，并介绍了一些基本的符号学概念。在本章中，我们将详细阐述这些想法，以便更详细地了解游戏的表征方式。我们在这里提出的概念可能看起来有点抽象，而这个架构无疑是本书中比较理论化的架构之一。但这里提出的想法在后面更务实的架构中得到了实现，即游戏作为叙事游戏和游戏作为模拟游戏。
We first touched on the way that games act as representational systems in Design, where we introduced a number of basic semiotic concepts. In this chapter, we elaborate on these ideas in order to gain a more detailed understanding of the way that games represent. The concepts we present here may seem slightly abstract, and this schema is certainly one of the more theoretical in this book. But the ideas initiated here find fruition in the more pragmatic schemas to follow, Games as Narrative Play and Games as the Play of Simulation.
两种表示形式
Two Kinds of Representation
游戏和表征之间到底是什么关系？有两种思考方式：
What exactly is the relationship between games and representation? There are two ways to think about it:
首先，游戏可以表现。
First, games can represent.
第二，游戏是一种表象。
Second, games are representations.
游戏可以通过创建人物、故事、场景、想法和行为的描述来表现。游戏表现在游戏世界中具有意义，因为它们是通过游戏体验的。游戏通过创建复杂的内部意义系统来表现，因此在 GURPS 幻想角色扮演游戏中，例如，剑与匕首的表现不同。表现上的差异不仅仅是在视觉上实现的。剑看起来肯定与匕首不同（例如，它更长），但它在游戏中的整体角色（如何使用、谁使用它、它允许什么动作）也有助于其表现。
Games can represent by creating depictions: of characters, stories, settings, ideas, and behaviors. Game representations gain meaning within the game universe, as they are experienced through play. Games represent by creating complex internal systems of meaning, so that in a GURPS fantasy role-playing game, for example, a sword is represented differently than a dagger. The difference in representation is not only achieved visually. A sword will certainly look different than a dagger (it is longer, for example), but its overall role in the game (how it is used, who uses it, what actions it allows) also contributes to its representation.
另一方面，游戏本身也是一种表征。《真人快打》是徒手搏击的表征，《围棋》是领土冲突的表征，《乒乓》是乒乓球的表征。当我们将游戏视为表征整体时，它们就是一种表征。
On the other hand, games themselves are representations. Mortal Kombat is a representation of hand-to-hand combat, Go is a representation of territorial conflict, and Pong is a representation of Table Tennis. Games are representations when we consider them as representational wholes.
这两种将游戏与表现联系起来的方式密切相关。游戏内部的表现形式共同创造了一种复合表现，这种复合表现更普遍地源自游戏系统。《模拟城市》包含数千个单独的表现，玩家在游戏过程中会与之互动（交通堵塞、城市电网、预算电子表格等）。这些表现不仅在游戏中有意义，而且也为游戏本身作为表现对象的意义做出了贡献。《模拟城市》的许多内部表现加起来创造了一个单一的表现：游戏描绘了城市规划的过程。
These two ways of connecting games and representation are closely related. The forms of representation internal to a game work together to create a composite representation that emanates more generally from the game system. Sim City contains thousands of individual representations with which a player interacts over the course of game play (traffic jams, the city electrical grid, budget spreadsheets, and so on). These representations have meaning within the game, but also contribute to the meaning of the game as a representational object in its own right. The many internal representations of Sim City add up to create a single representation: the game depicts the process of urban planning.
意义系统
Systems of Meaning
游戏包含表征，这是不言而喻的。想想《动物之森》或《侠盗猎车手 III》等游戏中所代表的数千个对象。但游戏并不是唯一包含许多内部表征的文化形式。故事书的文本也由成千上万个表征组成：文本不仅代表单个对象，而是由密集的符号链组成，表示复杂的角色网络，物体、描述和事件。构成《小王子》文本的文字充当了表征系统，描绘了故事中的许多人物和事件。同样，游戏也是产生人物和事件表征的系统——这些表征至少与通过书写创造的表征一样复杂。
It should be self-evident that games contain representations. Think about the thousands of objects represented in a game such as Animal Crossing or Grand Theft Auto III. But games are not the only cultural forms that contain many internal representations. The text of a storybook is also composed of thousands and thousands of representations: the text doesn’t just represent a single object, but is made up of a dense chain of signifiers (or signs), denoting complex networks of characters, objects, descriptions, and events. The words that make up the text of The Little Prince act as a representational system to depict the many characters and events of the story. Similarly, games are systems that give rise to representations of characters and events—representations at least as complex as those created through writing in a book.
游戏可以表示：这是一个简单的想法。然而，由于游戏是复杂的动态系统，游戏中表示产生意义的确切方式相当复杂。即使是最基本的游戏符号集也总是与更大的意义系统紧密相关。例如，考虑一下 Playstation2 的《VR 斗士 4》中最简单的元素之一：健康条。在《VR 斗士 4》的双人“对战”模式中，两个玩家选择一个角色并进行肉搏战。两个角色在游戏开始时都具有 100% 的健康，由一个完整的绿色条表示。当角色受到攻击时，她的健康就会减少；当角色的健康达到零时，她就输掉了比赛。两个健康条对两个玩家都是可见的；每个健康条都会向玩家传达他或她自己的健康状况以及他或她的对手的健康状况。这些信息可以建议玩家采取的行动，例如，如果玩家自己的健康状况很低，则从进攻策略切换到防守策略。因此，“健康条”是一个复杂的符号，它同时代表了几件事：
Games can represent: this is a simple idea. However, because games are complex dynamic systems, the exact way representations operate within a game to generate meaning is quite complex. Even the most basic set of game signs are always bound up in larger systems of meaning. For example, consider one of the simplest elements of Virtua Fighter 4 for the Playstation2: the health bar. In the two-player “versus” mode of VF4, two players select a character and engage in hand-to-hand combat. Both characters begin the game with 100 percent health, represented by a full green bar. As a character is struck by attacks, her health is reduced; when a character’s health reaches zero, she has lost the match. Both health bars are visible to both players; each one communicates to a player the status of his or her own health, as well as the health of his or her opponent. This information can suggest actions for the player to take, such as switching from an offensive to a defensive strategy if the player’s own health is very low. Thus the “health bar” is a complex sign, which represents several things at once:
• 玩家自己角色的当前健康水平
• The current level of health of a player’s own character
• 一个计量表，用于衡量谁赢得了比赛（谁的生命值更高）
• A meter measuring who is winning the match (who has more health)
• 显示游戏距离结束还有多远
• A display of how near the game is to finishing
• 显示一个或两个角色何时会死亡
• A display of how soon one or both characters will die
• 双方球员的相对水平
• The relative skill of both players
• 玩家当前游戏策略的有效性
• The effectiveness of a player’s current playing strategy
这个例子说明，即使是一个简单的游戏统计数据也可能具有多重相互关联的含义。生命值条是复杂符号网络的一部分，这就是为什么理解生命值条的含义需要了解更大的系统。例如，你的角色的生命值为 30%。你快要死了吗？如果你的对手的生命值是满的，那么你快要死了。但也许你对手的生命值只剩下 5%。在这两种情况下，你会采取非常不同的游戏策略，也许会退回到防守姿态，或者相反，发起攻击以快速杀死对手。任何一个符号的含义只有结合一组更大的符号才能理解，这些符号共同构成了游戏中紧密交织的含义结构。
This example illustrates that even a simple game stat can have multiple, interrelated meanings. The health bar is part of a complex network of signs, which is why appreciating the meaning of the health bar requires an understanding of the larger system. For example, your character’s health is at 30 percent. Are you about to die? Possibly, if your opponent is at full health. But perhaps your opponent’s health is down to 5 percent. In these two scenarios, you would assume very different play strategies, perhaps falling back to a defensive posture or conversely, pressing the attack for a quick kill. The meaning of any one sign can only be understood in relation to a larger set of signs, which together form the densely woven fabric of meaning in a game.
我们应该指出，在《VR 斗士 4》中，除了将对手的生命值降为零之外，还有其他方法可以赢得比赛。例如，在某些竞技场中，您可以通过将对手击出擂台来获胜。每场战斗还具有预设的时间限制——当达到限制时，生命值最高的玩家获胜，即使一个玩家角色的生命值尚未降为零。这些替代胜利条件为生命值条的标志增添了更多意义。如果您自己的生命值很低，也许您应该改变战斗方式，试图将对手推出擂台。或者，如果您的生命值领先并且计时器快要用完，您可能希望远离对手，避免接触，直到比赛计时结束。
We should point out that in Virtua Fighter 4 there are other ways to win the game besides reducing your opponent’s health to zero. For example, in some of the arenas, you can win by knocking your opponent out of the ring. Every fight also has a pre-set time limit—when the limit is reached, the player with the most health wins, even if the health of one player’s character hasn’t been taken down to zero. These alternate victory conditions add even more meaning to the sign of the health bar. If your own health is very low, perhaps you should change your fighting style to try and push your opponent out of the ring. Or if you are ahead in health and the timer is almost up, you might want to stay away from your opponent, avoiding contact until the timed end of the match.
生命值条的含义会影响玩家采取的行动，而这些行动本身又会影响生命值条的含义，进而导致新的行动和结果。这样，游戏中的意义就建立了复杂的表征循环，产生了影响玩家互动并受其影响的表征。在这个例子中，我们使用了生命值条的单一统计数据，但我们可以查看游戏的任何方面。当同时考虑 VF4 中表示的所有元素时，从角色的姿势和动作到角色之间的距离和空间，整个意义系统变得极其复杂。
The meaning of the health bar affects the actions players take, actions which themselves can affect the meaning of the health bar, again leading to new actions and outcomes. In this way, meaning in the game sets up complex representational loops, generating representations that affect and are affected by player interaction. For this example, we used the single stat of a health bar, but we could have looked at any aspect of the game. When all of the elements represented in VF4 are considered at once, from the stances and maneuvers of the characters to the distances and spaces between them, the total system of meaning becomes staggeringly complex.
系统与背景
System and Context
《VR战士4》中的健康条是一个单独的符号。单独的符号是游戏意义产生的关键部分——但意义需要的不仅仅是符号。意义需要一个形式系统来产生符号之间的关系，以及一个解释的背景。游戏的形式系统当然是它的规则。规则描述了动作和事件，其意义在每一场游戏中都保持不变。例如，将军总是意味着一场国际象棋比赛的结束。这是游戏不变的形式系统赋予的意义。然而，要使游戏的形式系统有意义，游戏必须进行——最终，形式系统的意义来自于游戏环境。背景会影响解释，并且可以增强、扭曲甚至彻底改变系统赋予的意义。将军可能不仅仅意味着游戏的结束。它还可能意味着如果在游戏中下注，钱就会流转，或者名誉会得到或失去。如果选手参加的是三局两胜制的比赛，这甚至可能并不意味着最终的胜利。
The health bar in Virtua Fighter 4 is an individual sign. Individual signs are a key part of the way that meaning emerges from a game—but meaning requires more than just signs. Meaning requires a formal system to generate relationships between signs, as well as a context for interpretation. The formal system of a game is, of course, its rules. The rules describe actions and events whose meaning remains the same from game to game. Checkmate, for example, always means the end of a game of Chess. This is a meaning conferred by the unchanging formal system of the game. However, for the formal system of a game to be meaningful, the game has to be played—ultimately, the meaning of the formal system emerges from within a play context. The context affects interpretation, and can enhance, distort, or even radically alter the meaning conferred by the system. Checkmate might not just mean the end of the game. It might also mean that money passes hands if there was a wager on the game, or that reputations are gained and lost. It might not even mean final victory, if players are playing in a tournament for the best two out of three games.
请记住，该图式的重点是游戏如何表现，如何通过表现为玩家创造意义，以及如何操纵这些意义。玩游戏就是进入魔法圈，从日常生活领域进入一个特殊的意义场所。在这个特殊的空间中，玩家的体验由表现系统引导，该系统有自己的“事物含义”规则。游戏环境会影响玩家如何理解游戏创造的表现并采取行动。因此，系统和环境携手支持玩家的解释。（请注意，我们使用术语系统来表示组织元素之间关系的结构，这是《设计》中引入的一个想法。）
Remember that the focus of this schema is how games can represent, how they create meaning for players through representation, and how these meanings can, in turn, be manipulated. To play a game is to move into the magic circle, to move from the domain of everyday life into a special place of meaning. Within this special space the player’s experience is guided by a system of representation that has its own rules for “what things mean.” The context of play affects how players understand and act upon the representations the game creates. The system and the context thus work hand-in-hand to support player interpretation. (Note that we are using the term system to designate the structure that organizes relationships between elements, an idea introduced in Design.)
例如，井字游戏中的“X”与拼字游戏中的“X”含义截然不同。含义上的差异主要由系统决定，系统对“X”的含义有规则。在井字游戏中，X 代表对某个方格的所有权，是取得胜利的战略举措。然而，与国际象棋和将死一样，“X”的上下文对于确定其含义也至关重要。想象一封俏皮的情书，用井字棋盘拼出“XXX”。这三个 X 不仅仅被解释为游戏中的制胜招式，还被解读为亲吻的象征。“X”的上下文将其含义从游戏招式转变为“获胜”爱情的宣言。这封情书的作者通过改变符号解释的上下文，玩弄了符号“X”的含义。
The “X” in Tic-Tac-Toe, for example, means something quite different than an “X” in the game of Scrabble. The difference in meaning is conferred primarily by the system, which has rules for what an “X” means. In Tic-Tac-Toe, an X represents ownership of a square, a strategic movement towards victory. Yet as with Chess and Checkmate, the context of the “X” is also crucial in determining its meaning. Imagine a playful love letter that uses a Tic-Tac-Toe board to spell out “XXX.” Rather than interpreting the three X’s as merely a winning move in a game, the signs would also be read as symbols for kisses. The context of the “X” has shifted its meaning from a game move to a declaration of “winning” affection. The author of the love letter has played with the meaning of the sign “X” by shifting the context within which the sign is interpreted.
新兴表征
Emergent Representations
在井字游戏中的“X”和将死游戏中，我们看到游戏通过系统和语境的相互作用创造意义——但这种操作并非游戏所独有。系统和语境代表了一种理解表征如何运作的一般符号学方法。例如，考虑口语或书面语。语言由语法构成，语法是赋予其各个元素意义的形式系统。然而，任何语言表达的意义也与语境有关。奶农和巴特·辛普森说“没有牛”这句话时，其含义是两种不同的东西。对这个短语的解释既依赖于语法结构，也依赖于说话者的语境。
In the “X” of Tic-Tac-Toe and in the action of Checkmate, we see that games create meaning through the interplay of system and context—but this operation is not unique to games. System and context represent a general semiological approach to understanding how representation works. For example, consider spoken or written language. Language is structured by grammar, the formal system that gives its individual elements meaning. Yet the meaning of any utterance of language is also contextual. The phrase “Don’t have a cow” means two different things when spoken by a dairy farmer or by Bart Simpson. The interpretation of the phrase relies both on grammatical structures and the context of the speaker.
意义是自然形成的。当我们使用语言时，就像玩游戏一样，我们都在规则允许的范围内进行游戏。说一句话就是在玩文字游戏——但只能以语言规则允许的方式进行。意义的一个悖论是，尽管简单的规则塑造了每一句话，但潜在的语句总数几乎是无限的。语言和游戏都代表着复杂的自然形成系统，其中可能的结果远远超过规则系统的形式复杂性，这是我们在《游戏作为自然形成系统》中探讨的理念。正如杰里米·坎贝尔在《语法人：信息、熵、语言和生命》中指出的那样，“将适量的规则反复应用于有限的对象集合，会带来多样性、新颖性和惊喜。人们可以描述所有规则，但不能必然是所有规则的乘积——而不是所有整数的集合，也不是语言中的每个句子。”1
Meaning is emergent. When we use language, as when we play a game, we are playing within the limits that the rules allow. To speak a sentence is to play with words—but only in ways that the rules of language permit. A paradox of meaning is that although simple rules shape every utterance, the total number of potential statements is nearly infinite. Both language and games represent complex emergent systems, in which possible outcomes far exceed the formal complexity of the rule-system, an idea we explored in Games as Emergent Systems. As Jeremy Campbell notes in Grammatical Man: Information, Entropy, Language, and Life, “A modest number of rules applied again and again to a limited collection of objects leads to variety, novelty, and surprise. One can describe all the rules, but not necessarily all the products of the rules—not the set of all whole numbers, not every sentence in a language.”1
游戏中的表现源自严格的底层规则结构与玩家在系统中自由发挥的意义之间的关系。游戏设计师必须密切关注游戏中意义的发挥，在更大的表现领域中精心设计玩家互动的个体实例。当游戏设计师创建规则系统时，他或她也在创造一个巨大的表现可能性空间，这个空间通过玩家互动变得有意义。
Representation in games emerges from the relationship between a rigid, underlying rule structure and the free play of meaning that occurs as players inhabit the system. Game designers must pay close attention to the play of meaning within a game, crafting individual instances of player interaction within a larger field of representation. As a game designer creates a system of rules, he or she is also creating a vast space of representational possibility, a space that becomes meaningful through player interaction.
意义的背景
The Context of Meaning
为了将这些抽象的想法付诸实践，我们将转向尼尔和贾娜·霍尔福德所著的《剑与电路：电脑角色扮演游戏设计师指南》中的一项思想实验。为了说明玩家如何通过互动了解某事物的“含义”，霍尔福德和霍尔福德描述了一位玩家在冒险游戏中探索世界的过程。玩家在一面原本毫无特色的墙上发现了一个按钮。好奇的玩家按下按钮想看看会发生什么——墙上打开了一扇秘密的门。按下按钮后，玩家可以进入游戏世界的新部分。
To see these abstract ideas in action, we’ll turn to a thought experiment from Swords and Circuitry: A Designer’s Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games by Neal and Jana Hallford. To illustrate how players learn what something “means” through interaction, Hallford and Hallford describe a player exploring a world in an adventure game. The player comes across a button set into an otherwise featureless wall. The curious player pushes the button to see what happens—and a secret door opens up in the wall. Pushing the button gives the player access to a new part of the game world.
Hallford 和 Hallford 指出，通过为玩家提供这种场景（按下按钮，打开门），游戏设计师为玩家提供了游戏世界如何运作的“规则”。按下按钮的行为会导致打开秘密门的结果。掌握了这条规则，玩家应该能够在整个游戏过程中运用这些知识，做出有关如何以及何时按下按钮的明智决定。按下按钮的含义既是综合的又是可辨别的，这是有意义的游戏的两个要求。交互是可辨别的，因为玩家清楚地看到秘密门因按下按钮而打开。交互似乎也是综合的，因为玩家已经发现了关于游戏中按钮如何操作的通用规则。
Hallford and Hallford note that by providing the player with this scenario—push button, open door—the game designer has given the player a “rule” about how the game world works. The action push button results in the outcome open secret door. Armed with this rule, the player should be able to use this knowledge throughout the game to make informed decisions about how and when to push buttons. The meaning of the button press is both integrated and discernable, two requirements of meaningful play. The interaction is discernable, because the player clearly sees the secret door open as a result of the action of pressing the button. The interaction also appears to be integrated, because the player has discovered a universal rule about how buttons operate in the game.
Hallford 和 Hallford 随后要求我们想象玩家在游戏后期的某个地方。玩家在墙边发现了另一个部分隐藏的按钮。如果按钮的动作 > 结果意义被整合在一起，玩家应该会认为按下按钮会打开一扇秘密的门。但当玩家按下按钮时，令他惊讶的是，墙上却出现了一个毁灭性的火球。刚才发生了什么？为什么按钮会释放出致命的火球，而不是打开一扇秘密的门？Hallford 和 Hallford 的分析在这里直接与游戏和表征的概念联系在一起。他们写道，
Hallford and Hallford then ask us to imagine the player in another location somewhere later in the game. The player spies yet another partially hidden button along the edge of a wall. If the action > outcome meaning of the button were integrated, the player should expect that pushing the button will open a secret door. But when the player pushes the button, to his surprise a damaging fireball of doom comes out of the wall instead. What just happened? Why did the button unleash a lethal fireball, rather than open a secret door? Here is where Hallford and Hallford’s analysis ties directly to the concept of play and representation. They write,
如果设计师没有提供某种线索来说明这种按钮与开门按钮的区别，那么他们就违反了游戏已经确立的规则。选择的价值被从玩家身上剥夺了，因为他们无法知道按下按钮是会打开一扇门还是会造成灾难性的破坏。虽然这肯定会增加按下游戏中任何按钮的紧张程度，但它实际上只不过是一种任意惩罚玩家好奇心的方式。更糟糕的是，玩家学到的东西的价值现在变得一文不值，使得游戏的胜利更多地取决于机会而不是获得的技能。3
If the designer hasn’t provided some kind of clue about what sets this button apart from the door-opening variety, they’ve just violated a rule that’s already been established by the game. The value of choice has been taken away from the player because they have no way of knowing whether pushing the button opens a door or whether it will do some catastrophic amount of damage. While this would certainly add a heightened degree of tension to the pushing of any buttons in the game, it really is nothing more than a way of arbitrarily punishing the player for being curious. Even worse, the value of the things that the player has learned are now worthless, making the winning of the game more a matter of chance than of acquired skill.3
当一个动作的含义不明确或不明确时，游戏中有意义的玩法就会失效。在这种情况下，如何重新建立有意义的玩法？Hallford 和 Hallford 建议一种补救方法，即添加一个小的视觉细节，让玩家了解按下特定类型按钮的后果。蓝色按钮打开秘密门。红色按钮释放毁灭之火球。
When the meaning of an action is unclear or ambiguous, meaningful play in a game breaks down. How might meaningful play in this situation be reestablished? Hallford and Hallford suggest one way to remedy the situation by adding a small visual detail that gives the player some idea of the consequences for pushing a particular type of button. Blue buttons open secret doors. Red buttons unleash fireballs of doom.
这个例子展示了如何设计游戏意义来创造有意义的游戏。用颜色编码按钮来表示后果建立了一个意义系统。随着时间的推移，玩家能够确定哪些按钮是“好”的，哪些是“坏的”，并可以在游戏中做出明智的选择。世界。该系统直接牵涉到玩家，因为按钮的意义只能通过玩家互动来确定。正如 Hallford 和 Hallford 所指出的，这种设计策略“还会带来额外的好处，即玩家会更加关注他们的环境，看看周围是否有任何新事物可以带来新的体验。”4简而言之，互动的规则和背景有助于确定“事物的意义”。它们通过创建一组非常具体的条件来实现这一点，在这些条件下，特定的物体或动作在游戏过程中变得有意义。
This example demonstrates how game meanings can be engineered to create meaningful play. Color-coding buttons to denote consequence establishes a system of meaning. Players are, over time, able to determine which buttons are “good” and “bad,” and can make informed choices about their actions in the world. This system implicates the player directly, for the meaning of a button is only ever established through player interaction. As Hallford and Hallford note, this design strategy “will also have the added bonus that players will pay a little closer attention to their environment to see if there’s anything new around them that may lead to new kinds of experiences.”4 In short, the rules and context of interaction help to establish “what things mean.” They do so by creating a very specific set of conditions within which a particular object or action becomes meaningful in the course of play.
理解符号在一定程度上依赖于已知信息和未知信息之间的移动。例如，在 Hallford 和 Hallford 假设的冒险游戏中，玩家可能会在他们理解的符号（蓝色按钮）的上下文中遇到一个他们不理解的符号（红色按钮）。由于已知和未知符号之间的形式关系，熟悉的含义会产生新的含义。这里需要注意的是，玩家通过与游戏世界互动、解释它、玩弄符号来了解它们可能做什么或可能意味着什么，从而获得有关游戏世界的信息。你找到一个红色和蓝色的按钮。你能猜到按下它会发生什么吗？你会冒险去发现吗？创建上下文作为一种理解机制是游戏设计师的关键概念。这就是为什么我们对游戏设计的定义是指上下文的设计，而不是人工制品。游戏的设计是意义可以从中产生的交互式环境的设计。
Making sense of signs relies, in part, on the movement between known and unknown information. Players in Hallford and Hallford’s hypothetical adventure game, for example, might come across a sign for which they don’t have meaning (red button) within the context of signs for which they do (blue button). Familiar meanings generate new meanings due to the formal relations between known and unknown signs. What is important to note here is that players gain information about the game world by interacting with it, by interpreting it, by playing with signs to see what they might do or what they might mean. You find a button that is red and blue. What can you guess will happen if you press it? Will you take the risk to find out? Creating context as a mechanism for sense-making is a critical concept for game designers. It is why our definition of game design refers to the design of a context, rather than an artifact. The design of play is the design of an interactive context from which meaning can emerge.
掉进兔子洞
Down the Rabbit Hole
在这个模式中，我们将游戏定义为意义的游戏，这也是将游戏定义为理解游戏表征空间的过程的一种方式。游戏作为表征空间意味着什么？玩家与游戏互动是为了理解它。规则指导这种互动，建立符号之间的关系，告诉玩家事物的含义。当玩家积极解释规则建立的系统时，意义就会显现出来。
In this schema, we frame games as the play of meaning, which is also a way of framing play as the process of making sense of the representational space of a game. What does it mean for a game to be a space of representation? Players interact with a game in order to make sense of it. Rules guide this interaction, establishing relationships between signs that tell a player what things mean. Meaning emerges as a player actively interprets the system established by the rules.
为了说明这一复杂的意义构建过程，我们绕道去了一趟仙境。在刘易斯·卡罗尔的《爱丽丝梦游仙境》中，意义、意义与无意义的结合十分丰富，这可以阐明游戏生成表征的方式。在故事中，爱丽丝迷失在一个充满奇异生物的奇妙世界里，在书页之间跌跌撞撞，从一个无意义的游戏跌落到另一个无意义的游戏。无论是被困在柴郡猫的省略语言游戏中，还是在女王宫廷的槌球游戏中失误，爱丽丝都发现自己不断努力去理解游戏规则。以下是爱丽丝接受赛跑挑战的摘录：
To illustrate this complex process of meaning-making, we take a detour through Wonderland. In Lewis Carroll’s story Alice in Wonderland, there is a rich play of meaning, of sense and nonsense, that can shed light on the way games generate representations. In the story, Alice is lost in a fantastic realm of curious creatures, tripping and tumbling from page to page, through one non-sensical game to the next. Whether trapped in the elliptical language games of the Cheshire Cat or misplaying her way through a game of Croquet at the Queen’s Court, Alice continually finds herself struggling to understand the rules of the game. Take the following excerpt in which Alice is challenged to a race:
首先，它划出一个圆形的赛道（“具体形状无所谓”，它说），然后所有参赛者都沿着赛道站好，不一而足。没有“一、二、三、出发”的规则，他们想跑就跑，想停就停，所以很难知道比赛什么时候结束。然而，当他们跑了半个小时左右，身上又完全干了的时候，渡渡鸟突然喊道：“比赛结束了！”他们都围在它身边，气喘吁吁地问：“但是谁赢了？”5
First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, (“the exact shape doesn’t matter,” it said), and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no “One, two, three, and away,” but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running a half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out “The race is over!” and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking,” But who has won?”5
仙境有一套自己的规则，不仅可以决定事物的意义，还可以决定如何赋予它们意义。爱丽丝掉进兔子洞，可以比喻为进入仙境这个魔法圈，这是一个人造意义的王国，在时间和空间上与现实世界隔开。现实世界的规则在仙境中并不完全适用，尽管仙境本身在某种程度上是对现实世界的戏仿，是现实的一面奇特镜子，它戏谑地扭曲了我们对表象逻辑的想法。
Wonderland has its own set of rules for determining not only what things mean but also for determining how they are made meaningful. Alice’s descent down the rabbit hole can be metaphorically seen as an entry into the magic circle that is Wonderland, a realm of artificial meanings, marked off in time and space from the real world. The rules of the real world do not precisely obtain in Wonderland, even though Wonderland itself is in some ways a parody of the real world, a curious mirror of reality that playfully distorts our ideas about the logic of representation.
爱丽丝梦游仙境遇到的每一个游戏都是这个总体方案的缩影。卡罗尔描述的荒诞而幽默的比赛仍然可以被识别为一场比赛。它有一条跑道，跑步者、起跑计数和比赛结束的明确时刻。同时，它与现实世界中的比赛不同。跑道的形状无关紧要，跑步者可以随时退出比赛，即使比赛结束了，也没有人知道谁赢了。尽管比赛看起来毫无意义，但它有自己的表征空间，玩家在其中努力寻找意义。“但谁赢了？”他们问道，像所有玩家一样想知道游戏的结果。
Each individual game that Alice encounters in Wonderland is a microcosm of this general scheme. The absurdly humorous contest Carroll describes is still recognizable as a race. It has a track, runners, a starting count, and a clear moment when the race ends. At the same time, it is like no race in the real world. The shape of the track doesn’t matter, the runners can abandon the game at any moment, and even when the race is finished, no one is sure who won. As nonsensical as the race may seem, it is its own representational space, a space within which players struggle to make meaning. “But who has won?” they ask, seeking like all players to know the outcome of the game.
我们已经确定，符号的价值来自于它们所属的系统。系统的结构和上下文不仅组织了这些符号的含义，还组织了它们的使用方式。魔法圈边界所定义的游戏空间充当了表征可能性的空间。这个游戏空间赋予了一个独立的现实世界以生命，一个属于它自己的世界，其中的居民可以执行在那个世界中允许发生但在其他任何地方都无法理解的行为。只有在非常奇怪的仙境环境中，这样的比赛才能被称为竞赛，获胜者才会如此不为人知和令人热切期待。
We have established that signs gain value from the system of which they are part. The structure and context of the system organize not only what those signs mean but also how they are used. The space of play defined by the borders of the magic circle operates as a space of representational possibility. This space of play gives life to a separate reality, a world of its own where its inhabitants can perform actions that are permitted to occur in that world, but that would not make sense anywhere else. It is only within the very strange context of Wonderland that such a contest could be called a race, and a winner could be so unknown and eagerly anticipated.
当然，使用这个例子的复杂性在于，这个游戏并不是一个真正的游戏，而是卡罗尔故事中对游戏的虚构描述。但这正是我们将其纳入的原因。仙境赛跑在两个层面上说明了意义的形成过程。首先，它有自己奇特的内部机制，有自己对参赛者构成比赛的“规则”。其次，比赛还通过与现实世界更大背景的关系为故事的读者创造了意义。我们知道卡罗尔描述的是一场比赛，因为我们对普通比赛有所了解。我们对现实世界的常识性理解使我们能够欣赏卡罗尔的俏皮话。这样，仙境赛跑的意义就说明了系统和背景的相互作用，内部和外部意义之间的相互作用使表征成为可能。
The complexity of using this example, of course, is that the game is not an actual game, but rather a fictional depiction of a game inside Carroll’s story. But that is exactly why we have included it. The Wonderland race illustrates the process of meaning-making on two levels. First, it has its own curious internal mechanisms, its own “rules” for what constitutes the race to its participants. Second, the race also creates meaning for readers of the story by virtue of its relationship to the larger context of the real world. We know that Carroll is describing a race because we have a sense of what an ordinary race is like. It is our commonsense understanding of the real world that allows us to appreciate Carroll’s playful nonsense. In this way, the meaning of the Wonderland race illustrates the paired interaction of system and context, the play between internal and external meanings that makes representation possible.
在女王的宫廷里
In the Queen’s Court
仙境明确地阐明了意义游戏的虚假性。爱丽丝掉进兔子洞后，进入了完全不同的环境，在这个环境中，胡说八道的规则（而不是常识）组织了她的游戏。她在仙境之外的生活有自己的一套规则和意义。适应仙境中的生活意味着过渡到一个完全不同的环境，有自己的规则和程序来表现。这很像进入游戏的魔法圈。当我们玩游戏时，我们做的不仅仅是洗牌从现实世界领域中提取的符号；相反，我们正在完全转移到另一个意义领域。在意义游戏中，符号和环境之间都会发生移动。因此，魔法圈是一种仙境。让我们看看爱丽丝在访问期间玩的另一个游戏：
Wonderland makes ideas about the artificiality of the play of meaning explicit. Alice’s trip down the rabbit hole landed her in another context entirely, one where the rules of nonsense (rather than common sense) organized her play. Her life outside of Wonderland had its own set of rules and meanings. Adapting to life inside Wonderland meant transitioning into a radically different context with its own rules and procedures for representation. It is very much like entering into the magic circle of a game. When we play a game, we are doing more than just shuffling signs drawn from the domain of the real world; instead, we are shifting to another domain of meaning entirely. In the play of meaning, movement occurs both between signs and contexts. The magic circle is therefore a kind of Wonderland. Let’s look at another game Alice plays during her visit:
爱丽丝想，她这辈子从来没有见过如此奇怪的槌球场，到处都是沟壑，球是活生生的刺猬，槌是活生生的火烈鸟，士兵们必须弯下腰，用手脚站立，才能形成拱门。爱丽丝起初发现的主要困难是管理她的红鹤：她成功地把它的身体舒服地夹在她的胳膊下，让它的腿垂下来，但是通常，就在她把红鹤的脖子伸直，正要用头给刺猬一击的时候，它就会扭过身来，抬头看着她的脸，脸上带着一种困惑的表情，她忍不住大笑起来：当她把刺猬的头低下来，正要重新开始时，她很生气地发现，刺猬已经展开身子，正要爬走：除此之外，无论她想把刺猬送到哪里，路上通常都有一条沟壑或一条沟壑，而由于弯着腰的士兵总是站起来，走到地面的其他地方，爱丽丝很快就得出结论，这确实是一个非常困难的游戏。6
Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in all her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up to stand on their hands and feet, to make arches. The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it WOULD twist itself around and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge or furrow in the way wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that this was a very difficult game indeed.6
爱丽丝称这个游戏“确实非常困难”。但值得注意的是爱丽丝觉得哪些事情具有挑战性。想想她的主要的困难不是想象一只活生生的红鹤可以用作槌球槌，刺猬也可以用作球。她很容易就接受了这些，认为它们符合仙境的表征逻辑。她的困难只是试图玩这个游戏——用红鹤的头打刺猬。而不是把这个奇怪的符号系统认作“槌球”。
Alice calls the game “very difficult indeed.” But what is remarkable are which things Alice finds challenging. Consider that her chief difficulty was not imagining that a live flamingo could be used as a Croquet mallet, nor hedgehogs as balls. These she accepted easily as fitting into the representational logic of Wonderland. Her difficulty was simply in trying to play the game—in hitting a hedgehog with the head of a flamingo. It was not in recognizing this strange system of signs as “Croquet.”
故事发展到这一步，爱丽丝已经基本接受了仙境的荒谬规则。她踏入了仙境的魔法圈，并相应地调整了自己的行为。尽管槌球场上不断游荡的活棋子让游戏变得极具挑战性，但它们的行为丝毫不会影响爱丽丝作为玩家的地位，她的行为在游戏空间内具有意义。在接受魔法圈产生的规则时，爱丽丝在一个表征领域内行动。与赛跑的例子一样，槌球游戏的意义出现在两个层面上。首先，尽管存在人体工程学上的困难，但槌球游戏是一种内部一致的游戏。例如，从来没有用刺猬当木槌击打滚动的火烈鸟的情况。游戏有自己的规则，爱丽丝在玩游戏时拼命试图遵循这些规则。其次，游戏对读者的整体意义依赖于读者对槌球正常玩法的了解。这个更大的背景使得读者能够理解原本毫无意义的游戏描述。
By this point in the story, Alice has largely accepted the nonsensical rules of Wonderland as her own. She has stepped into the magic circle of Wonderland and adapted her actions accordingly. Although the constant wanderings of the live game pieces across the Croquet-grounds made the game extremely challenging to play, their behavior in no way compromised Alice’s status as a player whose actions had meaning within the space of the game. In accepting the rules engendered by the magic circle, Alice acts within a field of representation. As with the example of the race, the meaning of the Croquet game occurs on two levels. First, despite the ergonomic difficulties, the game of Croquet was an internally consistent game. It was never the case, for example, that a hedgehog was used as a mallet to hit a rolling flamingo. The game had its own rules, rules that Alice desperately tried to follow as she played. Second, the overall meaning of the game to the reader relies on a reader’s knowledge of the normal play of Croquet. This larger context allows the reader to make sense of an otherwise nonsensical depiction of the game.
可怜的爱丽丝。虽然槌球游戏可能无法为她提供有意义的游戏体验，但它为我们提供了有关游戏和意义的深刻见解。爱丽丝无法以任何合乎逻辑的方式玩游戏，事实上，这是卡罗尔“设计”的要点之一。卡罗尔是意义游戏的大师。他对游戏结构的使用，无论是扑克牌、国际象棋还是槌球，都展示了意义构建的机制，揭示了游戏所表示的表征领域如何适合进行有趣的解读。
Poor Alice. Although the game of croquet might fail to provide her with meaningful play, it provides us with much insight into the machinations of play and meaning. Alice’s inability to play the game in any logical way was, in fact, one of the points of Carroll’s “design.” Carroll was a master in the play of meaning. His use of game structures, whether that of playing cards, Chess, or Croquet, demonstrates the mechanisms of sense-making, revealing how the fields of representation denoted by games are ripe for playful interpretation.
框架游戏
Framing Play
是时候爬出兔子洞了。下一站：认知框架，这个概念对于理解游戏和意义至关重要，它来自心理学领域。一般来说，认知框架是一种组织我们看待世界的方式。认知框架创造了解释的背景，并影响我们理解事物的方式。例如，在爱丽丝的故事中，有几种框架在起作用。认知框架“童话”鼓励我们将爱丽丝的冒险视为既奇幻又有教育意义的故事。卡罗尔在整个故事中运用了“游戏”和“游戏”的认知框架，以传达仙境是一个独立于现实的空间，一个充满特殊规则的空间。如果你第一次在英语课上阅读《爱丽丝梦游仙境》，也许“考试”或“论文”的认知框架塑造了你对这本书的解读和体验。
It is time to climb out of the rabbit hole. Next stop: a concept that is critical to an understanding of play and meaning, the cognitive frame, which comes to us from the field of psychology. Taken most generally, a cognitive frame is a way of organizing how we look at the world. Cognitive frames create contexts for interpretation and affect how we make sense of things. In the story of Alice, for example, there are several frames at work. The cognitive frame “fairy tale” encourages us to see Alice’s adventures as both fantastical and instructive. Carroll employs the cognitive frames of “game” and “play” throughout the story, to communicate that Wonderland is a space separate from reality, one where special rules abound. If you first had to read Alice in Wonderland for an English class, perhaps the cognitive frame of “exam” or “essay” shaped your interpretation and experience of the book.
认知框架的概念与魔法圈的概念非常相似。当玩家进入和退出游戏时，他或她正在跨越定义游戏时间和空间的边界或框架。认知框架是一个与游戏的“真实性”问题相关的概念，与游戏的虚拟世界与其相交的“现实生活”环境之间的关系有关。此外，游戏的框架不仅决定了游戏与外部世界之间的不寻常关系，还决定了游戏玩法的许多内部机制和体验。
The idea of a cognitive frame closely mirrors the concept of the magic circle. As a player steps in and out of a game, he or she is crossing that boundary, or frame, which defines the game in time and space. The cognitive frame is a concept connected to the question of the “reality” of a game, of the relationship between the artificial world of the game and the “real life” contexts that it intersects. Additionally, a game’s frame is responsible not only for the unusual relationship between the game and the outside world, but also for many of the internal mechanisms and experiences of game play.
认知框架的概念如何融入游戏和意义的讨论中？人类学家格雷戈里·贝特森指出，“游戏发生在一个有限的心理框架内，即一组互动信息的空间和时间界限内。”7游戏框架传达出这样的信息：游戏内的玩家正在“玩游戏”，游戏空间在某种程度上与现实世界是分开的。例如，在“夺旗”游戏中的推搡并不意味着它在游戏环境之外通常具有的意义。参与游戏的玩家在游戏开始时会暂停日常生活的规则。然后他们会根据自己的行为来调整自己的行为。游戏框架是一套规则，只有在游戏框架有效时，这些规则才能发挥作用。我们可以将游戏理解为一套行为系统（具有相关意义），这些行为系统以特定的方式构建，并受到有关空间、时间、意义和后果的规则的标记和约束。在游戏框架内行动的玩家根据规则和决定这些行动意义的背景来行动。但游戏还有一项额外的功能，即帮助塑造我们沟通和创造意义的方式，这体现在元沟通行为中。
How does the concept of the cognitive frame fit into a discussion of play and meaning? Anthropologist Gregory Bateson notes that, “play occurs within a delimited psychological frame, a spatial and temporal bounding of a set of interactive messages.”7 The frame of a game communicates that those contained within it are “playing” and that the space of play is separate in some way from that of the real world. A shove inside a game of Capture the Flag, for example, does not mean what it would normally mean outside the context of the game. Players engaged in play suspend the rules of everyday life when play begins. They then regulate their behavior according to a set of rules that operates only as long as the play frame is in force. We can understand play as a system of behaviors (with associated meanings) that get framed in particular ways, marked off and bound by rules regarding space, time, meaning, and consequentiality. Players acting within the frame of the game do so according to rules and the contexts that determine the meaning of those actions. But play has an additional function that helps shape how we communicate and make meaning, embodied in the act of metacommunication.
元沟通与游戏
Metacommunication and Play
格雷戈里·贝特森 (Gregory Bateson) 在其重要论文《游戏与幻想理论》中定义了元沟通的概念。对于贝特森来说，游戏不仅赋予行为独特的意义，还传达了对这些行为的态度。这种态度是一种关于如何解释和理解与游戏相关的行为的沟通。贝特森的表述受到一次参观动物园的启发：
In his important essay “A Theory of Play and Fantasy,” Gregory Bateson defines the concept of metacommunication. For Bateson, play not only grants distinctive meanings to actions but also communicates an attitude toward those actions. This attitude is a type of communication about how the actions associated with play should be interpreted and understood. Bateson’s formulation was inspired by a visit to the zoo:
我在动物园遇到的是一个众所周知的现象：我看到两只小猴子在玩耍，也就是说，它们在进行一个互动序列，其中的信号单元动作与战斗相似但又不完全相同。即使是人类观察者也很清楚，整个序列并不是战斗，而人类观察者也很清楚，对于参与其中的猴子来说，这“不是战斗”。
What I encountered at the zoo was a phenomenon well known to everybody: I saw two young monkeys playing, i.e., engaged in an interactive sequence of which the unit actions of signals were similar to but not the same as combat. It was evident, even to the human observer, that the sequence as a whole was not combat, and evident to the human observer that to the participant monkeys this was “not combat.”
现在，这种游戏现象只有当参与生物体具有一定程度的元通信能力时才会发生，即交换带有“这是游戏”信息的信号。8
Now, this phenomenon, play, could only occur if the participant organisms were capable of some degree of metacommunication, i.e., of exchanging signals which would carry the message “this is play.”8
贝特森认为游戏是交流进化过程中的重要一步，因为它是“生物体能够将手势识别为信号的时刻，也就是说，能够认识到其他个体和它自己的信号仅仅是信号而已”。9换句话说，玩耍不仅仅是遵守游戏规则和仪式，也要不断传达这样的理念：玩耍只是游戏，而不是别的什么。两只狗在玩耍：一只狗追赶另一只狗，然后追上它，咬住它的脖子。作为一种游戏和意义的行为，这里发生了什么？嬉戏的咬意味着咬：它的意思是，啊哈！我追赶你，追上你，咬了你！同时，咬的含义相反：咬也意味着，我并没有真的咬你。我只是在玩。这种双重含义，即咬代表咬，但又恰恰代表了咬不是的东西，就是贝特森所说的元沟通。
Bateson saw play as an important step in the evolution of communication because it was “the point at which the organism is able to recognize the sign as a signal, that is, to recognize that the other individual’s and its own signals are only signals.”9 To play, in other words, is not just to follow the rules and rituals of play, but also to continually communicate the idea that the play-actions are just play and not something else. Two dogs are playing: one dog chases the other, catches up to it, and nips it on the neck. As an act of play and meaning, what is going on here? The playful nip connotes a bite: it means, Aha! I pursued you, caught up to you, and bit you! At the same time, the nip connotes the opposite: the nip also means, I didn’t really bite you. I’m just playing. This double meaning, that the nip represents the bite but also exactly what the bite is not, is what Bateson means by metacommunication.
元沟通不仅发生在动物身上，也发生在人类玩的游戏中。在《转瓶子》中，玩家能够意识到游戏框架内的吻既代表又不意味着现实世界中的吻，这就是元沟通的一个例子。我们可以说，《转瓶子》游戏中的玩家交换的信号传达了“这是一个吻”的信息，但同时也传达了“这不是一个真正的吻——这只是一个游戏”的信息。
Metacommunication not only occurs with animals, but in games that people play as well. In Spin the Bottle, the ability of players to recognize that a kiss within the frame of the game at once represents but also does not mean the same thing as a kiss in the real world is an instance of metacommunication. We might say that players in a game of Spin the Bottle exchange signals that carry the message “This is a kiss,” but at the same time convey the message “This isn’t a real kiss—it’s just a game.”
这种双重意识是人造游戏结构赋予玩家亲吻的许可这一事实的产物。如果没有游戏，亲吻可能就不会发生。游戏中的亲吻是一种奇怪的符号混合体，只能从游戏的独特背景中产生。《转瓶》中的亲吻既具有现实世界中亲吻的意义，又不具有现实世界中亲吻的意义。就像咬和咬一样，《转瓶》中的亲吻表示普通的亲吻（我亲吻了那个可爱的男孩！），即使它同时表示了亲吻不是什么（但那只是在游戏中。）。
This double consciousness is a product of the fact that the artificial game structure gives players license to kiss each other. Without the game, the kiss would probably not take place. The in-game kiss is a strange semiotic hybrid that could only emerge from the unique context of play. The kiss of Spin the Bottle has and does not have the meaning of a kiss in the real world. Like the nip and the bite, a Spin the Bottle kiss denotes a regular kiss (I kissed that cute boy!), even as it simultaneously denotes what the kiss is not (But it was only in a game.).
元沟通的概念是一个绝对关键的想法，它将极大地启发以下模式：游戏作为叙事游戏和游戏作为模拟游戏。游戏作为一种元沟通形式，重新构建了当前情境中的事件，因此“游戏”的行为与其他“不游戏”的行为相关，但并不相同。每当我们玩游戏时，我们的游戏活动的一部分都涉及传达“我在玩”的想法。玩家之间以及玩家与不玩家之间的这种持续不断的沟通有助于维持魔法圈。魔法圈的功能之一魔法圈的目的是积极地展示它与普通生活的区别。正如萨顿·史密斯所说，“打斗游戏作为真实打斗的类比，似乎更像是在展示打斗的意义，而不是为真正的战斗进行排练。它更多的是意义，而不是伤害。”10
The concept of metacommunication is an absolutely critical idea that will greatly inform the following schemas, Games as Narrative Play and Games as the Play of Simulation. Play, as a form of metacommunication, reframes the events of the situation at hand, so that actions of “play” are related to, but are not the same as, other actions of “not play.” Whenever we play, part of our play-activity involves the communication of the idea, “I am playing.” This continual stream of communication between players, and between those playing and those not playing, helps sustain the magic circle. One of the functions of the magic circle is to actively demonstrate its own distinction from ordinary life. As Sutton-Smith notes, “Playfighting as an analogy to real fighting seems more like displaying the meaning of fighting than rehearsing for real combat. It is more about meaning than mauling.”10
在得出“这就是游戏”这个看似简单的信息的过程中，交流和认知涉及一系列解释行为。就像在《仙境》中一样，这些解释行为将“游戏”（魔法圈内的事件和行动）与“不游戏”（魔法圈外的事件和行动）联系起来。在讨论游戏的表征能力时，我们需要考虑元沟通，特别是在叙事、模拟和沉浸式的背景下。解释框架决定了我们如何“接受”一个事件或符号作为一种沟通。最终，重点不在于游戏事件意味着什么，而在于我们如何理解它的含义。
The exchange and recognition involved in arriving at the seemingly simple message “This is play” involves a range of interpretive acts. As in Wonderland, these interpretive acts connect “play” (events and actions within the magic circle) to “not play” (events and actions outside the magic circle). We need to take metacommunication into account when discussing the representational capacity of games, especially in the context of narrative, simulation, and immersion. The interpretative frame conditions how we “take” an event, or sign, as a communication. The point, in the end, is not what a play event means, but how we take its meanings.
被游戏俘获
Captured by the Game
想象一下邻里之间的“警察与强盗”游戏。每个玩游戏的人都扮演“警察”或“强盗”的角色。警察指定一棵树来代表游戏中的“监狱”。游戏规则描述了玩家可以做什么以及何时可以做：强盗如何被警察抓获、关进监狱以及被其他强盗释放。游戏包含许多表示：警察、强盗和监狱，以及抓获和越狱等动作。规则最初建立了这些表示，但它们通过游戏找到了意义。
Imagine a neighborhood game of Cops and Robbers. Everyone playing the game takes on a role of either a “cop” or a “robber.” The cops designate a tree to represent the “jail” in the game. The rules of the game describe what players can do and when: how robbers can be captured by cops, placed into jail, and set free by other robbers. The game contains many representations: cops, robbers, and a jail, as well as actions such as capturing and making a jailbreak. The rules initially establish these representations, but they find their meaning through play.
游戏行为就是解释行为。随着玩家在游戏中前进，表征会发生变化：我是一个卑鄙的强盗。我是一个无助的囚犯。我是一个逃犯。以这种方式玩表征就是玩游戏。通过独特的游戏机制，意义得以显现。这些表征指的是现实世界中的罪行和惩罚，但它们也是人为的，在游戏的魔法圈内以独特的方式制定和解释。
The act of play is the act of interpretation. As players make their way through the game, representations shift and change: I’m a mean Robber. I’m a helpless prisoner. I’m an escaped convict. To play with representation in this way is to play the game. The meanings that emerge do so through the unique mechanisms of play. These representations refer to crime and punishment in the real world, but they are also artificial, uniquely enacted and interpreted within the magic circle of the game.
《警察与强盗》的玩家知道他们在玩游戏。被捕的强盗玩家紧紧抓住监狱树的树干，大喊“放我出去！”，这不仅仅是在游戏中采取战略行动。他还表明自己在玩游戏。如果他真的想离开，他可以放开树干走开。但他被游戏所创造的意义之链所束缚，参与到游戏中人为的冲突中。在游戏中被捕意味着被关进真正的监狱，但也意味着相反的意思：玩家并没有真正被捕，因为他毕竟“只是在玩游戏”。如果这一切在理论上听起来很复杂，请记住在实践中它是多么简单。《警察与强盗》游戏中的玩家都不必了解游戏用来创造意义的复杂机制。他们只知道他们在玩游戏，并且玩得很开心。他们体验到的意义非常复杂，但他们进入游戏并体验游戏的轻松乐趣却很简单。
The players of Cops and Robbers know that they are playing. A captured robber player, clinging to the trunk of the jail tree and shouting “Set me free!” isn’t just making a strategic move in the game. He is also signifying the fact that he is playing. If he really wanted to leave, he could just let go of the trunk and walk away. But he is bound within the chains of meaning that the game makes possible, taking part in the artificial conflict of the game. Being captured in the game signifies being placed inside a real jail, but it also signifies just the opposite: the player is not truly captured, because he is, after all, “just playing.” If this all sounds complicated in theory, just remember how easy it is in practice. None of the players in the Cops and Robbers game have to understand the complex mechanisms games use to create meaning. All they know is that they are playing a game and enjoying themselves. The meanings they experience are wonderfully complex, but there is a simplicity with which they enter into the game and experience the effortless pleasure of play.
游戏玩家居住在游戏框架与现实世界框架相交的奇幻空间中。游戏设计师最大的乐趣就是创造自己的兔子洞，希望玩家能够找到进入其中的路，从而创造自己的意义。游戏设计师是让奇幻游戏成为可能的建筑师、意义创造者和故事讲述者。
Game players inhabit that wonderland space where the frame of the game intersects the frame of the real world. Game designers have the supreme pleasure of creating their own rabbit holes, hoping players find their way down inside, in order to create their own meanings. Game designers are the architects, the meaning-makers, the storytellers that make the play of wonderland possible.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
《无稽之谈：民间传说与文学中的互文性》，作者：苏珊·斯图尔特
Nonsense: Aspects of Intertextuality in Folklore and Literature, by Susan Stewart
斯图尔特探索了常识与无稽之谈之间错综复杂的关系，指出了解释和意义是如何通过形式和社会背景的变化而有序和无序的。斯图尔特对语境和意义的操纵以及认知框架在塑造解释中的作用的讨论尤其令人感兴趣。斯图尔特研究了一系列类似游戏的结构，包括回文、童谣、双关语、字谜、密码语言和漫画。
Stewart explores the labyrinthine relationships between common sense and nonsense, pointing to the ways interpretation and meaning are ordered and disordered through changes in formal and social context. Of particular interest is Stewart’s discussion of the manipulation of context and meaning, and the role of the cognitive frame in shaping interpretation. Stewart examines a range of game-like structures, including palindromes, children’s rhymes, puns, anagrams, code languages, and comic strips.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第一部分。常识和虚构的宇宙，特别是：
Part I. Common Sense and Fictive Universes, especially:
“‘生活’与‘艺术’的框架”
“Framing in ‘Life’ and ‘Art”
“游戏与情境的操控”
“Play and the Manipulation of Context”
格雷戈里·贝特森的《游戏与幻想理论》 ，摘自《心灵生态学》
“A Theory of Play and Fantasy,” by Gregory Bateson, in Steps to an Ecology of Mind
贝特森的游戏和幻想理论表明，游戏涉及元沟通——使用符号来传达关于符号的信息。他认为，我们之所以成为人类，是因为我们具有使用符号或抽象系统来表示经验的独特能力。他关于认知框架和元沟通的重要概念及其与游戏的关系在这篇文章中得到了精彩的探讨。这篇文章还很好地介绍了游戏是一种表征系统的观点，其中的解释受到将其框架为“游戏”的影响
Bateson’s theory of play and fantasy suggests that play involves metacommunication—the use of signs that communicate about signs. He argues that what makes us human is our unique ability to use symbolic or abstract systems for representing experience. His important concepts of the cognitive frame and metacommunication, and their relationship to play, are wonderfully explored in this essay. The essay also offers a good introduction to the idea that play is a system of representation, in which interpretations are affected through their framing as “play’
笔记
Notes
1. Jeremy Campbell，《语法人：信息、熵、语言和生命》（纽约：西蒙与舒斯特出版社，1983 年），第 127 页。
1. Jeremy Campbell, Grammatical Man: Information, Entropy, Language, and Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983), p. 127.
2. Bernard DeKoven，《玩得好的游戏》（纽约：Doubleday，1978 年），第 45 页。
2. Bernard DeKoven, The Well-Played Game (New York: Doubleday, 1978), p.45.
3. Neal Hallford 与 Jana Hallford 合著，《剑与电路：计算机角色扮演游戏设计师指南》（加利福尼亚州罗斯维尔：Prima Publishing，2001 年），第 152-4 页。
3. Neal Hallford with Jana Hallford, Swords and Circuitry: A Designer’s Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games (Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing, 2001), p.152–4.
4.同上，第154页。
4. Ibid. p.154.
5.刘易斯·卡罗尔，《爱丽丝梦游仙境》和《爱丽丝镜中奇遇记》 （纽约：Signet Classic，2000 年），第 97-98 页、第 173-174 页。
5. Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (New York: Signet Classic, 2000), p. 97–98, p. 173–74.
6.同上，第176页。
6. Ibid. p.176.
7. Gregory Bateson，《游戏与幻想理论》。《心灵生态学步骤》 （芝加哥：芝加哥大学出版社，1972 年），第 191 页。
7. Gregory Bateson, “A Theory of Play and Fantasy.” In Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1972), p. 191.
8.同上，第179页。
8. Ibid. p.179.
9.同上，第178页。
9. Ibid. p.178.
10 . Brian Sutton-Smith，《游戏的模糊性》（伦敦：哈佛大学出版社，1997 年），第 23 页。重点在此。
10. Brian Sutton-Smith, The Ambiguity of Play (London: Harvard University Press, 1997), p.23. Our emphasis.
游戏即意义的游戏
概括
• 有两种方式可以理解游戏和表征之间的关系：
• There are two ways of understanding the relationship between games and representation:
• 游戏可以表现（它们包含内部描述）
• Games can represent (they contain internal depictions)
• 游戏是一种表象（整个游戏就是一个符号）
• Games are representations (a game as a whole is a sign)
•游戏中的意义源自系统与环境的互动：
• Meaning in a game emerges from the interaction between system and context:
•游戏意义系统是一套由规则定义的形式关系。它是预先存在的符号结构，不会因游戏的不同而改变。
• The system of a game’s meaning is the set of formal relationships defined by the rules. It is the pre-existing structure of signs that does not change from game to game.
•游戏意义的语境是进行解释的体验空间。游戏中的解释就是游戏的行为。
• The context of a game’s meaning is the space of experience where interpretation takes place. Interpretation in games is the act of play.
• 这种意义生成过程并非游戏所独有。例如，语言中的意义也源自形式系统（语法）与解释语境之间的关系。
• This process of generating meaning is not unique to games. For example, meaning in language also emerges from the relationship between formal systems (grammar) and the context of interpretation.
• 由于游戏是新兴系统，即使是简单的系统也能产生无限的意义。由此产生的可能意义集就是游戏的表征可能性空间。
• Because games are emergent systems, even a simple system can generate infinite meanings. The resulting set of possible meanings is the space of representational possibility of a game.
• 游戏中的玩家通过互动来探索这一表征可能性空间。游戏设计师通过创建一系列动作和结果，构建出这一可能意义空间。
• Players in a game navigate this space of representational possibility through interaction. Game designers, by creating chains of actions and outcomes, build this space of possible meaning.
•游戏的魔法圈是获得特殊意义的空间。它是游戏规则生效的空间，也是意义解释的背景。
• The magic circle of a game is the space where special meanings obtain. It is the space where the rules of a game take hold, as well as the context for the interpretation of meaning.
• 游戏魔法圈中的含义既来自游戏内部的形式系统，也来自游戏对现实世界的引用方式。
• The meanings within the magic circle of a game are derived both from the internal formal system of the game as well as the ways that the game refers to the real world.
•认知框架是组织我们看待世界的方式。游戏玩家的认知框架会影响他们对行为和事件的解读。
• A cognitive frame is a way of organizing how we look at the world. Game players take on a cognitive frame that affects how they interpret actions and events.
•元沟通是在游戏环境中发生的沟通。除了传达游戏动作外，玩家还总是传达“只是在玩游戏”的事实
• Metacommunication is communication that takes place in the context of play. In addition to communicating game actions, players are also always communicating the fact that they are “just playing”
• 元沟通有助于在游戏中产生复杂的意义。每个游戏行为都表示一个动作（“我刚刚抓住了你！”），但它也表示这个动作不是什么（“我并没有真正抓住你，因为我们只是在玩。”）。
• Metacommunication helps generate the complex play of meaning in a game. Every game behavior signifies an action (“I just captured you!”) but it also signifies what the action is not (“I didn’t really capture you, since we were just playing.”).
二十六
26
游戏作为叙事游戏
GAMES AS NARRATIVE PLAY
情况
situation
特点
character
形式
form
嵌入式叙事
embedded narrative
新兴叙事
emergent narrative
叙述描述符
narrative descriptor
虚构的世界
fictive worlds
故事事件
story events
复述游戏
retelling play
想象一下，你独自乘坐一架太空飞船以光速穿越太空。你和你的小飞船完全被黑暗吞没，只有偶尔经过的星星发出光芒。
Imagine you’re in a one-man space shuttle traveling though the heavens at the speed of light. You and your tiny ship are totally engulfed in darkness, except for the luminance of an occasional passing star.
突然，毫无预兆地，前方突然出现一道耀眼的闪光。你检查雷达屏幕。什么也没有。很快又出现了一道闪光，又一道。接下来你知道的，闪光变成了某种巨大的力场，就在前方。你检查雷达屏幕，仍然一无所获。
Suddenly, without warning, there’s a brilliant flash straight ahead. You check the radar screen. Nothing. Pretty soon there’s another flash, and another. Next thing you know the flashes have turned into one gigantic force field of some kind and it’s dead ahead. You check the radar screen, still nothing.
这个神秘力场的颜色如此明亮，几乎令人眼花缭乱。它们似乎是分层的。但最奇怪的是，雷达屏幕上什么也没有显示。那意味着什么？有可能穿越这个神秘的力场吗？还是你会坠毁并被摧毁？那层呢？如果你穿过了一层，你能穿过下一层吗？再下一层？现在是做决定的时候了，只有几秒钟的时间去思考。掉头或向前冲，试着穿过这个色彩鲜艳的力场。这取决于你。—— Atari Super Breakout 游戏程序说明
The colors in this mysterious force field are so bright, they’re almost blinding. And they seem to be in layers. But the strangest thing is that nothing shows up on the radar screen. What could that mean? Is it possible to travel through this mysterious force field or will you crash and be destroyed? And what about the layers? If you make it through one, can you make it through the next, and the next? It’s decision time and there are only a few seconds to think about it. Turn back or blast ahead and try to make it through the layers of this brightly colored force field. It’s up to you.—Atari Super Breakout Game Program Instructions
介绍叙事游戏
Introducing Narrative Play
想象一下纸牌游戏《战争》是正义与邪恶势力之间的一场史诗般的战斗，战斗由一副纸牌和概率法则发起。想象一下 Wipeout XL 是 2097 年左右的未来运动，其中由公司赞助的、反重力的气垫船在不可能的赛道上飞驰，并互相投掷扭曲现实的武器，以满足嗜血粉丝的乐趣。体验 Super Breakout，这是勇敢的单人航天飞机与神秘力场之间的冲突，神秘力场的强度令人眼花缭乱，色彩和光线巨大。点亮引擎。给激光枪通电。检查雷达屏幕。一片漆黑，一道闪光，然后……您正在玩游戏。故事，你的故事，开始了。
Consider the card game War as an epic battle between the forces of good and evil, waged with a deck of cards and the laws of probability. Imagine Wipeout XL as a future sport circa 2097, in which corporate-sponsored, gravity-defying hoverships speed through impossible race tracks and hurl reality-warping weapons at each other for the pleasure of bloodthirsty fans. Experience Super Breakout as a conflict between a brave one-man space shuttle and a mysterious force field of blinding intensity a, gigantic array of color and light. Light up the engine. Energize the laser blaster. Check the radar screen. Blackness, a flash of light, and then . . . you are playing the game. The story, your story, begins.
玩游戏意味着与一个表象宇宙互动，并在其中互动，这是一个具有叙事维度的可能性空间。在《奇异世界：阿比逃亡记》中，玩家与贪婪的玛各集团的格鲁孔人战斗，以拯救他们的穆多肯人同胞，使他们免于在 Necrum 矿井中沦为奴隶。在《司机：你是车手》中，玩家扮演特纳，一名卧底潜入黑社会最危险的组织卡斯塔尔迪家族的警察。在《大富翁》中，玩家扮演无情的土地大亨，争夺对大西洋城的全面经济统治权。
Playing a game means interacting with and within a representational universe, a space of possibility with narrative dimensions. In Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus, players fight the Glukkons of the rapacious Magog Cartel to save their fellow Mudokens from a life of slavery in the mines of Necrum. In Driver: You Are the Wheelman, players take the role of Turner, a cop who goes undercover to infiltrate the Castaldi family, the underworld’s most dangerous organization. In Monopoly, players are ruthless land barons vying for total economic domination of Atlantic City.
游戏由规则构成，并通过游戏体验，是玩家激活、操纵、探索和改变的可能行动空间。当我们将这种可能性空间定义为叙事空间时，就会出现一系列特殊问题：游戏中的叙事存在于何处？如何将游戏设计为叙事体验？游戏可以实现哪些类型的叙事体验？叙事在有意义的游戏设计中扮演什么角色？我们将在“游戏即叙事游戏”这一模式中解决这些问题。
Formed by rules and experienced through play, a game is a space of possible action that players activate, manipulate, explore, and transform. When we frame this space of possibility as a narrative space, a special set of questions arise: Where do narratives in a game reside? How can one design games as narrative experiences? What kinds of narrative experiences do games make possible? What is the role of narrative in the design of meaningful play? We address these questions within this schema, Games as Narrative Play.
这些问题中的每一个都强调了叙事和游戏之间以设计为中心的关系。由于本章的潜在领域非常广阔，因此我们将调查重点放在紧密的范围内。例如，我们不会问“游戏是故事吗？”或“我们如何创造更好的叙事？”这类问题更普遍地关注叙事本身的性质，而不是通过游戏体验到的叙事的作用。在本章中，问题不是游戏是否是叙事，而是它们如何是叙事。
Each of these questions emphasizes a design-centric relationship between narratives and games. Because this chapter’s potential terrain is so vast, we keep our investigation tightly focused. We do not ask, for example, “Are games stories?” or “How do we create better narratives?” These kinds of questions focus more generally on the nature of narrative itself, rather than on the role of narrative as experienced through game play. In this chapter, it is not a question of whether games are narrative, but how they are narrative.
谈论游戏中的叙事体验的挑战部分在于它可以采取多种形式。特别是在数字游戏中，形式多种多样，通常只出现在一款游戏中。例如，玩家如何体验《DOOM》的“叙事”？是通过我们在游戏盒背面读到的“背景故事”，讲述一名孤独的士兵阻止外维度恶魔生物入侵地球的故事吗？开场标题屏幕和关卡间的故事更新在叙事体验中发挥作用吗？是通过游戏本身，一种需要瞬间计时、资源管理、通过 POV 和自上而下的地图进行空间导航、以及在最后一个保存点的可怕死亡和重生的叙事结构？游戏角色、设置和情节的品质和属性又如何呢？我们发现，这些元素中的每一个都以自己独特的方式为游戏的叙事游戏做出了贡献。
Part of the challenge of talking about the experience of narrative in games are the many shapes it can take. Particularly in digital games, there is a proliferation of forms, often within a single game. For instance, how do players experience the “narrative” of DOOM? Is it by way of the “backstory” that we read on the back of the game box, concerning a lone soldier staving off an invasion of Earth by extra-dimensional demonic creatures? Do the opening title screen and between-level story updates play a role in the narrative experience? Is it through the play itself, a narrative structure that demands split-second timing, management of resources, navigation of space via POV and top-down maps, and a horrible death followed by rebirth at the last save point? What about the qualities and attributes of the game’s characters, setting, and plot? As we discover, each of these elements contribute to the narrative play of a game in their own unique ways.
这个模式与前后章节紧密相关。《游戏作为意义的游戏》、《游戏作为叙事的游戏》和《游戏作为模拟的游戏》共同探讨了游戏作为表征系统的运作方式。在《游戏作为意义的游戏》中，我们进一步讨论了游戏如何通过意义化过程产生有意义的游戏。在本章中，我们将回顾一下游戏和叙事表征体验的更大问题。在下一章关于模拟的章节中，我们将重新聚焦于研究游戏作为表征系统的更原子的结构，将意义化、模拟和故事叙述联系在一起。
This schema is tied tightly to the chapters that precede and follow. Games as the Play of Meaning, Games as Narrative Play, and Games as the Play of Simulation together explore the ways that games operate as systems of representation. In Games as the Play of Meaning, we further developed our ongoing discussion of how games generate meaningful play through the process of signification. In this chapter, we pull back to look at larger questions of games and the experience of narrative representation. In the next chapter on simulation, we zoom back in to investigate the more atomic structures of games as representational systems, linking together signification, simulation, and storytelling.
叙事张力
Narrative Tensions
使用其他媒体作为起点，我们可能会学到很多关于虚构世界、人物的构建……但过于依赖现有理论会让我们忘记游戏之所以是游戏的原因：比如规则、目标、玩家活动、玩家行为在游戏世界中的投射、游戏定义玩家可能行为的方式。我们现在需要研究的是游戏的独特部分。—— Jesper Juul，《游戏讲故事？》。
Using other media as starting points, we may learn many things about the construction of fictive worlds, characters . . . but relying too heavily on existing theories will make us forget what makes games games: Such as rules, goals, player activity, the projection of the player’s actions into the game world, the way the game defines the possible actions of the player. It is the unique parts that we need to study now.—Jesper Juul, “Games Telling Stories?”
在游戏研究和设计中，“叙事”和“游戏”这两个术语的交集一直存在着令人惊讶的争议。近年来，文学、电影和超文本等电子叙事形式的学者和学生都倾向于研究电脑游戏。随着游戏设计以外的学科从各自领域的角度研究游戏，关于谁有权对游戏和叙事性发表声明以及如何发表此类声明的争论也随之而来。这些地盘之争表明，在自己的学科背景下研究外部媒体存在固有的困难。Jesper Juul 正确地提醒我们，过分依赖现有理论（尤其是从其他领域借来的理论）是危险的。例如，使用文学理论来论证所有游戏都是（或不是）叙事，最终对游戏设计没有多大用处。
The intersection of the terms “narrative” and “game” has been surprisingly contentious in the study and design of games. In recent years, scholars and students of literature, film, and electronic narrative forms such as hypertext have gravitated toward the study of computer games. As disciplines outside of game design have studied games from the perspective of their own fields, debates have arisen over who has the right to make statements about games and narrativity, and exactly how to make such statements. These turf wars are symptomatic of the difficulty inherent in studying external media in the context of one’s own discipline. Jesper Juul is correct in reminding us of the danger of relying too heavily on existing theories, particularly theories borrowed from other fields. For example, using literary theory to argue that all games are (or aren’t) narratives ultimately doesn’t offer much utility for game design.
关于游戏作为“互动叙事”的讨论，不可避免地会陷入关于线性与非线性叙事、游戏作为故事还是故事作为游戏的两极化争论。有人说游戏和叙事是互相排斥的概念；另一些人则认为有些游戏是叙事性的，而另一些则不是。请看以下摘录自游戏设计师/理论家 Greg Costikyan 和 Brenda Laurel 关于游戏和叙事的在线讨论：
Discussions of games as “interactive narratives” predictably fall into polarizing debates about linear vs. non-linear storytelling, of games as stories or stories as games. Some say that games and narrative are mutually exclusive concepts; others that some games are narrative whereas others are not. Consider the following excerpts from an online discussion of games and narrative by game designers/theorists Greg Costikyan and Brenda Laurel:
Greg Costikyan：故事最好被设想为“串珠”，一种线性叙事；游戏最好被设想为一个可能性三角形，初始位置位于一个顶点，可能的结局位于另一边，初始状态和结果之间有无数条路径，理想情况下是无限条路径。如果你试图通过强加任意决策点来让游戏更像故事，那么你就会让它变得不像游戏。
Greg Costikyan: A story is best envisioned as “beads on a string,” a linear narrative; a game is best envisioned as a triangle of possibility, with the initial position at one apex, and possible conclusions along the opposite side, with myriad, ideally, infinite paths between initial state and outcome. To the degree that you try to make a game more like a story by imposing arbitrary decision points, you make it less like a game.
Brenda Laurel：我不认为互动游戏改变了大众对故事的理解。在流行文化中，人们以相对独立于媒体的方式谈论人物和世界。在普通话中，“故事”这个名字实际上是指由人物、世界、情境、历史等创造的核心潜力，而不是指特定的实例（例如，《星际迷航》、《爱心熊》、《神秘岛》）。1
Brenda Laurel: I don’t think the interactive game changes the popular understanding of what a story is. In popular culture, people talk about characters and worlds in relatively media-independent ways. In common speech, the name “story” actually refers to the central bundle of potential created by characters, worlds, situations, histories, and so forth, rather than to a specific instantiation (for example, Star Trek, Care Bears, Myst).1
尽管科斯蒂基安和劳雷尔都提出了令人信服的观点，但他们每个陈述背后的问题都是游戏是否是叙事。我们在这个模式中的立场是，叙事概念只是一种看待游戏的方式。同样，问题不是游戏是否是叙事，而是它们如何是叙事。当然可以将所有游戏归类为叙事对象——或非叙事对象——但作为游戏设计师，我们必须问我们如何利用这种理解来产生有意义的游戏。
While both Costikyan and Laurel make compelling points, the question underlying each of their statements is whether or not games are narratives. Our position in this schema is that the concept of narrative offers just one way of looking at games. Again, the question is not if games are narrative but how they are narrative. It is certainly possible to categorize all games as narrative objects—or as non-narrative objects—but as game designers we must ask how can we use such an understanding to generate meaningful play.
过去几年，出现了几种关于游戏和叙事的模型。在《游戏讲故事？游戏和叙事简述》一文中，Jesper Juul 总结了这些趋势，并指出了作家和学者普遍提出的三个论点，以支持游戏和叙事之间的内在联系：
Over the last few years, several models regarding games and narrative have emerged. In “Games Telling Stories? A Brief Note on Games and Narratives,” Jesper Juul summarizes these trends by identifying three arguments writers and scholars commonly make supporting an intrinsic connection between games and narrative:
1. 我们用叙述来描述一切。
1. We use narratives for everything.
2. 大多数游戏都以叙事介绍和背景故事为特色。
2. Most games feature narrative introductions and backstories.
3. 游戏与叙事有一些共同的特征。2
3. Games share some traits with narratives.2
第一种观点提供了一种整体观点：我们利用叙事来理解我们的生活、处理信息以及讲述我们玩过的游戏的故事。因此，没有任何类型或文化形式（包括游戏）不属于叙事的概念。
The first argument offers a holistic view: we use narratives to make sense of our lives, to process information, and tell stories about a game we have played. Therefore, no genre or cultural form (including games) falls outside the idea of narrative.
第二个论点集中在游戏开场电影或文字介绍所提供的故事背景上。（你身处一个遥远的星系……）背景故事将玩家置于一个更大的故事背景中；玩家在游戏中的行为是实现更大故事的手段。例如，在《Super Breakout》中，程序说明中写出的背景故事将玩家置于一艘单人宇宙飞船中，以比光速更快的速度穿越深邃的黑暗太空。玩家遇到了一个神秘的力场，挡住了他的去路。他能穿过它吗？还是它会摧毁他？这段文字提供了一个叙事背景，玩家可以在其中行动，向力场发起攻击以继续他的旅程。如果没有这个背景，玩家在高度抽象的《Super Breakout》游戏中的行为可能缺乏叙事动机。虽然他的行为肯定具有交互意义——一个像素与另一个像素交互，一个动作有一个可辨别的综合结果——但它们缺乏一个设计好的体验背景，在这个背景中，这些更正式的意义被框定为一个故事。
The second argument centers on the story context provided by a game’s opening cinematic or textual introduction. (You are in a galaxy far, far, away . . .) Backstories position a player in the context of a larger story; a player’s action in a game is the means by which the larger story is realized. In Super Breakout, for example, the backstory written in the program instructions places players within a one-man spaceship, hurtling through the deep blackness of space, faster than the speed of light. The player encounters a mysterious force field, which blocks his way. Can he pass through it or will it destroy him? This text provides a narrative context within which the player acts, blasting away at the force field in order to resume his journey. Without this context, a player’s actions in the highly abstract game of Super Breakout might lack narrative motivation. Although his actions certainly have interactive meaning—one pixel interacts with another, one action has a discernable and integrated outcome—they lack a designed experiential context within which these more formal meanings are framed as a story.
第三个论点是，游戏与叙事具有一些共同的特征，这个论点非常广泛。这个论点认为，游戏与叙事一样，具有任务结构，体验是线性的，提供命运的逆转，并包含一些但不是所有叙事所共有的其他元素。
The third argument, that games share some traits with narratives, is exceedingly broad. This argument holds that games, like narratives, have quest structures, are experienced linearly, offer reversals of fortune, and contain other elements common to some, but not all narratives.
据 Juul 称，这三种方法都被用来证明以叙事方式理解游戏的合理性。它们都直接或间接地构成了我们对游戏作为叙事游戏的研究的一部分。然而，与 Juul 总结的方法不同，我们是从游戏设计的角度来探讨游戏和叙事的问题。在前面的章节中，我们从许多角度来构建和重新构建游戏。将游戏视为信息、冲突、乐趣或意义可以帮助游戏设计师设计有意义的游戏。当我们将游戏视为叙事游戏时，情况也是如此。
According to Juul, all three of these approaches have been used to justify a narrative approach to understanding games. Directly or indirectly, they all form a part of our own investigation of games as narrative play. However, unlike the approaches Juul summarizes, we are coming to the questions of games and narrative from a game design orientation. In previous chapters, we have framed and re-framed games from many points of view. Seeing games as information, conflict, pleasure, or meaning can help game designers to design meaningful play. The same is true when we look at games as narrative play.
“叙事”框架
A Framework for “Narrative”
在进一步讨论之前，让我们先定义一下这个模式的关键术语，即叙事。我们不会自己定义，而是借用文学理论家 J. Hillis Miller 的定义。在他的文章《叙事》中，他概述了构成叙事的几个组成部分：
Before we go any further, let’s define the key term of this schema, narrative. Rather than coming up with our own definition, we borrow one from literary theorist J. Hillis Miller. In his essay” Narrative,” he outlines a handful of components that constitute a narrative:
首先，必须有一个初始情境、导致情境改变或逆转的一系列事件，以及情境逆转所带来的启示。其次，必须使用拟人手法，即用符号塑造人物——例如，书面叙述中书页上的文字，口头叙述中空气中调制的声音。无论情节多么重要，没有拟人手法，就无法讲故事……第三，必须有一些关键元素的模式化或重复。3
There must be, first of all, an initial situation, a sequence leading to a change or reversal of that situation, and a revelation made possible by the reversal of the situation. Second, there must be some use of personification whereby character is created out of signs—for example, the words on the page in a written narrative, the modulated sounds in the air in an oral narrative. However important plot may be, without personification there can be no storytelling . . . . Third, there must be some patterning or repetition of key elements.3
米勒的叙事理解模型包含以下要素：
Miller’s model for understanding narrative contains the following elements:
•情境：叙事有初始状态、初始状态的变化以及变化带来的领悟，这个过程构成了叙事的事件。
• Situation: A narrative has an initial state, a change in that state, and insight brought about by that change. This process constitutes the events of a narrative.
•人物：叙事不仅仅是一系列事件，而是通过语言等媒介将事件拟人化。米勒所说的人物并非通常意义上的虚构人物，而是“通过符号创造人物”的过程。这一部分指的不仅是世界上发生的事件，而且是被表现的事件，即通过表现系统发生的事件。
• Character: A narrative is not merely a series of events, but a personification of events though a medium such as language. Miller doesn’t mean character in the usual sense of fictional persona, but rather the process by which “character is created out of signs.” This component references narratives as not just events that take place in the world, but as represented events, events that occur via systems of representation.
•形式：表现形式由模式化和重复构成。这在叙事的每个层面都是如此，无论是故事的物质形式还是其概念主题。
• Form: Representation is constituted by patterning and repetition. This is true on every level of a narrative, whether it is the material form of the story or its conceptual themes.
米勒继续指出，“即使不符合这种范式的叙事，其意义也在于它们与我们根深蒂固的期望相反，即所有叙事都是这样的。”4
Miller goes on to note that “even narratives that do not fit this paradigm draw their meaning from the way they play ironically against our deeply engrained expectations that all narratives are going to be like that.”4
游戏与米勒对叙事的定义有何关联？从形式上看，它们非常符合米勒的定义。以国际象棋为例。国际象棋有一个开始状态（当游戏开始时）、状态的变化（游戏玩法）以及由此产生的见解（结果）。它是一种拟人化的表现，一种风格化的战争描述，配有不同的角色阵容。游戏还发生在高度模式化的时间（回合）和空间（棋盘网格）结构中。
How do games relate to Miller’s definition of narrative? From a formal perspective, they fit the definition very well. Take Chess, for example. Chess has a beginning state (when it is set up for a game), changes to that state (the game play), and a resulting insight (the outcome). It is a personified representation, a stylized depiction of war, complete with a cast of differentiated characters. The game also takes place in highly patterned structures of time (turns) and space (the checkerboard grid).
米勒对叙事的定义简洁明了，但也非常抽象。根据这个定义，所有游戏都是叙事性的，文学、戏剧和电影也是如此。许多其他类型的体验也属于米勒所定义的范围，其中一些是通常不被认为是叙事的活动或对象，例如婚礼、一顿饭或一场争论。所有这些都包含米勒所概述的那种情况、人物和形式。（例如，一顿饭有开始、中间和结束，它要经过烹饪表现系统，并且涉及多个层面的形式模式。）米勒定义的巧妙之处在于它非常包容，同时仍然严格定义什么是叙事。米勒的模型帮助我们准确地理解从叙事角度考虑游戏的哪些组成部分时会成为焦点。
Miller’s definition of narrative is succinct, but it is also very abstract. All games are narrative by this definition, as is literature, theater, and film. Many other kinds of experiences also fall into the wide net Miller casts, some of them activities or objects we might not normally think of as narrative, such as a marriage ceremony, a meal, or an argument. All contain situation, character, and form of the sort that Miller outlines. (A meal, for example, has a beginning, middle, and end, it comes to pass through systems of culinary representation, and it involves formal patterning on many levels.) The cleverness of Miller’s definition lies in the fact that it is so inclusive, while still rigorously defining exactly what a narrative is. Miller’s model helps us understand exactly which components of a game come into focus when we consider them from a narrative perspective.
米勒的定义在某种程度上是一种形式化的叙事方法。事件、角色和模式化动作描述的是叙事对象的特质，而不是该对象的体验。由于“游戏作为叙事游戏”属于我们的主要模式“游戏”，因此我们的目的不仅仅是对叙事进行形式化的理解（故事的要素是什么？），而是体验性的理解（故事的要素如何产生有意义的体验？）。在我们基于游戏的模式中，我们关注的是玩家的体验：他们的内部心理状态，以及他们彼此之间以及与游戏动态系统之间形成的关系。如果我们将米勒对叙事的定义转移到体验框架中，我们就可以开始用熟悉的术语讨论叙事游戏。我们目前所知道的关于游戏体验组成部分的一切——它们是复杂的感官和心理系统，它们通过选择和元沟通创造意义，它们塑造和操纵欲望——都是制作叙事体验的工具。
Miller’s definition is in some ways a formal approach to narrative. Events, characters, and patterned action describe the qualities of the narrative object, rather than the experience of that object. Because Games as Narrative Play falls within our primary schema PLAY, our intention is not just to arrive at a formal understanding of narrative (What are the elements of a story?) but instead an experiential one (How do the elements of a story engender a meaningful experience?). In our schemas based on PLAY, our concern is with the experience of players: their internal state of mind, and the relationships they form with each other and with the dynamic system of a game. If we shift Miller’s definition of narrative into an experiential framework, we can begin to discuss narrative play in familiar terms. Everything we know so far about the experiential components of games—that they are complex sensual and psychological systems, that they create meaning through choice-making and metacommunication, that they sculpt and manipulate desire—are tools for crafting narrative experiences.
这些体验源自事件、动作和角色的设计。以我们对《游戏即体验游戏》中《蜈蚣》的分析为例。游戏中的五种元素——蘑菇、蜈蚣、蜘蛛、蝎子和跳蚤——之间紧密的互动提供了一个充满叙事游戏可能性的形式框架。每种生物与蘑菇的互动方式都不同。因此，每种生物互动的拟人化，即它成为有意义的表现的方式，都基于其设计的关系。例如，蜘蛛吃蘑菇，而蝎子会毒死蘑菇。致命的蜈蚣被击中后，其节段会变成蘑菇，这是一种进化动作，会将生物的状态从昆虫改变为景观。尽管这些互动在某种程度上是正式的，但玩家是在叙事描述空间中体验它们的。我们如何设计这样的空间？我们如何将游戏事件设计为叙事事件？游戏动作允许哪些类型的拟人化？接下来，我们通过米勒框架的体验式应用，详细观察一场比赛，开始解答这些问题。
These experiences emerge from the design of events, actions, and characters. Take our analysis of Centipede, from Games as the Play of Experience. The taut interaction between the game’s five elements—mushrooms, centipedes, spiders, scorpions, and fleas—provides a formal framework filled with the possibility of narrative play. Each type of creature interacts with the mushrooms in different ways. Accordingly, the personification of each creature’s interaction, the way that it becomes a meaningful representation, is based on its designed relationships. Spiders eat mushrooms, for example, whereas scorpions poison them. When shot, the deadly centipede’s segments transform into mushrooms, an evolutionary action that changes the state of the creature from insect to landscape. Although these interactions are formal on one level, players experience them within a narratively descriptive space. How do we design such a space? How can we design game events as narrative events? What kinds of personifications do game actions allow? Next we begin to address these questions by looking in detail at one game, through an experiential application of Miller’s framework.
雷雨
Thunderstorm
我们首先在“游戏作为不确定系统”中介绍了骰子游戏“雷暴” ，其中我们研究了通过游戏的形式结构产生的戏剧性不确定性。现在我们再次看看这个游戏，这次着眼于叙事游戏。雷暴体现了一个非常简单的叙事。玩家等待雷暴的来临。如果他们玩得好，他们的房子就不会受到风暴的侵袭；如果玩得不好，一道强大的闪电就会摧毁他们的家园。小心那些没能掷出 1 的玩家！
We first introduced the dice game Thunderstorm in Games as Systems of Uncertainty, where we investigated the dramatic uncertainty created through the game’s formal structure. We now look at the game again, this time with an eye toward narrative play. Thunderstorm embodies a very simple narrative. Players await the approach of a thunderstorm. If they play well their houses will be safe from the storm; if not, a powerful bolt of lightning will destroy their homes. Beware the player that fails to roll a 1!
尽管《雷暴》是一款纯粹的机会游戏，但体验的设计在多个层面上都塑造了叙事戏剧。游戏“故事”的体验本质上是结构性的，与直接与游戏事件相关。掷骰子不仅控制玩家建造房屋的速度，还同时控制风暴来临的速度。随着游戏的进行，玩家一步步建造房屋。每当玩家掷出 1 时，他或她就跳过该回合的房屋建造，延缓不可避免的风暴来临。一旦房屋建成，戏剧性就会增强，因为每次玩家掷骰子时，都有可能被雷击中。高潮叙事戏剧在最后一次掷骰子时上演，当雷击中并摧毁房屋时。结局再戏剧性不过了。
Although Thunderstorm is a game of pure chance, the design of the experience crafts narrative drama on many levels. The experience of the game’s “story” is intrinsically structural, tied directly to the game events. The roll of the dice not only controls the rate at which a player’s house is built, but simultaneously the speed at which the storm approaches. As the game progresses, players build their houses step by step. Every time a player rolls a 1, he or she skips house construction that turn, stalling the inevitable approach of the storm. Once the house is built, the drama heightens, as each time a player rolls the dice there is a chance that lightning will strike. The climactic narrative drama is enacted in that final roll, when lightning strikes, destroying the house. The finish could not be more dramatic.
《雷暴》提供了多层次的叙事体验。玩家建造房屋的速度各不相同，戏剧性的紧张感由此而生。在游戏的不同时刻，一些玩家可能“安全”地躲过了风暴（至少暂时如此！），而另一些玩家则处于风暴的最前线。这些位置可能会很快发生变化，具体取决于骰子在圆圈内移动时的结果。游戏进行中的快照会显示不断的变化和调整，以了解哪座房屋最接近建成——并因此被摧毁。
Thunderstorm provides a many-layered narrative experience. Dramatic tension emerges from the varying rates at which players build their houses. At different moments in the game, some players may be “safe” from the storm (at least momentarily!), while others sit poised at the front line of its fury. These positions can change quite quickly, depending on the outcome of the dice rolls as they progress around the circle. Snapshots of the game in progress would reveal constant shifts and adjustments to which house was closest to being built—and thus destroyed.
将玩家的表现转化为房屋的绘画是设计中一个独特的叙事组成部分，它使所有丰富的故事元素成为可能。虽然游戏可以让玩家以其他方式（数到六、收集六张卡片、丢失六便士等）跟踪他们的进度，但这些方法都无法很好地支持游戏的故事框架。通过让玩家画出风暴将摧毁的房屋的图片，游戏的设计提供了一个背景，赋予了掷骰子不确定的结果叙事意义。画出的房屋拟人化了游戏中的正式事件，按照米勒的“用符号创造的人物”的意义。此外，玩家在所有人面前建造房屋。这种对公共信息的使用有助于通过共享体验保持叙事连贯性。一个玩家体验的戏剧性最终与他们看到风暴即将摧毁其他人的房屋的能力有关。
The translation of a player’s performance into a drawing of a house is a distinctly narrative component of the design that makes all of the rich story elements possible. Although the game could have players keep track of their progression in other ways (counting to six, collecting six cards, losing six pennies, etc.), none of these methods would support the story framework of the game nearly as well. By having players draw pictures of the houses that the storm will destroy, the game’s design provides a context that grants narrative meaning to the uncertain outcome of the dice roll. The drawn houses personify the formal events of the game, in Miller’s sense of “character created out of signs.” Additionally, players build their houses in full view of everyone else. This use of public information helps to maintain a sense of narrative coherence through shared experience. The drama of one player’s experience is ultimately linked with their ability to see how close the storm is to destroying everyone else’s house.
《雷暴》的故事情节也与游戏的纯机会结构完美契合。玩家掷骰子时，他们上演了一出关于狂妄自大和命运必然性的寓言。男人和女人建造房屋的速度之快——这是家庭文明的象征——但大自然不可避免地会摧毁它们。虽然慢慢建造房屋是令人满意的，但同时也是走向毁灭的征程，是一场在终点线处决获胜者的比赛。就像猜字游戏《绞刑师》一样，每猜错一次，就会一行一行地画出一具绞死的尸体，完成图像就意味着死亡。《雷暴》的诗意讽刺在于，游戏的图像不是《绞刑师》中死亡的负面象征，而是建设的正面形象。在《雷暴》中，温顺的玩家获胜，最胆小的建造者因其速度不够而获得奖励，游戏在致命风暴过后结束，只剩下一座完整或接近完整的房子。
The narrative of Thunderstorm also dovetails nicely with the game’s structure of pure chance. As players roll and pass dice, they enact a fable about the folly of hubris and the inevitability of fate. As quickly as men and women might build houses—symbols of domestic civilization—nature will inevitably destroy them. Although it is satisfying to slowly build your house, it is at the same time a march toward destruction, a race in which the winners are executed at the finish line. Like the word guessing game Hangman, in which a hanging corpse is drawn line by line with each incorrect guess, completing the image is synonymous with death. The poetic irony of Thunderstorm is that the game’s image isn’t a negative icon of mortality as in Hangman, but a positive image of construction. In Thunderstorm, the meek player prevails, the most timid builder rewarded for his or her lack of speed, the game ending in the aftermath of the deadly storm, with only one complete or nearly complete house left standing.
《雷暴》的核心机制所形成的正式模式在宏观和微观层面上都支持叙事体验。掷骰子、抽牌和传递骰子的时时刻刻节奏建立了事件模式，这些事件模式就像一场即将来临的风暴的故事。随着游戏的进行和玩家的淘汰，圆圈逐渐闭合，直到只剩下一座房子。闪电击中各个房子的时时刻刻节奏在每场游戏中都不同，但不可避免的是，随着圆圈的闭合，随着存活的玩家越来越少，叙事节奏也会加快。从宏观层面来看，叙事模式是建设与破坏、运动与静止的结合。总体结果是令人惊讶的丰富叙事体验。
The formal patterning that emerges from the core mechanic of Thunderstorm supports narrative experience on both macro-and micro-levels. The moment-to-moment rhythms of rolling, drawing, and passing the dice set up patterns of events, which are experienced as a story of an approaching storm. As the game progresses and players are eliminated, the circle closes until there is only one house left. The moment-to-moment rhythm of lightning striking individual houses is different every game, but inevitably, as the circle closes, the narrative pace quickens as fewer players remain alive. On a macro-level, the narrative pattern is one of construction and destruction, of movement and stasis. The overall result is a surprisingly rich narrative experience.
叙事游戏的两种结构
Two Structures for Narrative Play
在本章的其余部分，我们将这些游戏互动的形式概念扩展到叙事游戏体验的特殊性。正如《雷雨》的例子所表明的那样，游戏的动态结构、其涌现的复杂性、其参与机制、其体验节奏和模式是理解游戏如何构建叙事体验的关键。要理解游戏叙事，必须分析游戏结构，并了解它们如何分化为不同的叙事游戏形式。
Throughout the rest of this chapter, we extend these formal notions of game interaction into the particularities of narrative game experience. As the example of Thunderstorm makes wonderfully clear, it is the dynamic structures of games, their emergent complexity, their participatory mechanisms, their experiential rhythms and patterns, which are the key to understanding how games construct narrative experiences. To understand game narratives, it is essential to analyze game structures and see how they ramify into different forms of narrative play.
我们可以确定两个广泛的结构准则来理解游戏的叙事成分：
We can identify two broad structural rubrics for understanding the narrative components of a game:
• 玩家可以体验以交互方式讲述的精心设计的故事游戏叙事：角色杰克 (Jak) 和达斯特 (Daxter) 正在拯救世界。
• Players can experience a game narrative as a crafted story interactively told: the characters Jak and Daxter are saving the world.
• 玩家可以参与游戏叙事，将其作为游戏过程中发生的突发体验：杰克和达斯特的故事在游戏过程中不断涌现。
• Players can engage with narrative as an emergent experience that happens while the game is played: Jak and Daxter’s story arises through the play of the game.
这两种观点，即精心制作的互动故事与即兴的游戏体验，都将叙事置于互动性的背景中。具体来说，这些观点代表了理解游戏系统如何产生叙事的两种方式。我们发现，关于游戏和叙事之间的这两种结构关系的最佳术语来自 Marc LeBlanc 在 1999 年游戏开发者大会上的一次演讲。根据 LeBlanc 的说法，游戏叙事可以是“嵌入的”或“突发的”。5
Both of these points of view, crafted interactive story versus improvised play experience, place narrative within the context of interactivity. Specifically, these viewpoints represent two ways of understanding how a game system produces narrative. The best terms we have found for these two structural relationships between games and narrative come from a talk by Marc LeBlanc at the 1999 Game Developers Conference. According to LeBlanc, game narratives can be “embedded” or “emergent.”5
嵌入式叙事是玩家与游戏互动之前就已存在的预生成叙事内容。嵌入式叙事旨在为游戏事件和行动提供动机，玩家将体验嵌入式叙事作为故事背景。例如，杰克和达斯特拯救世界的叙事就是游戏系统中嵌入的叙事：它通过玩家互动来体验，但形式上与游戏系统分离。嵌入式叙事让杰克有理由收集先行者球和能量电池；如果没有预生成的故事情节，游戏就会感觉像是一个抽象的寻找下一件物品的任务。嵌入式叙事还为游戏提供了主要的故事情节，以有意义的方式构建了玩家在游戏世界中的互动和移动。
Embedded narrative is pre-generated narrative content that exists prior to a player’s interaction with the game. Designed to provide motivation for the events and actions of the game, players experience embedded narrative as a story context. The narrative of Jak and Daxter saving the world, for example, is a narrative embedded in the game system: it is experienced through player interaction but exists formally apart from it. It is the embedded narrative that gives Jak a reason for collecting Precursor Orbs and Power Cells; without the pre-generated storyline the game would feel like an abstract fetch-the-next-item quest. The embedded narrative also provides the major story arc for the game, structuring a player’s interaction and movement through the game world in a meaningful way.
嵌入式叙事元素往往类似于线性媒体提供的叙事体验。在《杰克与达斯特》中，嵌入式元素是游戏系统中相对固定的“预先编写”的时刻和结构。例如，任何第一次开始游戏的玩家都会看到相同的介绍性电影。玩家第一次遇到桑多弗村镇长时，他或她会听到相同的预先录制的对话。嵌入式叙事元素可以采用多种形式，并通过多种方式实现，但无论如何体验，嵌入式叙事元素都是固定的、预先确定的叙事内容单元，就像《选择你自己的冒险》一书中的文本一样。
Embedded narrative elements tend to resemble the kinds of narrative experiences that linear media provide. In Jak and Daxter, the embedded elements are the “pre-scripted” moments and structures that are relatively fixed in the game system. Any player, for example, that begins the game for the first time will see the same introductory cinematic. The first time a player encounters the Mayor of Sandover Village, he or she will hear the same prerecorded bit of dialogue. Embedded narrative elements can take a variety of forms and be reached through a variety of means, but regardless of how they are experienced, embedded narrative elements are fixed and predetermined units of narrative content, like text on the page of a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book.
但游戏中并非所有的叙事都采用预先生成的嵌入式内容形式。叙事也可以是突发的，这意味着它源自于控制与游戏系统交互的一套规则。与嵌入式叙事不同，突发叙事元素在游戏过程中从游戏的复杂系统中出现，而且通常以意想不到的方式出现。游戏中大多数即时叙事都是突发的，因为玩家的选择会导致不可预测的叙事体验。在《迷雾岛》中杰克与气球潜伏者战斗的部分，叙事体验并不由预先编写的对话、动画和镜头移动序列组成。相反，游戏规则允许玩家跳上 Zoomer 试图击败潜伏者并通过熟练的操控收集资源。特定游戏的具体叙事体验，无论是杰克轻松击败潜伏者，还是一系列导致最终胜利的惨败，都取决于玩家互动。
But not all narrative in games takes the form of pre-generated, embedded content. Narrative can also be emergent, which means that it arises from the set of rules governing interaction with the game system. Unlike embedded narrative, emergent narrative elements arise during play from the complex system of the game, often in unexpected ways. Most moment-to-moment narrative play in a game is emergent, as player choice leads to unpredictable narrative experiences. In the section of Misty Island where Jak battles the Balloon Lurkers, the narrative experience does not consist of pre-scripted sequences of dialogue, animation, and camera movements. Instead, the game rules allow the player to hop on a Zoomer to try and defeat the Lurkers and gather resources through skillful maneuvering. The exact narrative experience of a particular game, whether it is Jak easily dispatching the Lurkers, or whether it is a series of crushing defeats that leads to an eventual victory, depends on player interaction.
新兴叙事之所以可能，是因为游戏作为复杂系统发挥作用的方式。顾名思义，新兴叙事与我们之前对新兴复杂性和有意义的互动的探索直接相关。例如，新兴叙事源于既耦合又相互关联的互动。上下文相关。我们在《游戏作为新兴系统》中引入了这两个术语，它们描述了复杂系统中元素之间的相互作用。当复杂系统内的交互耦合时，意味着系统的元素以递归方式链接。就像蜂巢中的蜜蜂一样，系统中的元素共同作用，以单个元素无法实现的方式发挥作用。玩家扮演杰克时时刻刻采取的行动与游戏过程中采取的所有其他行动息息相关。是时候探索离岸那个奇怪的岛屿了吗？也许你应该回到村子里，因为杰克的健康状况有点差。另一方面，你只需要再多几个球体就可以解锁下一个关卡。你会冒险吗？故事将如何展开？由于游戏中的动作是相互关联的，系统中的一个变化可以引起另一个变化，从而在整个游戏过程中产生叙事模式。
Emergent narrative is possible because of the way games function as complex systems. As the name implies, emergent narrative is linked directly to our earlier explorations of emergent complexity and meaningful interaction. For example, emergent narrative arises from interactions that are both coupled and context-dependent. These two terms, which we introduced in Games as Emergent Systems, describe interactions between elements in a complex system. When interactions within a complex system are coupled, it means that the elements of the system are linked recursively. Like bees in a hive, the elements in the system act together to perform in ways that single elements cannot. A player’s moment-to-moment actions as Jak are linked to all other actions taken over the course of the game. Is it time to finally explore that strange-looking island just offshore? Perhaps you should go back to the village, because Jak’s health is a bit low. On the other hand, you only need a few more Orbs to unlock the next level. Do you take the risk? How will the story unfold? Because actions in a game are linked to one another, one change in the system can create another change, giving rise to narrative patterns over the entire course of the game.
新兴叙事中的互动也依赖于情境，这意味着发生的变化每次并不相同。相反，互动的具体结果取决于系统中当时发生的其他情况。玩家第一次与潜伏者战斗时，也许结果很糟糕，玩家不得不仓促撤退。玩家的整体互动模式可能会从大胆探索转变为谨慎隐身，潜伏者的出现预示着可怕的威胁。在游戏后期，当玩家技能娴熟、实力强大时，单个潜伏者不再构成危险：遇到一个潜伏者将是一次例行甚至是一次有趣的遭遇。在新兴叙事中，耦合互动会在整个系统中产生全局模式；依赖于情境的互动确保这些叙事模式的确切排列会随着时间的推移而动态变化。
Interactions in emergent narratives are also context-dependent, which means the changes that occur are not the same every time. Instead, the exact outcome of an interaction depends on what else is happening in the system at any given moment. The first time the player fights a Lurker, perhaps it goes badly and the player has to beat a hasty retreat. The player’s overall interactive pattern might shift from bold exploration to cautious stealth, the appearance of a Lurker signaling a terrifying threat. Later on in the game, when the player is skilled and powerful, a single Lurker no longer poses a danger: running into one would be a routine or even amusing encounter. Within emergent narratives, coupled interactions produce global patterns across a system; context-dependent interactions ensure that the exact arrangement of these narrative patterns dynamically changes over time.
嵌入式和新兴游戏元素都包含角色、事件和模式，因此根据 Miller 的定义，它们都属于叙事。LeBlanc 并不是唯一一位做出这种结构区分并将其与游戏叙事设计联系起来的游戏设计师。在他的文章“正式抽象设计工具”中，Doug Church 得出了类似的结论：
Both embedded and emergent game elements contain characters, events, and patterns, and so both are narrative by Miller’s definition. LeBlanc is not the only game designer to make such a structural distinction and tie it to the design of game narrative. In his article “Formal Abstract Design Tools,” Doug Church comes to a similar set of conclusions:
电脑和视频游戏中最明显的情节应用是冒险游戏情节。在这类游戏中，设计师会提前写好故事，玩家通过与角色、物体和世界的互动来了解故事……
The most obvious uses of story in computer and video games can be found in adventure-game plot lines. In this game category, the story has been written in advance by designers, and players have it revealed to them through interactions with characters, objects, and the world . . . .
但 NBA Live 中也有故事情节。故事情节就是游戏中发生的事情。也许最终比赛进入加时赛，因为明星球员在最后一秒投中三分球，但投篮命中率却一直不高；也许比赛从一开始就是一场大比分的惨败，而最终用户只能让替补队员上场，享受他们的荣耀时刻。无论是哪种情况，玩家在比赛中的行为都创造了故事情节。6
But story comes into play in NBA Live, too. There, the story is what happens in the game. Maybe it ends up in overtime for a last-second three-pointer by a star player who hasn’t been hitting his shots; maybe it is a total blowout from the beginning and at the end the user gets to put in the benchwarmers for their moment of glory. In either case, the player’s actions during play created the story.6
丘奇的两个例子与勒布朗的嵌入和涌现类别非常相似。丘奇认为，诸如冒险游戏中的嵌入策略是“电脑和视频游戏中故事最明显的用途”。它们更明显是叙事性的，因为它们更接近我们通常认为的故事体验。正如丘奇所说，这些游戏包含“情节线……人物、物体和世界”。但这并不意味着涌现叙事（例如 NBA Live 等体育游戏中的叙事）在产生叙事体验方面就不那么重要。最终，游戏产生的独特叙事来自这两种方法的平衡。
Church’s two examples closely mirror LeBlanc’s categories of embedded and emergent. According to Church, embedded strategies such as those found in adventure games are the “most obvious uses of story in computer and video games.” They are more clearly narrative because they more closely resemble what we normally think of as a story experience. As Church puts it, these games contain “plot lines . . . characters, objects, and the world.” But that doesn’t mean that emergent narratives, such as in a sports game like NBA Live, can’t be just as important in generating narrative experience. Ultimately, the unique narratives games produce come from a balance of both of these approaches.
嵌入元素是游戏设计师直接创作的叙事结构，作为互动的框架。新兴叙事方法强调玩家与游戏系统互动的方式，以产生每个玩家独有的叙事体验。有些游戏，比如经典冒险游戏《猴岛的秘密》，强调嵌入的、基于内容的叙事。正如丘奇指出的那样，新兴叙事方法的结构冒险游戏具有固定的设定和谜题，适合嵌入叙事内容，玩家可以随着时间推移一点一点解锁。其他游戏，例如《模拟人生》，则体现了一种更加基于系统的设计方法，其中游戏规则代表了一个新兴叙事可能性的空间，每次都会以不同的方式展开。
Embedded elements are narrative structures directly authored by game designers that serve as a frame for interaction. Emergent narrative approaches emphasize the ways that players interact with a game system to produce a narrative experience unique to each player. Some games, such as the classic adventure game The Secret of Monkey Island, emphasize embedded, content-based narrative. As Church points out, the structure of an adventure game, with its fixed settings and puzzles, lends itself to embedded narrative content that a player unlocks piece by piece over time. Other games, such as The Sims, embody a more system-based design approach, in which the game rules represent a space of emergent narrative possibility that plays itself out differently every time.
几乎每款游戏都结合了嵌入式和突发元素。《猴岛的秘密》并非完全是预先编写的，就像幻灯片一样：游戏中有很多路线可供选择，因此是一种有限的突发体验。相反，《模拟人生》的整体背景类似于南加州郊区。这种预先生成的嵌入式叙事框架将游戏过程中发生的所有突发事件都置于背景中。
Virtually every game combines embedded and emergent elements. The Secret of Monkey Island is not entirely pre-scripted, like a slide show: there are many routes to take through the game, making for a limited kind of emergent experience. The Sims, conversely, has an overall setting that resembles suburban southern California. This pre-generated, embedded narrative frame contextualizes all of the emergent events that happen during play.
一种结合了嵌入式和突发叙事元素的常见数字游戏设计方法是基于任务的游戏结构，其中较大的叙事框架是预先生成的，但大多数即时游戏结果都是通过突发手段确定的。单人网络游戏 Spybotics：The Nightfall Incident 使用了一种总体赛博朋克叙事，这种叙事在各个游戏中不会发生变化。然而，当玩家在游戏故事中前进时，在网络上从一个节点移动到另一个节点，她会使用自己积累的程序库存来进行“数据战”，而数据战的结果并不是事先确定的。介绍性动画、预先编写的叙事、角色的出现以及网络本身的地图都是嵌入式叙事内容的形式。然而，玩家选择穿越网络的方式、她决定购买的黑客程序以及在每个节点战略性地部署它们的体验，代表了叙事的突发元素。游戏的整体叙事体验包括嵌入式和突发方法，它们交织在一个游戏结构中。
A common digital game design approach that combines embedded and emergent narrative elements is a mission-based game structure in which the larger narrative frame is pre-generated but most of the moment-to-moment game outcomes are determined through emergent means. The single-player web game Spybotics: The Nightfall Incident uses an overarching cyberpunk narrative that does not change from game to game. However, as a player makes her way through the game story, traveling from node to node on the network, she uses her accumulated inventory of programs to fight “databattles,” the outcomes of which are not determined in advance. The introductory animation, pre-scripted narrative, appearances of characters, and the map of the network itself are all forms of embedded narrative content. However, the way that the player chooses to make her way across the network, the hacker programs she decides to purchase, and the experience of strategically deploying them at each node, represent the emergent elements of the narrative. The total narrative experience of the game includes both embedded and emergent approaches, woven together within a single game structure.
叙述目标
Narrative Goals
在叙事中，我们对既定的经验进行整理和重新排序。我们赋予经验一种形式和意义。—— J. Hillis Miller，《叙事》
Within narrative we order and reorder the givens of experience. We give experience a form and a meaning.—J. Hillis Miller, “Narrative”
嵌入结构和涌现结构是概念化游戏中叙事结构的有用方法。但要让叙事游戏充分吸引人，重要的是要记住有意义游戏的核心原则。在接下来的几节中，我们将介绍游戏的一些基本元素，包括目标、冲突、不确定性和核心机制，看看如何将它们运用到叙事游戏的设计中。
Embedded and emergent structures are useful ways of conceptualizing narrative structures in games. But for narrative play to be fully engaging, it is important to remember the core principles of meaningful play. In the next several sections we take a look at some of the basic elements of games, including goals, conflict, uncertainty, and core mechanics, to see how they can be put to use in the design of narrative play.
叙事游戏设计的一个基本构成要素是游戏目标。目标不仅可以帮助玩家判断他们在游戏中的进度（他们距离获胜还有多远），还可以指导玩家理解他们在叙事背景下的行为的意义。例如，在《Super Breakout》中，目标是通过摧毁尽可能多的彩色方块来“突破”力场。目标描述了玩家在叙事背景下互动的性质，使互动变得有意义。互动的结果在形式层面（方块被摧毁）和叙事层面（宇宙飞船突破力场！）上都是明确的。在这个例子中，我们再次看到嵌入式叙事如何提供一个框架，使更直接的游戏玩法具有叙事意义。
One fundamental building block of narrative game design is the goal of a game. Goals not only help players judge their progress through a game (how close are they to winning), but also guide players in understanding the significance of their actions within a narrative context. In Super Breakout, for example, the goal is to “break out” of the force field by destroying as many colored blocks as possible. The goal describes the nature of player interaction within a narrative context, making the interaction meaningful. The outcome of the interaction is clear on a formal level (blocks are destroyed) as well as on a narrative level (the space ship breaks through the force field!). In this example we see again how embedded narrative can provide a framework that makes the more immediate game play narratively meaningful.
除了游戏的嵌入式叙事线，叙事游戏还可以在即时、突发的层面上发生。在多人《反恐精英》的人质营救模式中，玩家以反恐精英或恐怖分子的身份组队竞争。每支队伍都有互补的目标：在一系列回合中寻找并营救人质或阻止他们被营救。随着每轮的成败，随着其中一支队伍成为胜利者，游戏的更大叙事线也会随之波动。但叙事也会在游戏的每个时刻体验到，因为玩家会做出与队友和对手互动的决定。人质藏起来了？恐怖分子为什么这么没有组织？你能指望队友掩护你潜入敌方领地吗？当你的队伍半数阵亡时，你能救出足够多的人质来打败恐怖分子吗？《反恐精英》玩家通过反恐军事行动的叙事框架不断相互互动。游戏体验中的协作和竞争由每个团队相互交织的目标定义，塑造了玩家时时刻刻的行为和叙事体验。
In addition to the embedded narrative arc of the game, narrative play can occur on the moment-to-moment, emergent level as well. In the Hostage Rescue mode of multiplayer Counter-Strike, players compete in teams as either counter-terrorists or terrorists. Each team has complementary goals: to find and rescue the hostages or keep them from being rescued, over a series of rounds. The larger narrative arc of the game swings in tempo with the success or failure of each round, as one of the teams emerges as victor. But narrative is also experienced each moment of the game, as players make decisions regarding their interaction with teammates and opponents. Where are the hostages hidden? Why are the terrorists so unorganized? Can you count on your teammate to cover you as you sneak into enemy territory? With half your team down, will you be able to rescue enough of the hostages to beat the terrorists? Counter-Strike players constantly interact with one another through the narrative frame of counter-terrorist military operations. The collaboration and competition of the game experience, defined by the intertwined goals of each team, shape moment-to-moment player behavior and narrative experience.
游戏中的关卡或任务结构也为玩家提供了重要的叙事目标。完成一个关卡不仅意味着达到一个目标，还意味着经历一个更大故事的一个情节。当玩家穿过多个关卡时，一连串完成的目标创造了叙事连贯性。游戏关卡让玩家可以进入叙事世界的特定区域，每个关卡都充满了独特的事件、物体和人物，创造了特定的叙事基调和质感。Spybotics: The Nightfall Incident 由一系列关卡组成，以玩家必须击败的网络节点的形式出现。每个关卡的敌人程序难度都会增加，玩家控制的黑客程序的能力也会增加。这些新游戏元素不仅增加了挑战，还扩大了叙事的可能性。因此，玩家不断扩大的战略行动范围与不断扩大的叙事体验相对应。每个成功完成的节点都会向玩家奖励来自游戏角色阵容的消息和更新；随着剧情的展开，关卡结构也推动了间谍、破坏和背叛等赛博朋克故事情节的发展。《模拟人生热恋扩展包》使用关卡和目标来塑造游戏的叙事。约会是一种由几个小事件组成的叙事体验。浪漫约会有几个不同的组成部分：
Level or mission-based structures in games also provide important narrative goals for players. Completing a level means not only reaching an objective, but also passing through one episode of a larger story. As the player moves through multiple levels, the succession of completed goals creates narrative coherence. Game levels offer players access to specific areas of the narrative world, each level populated by unique events, objects, and characters that create a particular narrative tone and texture. Spybotics: The Nightfall Incident proceeds as a series of levels, in the form of network nodes that the player must defeat. The enemy programs at each level increase in difficulty, as do the abilities of the hacker programs under the player’s control. More than just ramping up challenge, these new game elements enlarge the emergent narrative possibilities. As a result, the player’s expanding palette of strategic actions corresponds with an expanding palette of narrative experience. Each successfully completed node rewards the player with messages and updates from the game’s cast of characters; as the play unfolds, the level structure also drives the embedded cyberpunk storyline of espionage, sabotage, and betrayal. The Sims Hot Date Expansion Pack uses both levels and goals to shape the game’s narrative. Going on a date is a narrative experience composed of several smaller events. A romantic date has several distinct components:
•为约会做好准备：玩家必须做好准备，确保模拟人有足够的能量，并且模拟人的动机值达到最大值。情绪是所有动机分数的总和，在约会持续时间和约会期间每次互动的成功中起着重要作用。由于约会的整体成功完全取决于模拟人之间的互动总和，因此大量不良互动会导致约会失败。
• Getting ready to secure a date: A player must prepare her Sim by making sure that the Sim has adequate Energy and that her Sim’s Motive values are at their maximum. Mood, an aggregate of all Motive scores, plays a big role in the duration of the date and the success of each interaction during a date. Because a date’s overall success is entirely based upon the sum of interactions between Sims, a large number of bad interactions results in an unsuccessful date.
•约会：模拟市民可以通过询问室友、搭讪访客、给朋友或熟人打电话或在市中心随机与某人见面来约会。模拟市民是否接受另一个模拟市民的约会提议取决于关系分数，该分数通过社交互动而发展。模拟市民可以开玩笑、调情、道歉、戏弄和吓唬对方，以达到约会的目的。
• Getting a date: A Sim can get a date by asking one of her housemates, accosting a visitor, calling a friend or acquaintance, or by randomly meeting someone downtown. Whether a Sim accepts the proposal of a date from another Sim depends on a Relationship score, which develops through social interactions. Sims can joke, flirt, apologize, tease, and scare each other in an attempt to accomplish the goal of getting a date.
•分享一项或多项活动：约会由一系列经过深思熟虑的互动和活动组成，由玩家设计，以最大限度地提高两个模拟人的关系分数。设计不当的事件必然会导致糟糕的互动——以及糟糕的约会。例如，在酒吧被拒绝的吻会立即结束约会。玩家选择在约会中包含的每种事件都有自己的叙事期望。例如，在商店试穿衣服与在热水浴缸中泡澡提供的叙事体验截然不同！
• Sharing one or more activities: A date consists of a set of carefully considered interactions and events, designed by the player to maximize the Relationship score of the two Sims. A poorly designed set of events will inevitably lead to bad interactions—and a bad date. A rejected kiss at the bar, for example, immediately ends a date. Each kind of event players choose to include in their date has its own set of narrative expectations. Trying on clothes in a store, for instance, offers a very different narrative experience than a dip in the hot tub!
•一起回家（可选）：约会的最终结局是让模拟市民回家，在双人座或爱之浴缸里搞些恶作剧。然而，为了实现这一点，玩家必须小心管理能量资源，并在整个约会过程中保持较高的关系分数。实现这一目标可以提供清晰的叙事结局。
• Going home together (optional): The ultimate end to a date is to get a Sim to come home for some shenanigans on the Love Seat or in the Love Tub. In order for this to occur, however, a player must carefully manage Energy resources as well as maintain a high Relationship score throughout the date. Achieving this goal affords clear narrative resolution.
•道别：如果约会进展顺利，模拟市民可能会邀请约会对象搬进来，甚至结婚。无论哪种结果，新的模拟市民都会成为家庭的一员。约会也有可能以糟糕的结局收场，这意味着模拟市民的关系分数已经跌至谷底。玩家可以选择自己定义约会目标，但最终结果取决于到那时为止发生的事件和互动，并且是突发事件。浪漫约会这个更大的叙事事件中的这个结束步骤提供了整个体验的快照，让玩家有一种叙事结束的感觉。
• Saying goodbye: If the date goes well, a Sim might invite a date to move in, or even to get married. With either of these outcomes, the new Sim becomes a member of the household. There is also the possibility that the date will end badly, meaning that the Sim’s Relationship score has bottomed out. The player has some choice in defining his or her own goals for a date, but the final outcome is determined by the events and interactions that have taken place up to that point, and are emergently generated. This concluding step in the larger narrative event of the romantic date provides a snapshot of the overall experience, giving the player a sense of narrative closure.
关卡或任务结构让玩家感受到故事的细节，而游戏设计师则控制着更大的叙事体验。游戏的目标或一系列目标是构成游戏的叙事背景的一部分。当目标设计精良以支持叙事玩法时，玩家与游戏世界的互动就会变得始终有意义。像往常一样，有意义玩法的可辨别性和整合性至关重要。《模拟人生》约会的复杂多步骤过程之所以有意义，是因为有复杂的系统支持和链接玩家的行为。如果无论玩家采取什么行动，每次约会都以同样的方式结束，那么玩家就没有理由深入参与决策过程。因为过程的每一步都在决定结果方面发挥作用，所以《模拟人生》约会的体验提供了真正有意义的叙事玩法。
Level or mission structures allow players to feel the details of a story while the game designer maintains control of the larger narrative experience. A game’s goal, or series of goals, is part of the narrative context that makes up the game. When goals are well-designed to support narrative play, a player’s interaction with the game world becomes consistently meaningful. As usual, the discernability and integration of meaningful play is critical. The elaborate multi-step process of going on a Sims date is only meaningful because of the complex system that supports and links player actions. If every date ended the same way no matter what actions the player took, there would be no reason for the player to engage deeply in the decision-making process. Because each step of the process plays a role in determining the outcome, the experience of a Sims date provides genuinely meaningful narrative play.
冲突
Conflict
游戏中的目标从来都不是轻易就能实现的。当玩家努力实现目标时，冲突就会出现。游戏冲突既为叙事事件提供了机会，也为叙事背景提供了框架，构成了玩家必须克服的障碍。在《雷暴》游戏中，玩家必须克服无法掷出 1 的障碍，才能阻止即将来临的风暴。在节奏动作游戏机游戏《Um Jammer Lammy》中，玩家必须克服具有挑战性的节奏结构和令人毛骨悚然的闹剧冒险障碍，以确保 Lammy 准时参加她的摇滚演出。克服游戏中的冲突是叙事事件推进的一种方式。
Goals in a game are never easy to achieve. As players struggle toward the goal, conflict arises. Game conflict provides both opportunity for narrative events and a narrative context that frames the obstacles a player must overcome. Players in a game of Thunderstorm must overcome the obstacle of failing to roll a 1 in order to stave off the approaching storm. In the rhythm-action console game Um Jammer Lammy, players must overcome the obstacles of challenging rhythmic structures and hair-raising slapstick adventures to make sure Lammy makes it to her rock-n-roll gig on time. Overcoming conflict in a game is one way narrative events advance.
因为冲突意味着对立力量之间的斗争，所以游戏中应该总是存在一些阻碍玩家成功的元素，这些元素会试图确保玩家失败。这个角色通常由反派角色、竞争玩家或团队担任，或者可能体现在整个游戏系统中。从叙事角度来看，这个元素会激励玩家的行为并将其置于情境中。如果这些方块的行为与你在游戏世界中的存在无关，那么推倒一排排彩色方块就没有多大叙事意义。一旦你将这些彩色方块识别为邪恶力量设计的力场，以阻止你在宇宙中前进，你就更有动力与他们发生冲突。你的行动在游戏的叙事框架中变得有意义。在传统的叙事中，角色的内心冲突通常会塑造观众遇到的各种体验。内心冲突揭示了角色的弱点，而那些希望看到角色失败的人通常会利用这一点。莱克斯·卢瑟知道超人容易受到氪石的伤害，并且爱上了露易丝·莱恩。将游戏冲突用作叙事游戏设计工具的技巧是将其与正式游戏结构本身紧密结合起来。
Because conflict presumes a struggle between opposing forces, in a game there should always be some element that works against player success, an element that acts to try and ensure the failure of the player. This role is often taken by a villain character, a competing player or team, or may be embodied in the game system as a whole. From a narrative perspective, this element motivates and contextualizes player action. It does not make much narrative sense to knock down rows of colored blocks if the behavior of those blocks has no connection to your presence in the game world. Once you identify those colored blocks as a force field designed by the forces of evil to stop your advance through the universe, you are much more motivated to enter into a conflict with them. Your action becomes meaningful within the narrative frame of the game. In traditional storytelling, the internal conflict of a character often shapes the kinds of experiences encountered by the audience. Internal conflict reveals a character’s vulnerability, which is usually exploited by those who wish to see the character fail. Lex Luthor knows Superman is vulnerable to kryptonite and in love with Lois Lane. The trick to using game conflict as a narrative game design tool is to tie it closely to the formal game structure itself.
在战略棋盘游戏《卡坦岛》中，故事前提是玩家们竞争殖民一个小岛，建立自己的道路、定居点和资源网络。玩家可以相互交易资源，并且冲突很快因外交和自身利益之间的紧张关系而产生。你完成的每笔交易都会帮助你，但也会帮助你交易的对手。如果你讨价还价太过苛刻，没有人会和你交易，这意味着你将无法获得繁荣所需的资源：你需要砖块资源来建造下一段道路并连接你的定居点，但唯一愿意与你交易的玩家即将获胜——你会采取什么行动？在《卡坦岛》中，叙事冲突、社会冲突和战略冲突紧密交织在一起。当你做出战略决策时，你正在建立社会关系，而这些关系本身对游戏正在出现的故事具有叙事意义。
In the strategy board game Settlers of Catan, the narrative premise is that the players are competing to colonize a small island, establishing their own networks of roads, settlements, and resources. Players can trade resources with each other, and conflict quickly arises out of the tension between diplomacy and self-interest. Every trade you complete helps you, but it also helps the opponent with whom you traded. If you drive too hard a bargain, no one will trade with you, which means you won’t be able to acquire the resources you need to prosper: You need a Brick resource to build that next stretch of road and connect your settlements, but the only player willing to trade with you is about to win—what action do you take? In Settlers of Catan, narrative conflict, social conflict, and strategic conflict are tightly intertwined. As you make strategic decisions, you are building social relationships, which themselves have narrative implications for the emerging story of the game.
游戏冲突贯穿游戏的每一个时刻。要最大限度地发挥游戏中的叙事性，你必须密切关注游戏中冲突的叙事性。当游戏冲突为行动提供了叙事背景时，玩家将帮助你讲述游戏故事，将叙事意义融入自己的行动中。即使在像《卡坦岛》这样相对抽象的游戏中，冲突也提供了一个叙事空间，玩家可以在其中充实游戏故事并扮演叙事角色。根据我们自己的游戏经验，“山王”、“公路男爵”和“将军”等俚语被用来描述专注于控制山区资源、修建长路和组建庞大军队的游戏策略。这是一种变革性叙事游戏：游戏冲突因游戏的社会、战略和表征结构中出现的叙事意义而丰富。我们并不是说玩家参与《卡坦岛》是为了扮演虚构角色。但叙事性游戏显然是游戏吸引力的一部分。如果没有与游戏冲突协调运作的叙事框架，《卡坦岛》就会感觉像是一场数字洗牌练习。
The conflict of a game infuses every moment of its play. To maximize the narrative play in your game, you must pay close attention to how the conflict in your game is narrativized. When game conflict provides a narrative context for action, your players will help you tell your game’s story, infusing their own actions with narrative meaning. Even in a relatively abstract game like Settlers of Catan, the conflict provides a narrative space where players can flesh out the game’s story and take on narrative roles. In our own experience with the game, slang terms such as “Mountain King,” “Road Baron,” and “General” emerged to describe play strategies focused on controlling mountain resources, building long roads, and constructing a large army. This is transformative narrative play: a game conflict enriched by a narrative level of meaning that emerges from the social, strategic, and representational structures of the game. We are not saying that players engage with Settlers of Catan in order to role-play fictional characters. But narrative play is clearly part of the game’s appeal. Without its narrative framework, designed to function in concert with the game conflict, Settlers of Catan would feel like an exercise in number shuffling.
不确定
Uncertainty
不确定性是有意义的游戏的另一个必要特质。如果游戏是确定的，如果结果可以提前知道，那么一开始就没有必要玩了。但不确定性也是一个叙事概念，因为未知元素为游戏注入了戏剧张力。在《雷暴》中，即将来临的风暴的叙事只有在风暴摧毁了除一栋之外的所有房屋后才算完整。如果提前知道哪个玩家会赢，就不需要叙事手段了。在多人在线赛车游戏《Drome Racing Challenge》中，玩家可以定制赛车并制定赛车策略，然后在线选择对手并比赛。在比赛期间，玩家并不直接控制他们的赛车，而是观看他们的准备工作，以动画的形式逐一描述比赛的每个时刻。玩家在动画播放完之前不知道比赛结果，这使得观看比赛非常具有戏剧性。尽管玩家可能对自己的比赛策略非常有信心，但总是有输掉比赛的可能。
Uncertainty is another requisite quality of meaningful play. If a game is certain, if the outcome is known in advance, there is no reason to play in the first place. But uncertainty is also a narrative concept, for the element of the unknown infuses a game with dramatic tension. In Thunderstorm, the narrative of the approaching storm is only complete once the storm has destroyed every house but one. If it were known in advance which player would win, there would be no real need for a narrative device. In The Drome Racing Challenge, an online multi-player racing game, players customize racing cars and prepare a racing strategy, then select an opponent online and race. During a race, players do not directly control their cars, but instead watch their preparations play out as an Animé-style animation that depicts each moment of the race, event by event. The fact that players do not know the result of the race until the animation has played out makes viewing the race highly dramatic. Despite the fact that a player might have the utmost confidence in his or her race strategy, there is always the chance to lose.
扑克的戏剧张力也因结果的不确定性而增强。虚张声势增加了体验的叙事性，增加了欺骗的可能性。随着玩家进入虚张声势的心理空间，叙事张力逐渐增加。她真的有她所说的牌吗，还是她在虚张声势？如果她不是在虚张声势呢？她还能被打败吗？他刚刚下了很大的赌注，所以他一定有一手好牌。但他上一轮虚张声势，他不会连续两次尝试同样的伎俩。但也许这就是他想让我这么想的……下注的机制增强了不确定性的感觉。手牌强的玩家会对不确定的结果下更高的赌注，而当游戏中的不确定性程度感觉太大时，玩家可能会限制赌注。随着玩家弃牌，活跃玩家的圈子缩小，叙事张力增加。尽管玩家可能有好牌，但在所有赌注下完并叫出牌之前，结果仍然不确定。这一刻可能非常戏剧化，特别是当一手牌打得很好的时候。
The dramatic tension of Poker, too, gains its bite from the uncertainty of outcome. Bluffing contributes to the narrativity of the experience, heightening the potential for deceit. As players enter into the psychological space of the bluff, narrative tensions mount. Does she really have the hand she says she has, or is she bluffing? What if she isn’t bluffing? Can she still be beaten? He just made a large bet, so he must have a good hand. But he bluffed last round, and he wouldn’t try that same trick twice in a row. But maybe that’s what he wants me to think . . . . The mechanics of betting heighten the feeling of uncertainty. Players with strong hands wage higher bets against uncertain outcomes, whereas players may limit bets when the degree of uncertainty in a game feels too great. As players fold and the circle of active players shrinks, narrative tension grows. Although players may have good hands, the outcome remains uncertain until all bets are made and the cards are called. This moment can be quite dramatic, particularly when a hand has been well-played.
即使在角色扮演游戏中，游戏往往没有最终结果，但每个动作、每次遭遇和每次冒险的不确定性在叙事构建中都起着至关重要的作用参与度。经验丰富的桌面角色扮演者会避开那些以太简单或太难而闻名的游戏大师。在这些情况下，必死无疑或必胜无疑会消除游戏中令人愉悦的不确定性。另一方面，当角色扮演者感觉他们真正在揭开谜团并探索他们世界中陌生的新领域时，就会产生强大的叙事游戏。与冲突的使用一样，在游戏故事中成功使用不确定性会将叙事元素与游戏的形式系统联系起来。你敢探索阴暗潮湿的洞穴吗？那里有可怕的怪物和无价宝藏的传说吗？你是否应该先咨询山顶的神谕，冒着在漫长的旅途中挨饿的风险？你会花掉你最后的几枚金币雇佣几个额外的警卫陪你吗？这些选择中的每一个不仅涉及戏剧性的叙事结果，还涉及角色扮演者有限资源的不同用途。随着玩家做出选择，其不确定的结果慢慢展开，新的选择就会出现，每个出现的选项都隐藏在自己的叙事不确定性中。
Even in role-playing games, which often lack a final game outcome, the uncertainty of each action, each encounter, and each adventure plays a crucial role in building narrative engagement. Experienced tabletop role-players will shun game masters with reputations for being too easy or too hard. In these cases, certain death or certain success removes the enjoyable uncertainty of the game. On the other hand, when role-players feel like they are truly uncovering mysteries and exploring strange new areas of their worlds, powerful narrative play can result. As with the use of conflict, successful use of uncertainty in a game story ties the narrative elements to the formal system of the game. Do you dare explore the dank dark cave, with its legends of horrible monsters and priceless treasures? Should you first consult the oracle at the top of the mountain for advice, risking starvation during the long journey? Do you spend your last few gold coins hiring a few extra guards to accompany you? Each of these choices involves not just dramatic narrative outcomes, but different uses of the role-players’ limited resources. As players make a choice and its uncertain outcomes slowly unfold, new choices present themselves, each emerging option cloaked in its own narrative uncertainty.
核心机制
Core Mechanics
虽然不确定性往往会影响游戏叙事弧线的更大轨迹，但核心机制代表了玩家每时每刻的基本活动。在游戏过程中，核心机制会创建重复行为的模式，即游戏的体验构建块。将每时每刻的游戏设计为叙事游戏意味着要关注玩家在游戏中的具体行为、他们的选择和结果如何呈现，以及这些时刻如何融入更大的叙事框架。
Whereas uncertainty tends to affect the larger trajectory of a game’s narrative arc, core mechanics represent the essential moment-to-moment activity of players. During a game, core mechanics create patterns of repeated behavior, the experiential building blocks of play. Designing moment-to-moment play as narrative play means paying attention to exactly what players are doing in your game, how their choices and outcomes are represented, and how these moments fit into larger narrative frames.
将游戏视为叙事体验意味着，我们不应仅仅将其视为通过互动来安排和重新安排的情节片段，而应将其视为一种持续的活动，玩家在其中参与核心机制，做出有意义的选择并探索可能性空间。通常，交互式叙事被绘制为连接线的点，每个点代表玩家访问的一段文本或一段视频。
Recognizing games as narrative experience means considering them not just as bits of plot that are arranged and rearranged through interaction, but instead considering them as an ongoing activity in which a player engages with a core mechanic to make meaningful choices and explore a space of possibility. Often, interactive narratives are diagrammed as points connected to lines, with each point representing a piece of text or a segment of video that is accessed by the player.
这种形式化的互动叙事方法忽略了玩家如何在系统中从一个点移动到另一个点。这正是核心机制发挥作用的地方。在设计游戏时，你不仅仅是在创造内容。你正在创造一组动作，一系列风格化的行为。你的玩家在游戏中每一刻实际上都在做什么？更重要的是，你如何设计这些核心机制来最有效地体现你心中的叙事体验？下面是一些例子。
What this kind of formal approach to interactive narrative leaves out is how a player moves from point to point in the system. This is where the core mechanic comes into play. In designing games, you aren’t simply creating content. You are creating a set of actions, a series of stylized behaviors. What are your players actually doing from moment to moment in a game? More importantly, how can you craft these core mechanics to most effectively embody the narrative experience you have in mind? A number of examples follow.
在不寻常的虚拟生物游戏 Seaman 中，玩家通过对着连接到 Dreamcast 控制器的麦克风说话来与主角 Seaman 互动，这是一种非常精彩的对话式游戏，实际上涉及说话、观察和倾听。由于游戏的故事将玩家塑造为观察鱼缸中进化的奇怪生命形式的科学家，并与之互动，因此这些核心机制完全适合游戏的叙述。即使玩家使用控制器按钮采取行动，游戏设计也会创造出令人回味的互动机制。抓住 Seaman 并将他从虚拟鱼缸中举起是通过一个略显尴尬的单手按钮组合来完成的，这种手势非常像用食指和拇指抓鱼。Seaman 的核心机制不仅让玩家可以访问新内容，而且实际上迫使玩家时时刻刻执行游戏的叙述。
In the unusual virtual creature game Seaman, the player interacts with the title character Seaman by talking into a microphone that attaches to the Dreamcast controller, enacting a wonderfully conversational style of play that literally involves speaking, looking, and listening. Because the game’s story casts the player as a scientist observing and interacting with a strange form of life evolving in a fishtank, these core mechanics are entirely appropriate to the narrative of the game. Even when the player is using the controller buttons to take action, the game design creates evocative mechanics of interaction. Grabbing Seaman and lifting him up out of the virtual fish tank is accomplished by a slightly awkward, single-handed button combination that creates a hand gesture very much like grabbing a fish with your forefinger and thumb. The core mechanics of Seaman not only let the player access new content, but actually force the player to perform the narrative of the game from moment to moment.
Mind's Eye Theater 是角色扮演游戏《吸血鬼：化装舞会》的真人版，其默认规则是通过石头剪刀布来决定行动的。尽管这个系统这对于 LARP 的现实环境来说很方便（在 LARP 中，拿出骰子和记分表来解决每个冲突会很尴尬和耗时），许多角色扮演团体选择了更适合叙事内容的不同解决机制。例如，一些玩家团体只是将石头、剪刀、布转化为更合适的内容（魔鬼、天使、人类）；他们不使用手势，而是使用精心设计的自定义卡片。为了解决精神攻击，在对手面前闪现魔鬼的形象比做出校园剪刀手势更适合吸血鬼的黑暗哥特叙事。这种游戏设计解决方案保持了石头、剪刀、布的形式系统完全完整，同时修改了核心机制的体验组件以实现戏剧性的叙事效果。
The default rules for Mind’s Eye Theater, the live-action version of the role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade, resolve actions by means of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Although this system is convenient for the real-world context of a LARP (where it would be awkward and time-consuming to pull out dice and scoresheets to resolve every conflict), many role-playing groups have opted for different resolution mechanics better suited to the narrative content. For example, some player groups simply translate rock, paper, scissors into more appropriate content (devil, angel, human); instead of using hand signals, they use sets of elaborately designed custom cards. Flashing an image of a devil before your opponent in order to resolve a psychic attack suits the dark Goth narrative of Vampire much more than making the schoolyard gesture of scissors. This game design solution keeps the formal system of Rock-Paper-Scissors completely intact, while modifying the experiential component of the core mechanic for dramatic narrative effect.
叙事空间
Narrative Space
本章的最后几节利用了基本的游戏概念，并以叙事术语重新构建它们，以阐明游戏设计和故事叙述的交集。目标、冲突、不确定性和核心机制都是游戏的一般元素，游戏设计师可以使用它们来制作有意义的叙事体验。我们可以从叙事角度理解的另一个熟悉的游戏概念是可能性空间。游戏设计师沃伦·斯佩克特 (Warren Spector) 将这一概念与叙事联系起来，他说“游戏创造了‘可能性空间’，这些空间在总体叙事中提供引人注目的问题，为解决这些问题提供了创造性的机会，然后对玩家的选择做出有意义的后果的回应。”7斯佩克特 (Spector) 对游戏“可能性空间”的描述将游戏中嵌入的“总体叙述”与游戏中时时刻刻出现的动作和结果联系起来。
The last several sections of this chapter have utilized fundamental game concepts, reframing them in narrative terms to shed light on the intersection of game design and storytelling. Goals, conflict, uncertainty, and the core mechanic are all general elements of games that game designers can use to craft meaningful narrative experiences. Another familiar game concept that we can understand narratively is the space of possibility. Game designer Warren Spector connects this concept to narrative when he states that “games create ‘possibility spaces,’ spaces that provide compelling problems within an overarching narrative, afford creative opportunities for dealing with these problems and then respond to player choices with meaningful consequences.”7 Spector’s description of a game’s “possibility space” links the embedded “overarching narrative” of a game to the emergent actions and outcomes of moment-to-moment play.
到目前为止，我们在本书中都是以隐喻的方式使用可能性空间，即抽象的决策空间或可能具有意义的概念空间。但是，如果我们从字面上考虑可能性空间——即游戏发生的实际 2D 或 3D 空间，情况会怎样呢？换句话说，将可能性空间视为实际的叙事场所的一种思考方式。在 Berzerk 中，游戏空间由一系列相连的房间组成，从鸟瞰图来看。国际象棋棋盘的棋盘图案在数学上将游戏空间切割成相等维度的离散模块，而围棋棋盘的优雅网格使用点的交点来描述游戏区域。在超级马里奥 64 中，游戏的三维空间由隐藏的房间、神奇的活板门和秘密世界组成，这些秘密世界创造了一片神秘隐秘的广阔景观。
So far in this book, we have invoked the space of possibility metaphorically, to mean an abstract decision-space or a conceptual space of possible meaning. But what if we consider the space of possibility literally—as an actual 2D or 3D space in which a game takes place. In other words, one way to think of the space of possibility is as an actual narrative place. In Berzerk, the space of the game consists of a series of connected rooms, seen from a bird’s eye view. The checkerboard pattern of a Chess board mathematically slices the space of the game into discrete modules of equal dimension, whereas the elegant grid of the Go board uses the intersection of points to describe the territory of play. In Super Mario 64, the three-dimensional space of the game is composed of concealed rooms, magical trapdoors, and secret worlds that create a vast landscape of mysterious hidden places.
游戏的空间特征对创造可能性的叙事空间有很大影响。正如游戏学者亨利·詹金斯和库尔特·斯奎尔所解释的那样，
The spatial features of a game have a strong impact on creating the narrative space of possibility. As game scholars Henry Jenkins and Kurt Squire explain,
游戏设计师使用空间元素来设定玩家体验的初始条件。故事的关键信息嵌入在书籍、雕刻的符文或武器等物品中。珠宝等物品可能体现友谊或对手，也可能成为玩家力量的魔法源泉。游戏空间的组织方式使得游戏世界中的路径可以引导或限制动作，确保我们遇到对故事至关重要的角色或情况。8
Game designers use spatial elements to set the initial terms for the player’s experiences. Information essential to the story is embedded in objects such as books, carved runes or weapons. Artifacts such as jewels may embody friendship or rivalries or may become magical sources of the player’s power. The game space is organized so that paths through the game world guide or constrain action, making sure we encounter characters or situations critical to the narrative.8
例如，排球比赛场地为 60 英尺 × 30 英尺，中间被一张 8 英尺高的网隔开。这个空间中唯一存在的物体是球员（每边六名）和一个球。比赛由球员在空间网格中的位置所产生的互动产生。球员在球场上占据指定的空间位置，这些位置会引导和限制球员的行动。例如，球员触球的方式和时间取决于他们在网格中的位置。分隔球场的网也参与了叙事游戏，因为它表达了朋友和敌人、队友和对手的空间。在这张网上，每次球员发球时，都会上演进攻和防守的戏剧性叙事。
Volleyball, for example, takes place within a court 60 ft × 30 ft, divided in the center by a net 8 ft high. The only objects that exist in this space are players—six to a side—and a ball. The game play emerges from the interactions made possible by the players’ positions within the spatial grid. Players occupy designated spatial positions on the court which guide and constrain player action. How and when players touch the ball, for example, is a product of their positions within the grid. The net that divides the court engages narrative play as well, for it articulates the space of friend and foe, of teammate and opponent. Across this net, dramatic narratives of attack and defense occur each time a player serves the ball.
游戏中空间特征的组织对于游戏叙事可能性空间的设计至关重要。如果您希望玩家建立牢固的社会关系，请确保创建支持社交互动的叙事空间。《模拟人生》中房屋或餐厅的空间设计定义了可以在那里发生的社交互动类型。如果玩家设计的酒吧不允许调酒师进入收银台，则无法提供任何饮料。如果没有订购和提供饮料的行动 > 结果，一系列叙事互动就无法实现。在《黑与白》中，游戏世界的空间特征会根据玩家的行为而变化，将玩家行为的后果置于道德选择的叙事中。游戏开始时的世界是伊甸园纯真的形象。随着玩家在世界中移动，采取行动和做出选择，世界会发生变化以反映这些选择的道德性质。“坏”选择使世界变得黑暗和伤痕累累，而“好”选择会将其变成一个繁花似锦的花园。善与恶的故事在游戏世界的空间特征中隐喻性地反映和演绎。甚至玩家在《黑与白》世界中移动的方式（通过游戏的手形光标“抓住”世界并将其拉入视野）也强调了玩家与《黑与白》空间之间不同寻常的内在联系。
The organization of spatial features in a game is critical to the design of a game’s narrative space of possibility. If you want your players to form strong social relations, make sure to create narrative spaces that support social interaction. The spatial design of a house or restaurant in The Sims defines the type of social interactions that can occur there. If a player designs a bar that doesn’t allow the bartender access to the cash register, no drinks can be served. Without the action > outcome of ordering and serving drinks, a slew of narrative interactions fail to materialize. In Black & White, the spatial features of the game world change in relation to the actions of a player, placing the consequences of player action in a narrative of moral choice. The world at the beginning of the game is an image of Edenic innocence. As a player moves through the world, taking actions and making choices, the world changes to reflect the moral nature of these choices. “Bad” choices darken and scar the world, whereas “good” choices transform it into a flowering garden. The story of good and evil is metaphorically both reflected and enacted within the spatial features of the game world. Even the way that the player moves through the world of Black & White, by “grabbing” it with the game’s hand-cursor and pulling it into view, emphasizes the unusually intrinsic connection between the player and the space of Black & White.
案例研究：一个复杂的核心机制
Case Study: A Loopy Core Mechanic
在 LOOP 中，玩家使用鼠标画线并捕捉在屏幕上飞舞的蝴蝶。正式的核心机制是在形状周围画线，这被框定为玩家在游戏世界中采取行动的叙事行为（捕捉蝴蝶）。在 LOOP 中，核心机制与游戏叙事高度契合。用鼠标画线的循环动作隐喻性地让人联想到用网捕捉蝴蝶的俯冲动作。我们可以将 LOOP 的抽象版本想象成一款没有蝴蝶的游戏，玩家只是在彩色几何形状周围画线——但将玩家的行为框定为捕捉蝴蝶为核心机制增加了多层叙事意义，创造了一个融合游戏其他方面的故事背景。
In LOOP, the player uses the mouse to draw lines and capture butterflies moving about the screen. The formal core mechanic, drawing lines around shapes, is framed as a narrative act (catching butterflies) with which players take action in the game world. In LOOP, there is a strong fit between core mechanic and game narrative. The looping action of drawing lines with a mouse metaphorically evokes the swooping gesture of catching butterflies with a net. One could imagine an abstract version of LOOP as a game without butterflies, in which the player is simply drawing lines around colored geometric shapes—but the framing of the player’s action as butterfly catching adds layers of narrative meaning to the core mechanic, creating a story context that incorporates other aspects of the game as well.
LOOP 中的每个关卡都为玩家提供了有限的时间来捕捉一定数量的蝴蝶，否则游戏就会结束。LOOP 通过一天的浓缩表现来传达这个时间限制：日出和日落。这种叙事手法将游戏的核心机制与情节结构联系起来。时钟、沙漏，甚至只是倒计时的数字都可以用来标记时间的流逝，但这些设计解决方案与游戏的叙事背景不相符。每“一天”，玩家都有机会收集更多的蝴蝶。一旦太阳落山，只要玩家设法捕捉到足够多的蝴蝶，这些色彩鲜艳的昆虫就会消失，直到另一天的黎明，是时候捕捉更多蝴蝶了。随着难度的稳步提高，戏剧张力也随之增强。由于需要高度集中注意力才能尽可能多地收集越来越敏捷的蝴蝶，太阳似乎每天都落得越来越快。当然，事实并非如此——只是感觉如此！
Each level in LOOP gives the player a limited amount of time to catch a certain quota of butterflies, or else the game ends. LOOP communicates this time limit by the condensed representation of a single day: the rising and setting of the sun. This narrative device ties the core mechanic of the game to an episodic structure. A clock, hourglass, or even just numbers counting down could have been used to mark the passing of time, but these design solutions do not complement the narrative context of the game. Each “day,” players have a chance to collect more butterflies. Once the sun sets, providing that players have managed to catch enough butterflies, the colorful insects disappear until the dawn of another day when it is time to catch some more. As the level of difficulty steadily increases, the dramatic tension is heightened. Because of the intense concentration required to collect as many of the increasingly agile butterflies as possible, the sun seems to set faster and faster with each passing day. It doesn’t of course—it only feels that way!
每五个关卡，玩家就有机会捕捉一只特殊的蝴蝶并进入奖励关卡。这些关卡设定在夜间，计时器是升起的月亮而不是落日。奖励关卡没有捕捉蝴蝶的配额，因此在游戏的整体节奏中为核心机制提供了更轻松的环境。这些夜间关卡在与白天关卡相反的叙事背景下重新构建了核心机制。通过这种方式，叙事框架与正式的游戏结构相辅相成，从简单的核心机制中最大限度地发挥叙事意义。
Every five levels, a player has a chance to catch a special butterfly and reach a bonus level. These levels are set at nighttime and feature a rising moon as a timer instead of a setting sun. Bonus levels do not have a quota of butterflies to catch and therefore provide a more relaxed context for the core mechanic within the overall rhythm of the game. These nighttime levels reframe the core mechanic in a narrative context opposite to that of the daytime levels. In this way, the narrative framing works hand in hand with the formal game structure to maximize narrative meaning from the simple core mechanic.
环形
LOOP
通过 LOOP 的核心机制创建的行为模式以多种方式支持叙事游戏：通过将游戏置于一天的重复框架中，将循环的形式交互与捕捉蝴蝶的叙事背景联系起来，并通过创建多个选择级别，从单个循环中捕捉的蝴蝶数量和种类到收集的速度。除了与核心机制相关的叙事游戏元素外，还有许多嵌入式叙事组件。其中包括捕捉蝴蝶的主角 Ada；她在奖励关卡中出现的程序生成的梦诗；以及将捕捉蝴蝶的行为与写作和讲故事联系起来的书的视觉主题。这些叙事背景为玩家的互动增加了更多意义，形成了一个整体的游戏系统，带来了充满叙事可能性的体验。
The patterns of behavior created through the core mechanic of LOOP support narrative play in a number of ways: by situating play within a repeating framework of a day by linking the formal interaction of looping to the narrative context of butterfly catching, and by creating numerous levels of choice, from the number and kind of butterflies captured within a single loop to the pace at which the collecting occurs. In addition to the elements of narrative play tied to the core mechanic, there are a number of embedded narrative components as well. These include the butterfly-catching main character Ada; her procedurally generated dream poems that appear on bonus levels; and the visual motif of a book that links the act of butterfly catching to writing and storytelling. These narrative contexts add yet more meaning to the player’s interaction, forming an overall system of play that results in an experience full of narrative possibility.
那么，没有预先定义物理空间的游戏呢？《黑手党》是一款秘密身份和巧妙虚张声势的社交游戏，玩家坐成一圈，轮流投票选出其中秘密指定的杀手。游戏没有游戏板或实物材料，玩游戏也不需要特定的空间。然而，玩家围成一圈的松散排列创造了一种空间秩序，最大限度地增加了叙事互动。玩家必须能够清楚地看到对方，以便仔细观察肢体语言并猜测谁可能是黑手党的隐藏成员。玩家的空间配置对于游戏中心的公共和私人信息系统至关重要。看不见的玩家可以避免其他人的审视。相反，玩家的民主安排确保每个玩家都是观察者和被观察者，同样有罪和嫌疑。
What about a game that has no predefined physical space? Mafia is a social game of secret identities and clever bluffing in which players sit in a circle and take turns voting which among them are the secretly designated killers. There is no game board or physical materials, and playing the game does not require a specific kind of space. Yet the loose arrangement of players in a circle creates a spatial order that maximizes narrative interaction. Players must be able to see each other clearly, in order to scrutinize body language and make guesses about who might be the hidden members of the Mafia. The spatial configuration of players is critical to the system of public and private information at the center of the game. A player out of sight would be able to avoid scrutiny from the others. Instead, the democratic arrangement of players ensures that everyone playing is both observer and observed, equally culpable and suspect.
电话游戏活动具有类似的空间设计，但叙事互动却大不相同。电话游戏的玩家们围成一个紧密的圆圈（越紧密越好），以便于在邻座玩家耳边低语。虽然这种正式互动可以在其他空间配置（如一条线）中发生，但游戏将失去其基本的流通叙事——观察信息在物理和社会空间中传播，从起点开始，穿过玩家的身体，到达最后一个玩家耳边的最终目的地。虽然玩家围成圆圈的空间排列不是游戏的正式要求，但它通过梳理游戏固有的相同但不同的信息转换故事，丰富了游戏体验的叙事质量。
The play activity of Telephone shares a similar spatial design, but a very different set of narrative interactions. Players of Telephone sit in a tight circle (the tighter the better) in order to facilitate whispering into a neighboring player’s ear. Although this formal interaction could occur in another spatial configuration (such as a line), the game would lose its essential narrative of circulation—of watching the message travel through a physical and social space that stretches from a starting point, through the bodies of the players, to arrive at its final destination in the ear of the last player. The spatial arrangement of the players in a circle, although not a formal requirement of the game, enriches the narrative quality of the play experience by teasing out the game’s inherent story of the same-but-different transformation of information.
这对设计有何启示？请密切注意游戏创造和组织空间的方式。您的棋盘游戏设计暗示了什么样的座位安排？玩家是否能够拿着需要隐藏的卡片，还是必须即兴制作限制社交互动的屏幕？两支队伍在比赛场地上如何第一次接近对方？您的游戏划分教室空间的方式是否暗示了领土的叙事所有权？两个决斗卡牌玩家之间的空间结构是否表达了他们进行史诗般战斗的神奇领土？在您创建的每个游戏中，请考虑空间设计如何将形式和体验元素编织在一起，以代表和促进您想要讲述的故事。
What are the implications for design? Pay careful attention to the way that your game creates and organizes space. What kind of seating arrangement does the design of your board game imply? Will players be able to hold the cards they need to keep hidden or will they have to improvise screens that limit social interaction? How do the two teams first approach each other on the field of play? Does the way your game breaks up the classroom space imply narrative ownership of territory? Does the structure of the space between two dueling card players express the magical territory where their epic battle takes place? In every game you create, consider how the design of the space weaves together formal and experiential elements to represent and facilitate the stories you want to tell.
数字游戏空间
Digital Game Spaces
尽管游戏在现实世界空间中已经存在了数千年，但近几十年来电子和数字游戏的出现提供了新的游戏空间：只存在于计算机显示器和电视屏幕上的游乐场。这些游戏空间有多种形式，从块状的 2D 网格到广阔的 3D 世界。Mark JP Wolf 在其文章“视频游戏中的空间”中提出了一种有用的分类法来描述这些数字空间的范围。Wolf 列出了视频游戏构建和表示空间的 11 种方式。我们在下面以 Wolf 文章中的示例来解释这些类别：
Although games have been played in real-world spaces for millennia, the appearance of electronic and digital games in the last few decades have provided new kinds of game spaces: playgrounds that exist only on the screens of computer monitors and televisions. These game spaces take a multitude of forms, from blocky 2D grids to expansive 3D worlds. One useful taxonomy for describing the range of these digital spaces comes from Mark J. P. Wolf, in his essay “Space in the Video Game.” Wolf lists eleven ways that video games operate to structure and represent space. We paraphrase these categories below, with examples from Wolf’s essay:
•纯文本空间： Zork 和 Planetfall 等文本冒险游戏
• Text-only space: text adventure games such as Zork and Planetfall
•一个包含屏幕： Pong、Space Invaders、Breakout
• One contained screen: Pong, Space Invaders, Breakout
•一个带环绕效果的屏幕：小行星、吃豆人（带传送器环绕效果）
• One screen with wraparound: Asteroids, Pac-Man (with teleporter wraparound)
•单轴滚动：《Defender》，Atari 的足球街机游戏
• Scrolling on one axis: Defender, Atari’s Football arcade game
•在两个轴上滚动。《Gauntlet》、《Sim City》
• Scrolling on two axes. Gauntlet, Sim City
•相邻空间每次显示一个房间： Berzerk、Atari's Adventure
• Adjacent spaces displayed one room at a time: Berzerk, Atari’s Adventure
•使用单独的背景层进行滚动： Zaxxon、Double Dragon
• Scrolling with separate background layers: Zaxxon, Double Dragon
•有限的 3D 空间： Tempest、Night Driver
• Limited 3D space: Tempest, Night Driver
•一个屏幕上有两个空间或两个单独的屏幕上：间谍对间谍、Dactyl Nightmare
• Two spaces on one screen or two separate screens: Spy vs. Spy, Dactyl Nightmare
•全 3D 空间：《战区》、《毁灭战士》、《古墓丽影》
• Full 3D spaces: Battlezone, DOOM, Tomb Raider
• “已映射”空间：防御者（Myst 都有单独的雷达或地图显示）9
• “Mapped” Spaces: Defender, (Myst both have a separate radar or map display)9
Wolf 的分类并非没有概念上的问题。例如，像《DOOM》这样的“二维半”空间和像《古墓丽影》这样的更完全的三维空间之间存在根本区别（在《DOOM》中，玩家只能在二维空间中移动，物体是完全平面的）。此外，他的一些分类，如单独的背景滚动层和“映射”空间，似乎是比较模糊的名称（他列出的大多数类别也可以包含“地图”元素）。Wolf 的类型学当然不是概念化数字游戏空间的唯一方法，但他的分类有助于指出它们所采用的丰富形式。
Wolf’s categories are not without some conceptual problems. For example, there is a fundamental difference between a “two-and-a-half” dimensional space like DOOM and a more fully 3D space like Tomb Raider (in DOOM the player can only move in two dimensions and the objects are completely flat). Additionally, some of his categories, such as separate background scrolling layers and “mapped” spaces, seem to be fuzzier designations (most of the categories he lists could also incorporate a “map” element). Wolf’s typology is certainly not the only way to conceptualize digital game spaces, but his categories are useful in pointing out the wealth of forms they take.
数字游戏空间的结构总是直接源于定义游戏的形式系统。然而，玩家体验的空间也是一种表现（空间如何向玩家展示）和互动（玩家如何在空间中导航）的功能。这三个元素——形式结构、显示结构和交互结构——共同构成了数字游戏空间的体验。这三个元素需要协同设计，才能在游戏中实现适当的叙事效果。
The structure of a digital game space always grows directly from the formal system that defines the game. However, the space that a player experiences is also a function of representation (how the space is displayed to the player) and interaction (how a player navigates through the space). These three elements—formal structure, structure of display, and interactive structure—together constitute the experience of a digital game space. All three of them need to be designed in concert to achieve proper narrative effect in your game.
例如，《小行星》中的零重力漂移感与游戏空间的设计直接相关。玩家的飞船不会像乒乓球一样从屏幕墙上弹起，而是直接移动到另一侧，让人产生在黑暗的太空中无休止移动的幻觉。游戏的运动风格强调惯性漂移和反冲火箭机动，也增强了太空旅行的感觉。虽然玩家的飞船从未离开屏幕，但在每一波开始时，小行星都会从边缘漂移过来。一旦出现，这些小行星就会遵循与玩家飞船相同的环绕逻辑。其他物体，如 UFO 飞碟，永远不会环绕，一旦到达屏幕边缘就会消失。奇怪的是，这些不一致之处从未破坏游戏的空间连续性。事实上，有些物体始终保持在屏幕上（玩家的飞船和现有的小行星），而其他物体似乎从未知的地方飘来（新的小行星和不明飞行物），构成了丰富而多层次的宇宙探索和生存故事。空间在米勒的所有定义中都创造了叙事：空间有助于定义“角色”（游戏对象）；空间是叙事事件发生的背景；空间随着时间的推移为玩家塑造叙事体验。
For example, the feeling of zero-G drift in Asteroids is linked directly to the design of the game space. Rather than bouncing off the screen wall like a Pong ball, the player’s ship moves right on through to the other side, evoking the illusion of endless movement through the darkness of space. The game’s style of movement, emphasizing inertial drift and retro-rocket maneuvers, also heightens the feeling of space travel. Although the player’s ship never leaves the screen, at the beginning of each wave, asteroids drift in from the edges. Once they appear, these asteroids follow the same wraparound logic as the player’s ship. Other objects, such as the UFO saucers, don’t ever wrap around, and simply disappear once they reach the edge of the screen. Curiously, these inconsistencies never break the game’s spatial continuity. The fact that some objects remain constantly on screen (the player’s ship and existing asteroids) whereas others seem to drift in from parts unknown (new asteroids and UFOs), adds up to a rich and multi-layered narrative of cosmic exploration and survival. Space creates narrative in all senses of Miller’s definition: space helps define the “characters” (the game objects); space is the context in which narrative events occur; and space patterns narrative experience over time for the player.
游戏空间的设计通过以空间、时间和因果关系模式构建事件，为叙事互动创造了环境。正如 Marsha Kinder 在《电影、电视和视频游戏中玩弄权力》一书中指出的那样，“叙事为解释所有感知创造了环境。叙事描绘了世界及其居民，包括玩家自己在网格中的位置。”10游戏的叙事性玩法始终与潜在的可能性、目标和冲突、不确定性以及核心机制的即时动作相关。游戏的空间实际上就是游戏的空间。
The design of a game space creates a context for narrative interaction, by structuring events in patterns of space, time, and causality. As Marsha Kinder notes in Playing with Power in Movies, Television, and Video Games, “Narrative creates a context for interpreting all perceptions. Narrative maps the world and its inhabitants, including one’s own position within that grid.”10 The narrative play of games is always connected to an underlying grid of possibility, to goals and conflict, to uncertainty and the moment-to-moment action of the core mechanic. The space of a game is quite literally its space of play.
在《铁拳》等格斗游戏中，空间非常狭窄，两名战士挤在一起，无处可逃，无处可藏。你所能做的就是与对手战斗，而空间设计明确鼓励和促进了这种行为。相比之下，《雷神之锤》死亡竞赛空间的走廊和房间创造了一种隐秘行动、疯狂冲刺以获取能量提升以及突然死亡的惊喜的叙事。《铁拳》没有隐藏的空间信息。但在《雷神之锤》中，墙壁阻挡玩家互相看到，昏暗的灯光使躲在阴影中成为可能，而定期出现的能量提升让人不确定何时何地可以找到它们。在《铁拳》和《雷神之锤》中，玩家的“网格位置”，正如金德所说，既是游戏空间中的位置，也是游戏叙事空间中的位置。游戏的正式、有代表性和互动性的空间也是叙事空间，是将游戏体验解释为故事的背景。
In a fighting game such as Tekken, the space is tightly constrained, crowding the two fighters up against each other. There is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. All you can do is fight your opponent, an action the design of the space explicitly encourages and facilitates. In contrast, the corridors and rooms of a Quake deathmatch space create a narrative of stealthy maneuvers, mad dashes to grab power-ups, and the surprise of sudden death. Tekken has no hidden spatial information. But in Quake, walls block players from seeing each other, dark lighting makes hiding in shadows possible, and the periodically appearing power-ups create uncertainty about when and where they can be found. In both Tekken and Quake, a player’s “position on the grid,” as Kinder puts it, is simultaneously a location in the space of the game and a position within the space of the game narrative. The formal, represented, and interactive spaces of games are also narrative spaces, contexts for interpreting the experience of a game as a story.
当我们将体验构建为叙事时，游戏中的事件和动作在游戏的表征世界中呈现出形式和意义。《铁拳》和《雷神之锤》的空间动态属性对于创造冲突的叙事非常重要。但这些空间也包含着内在的叙事特质。在《雷神之锤》中，这些空间体现了科幻恐怖片的布景、道具和角色。在《铁拳》中，与大多数格斗游戏一样，每个竞技场在主题上都与游戏中的一个角色相关。因此，空间可用于表达有关角色的个性或背景故事的信息，或用于创建有关保卫自己地盘或入侵敌人领土的叙事。
When we frame experience as narrative, the events and actions of game play take on form and meaning within the game’s representational universe. The dynamic properties of the space of Tekken and Quake are important in creating emergent narratives of conflict. But the spaces contain embedded narrative qualities as well. In Quake, the spaces embody the sets, props, and characters of pulp sci-fi horror. In Tekken, as with most fighting games, each arena is thematically linked to one of the game’s characters. Space can therefore be used to express information about a character’s persona or backstory, or to create narratives about defending one’s home turf or invading an enemy’s territory.
冒险空间
Spaces of Adventure
数字游戏空间的一大优点是其可塑性和灵活性。近年来，游戏强调逼真、逻辑一致的 3D 空间，这已使空间设计不再采用实验性方法，而是采用越来越“逼真”的方法。然而，通过利用计算机媒介的灵活性，空间可以成为一种强大的叙事工具。例如，以 Atari 2600 游戏 Adventure 为例，它可以说是第一款图形冒险游戏。让我们先从游戏手册中了解 Adventure 的背景故事：
One of the wonderful qualities of digital game spaces is their plasticity and flexibility. The emphasis in recent years on photorealistic, logically consistent 3D game spaces has eschewed experimental approaches to space design in favor of increasingly “realistic” ones. Yet by exploiting the flexibility of the computer medium, space can be a powerful narrative tool. For example, take the Atari 2600 game Adventure, arguably the first graphical adventure game. Let’s begin by looking at the backstory of Adventure from the game manual:
一个邪恶的魔法师偷走了魔法圣杯，并把它藏在王国的某个地方。游戏的目标是救出魔法圣杯，并把它放进它所属的金色城堡里。
An evil magician has stolen the Enchanted Chalice and has hidden it somewhere in the Kingdom. The object of the game is to rescue the Enchanted Chalice and place it inside the Golden Castle where it belongs.
这不是一件容易的事，因为邪恶的魔术师创造了三条龙来阻碍你寻找金杯。一条是黄龙 Yorgie，他非常卑鄙；一条是绿龙 Grundle，他卑鄙而凶猛；还有一条红龙 Rhindle，他是所有龙中最凶猛的。Rhindle 也是速度最快的龙，也是最难战胜的龙。
This is no easy task, as the Evil Magician has created three Dragons to hinder you in your quest for the Golden Chalice. There is Yorgie, the Yellow Dragon, who is just plain mean; there is Grundle, the Green Dragon, who is mean and ferocious; and there is Rhindle, the Red Dragon, who is the most ferocious of all. Rhindle is also the fastest Dragon and is the most difficult to outmaneuver.
王国中有三座城堡：白城堡、黑城堡和金城堡。每座城堡的入口处都有一道大门。大门可以用相应颜色的钥匙打开。每座城堡内都有房间（或地牢，取决于您玩的技能等级）。
There are three castles in the Kingdom; the White Castle, the Black Castle, and the Golden Castle. Each castle has a Gate over the entrance. The Gate can be opened with the corresponding colored Key. Inside each Castle are rooms (or dungeons, depending at which Skill Level you are playing).
城堡之间有房间、通道和迷宫。所有技能等级都有蓝色迷宫，你必须通过它找到通往黑色城堡的路。技能等级 2 和 3 的王国更加复杂……11
The Castles are separated by rooms, pathways, and labyrinths. Common to all the Skill Levels is the Blue Labyrinth through which you must find your way to the Black Castle. Skill Levels 2 and 3 have a more complicated Kingdom . . . .11
这种嵌入式叙事将传统的人物、背景和冲突元素（邪恶魔法师、王国和隐藏的宝藏）与游戏空间机制的明确描述（钥匙打开大门、城堡通过通道和迷宫连接、技能水平越高，王国就越复杂）交织在一起。这种介绍性描述甚至明确了空间布局获得叙事意义的方式。例如，根据文本，是什么让红龙 Rhindle 成为所有龙中最凶猛的？是他比其他龙更快地穿越空间的能力。
This embedded narrative weaves together traditional elements of character, setting, and conflict (Evil Magician, Kingdom, and hidden treasure) with explicit descriptions of the spatial mechanics of the game (keys open gates, castles are connected by pathways and labyrinths, higher skill levels have more complex kingdoms). This introductory description even makes explicit the ways that spatial arrangements acquire narrative meaning. For example, according to the text, what is it that makes Rhindle the Red Dragon the most ferocious dragon of them all? It is his ability to move through space more quickly than the others.
在 Adventure 中，玩家被表示为一个方点，在游戏空间中移动，收集和使用物品，躲避敌人，并穿越王国以找到隐藏的圣杯。正如沃尔夫在他的游戏空间分类法中指出的那样，Adventure 将空间表示为一系列相互连接的相邻房间，每个房间一次显示一个。当玩家进入一个新房间时，玩家的点会出现在屏幕边缘与房间入口相对应的点上。如果玩家使用出口离开房间，新房间就会填满屏幕。与更现代、更流畅滚动的空间相反，Adventure 的空间方案将每个房间指定为一种戏剧画面，一个专注于戏剧动作的独立场景。这种优雅简约的结构部分是由于技术限制而强加的，但仍然非常适合游戏的神话童话故事。例如，当玩家进入一个带有锁着的城堡大门的房间时，移动被严格限制在屏幕的下边界和侧边界，清楚地唤起被锁在外面的体验。另一方面，当用正确的钥匙打开大门时，城堡闸门升起的简单而富有戏剧性的动画将城堡的空间从雄伟的屏障变成了诱人的大门，通向新的空间。
Within Adventure, the player is represented as a square dot that moves through the space of the game, collecting and using objects, avoiding enemies, and navigating the kingdom in order to find the hidden chalice. As Wolf pointed out in his taxonomy of game spaces, Adventure represents space as a series of interconnected adjacent rooms, each room displayed one at a time. When a player enters a new room, the player’s dot appears on a point at the edge of the screen corresponding to the entrance of the room. If the player uses an exit to leave the room, a new room fills the screen. As opposed to a more contemporary, smoothly scrolling space, Adventure’s spatial scheme designates each room as a kind of theatrical tableau, a self-contained scene that focuses the dramatic action. This elegantly spare structure, imposed in part by technological limitations, nevertheless perfectly suits the mythical fairytale narrative of the game. For example, when a player enters a room with a locked castle gate, movement is severely restricted to the lower and side borders of the screen, clearly evoking the experience of being locked out. On the other hand, when the proper key opens the gate, a simple but dramatic animation of the raising castle portcullis transforms the space of the castle from imposing barrier to inviting gateway, leading to new spaces beyond.
Adventure 对空间的巧妙利用很大程度上源于其不一致性。例如，城堡内部的房间比城堡从外面看起来要大。这种不合逻辑的空间利用表达了游戏叙事的魔幻本质，并在游戏四个迷宫的构建中达到了真正的精湛技艺。为了适应疯狂的邪恶魔术师的创作，这些迷宫并不遵循一致的地形。迷宫都是一系列带有通道的独立房间。然而，房间的入口和出口并不遵循一致的空间逻辑，而是以不稳定的方式环绕。右图显示了蓝色迷宫的地图，以及每个房间环绕式入口和出口的指示。
Much of Adventure’s delightful use of space comes from its inconsistencies. The room one reaches inside a castle, for example, is larger than the castle appears from the outside. This illogical use of space expresses the magical nature of the game narrative and reaches true virtuosity in the construction of the game’s four labyrinths. As suits the creation of a mad Evil Magician, these mazes do not follow a consistent topography. The labyrinths all exist as a series of self-contained rooms with passageways. However, entrances and exits from the rooms do not follow a consistent spatial logic but instead wrap around in erratic ways. The image to the right shows a map of the Blue Labyrinth, along with indications of the wraparound entrances and exits from each room.
在这些迷宫中穿行的体验最初可能会令人感到不安，特别是因为其中一些是黑暗的“地下墓穴”，你只能看到你点周围有限区域的墙壁。在这些迷宫中，你可能会感到完全迷失——这是一种非常恰当的叙事效果。但与此同时，迷宫并不复杂，只有三、四或五个房间。穿越迷宫的难度来自于它们神奇的环绕逻辑，而不是过多的导航选择。这是一个精心设计、平衡的空间挑战。玩家永远不会失去对整个系统的强烈感觉，并且在玩几场游戏的过程中，学会越来越轻松地穿越迷宫。
The experience of navigating these mazes can be initially disconcerting, especially because some of them are darkened “catacombs,” where you only see the walls in a limited area immediately surrounding your dot. It is possible in these mazes to feel completely and utterly lost—a wonderfully appropriate emergent narrative effect. Yet at the same time, the labyrinths are not gratuitously complex, containing only three, four, or five rooms. The difficulty of moving through them comes from their magical wraparound logic, not from an overabundance of navigational choices. This is a well-designed, balanced spatial challenge. The player never loses a strong sense of the overall system, and over the course of playing several games, learns to navigate the mazes with greater and greater ease.
与大多数游戏相比，Adventure 空间的形式、表现和互动特性直接促进了游戏丰富的叙事体验。您最终在地下墓穴中找到了黑钥匙，然后穿过迷宫，奔向上锁的黑城堡。但随后您遇到了红龙 Rhindle！您能从 Rhindle 身边挤过去吗？还是最终会被困在迷宫的狭窄走廊里？您一次只能携带一个物体，找到黑钥匙后，您丢下了剑。有了剑，您就可以杀死 Rhindle。但您能记得它到底在哪里吗？您最好快点决定，因为 Rhindle 正在快速接近！这些新兴的叙事隐藏在游戏更大的童话背景中，并且通过简单但结构复杂的 Adventure 空间框架和游戏动作来实现。正式的游戏元素在游戏提供的故事背景中具有叙事意义。
More than in most games, the formal, representational, and interactive qualities of Adventure’s spaces contribute directly to the game’s rich narrative experience. You finally locate the Black Key in the Catacombs and you race through a labyrinth toward the locked Black Castle. But then you come across Rhindle, the Red Dragon! Can you squeeze by Rhindle, or will you end up trapped in the narrow corridors of the maze? You can only carry one object at a time, and you dropped the Sword when you found the Black Key. With the Sword, you could slay Rhindle. But can you remember exactly where it is? You better decide quickly, because Rhindle is rapidly approaching! These emergent narratives are ensconced within the larger fairytale context of the game, and are made possible by the way that the simple yet structurally intricate space of Adventure frames and enables game action. The formal game elements become narratively meaningful within the story context that the game provides.
叙述描述符
Narrative Descriptors
在黑色的屏幕上，只有白色的罗夏墨迹形状的轮廓在移动，而你要在它们击中你之前击中它们。一旦你弄清楚了“你”是什么。机器上的名字暗示你身处小行星带，但你不知道小行星带是什么，也不知道身处其中会是什么感觉。——大卫·苏德诺，《微观世界的朝圣者》
On a black screen there’s nothing but white Rorschach-shaped outlines moving around, and you’re to hit them, so to speak, before they hit you. Once you’ve figured out what “you” is. The name on the machine implies you’re in a field of asteroids, not that you know what a field of asteroids is, or what it’d be like to be a being in one.—David Sudnow, Pilgrim in the Microworld
我们马上就要回到数字游戏的叙事游戏。但首先我们必须停下来，确定一个关键的叙事元素：叙事描述符。叙事描述符是一种表述，也就是说，它们是对游戏世界一个或多个方面的描述。游戏为玩家提供了许多层次的叙事描述符。街机柜侧面的图形描绘了将出现在游戏世界中的物体或角色。游戏手册文本解释了游戏体验的许多方面，从交互式控制到情节和背景故事。音轨有助于建立和美化叙事设置，而开场动画则告诉我们游戏世界是什么样子，以及我们为什么在那里。即使在游戏中，图形元素和音效也会传达游戏对象和角色的叙事身份。每种类型的叙事描述符在阐释游戏世界、为事件和动作创建叙事背景方面都扮演着不同的叙事角色。
We will return presently to the narrative play of digital games. But first we must pause to identify a key storytelling element: narrative descriptors. Narrative descriptors are representations, which means that they are depictions of one or more aspects of the game world. Games offer players narrative descriptors on many levels. Graphics on the side of arcade cabinets depict objects or characters that will appear in the game world. Game manual text explains many aspects of a game experience, from the interactive controls to plot and backstory. Audio soundtracks help establish and embellish the narrative setting, while opening cinematics tell us what the game world looks like and why we are there. Even within game play, graphical elements and sound effects communicate the narrative identity of game objects and characters. Each type of narrative descriptor plays a different storytelling role in explicating the game universe, creating a narrative context for events and actions.
游戏中的一切都可能是一种叙事描述符。用叙事描述符来思考意味着将游戏内外的元素框定为传达故事的对象。作为玩家，我们依靠叙事描述来帮助我们理解所遇到的设置、事件和角色。尽管叙事描述符与游戏的形式结构有某种关系，但它们在某种程度上是可以分离的。同一款游戏可以用不同的叙事描述符以不同的方式描述。例如，Breakout 以多种方式叙事化。最初的街机游戏在游戏机上印有越狱囚犯的图片，讲述了越狱的故事。在这种情况下，屏幕上的方块层代表囚犯试图“越狱”的监狱墙壁。第一版 Atari 2600 版 Breakout 将叙事框定为 Pong 风格的网球比赛：盒子封面上印有网球运动员的时尚插图。续集《超级突围》进入了科幻领域，一艘孤独的宇宙飞船对抗神秘的力场。
Everything in a game is potentially a kind of narrative descriptor. Thinking in terms of narrative descriptors means framing the elements inside and outside of a game as objects that communicate the story. As players, we rely on narrative description to help us make sense of the settings, events, and characters encountered. Although narrative descriptors bear some relation to the formal structure of a game, they are somewhat separable from it. The very same game can be depicted in different ways by different narrative descriptors. For example, Breakout has been narrativized in a number of ways. The original arcade game had pictures of escaping prisoners on the game cabinet, telling the story of a jailbreak. In this case, the layers of blocks on the screen represent the walls of the prison from which the prisoner is attempting to “break out.” The first Atari 2600 version of Breakout framed the narrative as a Pong-style Tennis match: the box cover featured stylish illustrations of Tennis players. The sequel Super Breakout moved into the realm of science fiction, a lone spaceship facing off against a mysterious force field.
虽然《越狱》的核心形式结构在这三种变体中保持不变，但叙事框架却发生了根本性变化。但请不要误会：这并不意味着任何叙事都可以应用于任何游戏。就《越狱》而言，游戏图像和声音的抽象质量更容易被多种叙事解释所接受。此外，尽管每种叙事强调游戏结构和互动的不同方面，但三种叙事框架（越狱、网球比赛、力场）都与实际游戏玩法有着真正的联系。
Although the core formal structure of Breakout remained the same in each of these three variations, the framing narrative changed radically. But don’t get the wrong impression: this doesn’t mean that any narrative can be applied to any game. In the case of Breakout, the abstract quality of the game graphics and sound lent themselves more easily to multiple narrative interpretations. Furthermore, each of the three narrative frameworks (jailbreak, Tennis match, force field) bore a genuine relationship to the actual game play, although each narrative emphasized different aspects of the game structure and interaction.
有趣的是，叙事描述并不总是能够有效地创建清晰的交互背景。例如，在《Super Breakout》中，游戏手册中的书面叙述实际上有些令人困惑。我们在本章开头引用了它，但下面是一段简短的摘录：
It is interesting to note that narrative descriptors are not always effective in creating a clear context for interaction. In Super Breakout, for example, the written narrative in the game manual is actually somewhat confusing. We quoted it at the beginning of this chapter, but below is a short excerpt:
突然，毫无预兆地，前方突然出现一道耀眼的闪光。你检查雷达屏幕。什么也没有。很快又出现了一道闪光，又一道。接下来你知道的，闪光变成了某种巨大的力场，就在前方。你检查雷达屏幕，仍然一无所获。
Suddenly, without warning, there’s a brilliant flash straight ahead. You check the radar screen. Nothing. Pretty soon there’s another flash, and another. Next thing you know the flashes have turned into one gigantic force field of some kind and it’s dead ahead. You check the radar screen, still nothing.
从游戏玩法的角度来看，这种叙事与玩家互动奇怪地脱节。在文本中，叙事中的“你”两次检查雷达屏幕。什么雷达屏幕？游戏中根本没有任何雷达元素。闪光又是怎么回事？游戏开始时，没有闪光，只有实心的彩色方块和一个球。这是什么意思？叙事的坚持强调关于雷达屏幕的空白，力场没有出现在宇宙飞船的雷达上，强调了 Breakout 体验中基于光的非物质性，这在数字游戏的早期仍然是一个新奇事物。也许文本指的是游戏的最初时刻，电视机打开的那一刻，黑暗突然被暖色阴极射线管的发光图案照亮。有时，叙事描述符不必为游戏提供逻辑基础，而可以简单地引用更一般的叙事类型。在 Super Breakout 的案例中，描述符未能为即将到来的游戏提供准确的叙述，但它确实讲述了一个精彩的元文本故事，即电子在荧光屏上跳舞，大约在 1981 年。
From a game play perspective, this narrative is strangely disconnected from player interaction. Twice in the text the “you” of the narrative checks the radar screen. What radar screen? There isn’t any radar element in the game at all. And what about the flashes of light? When the game begins, there are no flashes of light, only solid rows of colored blocks and a ball. What is it suppose to mean? The narrative’s insistent emphasis on the blankness of the radar screen, the fact that the force field doesn’t show up on the spaceship’s radar, emphasizes the light-based immateriality of the Breakout experience, still a novelty in the early era of digital gaming. Perhaps the text references the first moment of play, the instant the television set is turned on and the darkness suddenly lights up with the glowing pattern of a warming cathode ray tube. Sometimes, a narrative descriptor doesn’t have to provide a logical basis for play, and can simply reference a more general narrative genre. In the case of Super Breakout, the descriptor fails to produce an accurate narrative for the impending game play, but it does tell a wonderfully meta-textual story of electrons dancing on a phosphor screen, circa 1981.
除了充当游戏核心玩法的“框架”之外，叙事描述符还可以出现在游戏中。在《雷暴》中，几乎没有或根本没有描述玩家互动的赛前叙事设置。相反，《雷暴》的叙事游戏在游戏过程中将骰子上的数字转化为即将来临的风暴的故事。页面上的线条变成了房屋；掷骰子变成了建造和破坏的行为。叙事描述符有两种作用。它们可以用于识别游戏中的物体或事件：“监狱”、“房屋”、“雷暴”、“力场”。它们还可以为玩家提供互动框架：“这是一款关于雷暴的游戏”；“这是一款网球模拟游戏”。（描述符的这两种用法直接对应于上一章中的两种游戏表现模式——游戏可以表现和它们就是表现。）
In addition to acting as a “frame” for the central game play, narrative descriptors also can appear within a game. In Thunderstorm there is little or no pre-game narrative set-up that describes player interaction. Instead, the narrative play of Thunderstorm transforms the numbers on the dice into a story of an approaching storm, during the game itself. Lines on a page become houses; dice rolls become acts of construction and destruction. Narrative descriptors work in two ways. They can act to identify objects or events inside a game: “prison,” “house,” “thunderstorm,” “force field.” They can also provide frameworks of interaction for players: “this is a game about thunderstorms;” “this is a Tennis simulation.” (These two uses of descriptors correspond directly with the two modes of game representation from the previous chapter—that games can represent and that they are representations.)
让我们仔细看看一款游戏《Asteroids》，看看它如何整合叙事描述来创造引人入胜的游戏体验。街机柜上的游戏说明包含以下文字：
Let’s take a close look at one game, Asteroids, to see how it integrates narrative descriptors to create a compelling game experience. The game instructions on the arcade cabinet contain the following text:
射击小行星，同时避免与它们相撞。偶尔会出现飞碟并试图用导弹将您击落。摧毁它或导弹可获得更多积分。
Shoot the asteroids while avoiding collisions with them. Occasionally a flying saucer will appear and attempt to shoot you down with guided missiles. Destroy it or the missiles for more points.
这个叙述性描述包含了什么信息？我们可以推断：
What information does this narrative description contain? We can infer that:
• 游戏中我们将要对抗的物体有两种：小行星和飞碟。两者都具有破坏力。破坏是通过与小行星或导弹的碰撞发生的。
• There are two kinds of objects in the game we will battle: asteroids and flying saucers. Both have destructive capabilities. Destruction occurs through collision, either with an asteroid or a guided missile.
• 与小行星的互动有两种形式：我们可以射击它们，或者我们可以绕过小行星以避免接触。
• Interaction with the asteroids takes two forms: we can shoot them or we can maneuver around the asteroids to avoid contact.
• 与飞碟的互动也涉及射击和机动。由于飞碟使用制导导弹，因此机动性会更差。
• Interaction with the flying saucers involves shooting and maneuvering as well. Because the flying saucers use guided missiles, it will be more difficult to outmaneuver them.
• 飞碟更稀有，因此更有价值。通过摧毁它们，我们可以获得额外积分。
• Flying saucers are more rare and therefore more valuable. We gain additional points by destroying them.
• 飞碟是主动的敌人：它们会试图摧毁我们。小行星是被动的敌人：我们必须避免撞上它们。
• Flying saucers are active enemies: they will try to destroy us. Asteroids are passive enemies: we must avoid running into them.
• 小行星的运动与我们的飞船的运动无关，而导弹的运动则与之直接相关。
• The movement of the asteroids is independent of the movement of our ship, whereas the movement of the guided missiles is directly linked to it.
• 如果我们将飞船置于小行星后面，导弹可以摧毁小行星。小行星随后成为飞船的盾牌。
• The guided missiles can destroy asteroids if we position our ship behind an asteroid. The asteroid then becomes a shield for the ship.
这么短的描述中包含了这么多信息！但还有更多。虽然没有明确说明我们在宇宙飞船中或我们在外太空，但这两个事实都来自说明。我们知道小行星和飞碟存在于外太空，而不是沙漠或海洋中。我们还知道，如果我们能够射击和机动，那么我们必须乘坐能够进行这些操作的飞行器。我们可以从故事的叙事逻辑中得出结论，我们在宇宙飞船中。关于我们的宇宙飞船的细节——它叫什么，它用什么燃料，船员人数——并不重要。关键的叙述信息是它可以机动并射击敌人。
So much information contained within such a short descriptor! But there is more. Although it is not explicitly stated that we are in a spaceship or that we are in outer space, both of these facts follow from the instructions. We know asteroids and flying saucers exist in outer space, not in the desert or the ocean. We also know that if we are able to shoot and maneuver we must be in a vehicle that allows these actions. We can conclude from the story’s narrative logic that we are in a spaceship. The details about our spaceship—what it is called, what it uses for fuel, the size of the crew—don’t matter. The key narrative information is that it can maneuver and shoot the enemy.
但是，如果玩家跳过说明直接开始游戏会怎样呢？没有介绍性的文字描述，玩家会知道该怎么做吗？在像《小行星》这样设计精良的游戏中，答案是肯定的，因为还有许多其他叙事描述来引导玩家。首先，游戏名称和不容错过的机柜图形传达出《小行星》是一个发生在外太空的科幻故事，而黑色屏幕上移动的白色几何轮廓是小行星。其次，游戏世界中物体的表示提供了有关它们是什么以及将发生哪些形式的交互的信息。游戏开始时，屏幕上充满了许多小行星，但只有一个箭头形物体，位于正中央。如果箭头形物体的中心位置和独特身份还不足以提供线索，那么只需开始按下按钮界面的玩家就会很快发现他或她可以直接控制箭头（但不能控制小行星）。很容易得出结论，箭头对象代表玩家，位于小行星场的游戏世界中。
But what if a player skips over the instructions and just starts playing? Without the introductory textual description, will players know what to do? In a well-designed game like Asteroids the answer is yes, as there are many other narrative descriptors to orient the player. First, the name of the game and the hard-to-miss cabinet graphics communicate that Asteroids is a science-fiction narrative that takes place in outer space and that the white geometric outlines moving on the dark screen are asteroids. Second, the representation of objects in the game world provides information about what they are and what forms of interaction will take place. When the game begins, the screen is filled with many asteroids but only one arrow-shaped object, located dead center. If the central placement and unique identity of the arrow-shaped object is not enough of a clue, a player who simply starts mashing the button interface will quickly discover that he or she can directly control the arrow (but not the asteroids). It is easy to conclude that the arrow object represents the player, situated in the game world of an asteroid field.
不熟悉游戏或游戏目标的玩家很快就会被小行星砸成碎片。这一戏剧性事件表现为视觉和音频爆炸，以及玩家剩余的一艘飞船从屏幕角落消失。被小行星摧毁的行为对玩家来说包含了大量信息，表明小行星是致命的，应该避免。当飞碟突然出现并开始向玩家射击时，可以合理地推断它也是敌人，因此值得摧毁。当玩家成功摧毁飞碟并获得奖励积分时，他或她就会了解到飞碟比小行星更有价值。飞碟只会间歇性出现，它们的稀有性强调了它们的奖励积分价值和额外的致命性。
A player unfamiliar with the game or its objectives will quickly be smashed to bits by an asteroid. This dramatic event is represented by a visual and audio explosion, as well as by the removal of one of the player’s remaining ships from the corner of the screen. The act of being destroyed by an asteroid contains a wealth of information for the player, signifying that the asteroids are lethal and should be avoided. When a flying saucer suddenly appears and starts shooting at the player, it is logical to infer that it too is an enemy and therefore worthy of destruction. When a player successfully destroys a flying saucer and receives bonus points, he or she learns that flying saucers are more valuable than asteroids. Flying saucers only appear at intermittent intervals, and their rarity emphasizes their bonus point value and their extra degree of deadliness.
这些事件中的每一个都是通过叙事描述符实现的，叙事描述符是一种帮助玩家在更大的叙事背景下理解游戏活动的表示。在《Asteroids》中，所有叙事元素都是集成的和可辨别的，这是有意义的游戏的两个关键特质。即使不阅读说明，玩家也可以通过与游戏世界的互动来体验叙事游戏。这是一个设计精良的游戏的标志，它提供了一个清晰而引人注目的意义系统。在这种背景下，游戏本身揭示了游戏世界的叙事意义。
Each of these events is made possible by a narrative descriptor, a representation that helps players understand the activity of the game within a larger narrative context. In Asteroids, all of the narrative elements are both integrated and discernable, the two key qualities of meaningful play. Even without reading the instructions, players can, through interaction with the game world, experience narrative play. This is a sign of a well-designed game, one that provides a clear and compelling system of meaning. In this kind of context, play itself reveals the narrative meaning of the game world.
游戏的每个元素都充满叙事潜力。游戏的叙事组成部分不仅仅是背景故事和过场动画。任何代表性元素都可以成为叙事描述符，让您有机会传达您希望玩家体验的故事。在《Asteroids》中，游戏元素、界面，甚至街机游戏机柜都在叙事中发挥作用。没有什么是无关紧要的：每个部分都有助于讲述故事，故事大于各部分的总和。您的游戏叙事是否像《Asteroids》一样设计得紧凑而优雅？
Every element of a game brims with narrative potential. The narrative components of a game are not just the backstory and cutscenes. Any representational element can be a narrative descriptor, an opportunity for you to communicate the story that you want your players to experience. In Asteroids, the game elements, the interface, and even the arcade game cabinet all play a role in the narrative. Nothing is irrelevant: every piece helps tell the story, which is greater than the sum of the parts. Is your game narrative as tightly and elegantly designed as Asteroids?
世界和故事
Worlds and Stories
游戏中的表现形式并非孤立于其他文化而存在。它们依赖于从其他媒体的叙事类型中汲取的惯例。尽管游戏的游乐场可能提供虚构和奇幻的空间，但这些空间几乎总是以某种方式为玩家所熟悉。《小行星》中的深空不是我们任何人直接体验过的东西，但它是科幻小说作家和天体物理学家的故事中发现的基于类型的宇宙的一部分。即使玩家从未在小行星带中驾驶过宇宙飞船，他们也可以欣赏游戏的叙事，因为它的表现形式很熟悉。
Representations in games do not exist in isolation from the rest of culture. They rely on conventions drawn from narrative genres in other media. Although the playgrounds of games may offer fictive and fantastical spaces, these spaces are almost always familiar in some way to players. The deep space of Asteroids is not something any of us have experienced directly, but it is part of a genre-based universe found in the stories of science fiction writers and astrophysicists. Players can appreciate the narrative of the game even if they have never piloted a space ship in a field of asteroids, because of the familiar conventions of its representation.
为了理解游戏世界的设定，玩家需要依赖其他类似故事中的知识。第一次玩《小行星》游戏的玩家知道该怎么做，部分原因是他们熟悉一种虚构的游戏类型，这种游戏描述了太空飞船、飞碟和外太空小行星之间的相互作用。（向你射击的不明飞行物是敌人，必须 玩家在游戏中所掌握的叙事知识不仅能帮助他们认识游戏世界的惯例，还能限制和约束他们的行为。正如游戏学者 Rune Klevjer 在《侠盗猎车手 III》的分析中所写，
In order to understand the setting of a game world, players rely on knowledge from other, similar stories. Players starting a game of Asteroids for the first time know what to do in part because they are familiar with a fictive genre describing interactions between spaceships, flying saucers, and asteroids in outer space. (UFOs that shoot at you are enemies and must be destroyed or avoided.) The narrative knowledge that players bring with them to games not only helps them recognize the conventions of the game universe, but also limits and constrains their actions. As game scholar Rune Klevjer writes in an analysis of Grand Theft Auto III,
在《GTA III》中狙击哥伦比亚黑帮的头部是一回事。对一个小女孩做同样的事情就不一样了（因此，自由城里没有孩子）。这两种表现之间的差异部分源于它们各自的现实世界参考——一个长相凶恶的成年男性和一个漂亮的小女孩——但也与游戏构建的特定典型世界有关。在这个熟悉的虚构现成中，长相凶恶的男人（通过一些风格化的暗示）变成了一个非常熟悉的黑帮，最残忍、最毒贩。12
Sniping a Columbian gangster in the head in GTA III is one thing. Doing the same to, say, a little girl would not be the same (consequently, there are no children in Liberty City). The difference between these two representations is partly rooted in their respective real-world references—a mean-looking adult male versus a pretty little girl—but also linked to a specific, typified universe constructed by the game. Within this familiar fictional ready-made, the mean-looking guy turns into (through a few, stylized hints) a very familiar gangster of the most ruthless, drug-dealing kind.12
《侠盗猎车手 III》以城市帮派战争和有组织犯罪为背景，是低俗题材的游戏。作为一个虚构的世界，一系列叙事惯例塑造了这个世界。射杀黑帮符合这些叙事惯例，而射杀小女孩则不符合。同样，在《小行星》中被飞碟袭击建立了一个叙事框架，其中不会包括阿巴拉契亚山地人用弹弓向玩家射击。换句话说，游戏的设定决定了其叙事框架中允许的角色、事件和动作。
Grand Theft Auto III takes place within the pulp genre setting of urban gang warfare and organized crime. As a fictional universe, a set of narrative conventions stylizes this world. Shooting a gangster fits within these narrative conventions, whereas doing the same to a little girl does not. Similarly, being attacked by flying saucers in Asteroids establishes a narrative frame that wouldn’t include an Appalachian mountain man firing at the player with a slingshot. In other words, the setting of a game determines the characters, events, and actions permitted within its narrative frame.
[GTA III] 中的黑帮世界作为背景和游戏设置，部分建立在它所讲述的公式化故事之上。玩家所执行的操作……在整个基于类型的世界中变得有意义。“故事”和“虚构世界”是同一枚硬币的两面——一种预先写好的典型象征性动作，定义了游乐场的典型身份。尽管我们可以想象一个类似的虚构世界，没有一个单一的、总体的故事来构成游戏玩法，但至少必须有可识别的叙事元素，可以为原本模糊的城市犯罪氛围赋予一些更具类型特色的内容。在类型小说中，描述会唤起隐含的叙述，而叙述会唤起隐含的描述。十三
The gangster universe [of GTA III] as a setting, and as a set-up for play, is partly founded on the formulaic stories told within it. The actions performed by the player . . . become meaningful within the genre-based universe as a whole. “Story” and “fictional world” are two flips of the same coin—a pre-written, typified symbolic action, defining a typical identity of the playground. Even though we can imagine a similar fictional world without one, single, overarching story framing the game play, there would at least have to be recognizable narrative elements that could give some more genre-specific substance to an otherwise vague atmosphere of urban crime. In genre fiction, description evokes implied narratives, and narration evokes implied description.13
克莱夫耶尔确定了游戏叙事的两个组成部分：虚构世界（代表叙事背景）和 故事事件（在虚构世界中发生的实际游戏事件）。这两个叙事元素之间存在复杂的关系，彼此通过叙事意义相互补充和丰富。在《小行星》中，虚构世界是太空科幻小说的类型，故事事件是玩家的飞船和叙事背景中的其他游戏元素所发生的动作。射击、操纵、破坏和生存等故事事件从游戏的更大虚构世界中获得叙事意义，同时它们也有助于定义这个虚构世界。
Klevjer identifies two components of game narratives: fictive worlds, which represent narrative context, and story events, the actual game incidents that take place within the fictive world. There is a complex relationship between these two narrative elements, each informing and enriching the other with narrative meaning. In Asteroids, the fictive world is the genre of space-based science fiction, and the story events are the actions that happen to the player’s ship and other game elements within this narrative setting. The story events of shooting, maneuvering, destruction, and survival gain narrative meaning from the larger fictive world of the game, even as they simultaneously help to define that fictive world.
虚构世界和故事事件似乎反映了嵌入式和新兴叙事结构的概念。实际上，它们并不是平行的概念。嵌入式/新兴的区别确定了叙事元素在游戏形式结构中的组织方式：这种叙事元素是预先生成的还是从游戏中产生的？虚构世界和故事事件以非常不同的方式引用游戏叙事，在玩家对游戏故事的想象参与层面上。嵌入式和新兴元素都可以在定义游戏的虚构世界或其故事事件方面发挥作用。
It may seem like fictive worlds and story events mirror the concepts of embedded and emergent narrative structures. Actually, they are not parallel concepts. The embedded/emergent distinction identifies how narrative elements are organized in the formal structure of a game: is this narrative element pre-generated or does it emerge from play? Fictive worlds and story events reference game narrative in a very different way, on the level of a player’s imaginative engagement with the game story. Both embedded and emergent elements can play a part in defining either a game’s fictive world or its story events.
Klevjer 的概念提供了一种思考游戏叙事的有用方法。游戏的虚构世界常常被视为理所当然，是剧本情节事件的通用背景。游戏设计师应该更严格地处理虚构世界和故事事件之间复杂而相互依存的关系。情节事件，即“游戏故事”，是由故事发生的更大的虚构世界的存在而实现的。同时，故事事件本身有助于充实和充实虚构世界。设计虚构世界意味着密切关注这些世界所激发的叙事。反之亦然。这两个元素结合在一起游戏叙事创造了一种人工背景，游戏体验在其中获得了叙事意义。尽管《超级马里奥》疯狂的卡通世界并不反映现实世界的空间，但《超级马里奥》宇宙中的事件忠实地遵循了我们对现实世界中应该发生的事情的期望。玩家不会对遇到色彩缤纷的魔法蘑菇、可爱而可怕的敌人或巨大的绿色管道感到惊讶或困惑。这些元素中的每一个在《超级马里奥》游戏的特定设置中都具有叙事意义。另一方面，加入一只照片级渲染的狗会让人感觉不合时宜。因此，叙事描述符暗示了一种表征逻辑，它限制和约束了可能性空间的设计。这些限制允许整合和辨别游戏世界中包含的所有元素，这个世界的设置描述了其自身行动的极限。
Klevjer’s concepts provide a useful way to think about game narratives. Too often, a game’s fictive world is taken for granted, a generic backdrop for scripted plot events. Game designers should more rigorously engage with the complex, interdependent relationship between the fictive world and story events. The events of the plot, the “game story,” are made possible by the existence of a larger fictional world in which the story takes place. At the same time, the story events themselves help to flesh out and inform the fictive world. Designing fictive worlds means paying close attention to the narratives such worlds inspire. And vice versa. Together these two elements of game narratives create an artificial context where game experience acquires narrative meaning. Although the crazy cartoon world of Super Mario does not mirror the space of the real world, events within the universe of Super Mario faithfully follow our expectations of the kinds of things that should happen in that world. Players are not surprised or confused to come across colorful magic mushrooms, cute and menacing enemies, or gigantic green pipes. Each of these elements makes narrative sense within the specific setting of a Super Mario game. The inclusion of a photorealistically rendered dog, on the other hand, would feel out of place. Thus, narrative descriptors imply a representational logic that limits and constrains the design of the space of possibility. These limitations allow for the integration and discernability of all elements contained with the game world, a world whose setting describes the limits of its own action.
在设计游戏时，关注游戏世界的叙事背景与在这种背景中发生的事件之间的关系至关重要。如果你正在设计一款遥远未来的反重力赛车游戏，那么人物、事件、物体和行为的叙事描述应该包含在这种背景的逻辑限制内。玩家应该意识到驱动他们车辆的技术尚未发明，并且影响车辆速度和运动的物理现象不是他们在地球上经历过的。一款名为“Dot. Com Mania”的棋盘游戏的设计应该模仿 20 世纪 90 年代泡沫经济的事件和美学，而不是大萧条时期的事件和美学，或许可以从 Startup.com 等电影和Red Herring等杂志中获取视觉和故事线索。创建游戏叙事意味着在文化领域中玩游戏，参与文学、媒体、流行文化、娱乐和艺术等流派的比喻和惯例。结合相关叙述中的表征框架将帮助您详细阐述和改变这些框架，从而带来引人注目的（也许是不寻常的）游戏体验。
When designing a game it is critical to pay attention to the relationship between the narrative setting of the game world and the kinds of events that would occur within such a setting. If you are designing a far-future anti-gravity racing game, the narrative descriptors of characters, events, objects, and behaviors should be contained within the logical limits of this setting. Players should have a sense that the technology powering their vehicles has not yet been invented, and that the physics affecting the speed and movement of the vehicles is not something they have experienced on Earth. The design of a board game titled “Dot. Com Mania” should model the events and aesthetics of the 1990s bubble economy, not that of the Great Depression, perhaps taking visual and story cues from films like Startup.com and magazines like Red Herring. Creating game narratives means playing in the realms of culture, engaging with tropes and conventions of genres from literature, media, popular culture, entertainment, and art. Incorporating representational frameworks from relevant narratives will help you elaborate on and transform those frameworks in ways that lead to compelling (and perhaps unusual) game experiences.
这当然并不意味着你只能设计存在于既定叙事类型中的游戏。可以创建新类型的虚构世界，或以新的方式组合和重新混合传统的叙事世界。规则就是用来打破的。也许可以将一只照片写实的狗放入类似超级马里奥的游戏中。但最终的游戏叙事必须以连贯的方式纳入这种不一致性。也许游戏是关于一只现实世界的狗被传送到视频游戏中（因此有不同的表现风格）。或者它可能成为一款具有拼贴美感的游戏，其中每个角色都有自己独特的视觉语言。
This certainly doesn’t mean that you can only design games that exist within established narrative genres. It is possible to create new kinds of fictive worlds or combine and re-mix conventional narrative universes in new ways. Rules are made to be broken. Perhaps it is possible to drop a photorealistic dog into a Super Mario-like game. But the resulting game narrative has to incorporate this inconsistency in a coherent way. Perhaps the game is about a real world dog that became transported into a video game (hence the different representational style). Or maybe it becomes a game with a collage aesthetic, in which every character has its own unique visual language.
当你制作的游戏没有典型的叙事体验时，你的设计任务会变得更具挑战性。你的玩家可能还不熟悉你游戏的虚构世界。例如，一款关于办公用品的游戏的叙事惯例是什么，这些办公用品在晚上工作人员回家后会活过来？在这种情况下，游戏设计师需要尽快为玩家建立虚构世界，也许可以直接或间接地参考相关叙事，例如《玩具总动员》中莫名其妙的活玩具、有趣的匹诺曹故事，甚至是办公室生活模仿作品《朝九晚五》。这些叙事背景中的每一个都提供了不同的方式来建立虚构世界并组织其中发生的事件。
When you are creating games with less typical narrative experiences, your design task becomes more challenging. Your players will not already be familiar with your game’s fictive world. For example, what are the narrative conventions of a game about office supplies that come to life at night when the workers go home? In this case, it is up to the game designer to establish the fictive world for the player as quickly as possible, perhaps making direct or indirect reference to relevant narratives, such as Toy Story’s inexplicably living toys, the playful tale of Pinocchio, or even the office life parody 9-to-5. Each of these narrative contexts offers different ways to establish both the fictive world and to organize the events that happen within it.
制作游戏故事
Crafting Game Narratives
如何创建叙事细节，以便实现您希望玩家体验的虚构世界和故事事件？没有单一的神奇公式，正如每个媒介的讲故事者都知道的那样，魔鬼就在细节中。由于我们的重点是游戏设计，因此本书不包括关于角色设计的视觉美学、编写游戏内对话的技巧或如何构建叙事描述符的其他细节的章节。但是，我们可以提供一些关于游戏叙事技巧的一般思维方式。通过仔细关注游戏表现的细节，以及它们如何将正式的游戏系统与玩家体验联系起来，您将能够生成有意义的叙事游戏。
How do you create the details of a narrative that will let you achieve the fictional world and story events that you want your players to experience? There is no single magic formula, and as storytellers in every medium know, the devil is in the details. Because our focus is game design, this book does not include sections on the visual aesthetics of character design, tips for writing in-game dialogue, or other specifics of how to construct narrative descriptors. However, we can offer some general ways of thinking about the craft of game narratives. By paying careful attention to the details of your game representations, and how they bridge the formal game system and the player experience, you will be able to generate meaningful narrative play.
Consider the following text from the Wipeout XL game manual:
未来世界……
Future world . . .
球弹起。针掉落。人跌倒。
A ball bounces. A pin drops. A man falls.
引力是把我们和地球联系在一起的粘合剂。
Gravity is the glue which binds us to our planet.
我们即将使用一种溶剂，它将永远解放我们的物种。——皮埃尔·贝尔蒙多，欧洲 AG [反重力] 研究主任，内华达州，2035 年 4 月
We are about to apply the solvent which will free our species forever.—Pierre Belmondo, Director of European AG [anti-gravity] Research, Nevada, April 2035
尽管 Wipeout XL 的介绍性叙事非常抽象，但它传达了未来世界的感觉。简洁的描述、重力胶水的隐喻以及用于“永远解放我们物种”的溶剂，共同营造出一种感人的故事背景。叙事描述的形式特征营造出一种特定的情绪和环境。如果文本是用中世纪英语写的，世界的叙事背景就会感觉大不相同。在创建叙事背景时，表达方式与表达内容同样重要。这段文本位于 Wipeout XL 游戏图形的未来风格、技术视觉背景中，获得了更多的叙事意义，甚至赋予了游戏的其余部分以自己的意义。
Although Wipeout XL’s introductory narrative is extremely abstract, it communicates a sense of what it is going to feel like within this future world. The sparseness of the description, the metaphors of gravity’s glue and the solvent used to “free our species forever,” work to create an emotional story context. The formal qualities of the narrative description establish a particular mood and setting. If the text had been written in Middle English, the narrative context of the world would feel quite different. How something is said is just as important as what is said when you are creating narrative contexts. This text, situated within the future-stylish, techno visual context of the Wipeout XL game graphics, acquires yet more narrative meaning, even as it imbues the rest of the game with meanings of its own.
考虑一下物体或场景的设计。《寂静岭》的视觉和音频美学营造出一种明显令人毛骨悚然和不安的氛围。家庭电影风格的开场序列，配以不和谐的音乐，营造出一种潜在的恐怖氛围，而整个游戏过程中光线的有限使用则进一步增强了这种氛围。即使在白天，雾气也很重，很难看得很远。天黑时，玩家的视野被限制在单个手电筒的狭窄半径内。光线作为叙事元素，营造出一种浓重的氛围和谨慎互动的框架。音频在创造《寂静岭》独特的叙事体验方面也发挥着重要作用。背景噪音，例如废弃学校中孩子令人难忘的抽泣声，营造出更大的叙事环境，并逐渐让玩家感到不安。敌人接近时发出的令人不安的独特声音，从拍打翅膀的野兽到无害的幽灵婴儿，再到步履蹒跚的杀人护士，预示着他们可能出现并发起攻击。这款游戏很好地运用了电影式叙事技巧，将其与游戏系统和玩家互动紧密联系起来：敌人首先通过声音显现，然后通过视觉，最后通过战斗互动显现。毫无意义的“恐怖”音效很快就会让人感到乏味，但当这些音效预示着未来的游戏事件时，玩家就会注意到。
Consider the design of objects or settings. The visual and audio aesthetics of Silent Hill creates a distinctly creepy and unsettling atmosphere. The home movie-style opening sequence, set to discordant music, establishes a mood of underlying horror that is supported by the limited use of light throughout the game. Even in daylight it is foggy and difficult to see very far. When it is dark, a player’s field of vision is limited to the tight radius of a single flashlight. Light operates as a narrative element, creating a dense mood and a framework for cautious interaction. Audio is also significant in creating the distinctive narrative experience of Silent Hill. Background noises such as the haunting sobs of a child in the deserted school create a larger narrative setting and work to gradually unnerve the player. The unsettling, distinctive sounds of approaching enemies, which range from flapping winged beasts to harmless ghost babies to shuffling homicidal nurses, foreshadow their likely appearance and attack. The game uses cinematic storytelling techniques to good effect, by intrinsically linking them to the game system and player interaction: the enemies are revealed first in sound, then in visuals, then through combat interaction. Gratuitous “spooky” sound effects can quickly wear thin, but when those effects signify future game events, the player will sit up and take notice.
游戏中的叙事描述包括从书面介绍到开场动画，从灯光和声音设计到游戏界面风格等所有内容。这些叙事元素不仅涉及情节、角色和背景，还为玩家提供有关适当的互动类型及其行为方式的信息。这些元素共同构成了一个相互关联的复杂叙事系统，玩家的叙事体验由此产生。这种体验如何成为有意义的游戏？通过设计选择在系统各部分之间创建可辨别和集成的关系。在迄今为止讨论的所有成功的叙事游戏示例中，集成和可辨别的核心设计价值仍然适用。例如，寂静岭中敌人接近的音效之所以有意义，是因为它们被集成到游戏系统中，以始终清晰可辨的方式警告玩家即将出现的已知（或未知）怪物。
Narrative descriptors in games include everything from the written introduction to the opening cinematic, from the design of light and sound to the style of the game interface. These narrative elements not only pertain to plot, character, and setting, but also give players information about the types of interaction that are appropriate and how they are to behave. Together, these elements form an interlocking, complex narrative system, from which the player’s narrative experience emerges. How does this experience become meaningful play? Through design choices that create discernable and integrated relationships among the parts of the system. In all of the successful examples of narrative play discussed so far, the core design values of integration and discernability still hold true. For example, the approaching enemy sound effects in Silent Hill become meaningful because they are integrated into the game system, warning the player about impending known (or unknown) monsters in a way that is consistently clear and discernable.
游戏作为叙事系统
Games as Narrative Systems
游戏叙事的创作实际上是叙事系统的创作。这一概念将本章迄今为止提出的所有概念统一起来。作为一个设计问题，创作游戏的叙事元素与创作游戏的其他方面非常相似。您正在制作一个由各个部分组成的系统，这些简单元素相互关联，形成一个复杂的整体。系统中出现的意义源自元素之间的个体关系，以及在许多较小关系集合中出现的更全局的模式。
The creation of a game narrative is really the creation of a narrative system. This notion unifies all of the concepts presented so far in this chapter. As a design problem, creating the narrative elements of a game is very much like creating other aspects of your game. You are crafting a system of parts, simple elements that interrelate to form a complex whole. The meanings that emerge from a system arise out of the individual relationships between elements, as well as the more global patterns that emerge across many sets of smaller relationships.
案例研究：赛车运动叙事系统
Case Study: Drome Racing as Narrative System
即使是那些没有明确以故事创作为导向的游戏也可以被构建为叙事系统。《乐高 Drome 赛车挑战赛》是一款大型多人游戏，玩家可以在其中创建游戏角色、收集和定制乐高赛车，然后在各种赛道上相互比赛。在比赛期间，玩家并不直接控制他们的赛车，而是观察他们的赛车策略和赛车定制在不断变化的赛道上如何发挥作用。作为一款大型社区游戏，《乐高 Drome 赛车挑战赛》提供了多种互动模式，通过多种方式体现叙事游戏。
Even games that are not explicitly oriented toward story creation can be framed as a narrative system. The LEGO Drome Racing Challenge is a massively multiplayer game in which players create a game persona, collect and customize LEGO race cars, and then race them against each other on a variety of tracks. During a race, players do not directly control their cars but instead see how their racing strategies and car customization plays out on the constantly changing tracks. As a large-scale community game, the Drome Racing Challenge offers many modes of interaction, manifesting narrative play though a variety of means.
作为一个游戏系统，Drome Racing Challenge 的叙事源自游戏多个部分的互动。Drome Racing Challenge 的整体叙事体验并不在于其中任何一个单独的元素，而是它们的整体效果源自整个系统，其中包括：
As a game system, the narrative of the Drome Racing Challenge emerges from the interaction of the many parts of the game. The total narrative experience of the Drome Racing Challenge does not lie in any one of these individual elements, but instead, their overall effect arises out of the system as a whole, which includes:
预先存在的背景故事。游戏存在于一个更大的叙事世界中，其中包括漫画书和乐高赛车玩具产品。在这个科幻赛车虚构世界中，渴望速度的车手在 Drome 的许多危险赛道上相互竞争，这为游戏提供了背景，也是叙事游戏的主要框架。
Pre-existing backstory. The game exists within a larger narrative world that includes comic books and the LEGO Racers toy products. This sci-fi racing fictive world, where speed-hungry drivers compete against each other in the many dangerous tracks of the Drome, provides the setting for the game, as well as the primary frame for the narrative play.
玩家作为主角。每个玩家都会构造一个代表自己在 Drome Racing Challenge 世界中的赛车手角色。该赛车手通过一组叙事描述符来定义：车队名称和颜色、头盔图标、赛车座右铭以及赛车手在发起或接受赛车挑战以及赢得或输掉比赛时说出的文字短语。所有这些特征都是嵌入式叙事内容，由玩家从预生成的列表中选择。其他玩家特征，例如玩家的赛车记录、排行榜状态、下一个驾照等级的进度以及收集和组装的特定汽车和零件，是更模块化和新兴的拟人化玩家的方式。
Player as protagonist. Each player constructs a driver character that represents him or her in the world of the Drome Racing Challenge. This driver is defined through a cluster of narrative descriptors: team name and colors, helmet icon, racing motto, and text phrases that the driver utters when making or accepting a racing challenge and winning or losing a race. All of these characteristics are embedded narrative content, selected by the player from pregenerated lists. Other player characteristics, such as a player’s racing record, status on the leader boards, progress toward the next license rank, and particular cars and parts collected and assembled, are more modular and emergent ways of personifying the player.
多个目标。Drome Racing Challenge 将长期和短期目标贯穿于整个游戏体验，并将它们直接与故事情节联系起来。玩家可以收集汽车和零件，升级和改进他们拥有的汽车，提高他们的驾照等级，在排行榜上竞争，并通过游戏的故事情节与其他玩家以有限的社交方式互动。
Multiple goals. The Drome Racing Challenge embeds long- and short-term goals throughout the game experience and ties them directly into the narrative. Players build a collection of cars and parts, upgrade and evolve cars that they own, improve their license class, compete on the rankings boards, and interact in limited social ways with other players through the narrative world of the game.
Ms. Pac-Man 的整体叙事体验源自无数的组成部分：游戏名称及其对 Pac-Man 现有叙事的引用、街机图形和文本、循环动画标题屏幕、关卡之间的游戏内卡通以及游戏本身的所有视觉和音频元素。这些元素并非孤立存在，而是结合在一起形成一个叙事整体，其效果大于各部分的总和。叙事是多方面的，不仅为主角建立了一个卡通虚构世界和浪漫的背景故事，而且还为游戏本身提供了一个叙事框架。游戏产生了强烈的突发叙事，包括永不满足的饥饿消费、战略性躲避和生存，以及被猎物暂时成为猎人的戏剧性转折。这些突发体验与游戏轻松多彩的虚构世界形成对比，从而形成了一种富有质感的叙事体验，其中每个元素都发挥着作用。
The total narrative experience of Ms. Pac-Man arises from a myriad of components: the title of the game and its reference to the existing narrative of Pac-Man, the arcade cabinet graphics and text, the looping animated title screens, the in-game cartoons between levels, and all of the visual and audio elements of the game itself. These elements do not exist in isolation, but combine to form a narrative whole that is more than the sum of the parts. The narrative is multi-faceted, and not only establishes a cartoony fictive world and a romantic backstory for the protagonist, but also provides a narrative framework for the game play itself. The play produces intense emergent narratives of insatiably hungry consumption, strategic avoidance and survival, and dramatic turnabout where the hunted temporarily becomes the hunter. These emergent experiences exist in counterpoint to the light and colorful fictive world of the game, resulting in a richly textured narrative experience in which every element plays a part.
一款更明确地面向叙事游戏的游戏是《高级龙与地下城》。在 D&D 和其他桌面角色扮演游戏中，游戏是一个生成叙事游戏的系统，该系统可以帮助定义游戏叙事的角色、设置、冲突、情节和目标。这些设计的游戏材料通常包括一个详细说明游戏规则的正式系统，以及一个提供整体设置和背景故事的叙事世界。这两个组成部分交织在一起，形成游戏更大的叙事系统。例如，在 D&D 的中世纪幻想世界中，包括装甲剑术、奇幻生物和魔法咒语的规则，而没有包括计算机技术的规则。
A game oriented more explicitly toward narrative play is Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. In D&D and other tabletop role-playing games, the game is a system for generating narrative play, a system that can help define the characters, settings, conflicts, plots, and goals of the game narrative. These designed game materials usually include a formal system that details the rules of the game, as well as a narrative world that provides the overall settings and backstory. These two components are intertwined into the larger narrative system of the game. For example, in the fantasy medieval world of D&D, rules for armored swordplay, fantastical creatures, and magical spells are included, whereas rules for computer technology are not.
虽然玩家可以购买预先生成的 D&D 冒险，但游戏的地下城主（领导每个角色扮演环节的玩家）创建原创冒险更为常见。地下城主带领其他玩家完成这些自制的故事，每个参与者扮演一个玩家角色。地下城主提供其余的故事元素，描述玩家进入的每个场景，扮演玩家遇到的盟友和敌人，并慢慢揭示正在进行的故事中的黑暗秘密和意想不到的情节转折。
Although players can purchase pre-generated D&D adventures, it is more common for a game’s Dungeon Master (the player that leads each role-playing session) to create original adventures. The Dungeon Master leads the rest of the players through these homebrewed stories, each participant role-playing a single player-character. The Dungeon Master provides the rest of the narrative elements, describing each setting the players enter, role-playing allies and enemies the players encounter, and slowly revealing the dark mysteries and unexpected plot twists of the ongoing story.
《龙与地下城》和其他类似游戏都是非常明确的故事创作系统，旨在促进叙事游戏的结构化、协作创作。每个玩家都是该系统的一部分，玩家角色、地下城主和游戏世界的许多元素也是如此。这些游戏世界组件可能是正式定义的（长剑造成 1-12 点伤害），叙事定义的（巫师隐士似乎不喜欢我们），或者两者兼而有之（如果我们能说服巫师给我的长剑施魔法，它会造成 +2 伤害）。当玩家交谈、掷骰子和查阅游戏规则时，他们会上演激烈的战斗和戏剧性的对话，在他们共同创造有意义的叙事游戏时，他们会调动权力、知识和个性。采取的每一个行动，无论是需要掷骰子的艰难壮举还是巧妙的对话策略，都在整体叙事系统中占有一席之地，并受到使这些行动成为可能的正式规则的支持。随着新的叙事元素被添加到一系列事件中，行动同时扩展了正在进行的故事。
Dungeons & Dragons and other similar games are quite explicit story-creation systems, designed to facilitate the structured, collaborative authorship of narrative play. Each player is a part of that system, as are the player-characters, the Dungeon Master, and the many elements of the game world. These game world components might be formally defined (a long sword does 1–12 points of damage), narratively defined (the wizard hermit doesn’t seem to like us), or both (if we can convince the wizard to enchant my long sword, it will do +2 damage). As the players converse, roll dice, and consult the game rules, they enact pitched battles and dramatic dialogues, brokering power, knowledge, and personality as they together create meaningful narrative play. Every action taken, whether a difficult feat that requires a die roll or a clever conversational stratagem, has its place in the overall narrative system, buoyed up by the formal rules that make such actions possible. Actions simultaneously expand the ongoing story as new narrative elements are added to the series of events.
过场动画
Cutscenes
凯恩在《命令与征服》的简报视频中冷笑着。 《暗黑破坏神 II》中被毁坏的旅馆上方的灯笼灯光。 《最终幻想 VII》中巴哈姆特将你的敌人炸成灰烬。毫无疑问，这个不起眼的过场动画在大多数游戏玩家的记忆中留下了印记。但这些美丽的场景如何影响了它们所点缀的游戏的游戏性？ ——休·汉考克，《通过过场动画实现更好的游戏设计》
Kane sneering out from the briefing video of Command and Conquer. Lantern light over a wrecked inn in Diablo II. Bahamut blasting your foes to ashes in Final Fantasy VII. There is no doubt that the humble cutscene has left its mark on the memories of most gamers. But how did these beautiful scenes affect the gameplay of the titles they graced?—Hugh Hancock, “Better Game Design Through Cut-Scenes”
到目前为止，我们已经确定的叙事游戏设计概念适用于所有类型的游戏，无论是在线还是离线。然而，在数字游戏中，出现了一些叙事游戏设计的新形式和技术，我们将通过研究其中的一些形式和技巧来结束本章。一个叙事游戏许多数字游戏使用的设计工具是过场动画。尽管过场动画通常被描述为切入游戏玩法的“游戏外”叙事，但这种区别只有在我们将游戏玩法的定义限制为玩家在游戏世界中采取行动的时刻时才有用。众所周知，从游戏盒上的图形到游戏手册中的文本，各种叙事描述符对于定义游戏的虚构世界都很重要。我们不想关注过场动画是在游戏玩法中还是在游戏玩法之外发生，而是想考虑过场动画在叙事游戏整体设计中的作用。
The concepts for designing narrative play we have identified so far are relevant for all kinds of games, on and off the computer. However, there are new forms and techniques for the design of narrative play emerging specifically from digital games, and we finish this chapter by investigating a few of them. One narrative design tool many digital games utilize is the cutscene. Although cutscenes are often described as being “out-of-game” narratives that cut into game play, this distinction is only useful if we limit the definition of game play to those moments when players take action within the game world. As we know, all kinds of narrative descriptors, from the graphics on a game box to the text in a game manual, are important in defining a game’s fictive world. Rather than focusing on whether cutscenes occur in or out of game play, we want to consider the role of cutscenes in the overall design of narrative play.
赛车挑战赛
Drome Racing Challenge
叙事空间。最初，每个玩家都要经历一个简短的入门教程。之后，玩家可以自由地在游戏中创建自己的移动模式。作为一款基于网络的游戏，Drome Racing Challenge 主要由 HTML 网页组成，采用 Drome 的高速未来风格设计。游戏的叙事空间是一个信息和技术空间，而不是一个表现出来的物理空间，适合以媒体为中心的虚构游戏世界。
Narrative space. Initially, every player goes through a short introductory tutorial. After that, the player is free to create his or her own patterns of movement through the game. As a web-based game, the Drome Racing Challenge consists primarily of HTML web pages, designed in the high-speed future-style of the Drome. The narrative space of the game is a space of information and technology rather than a represented physical space, appropriate for the media-centric fictive world of the game.
活动模式。游戏的两项核心活动是定制汽车和在赛道上比赛。这两项活动都有自己的戏剧结构和模式。汽车定制发生在“车库”中，这是一个叙事化的维修站和汽车商店，玩家可以在这里获取和操纵汽车零件，将它们连接到汽车的插槽上。在车库中，玩家为比赛做准备，根据特定赛道调整和调整他们的汽车。一种常见的游戏模式是进行几场比赛，然后回到车库购买新零件，调整汽车，然后返回赛道进行测试。这种行为循环成为一种叙事模式，唤起辛勤赛车手的专注生活方式。
Patterns of activity. The two core activities of the game are customizing cars and racing them on tracks. Both activities have their own dramatic structures and patterns. Car customization occurs in the “garage,” a narrativized pit-stop and auto store where players acquire and manipulate car parts, attaching them to slots in their cars. In the garage, players prepare for a race, tuning and tweaking their cars for particular tracks. A common game play pattern is to run a few races, then head back to the garage to buy a new part, tweak a car, and return to the tracks to test it out. This behavioral loop becomes a narrative pattern, evoking the dedicated lifestyle of a hard-working race driver.
比赛。从某些方面来看，比赛准备只是实际比赛的戏剧性叙事时刻的前奏。一旦玩家准备好汽车并将其放在赛道上，任何其他玩家都可以挑战它。游戏程序会生成一场由随机危险和障碍组成的比赛，考虑到参加比赛的两辆定制汽车，并因此生成一系列比赛事件。程序将这些正式信息转换成 2D 动画，由使用比赛事件来构建节奏和镜头结构的软件紧急创建。然后，动画以 Speed Racer 风格、充满动作的事件序列播放。抽象的速度线、信息叠加和驾驶员的插入视图与车辆在 Drome 的危险环境中飞驰的镜头相结合。由此产生的体验参考了整个游戏空间的卡通、科幻风格，从描述美学、虚构的世界框架和有意义的游戏结果之间的联系中产生了引人入胜的叙事。
The race. In some respects, the race preparation is simply a prelude for the dramatic narrative moments of an actual race. Once a player readies a car and places it on a track, any other player can challenge it. The game program generates a race made up of random hazards and obstacles, takes into account both of the customized cars entered into the race, and generates a series of race events as a result. The program translates this formal information into a 2D cartoon, emergently created by software that uses the race events to structure pacing and shot structure. The animation then plays out as a Speed Racer-style, action-packed sequence of events. Abstract speed lines, informational overlays, and inset views of the drivers are combined with shots of the vehicles racing through the Drome’s hazardous environments. The resulting experience references the cartoony, sci-fi style of the overall game space, generating a compelling narrative out of the linkages among descriptor aesthetics, the fictive world frame, and meaningful game outcomes.
过场动画有多种形式，从基于文本的描述到漫画风格的故事板，再到实时 3D 电影或预渲染的动画序列。有时这些形式是混合的，例如在《马克思·佩恩》中，它将实时电影与图画小说的视觉语言相结合来讲述故事。预先编写的画外音或基于文本的字幕通常与动画视觉序列相结合；声音通常在营造情绪或氛围方面发挥着重要作用。在所有这些情况下，过场动画显然是一种嵌入的叙事元素——每次都相同的脚本叙事序列。
Cutscenes take many forms, from text-based descriptions to comic-book style storyboards to real-time 3D cinematics or pre-rendered animated sequences. Sometimes these forms are mixed, as in Max Payne, which combines real-time cinematics with the visual language of a graphic novel to tell its story. Pre-scripted voice-overs or text-based captions are often combined with animated visual sequences; sound usually plays an important role in establishing a mood or atmosphere. In all of these cases, cutscenes are clearly an embedded narrative element—a scripted narrative sequence that is the same every time.
作为融入游戏正式结构的叙事手段，过场动画在多个层面上包含叙事描述。与其他游戏元素相比，过场动画与现有的叙事媒体形式更为相似：它们是线性的、预先编写的、非交互式的和故事驱动的。甚至“过场动画”一词也指其明显的电影性质。过场动画的普遍性有时会让经验丰富的游戏玩家对其嗤之以鼻，但事实上，过场动画在许多重要方面对叙事游戏做出了贡献。正如休·汉考克在《通过过场动画实现更好的游戏设计》中所写：
As storytelling devices integrated into the formal structure of the game, cutscenes contain narrative descriptors on many levels. More than other game elements, cutscenes closely resemble existing forms of narrative media: they are linear, pre-scripted, non-interactive, and story-driven. Even the term “cutscene” refers to their patently filmic nature. The ubiquity of cutscenes sometimes earns them derision from experienced game players, but in fact, cutscenes contribute to narrative play in a number of important ways. As Hugh Hancock writes in “Better Game Design Through Cut-Scenes:”
过场动画的作用是让游戏世界更加真实——不仅仅是通过讲述故事，还通过对玩家做出反应，向玩家展示他的行动对世界的影响，从而使世界更加真实，他的行动也更加重要。过场动画既充当了前传，又充当了尾声：向玩家展示在玩家进入世界之前世界是什么样的，玩家需要满足什么需求，需要处理什么以及需要面对什么，之后展示玩家的行为对世界的影响，无论是好是坏，还是两者兼而有之。13
The cutscene is there to make a game’s world more real—not just by telling a story, but also by reacting to the player, by showing him the effects of his actions upon that world and thus making both the world more real and his actions more important. The cutscene fills the role of both prequel and epilogue: showing the player what the world is like before he enters it, what needs he has to fill, what he has to work with and what he has to face, and afterwards showing what the effects of his actions upon the world were, whether good, bad or both.13
尽管我们可能对汉考克对“真实”一词的使用有所争议，但我们同意他的说法的精神。过场动画是一种引导玩家穿越游戏叙事空间的方式，突出关键时刻并强调重要事件和结果。作为一种微型叙事，过场动画有助于填充游戏的大型叙事框架，在建立游戏故事的虚构世界中发挥着至关重要的作用。它们可以介绍故事、背景和角色，特别是在游戏的早期部分，当玩家仍在熟悉游戏世界时。GTA III 中的过场动画有助于建立游戏的低俗黑帮背景。因为这是一种经常以电影形式出现的叙事类型，所以高度电影化的过场动画比游戏动作时刻更有效地建立了这些叙事惯例。
Although we might quibble with Hancock’s use of the term “real,” we agree with the spirit of his statement. Cutscenes are a way of leading players through the narrative space of a game, highlighting key moments and punctuating important events and outcomes. As a kind of narrative in miniature, cutscenes help fill out the larger narrative frame of the game, playing a crucial role in establishing the fictive world of a game’s story. They can introduce story, setting, and character, particularly in the early sections of a game when players are still becoming familiar with the game world. The cutscenes in GTA III help establish the pulp gangster setting of the game. Because this is a narrative genre that often appears in filmic form, the highly cinematic cutscenes do a more efficient job of setting up these narrative conventions than the moments of game action.
过场动画可能会“切入”玩家互动，但它们在许多层面上直接支持叙事游戏。过场动画可以预示即将发生的事件，作为闪回，或在场景之间创建过渡。它们可以向玩家展示如何与物体互动，并向玩家提供有关游戏中资源的信息。考虑以下过场动画的用法，其中一些来自 Hancock 的文章：
Cutscenes may “cut” into player interaction, but they directly support narrative play on many levels. Cutscenes can foreshadow events to come, operate as flashbacks, or create transitions between settings. They can show players how to interact with objects and give players information about resources in the game. Consider the following uses of cutscenes, some of which come from Hancock’s essay:
监视或规划工具
Surveillance or Planning Tool
过场动画可以让玩家获得在游戏过程中无法获得的信息。作为一种监视工具，过场动画可以让玩家瞥见游戏空间的另一部分，或提供有关他们正在寻找的角色或宝藏的当前下落的信息。作为一种规划工具，过场动画可以为玩家提供有关他们即将遇到的事件或障碍的信息，或详细说明行动的结果。
Cutscenes can provide players with access to information unavailable to them during game play. As a surveillance tool, cutscenes might allow players a glimpse of another part of the game space, or provide information on the current whereabouts of a character or treasure they are seeking. As a planning tool, cutscenes can provide players with information about an event or obstacle they will soon encounter, or elaborate on the outcome of an action.
赛车挑战赛
Drome Racing Challenge
多种叙事方式。比赛结束后，比赛事件被转化为“比赛分析”。比赛分析是每场比赛事件的电子表格式摘要，列出了决定比赛结果的赛车和赛道因素。动画中出现的完全相同的比赛事件变成了数字和文字，通过一组新的叙事描述符进行解释，这些描述符强调战略性而非视觉性。
Multiple narrative tellings. After a race, the race events are translated into a “race analysis.” The race analysis is a spreadsheet-style summary of each race event, listing the car and track factors that determined its outcome. The exact same race events that appeared in the animation here become numbers and text, interpreted through a new set of narrative descriptors that emphasize strategic, rather than visual, play.
Drome赛车动画
Drome Racing animation
假设你刚刚完成了一项耗尽了大部分生命值的任务。过场动画显示你即将遇到一个全副武装的对手。该怎么办？也许你应该回到上一个关卡并获得更多生命值。或者也许是时候拿出你一直为紧急情况保存的强大有限使用武器了。因为过场动画为你提供了有关你过去的行为对即将发生的事件的影响的有用信息，所以你可以据此制定计划。过场动画创建了叙事场景，可以丰富玩家的决策过程。
Say you just completed a mission that used up most of your health resources. A cutscene shows that you are about to encounter a heavily armed opponent. What to do? Perhaps you should to return to the previous level and garner more health. Or maybe it’s time to haul out that powerful limited-use weapon that you have been saving for an emergency. Because the cutscene provided you with useful information about the implications of your past actions in relation to an upcoming event, you can plan accordingly. Cutscenes create narrative scenarios that can enrich the decision-making process for players.
游戏玩法 弹射器
Game Play Catapult
虽然过场动画通常用于向玩家提供关键数据，但它们也可以将玩家带入新情况。它们可以通过制造悬念来增加叙事戏剧性，或提供从一个情况到另一个情况的叙事运动。
Although cutscenes are often used informationally to provide players with critical data, they can also work to catapult a player into a new situation. They can add narrative drama by building suspense, or provide narrative movement from one situation to the next.
例如，假设您正在玩一款冒险游戏，刚刚解决了一个谜题，奖励您一根绳子。这是一个不寻常的奖励，您不知道该怎么处理它，因为您正在穿越沙漠：绳子在这里没什么用！接下来的动画过场动画显示了下一个沙丘顶部的活板门。就在过场动画从您随意漫步的角色戏剧性地摇到打开的活板门时，过场动画结束了，您发现自己又回到了活跃的游戏状态，穿过活板门掉进了深渊。你迅速思考，用绳子套住岩石悬垂处。现在安全了，你检查周围的环境，意识到你不再身处沙漠，而是悬挂在茂密森林中一条河流的上方。
For example, imagine that you are in an adventure game and you have just solved a puzzle that rewarded you with a rope. It is an unusual reward and you are not sure what to do with it, as you are traveling through a desert: not much use for a rope here! The animated cutscene that follows shows a trapdoor at the top of the next sand dune. Just as the cutscene makes a dramatic pan from your casually strolling character to the open trapdoor, the cutscene ends and you find yourself back in active game play, falling through the trapdoor and down an abyss. Thinking quickly you use the rope to lasso a rocky overhang. Safe now, you check your surroundings and realize that you are no longer in the desert, but are hanging high above a river in the middle of a dense forest.
在这种情况下，过场动画不仅将玩家带入了戏剧性游戏事件的中间，还将玩家传送到游戏世界的另一部分。过场动画将玩家直接带入游戏动作的中间，使他们能够通过游戏来解决过场动画的迷你叙事。以这种方式使用过场动画通过将非交互式序列直接嫁接到玩家动作中来增强悬念和戏剧性。
In this instance the cutscene not only catapulted the player into the middle of a dramatic game event, but also transported the player to another part of the game world. Cutscenes that drop players directly into the middle of game action allow them to resolve the cutscene’s mini-narrative through game play. Using a cutscene in this way enhances suspense and drama by grafting the non-interactive sequence directly to player action.
场景和情绪设置
Scene and Mood Setting
许多数字游戏由一系列相互关联的关卡或游戏空间组成。虽然这些关卡或空间是更大系统的一部分，但它们各自都有自己独特的身份。过场动画可以强调场景之间的差异，并突出即将到来的关卡可能有哪些新奇和不寻常之处。例如，在《VR 斗士 4》中，有 15 个不同的战斗竞技场。每场比赛前使用的简短过场动画展示了环境的细节，为即将到来的比赛建立了场景并营造出一种场所感。
Many digital games consist of a series of linked levels or game spaces. Although these levels or spaces are part of a larger system, they each have their own unique identity. Cutscenes can reinforce the differences between settings and highlight what might be new and unusual about an upcoming level. In Virtua Fighter 4, for example, there are fifteen different fighting arenas. Brief cutscenes used before each bout show off the details of the environment, establishing the setting and creating a sense of place for the upcoming match.
过场动画还可以营造气氛，或强化游戏事件的情感弧线。随着玩家深入寂静岭，过场动画变得越来越诡异和令人不安。在《最终幻想 IX》中，过场动画通过使用戏剧性的动画、声音和剪辑来强化英雄旅程的史诗品质。马克斯·佩恩过场动画中诙谐的对话为游戏世界的都市黑色增添了讽刺意味。在每个例子中，过场动画都营造了一种氛围，成为游戏叙事的一部分。
Cutscenes can also establish mood, or reinforce the emotional arc of game events. As players move deeper into Silent Hill, the cutscenes become increasingly eerie and disturbing. In Final Fantasy IX, cutscenes reinforce the epic quality of the hero’s journey through the use of dramatic animation, sound, and editing. The tongue-in-cheek dialogue of Max Payne’s cutscenes lends an ironic edge to the urban noir of the game world. In each example, cut-scenes establish a mood that becomes part of the game’s narrative play.
选择与后果
Choice and Consequence
过场动画让游戏设计师能够戏剧性地展示玩家选择的结果，这些结果不仅会影响玩家的角色，而且通常还会影响游戏世界。过场动画可以展示玩家的角色实现目标，例如赢得比赛并获得金牌，或拯救星球并被一群欢呼的平民包围。过场动画还可以展示失败的结果，即目标未实现或做出错误选择：一个漫长而可怕的死亡序列，一个场景成群的敌人肆虐游戏世界，或者坏人带着宝藏和女孩逃跑的镜头。以故事形式呈现玩家行为的后果丰富了游戏的叙事性，并且常常使游戏世界更加生动。
Cutscenes give game designers the power to dramatically reveal the outcomes of player choices, outcomes that can affect not only the player’s character, but often the game world as well. Cutscenes can show a player’s character achieving a goal, such as winning a race and receiving a gold medal, or saving a planet and being surrounded by throngs of cheering civilians. Cutscenes can also show failure outcomes, when goals are not achieved or poor choices are made: a protracted grisly death sequence, a scene of swarming enemies ravaging the game world, or a shot of the bad guy riding off with both the treasure and the girl. Representing the consequences of player actions in story form enriches the narrative play of the game and often makes the game world feel more alive.
节奏和步调
Rhythm and Pacing
在詹姆斯邦德 007 的《特工之火》中，简短的过场动画为玩家提供了从紧张动作中放松的常规时刻，让玩家喘口气或思考即将做出的选择。过场动画创造的节奏是控制游戏整体节奏的一种方式。一旦建立了这种模式，玩家就会学会期待游戏动作中的停顿，这可以加快或减慢节奏。例如，在一场大战结束时，可以通过插入敌人坠落的慢动作过场动画来降低游戏节奏，也可以通过立即将玩家弹射到另一场战斗中来加快游戏节奏。过场动画节奏的变化和控制有助于强调游戏中的特定时刻，从而促进叙事游戏。在玩家解决特别困难的谜题后出现的长而慢的过场动画可以表明该事件在整个游戏体验中的重要性。
In James Bond 007 In Agent Under Fire, short cutscenes provide regular moments of release from intense action, allowing a player to catch his or her breath or contemplate upcoming choices. The rhythm created by the cutscenes is a way of controlling the game’s overall pacing. Once the pattern has been established, players learn to expect breaks in game action, which can heighten the pace or slow it down. At the conclusion of a big battle, for instance, the pace of the game can be reduced by inserting a slow-motion cutscene of the falling enemy, or it can be sped up by immediately catapulting the player into the middle of another battle. Variation and control of cutscene pacing contributes to narrative play by emphasizing specific moments in a game. A long, slow cutscene that follows a player’s solution to a particularly difficult puzzle can signify the importance of the event in the overall game experience.
玩家奖励
Player Reward
在 《游戏是愉悦的玩法》中，我们将游戏视为一系列惩罚和奖励。过场动画通常用于这两个目的：作为对失败的本能惩罚以及对实现游戏目标的有形奖励。正如汉考克所说，“最终幻想系列的游戏玩法通常受这种命令驱动，无论是试图在游戏中前进以观看故事中的下一个过场动画，还是试图在游戏中找到神奇的‘召唤’咒语，很多人都注意到，这些咒语主要是为了享受伴随它们的壮观动画而值得找到的。”14华丽
In Games as the Play of Pleasure, we explored games as a series of punishments and rewards. Cutscenes are often used for both of these purposes: as a visceral punishment for failure as well as a tangible reward for achieving a game goal. As Hancock notes, “the Final Fantasy series’ game play is often driven by this imperative, whether trying to advance through the game to see the next cut-scene in the story, or trying to find the magical ‘summon’ spells within the game, which a lot of people have noted are primarily worth finding in order to enjoy the spectacular animations which accompany them.”14 The gorgeous
硬核玩家和过场动画
Hardcore Gamers and Cutscenes
在游戏开发者和游戏玩家社区中，过场动画的价值引发了激烈的争论。硬核玩家以忽略游戏指南、开场动画和游戏内过场动画而闻名，他们更喜欢直接投入到游戏中。如果这些元素的一个目的是提供有关游戏世界和设置的信息，那么当玩家跳过这些信息时会发生什么？如果这些专注的玩家尽管回避过场动画，却可以毫无问题地进入游戏的叙事空间，这是否意味着它们提供的信息和体验是多余的？
Within communities of game developers and game players, debate rages about the value of cutscenes. Hardcore gamers have a reputation for ignoring game guides, opening cinematics, and in-game cutscenes, preferring to dive right into the action. If one purpose of these elements is to provide information about the game world and setting, what happens when players skip over this information? If these dedicated gamers have no problem stepping into the narrative space of game play despite their avoidance of cutscenes, does this mean that the information and experiences they provide is superfluous?
许多资深游戏玩家认为过场动画和游戏手册中的叙事描述不会影响游戏玩法。这种说法既正确又错误。这些叙事描述形式确实不是玩游戏所必需的。请记住，这些框架设备的主要功能是建立游戏的虚构世界。作为铁杆玩家，这些不耐烦的玩家已经体验了足够多的游戏，已经内化了游戏设置和故事的常见用法。他们对游戏规则和惯例（包括故事、设置、事件和角色）的长期经验已经取代了对这些世界的外部描述的需要。
Many long-time gamers make the argument that narrative descriptors found in cutscenes and game manuals do not affect game play. This argument is both true and false. It is true that these forms of narrative description are not necessary for their play of the game. Remember that a chief function of these framing devices is to establish the game’s fictive world. As hardcore gamers, these impatient players have experienced enough games to have internalized the common uses of game setting and story. Their long experience with the codes and conventions of games—with stories, settings, events, and characters—has replaced the need for an external description of these worlds.
另一方面，缺乏这种体验的玩家可以从背景故事和开场动画中提供的信息中获益良多。即使是某一类型游戏的专家玩家，在第一次玩另一种类型的游戏时也会发现叙事描述很有用。例如，在复杂的角色扮演游戏中，游戏指南中的故事阐述为即将到来的互动创造了背景。玩家可以快速了解游戏的前提和目标、她在游戏世界中可以采取的行动类型、她在途中会遇到的角色，以及最重要的是，她为什么首先进入游戏世界。对于主要玩模拟游戏的玩家来说，这种信息可能并不明显。
Players who lack this experience, on the other hand, have much to gain from the information provided in backstories and opening cinematics. Even expert players in one genre of game will find narrative descriptors useful when playing a game from another genre for the first time. In a complex role-playing game, for example, the explication of the story in the game guide creates a context for the interactions to come. A player quickly learns the premise and goal of the game, the kinds of actions she can take in the game world, the characters she will meet along the way, and above all, why she is in the game world in the first place. This kind of information might not be self-evident to a gamer that plays mostly simulation games.
教训是什么？为这两种类型的玩家设计。永远不要假设你的玩家会仔细检查每一个框架叙述描述：一定要让你的故事在实际游戏中栩栩如生。另一方面，在适当的时候，你应该随意用开场过场动画和其他初步叙述来修饰你的核心游戏事件，为那些想要更丰富故事体验的玩家扩展你的虚构世界。如果你设法用你的游戏吸引玩家，他们可能会回去观看他们之前跳过的介绍电影，以确保他们没有错过任何重要的东西。
The lesson? Design for both types of players. Never assume that your players will carefully examine every framing narrative descriptor: be sure to make your story come alive in the actual play of the game. On the other hand, when appropriate you should feel free to embellish your core game events with opening cutscenes and other preliminary narratives that extend your fictive world for players that want a richer story experience. If you manage to hook players with your game play, they may go back and actually watch the introductory cinematic they skipped earlier to make sure they didn’t miss anything important.
《魔兽争霸 III》中的过场动画设计部分是为了奖励玩家在游戏中投入的大量时间。虽然使用过场动画作为奖励似乎是一种简单的设计理念，但在游戏中收到这样的礼物的体验可以带来极大的满足感和激励。
cinematic cutscenes in Warcraft III were designed, in part, to reward players for their investment in many hours of game play. Although using cutscenes as rewards might seem like a straightforward design idea, the experience of receiving such a gift during game play can be tremendously satisfying and motivating.
在叙事游戏设计中，还有许多其他方法可以使用过场动画，无论是混合搭配此处列出的用途，还是找到更适合您自己游戏的完全不同的方法。然而，值得注意的是，游戏当然不必包含过场动画。叙事游戏源于游戏系统众多元素之间的复杂互动。过场动画只是这些可能元素之一，尽管它本身就具有很强的叙事性。
There are plenty of other ways to employ cutscenes in the design of narrative play, whether by mixing and matching the uses listed here or by finding completely different methods that are better suited for your own game. However, it is worth noting that games certainly do not have to include cutscenes. Narrative play arises from the complex interaction between numerous elements of a game system. Cutscenes represent just one of these possible elements, albeit one that is highly narrative in its own right.
重述游戏故事
Retelling Game Stories
玩家从游戏体验中构建故事是很自然的，但这并不是必然的，故事也不是游戏。—— Greg Costikyan，RE: PLAY
It’s natural for players to construct a story from a game play experience, but it is not inevitable, nor is the story the game.—Greg Costikyan, RE: PLAY
叙事已经发生或被创造出来，而“玩”始终在进行，这是游戏所提供的潜力的一种特殊实现，其确切形状或结果是不确定的。—— Geoff King 和 Tanya Krzywinska，《电脑游戏/电影/界面》
Narrative has happened, or been created, while “playing” is always happening, a particular realization of the potential offered by the game, the precise shape or outcome of which is indeterminate.—Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska, “Computer Games / Cinema / Interfaces”
游戏的叙事游戏何时变成关于游戏玩法的叙事？游戏体验何时被重新讲述为故事？玩游戏的叙事和讲述游戏体验的故事是有区别的。到目前为止，在本方案中，我们的探索严格涉及魔法圈空间内的叙事游戏。我们研究了叙事游戏如何从游戏世界中的元素中产生，以及游戏设计师如何为玩家制作有意义的叙事背景。
When does the narrative play of a game become a narrative about the play of the game? When is game experience retold as story? There is a difference between playing the narrative of a game and telling the story about that play experience. Up to this point in the present schema our exploration has dealt strictly with narrative play within the space of the magic circle. We examined how narrative play emerges from elements within the game world and how game designers can craft meaningful narrative contexts for their players.
但叙事游戏也可以通过重述游戏体验来创造故事。为什么会出现这种重述？以下是玩家重述游戏体验的各种原因的例子。
But narrative play can also occur when a story is created through a recounting of a game experience. Why does this retelling occur? Below are examples of various reasons why players re-count game experiences.
回顾一次特别戏剧性的胜利： 你应该看看！我只剩下一点点生命值，但我打出了肘击-反拳-旋转踢组合，然后是三重龙拳。我差点就打败了他！
To recount a particularly dramatic victory: You should have seen it! I had just a sliver of health left, but I threw one of those elbow-backfist-spin-kick combos, followed by a triple dragon punch. I barely finished him off!
分享一系列故事事件： 上周的一场游戏中，我们的角色遭到袭击，被迫紧急降落在一颗小行星上。当地居民救了我们，他们给我们提供食物，照顾受伤的船员。但所有人都不知道，我们携带了一种对他们的物种致命的病毒，引发了一场流行病。许多人死了。
To share a series of story events: In a game last week our characters were attacked and we were forced into an emergency landing on an asteroid. We were rescued by the local population who fed us and took care of our injured crew. But unbeknownst to everyone, we were carrying a virus deadly to their species, spawning an epidemic. Many people died.
分享战略信息：我在任务开始时发现了这扇秘密门，它让我可以潜入恶魔狙击手身后，并且我仅使用电锯就能通过整个关卡。
To share strategic information: I found this secret door at the beginning of the mission that let me sneak up behind the demon snipers and I was able to get through the entire level using only the chainsaw.
为了庆祝玩耍的乐趣：我跑得太快了，感觉自己像在飞！
To celebrate the pleasure of play: I was running so fast I felt like I was flying!
玩家通常会根据游戏体验构建故事，创造出独立于游戏中实际叙事的叙事。这是一个值得重复的微妙之处。游戏中的叙事游戏源自玩家与游戏系统的互动。游戏之外的叙事游戏则是以故事形式复述这种体验。这种复述游戏的现象并不奇怪。当我们观看一部精彩的电影或克服生活中的障碍时，自然会倾向于与朋友分享这些个人信息。游戏还可以代表我们生活中的强大体验，我们希望与他人分享和重温这些体验，尤其是那些会欣赏游戏细节的其他游戏玩家。复述游戏有助于通过对特定游戏体验的共同兴趣建立玩家社区。
It is common for players to construct stories out of game play experience, creating narratives that exist separately from the actual narrative play in the game. This is a subtle point that bears repeating. Narrative play within game play emerges from a player’s interaction with the game system. Narrative play outside of game play is the retelling of this experience in story form. This phenomenon of retelling play shouldn’t seem surprising. When we see a great movie or overcome a life obstacle, there is a natural tendency to share this personal information with friends. Games can also represent powerful experiences in our lives that we want to share and relive with others, particularly other game players that will appreciate the details of play. Retelling play helps build communities of players through a common interest in the experience of a particular game.
复述游戏可以采取多种形式，例如口头复述《龙与地下城》中的遭遇、用哑剧模仿惊心动魄的篮球比赛、在线发布一系列经过编辑的《模拟城市》截图、撰写关于无尽的任务冒险的同人小说、在赛车场观看即时回放、赛后用文字聊天谈论网球比赛，或者将录制的《雷神之锤》死亡竞赛演示上传到社区网站。由于复述游戏是一种非常普遍的现象，游戏设计师已经找到了许多促进它的策略。在你的在线游戏中加入一个即时通讯系统，让玩家在玩游戏时对动作发表评论怎么样？或者允许玩家在事后回顾录制的游戏动作？或者提供让玩家截取游戏截图并在线发布的功能？所有这些都是游戏设计师用来支持复述游戏的现有设备。在接下来的几页中，我们将更详细地介绍设计复述游戏的策略。
Retelling play can take many diverse forms, such as verbally recounting a Dungeons & Dragons encounter, pantomiming a thrilling Basketball play, posting a sequence of edited Sim City screenshots online, writing fan fiction about an EverQuest adventure, watching an instant replay in a drag racing stadium, text-chatting about a Tennis match post-game, or uploading a recorded demo of a Quake deathmatch to a community website. Because retelling play is such a common phenomenon, game designers have found many strategies for fostering it. What about including an instant messaging system within your online game that allows players to comment on the action while playing? Or allowing players to review recorded game actions after the fact? Or providing functions that let players take screengrabs of your game to post online? All of these are existing devices game designers use to support retelling play. In the next few pages, we look at strategies for designing retelling play in more detail.
重播
The Replay
一种用于重述比赛的常用工具是游戏内重播模式。许多体育游戏，如 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 或 NBA Courtside 都提供此功能，让玩家可以观看比赛录像。玩家通常可以保存重播，让他们有机会多次回顾自己最精彩的时刻。例如，在 NBA Courtside 中，即时重播模式让玩家有机会从任何有利位置观看比赛。缩放功能可以近距离观察球员的面部，这在游戏中非常有趣，因为 NBA 巨星如卡尔·马龙都把自己的面部用于数字化。即时重播模式还通过在移动中插入关键帧来提供无缝、逐帧慢动作推进比赛画面。
One common tool designed for retelling play is the in-game replay mode. Many sports games such as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 or NBA Courtside offer this function, which allows players to watch a recording of their game play. Players can usually save replays, giving them a chance to review their greatest moments many times over. In NBA Courtside, for example, the Instant Replay mode affords players the opportunity to look at the action from any vantage point. A zoom function allows for a close-up look at players’ faces, which can be enjoyable in a game where NBA greats such as Karl Malone have lent their faces for digitization. The Instant Replay mode also offers seamless, frame-by-frame slow-motion advancement of the game footage by interpolating between key frames in a move.
重播模式的设计可以通过为玩家提供戏剧性的摄影机或转换视角来增强复述的戏剧性。在 Xbox 赛车游戏《Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions》中，复杂的重播涉及转换摄影机、改变电影风格和戏剧性节奏。随着摄影机快速从广角俯拍切换到底盘下方的赛车视角，再到汽车因战斗而凹陷的引擎盖的特写，玩家可以从各种角度观看重播。有快速切换和抖动的摄影机，程序模拟“胶片”的不断转换，在看起来像是用 35 毫米胶片、16 毫米胶片、家用摄像机和颗粒状黑白监控录像拍摄的镜头之间移动，偶尔会加入线框渲染。由此产生的叙事风格产生了一种强烈的即时感，增加了玩家与游戏“现实”的联系。重播成为可以观看、欣赏和分享的短片。
The design of the replay mode can heighten the drama of the retelling by offering players dramatic camerawork or shifting points of view. In the XBox driving game Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions, the sophisticated replays involve shifting cameras, changing filmic styles, and dramatic pacing. Players watch the replay unfold from a variety of perspectives, as the camera quickly shifts from a wide overhead shot to a racing view from under the chassis to an extreme close-up of the car’s battle-dented hood. There are quick cuts and jittery camera work, and the program simulates a constant shifting of “film stock,” moving between shots that look like they were taken on 35mm film, 16mm film, a home video camera, and grainy black and white surveillance footage, with the occasional wireframe rendering thrown into the mix. The resulting narrative flavor produces a high-powered feeling of immediacy, increasing a player’s connection to the “reality” of their game play. The replays become short films to watch, enjoy, and share.
赛车游戏 Gran Turismo 3 提供了几种不同类型的重播模式，为玩家提供了多种观看胜利和失败的动机。标准重播模式跟随玩家自己的赛车在赛道上行驶，可用于回顾比赛的事件。竞赛模式可跳转到赛道上的任何赛车，大大增加了回放的叙事戏剧性。具有战略意义的训练模式在赛道上叠加一条发光线，以显示最有效的赛车路径。视频模式将重播与游戏配乐中的任何歌曲同步，从 Snoop Dog 到 Lenny Kravitz 和 Jimi Hendrix，采用各种视频效果使重播看起来像音乐视频。最后，当比赛中只有一辆车时，可以使用非常详细的分析器模式。这种形式的重播允许玩家查看赛道每个部分的遥测数据，说明玩家在哪里踩刹车，玩家应该在哪里踩刹车，以及是什么原因导致玩家的车打滑撞到墙上。
The driving game Gran Turismo 3 offers several different types of replay modes, giving players multiple incentives to view their victories and defeats. The Standard replay mode follows a player’s own car around the track, useful for reviewing the events of a race. Race mode skips around to any of the cars on the track, greatly increasing the narrative drama of the playback. The strategically helpful Training mode overlays a glowing line on the track to show the most efficient racing path. Video mode synchronizes the replay to any song on the game’s soundtrack, from Snoop Dog to Lenny Kravitz and Jimi Hendrix, employing a variety of video effects to make the replay look like a music video. Lastly, the incredibly detailed Analyzer mode is available when there is only a single car in the race. This form of replay allows players to see telemetry data at each segment of the track, illustrating where a player hit his or her brakes, where the player should have hit them, and just what caused the player’s car to go skidding into the wall.
这三款游戏重播示例，NBA Courtside、Wreckless 和 Gran Turismo 3，不仅使用复述游戏来回忆最近的游戏动作，而且还以特定的叙事方式重塑和延伸它们。在每种情况下，复述游戏都会创造出适合特定游戏的叙事体验。NBA Courtside 的重播复制了电视体育报道的语言，将比赛背景叙事化玩家的电视上播放着游戏，就好像刚刚玩过的游戏是电视转播的体育赛事一样。在动作游戏《Wreckless》中，重播的作用不是将游戏过程重述为体育节目，而是将其重述为动作电影中的快节奏片段。电影风格、摄影角度和快速剪辑的不断变化都参考了香港动作电影，这些电影也启发了游戏的设置、角色和任务。虽然这种不断变化的视觉风格太令人不安，不适合实时游戏，但重播模式让《Wreckless》的电影基础得以充分发挥。最后，《Gran Turismo 3》的多种重播选项非常适合这款游戏。作为以详细模拟驾驶物理而闻名的赛车系列，一些重播模式强调赛车策略的细节是恰当的（尽管视频模式始终可用，作为更轻松的对比）。重玩游戏的行为虽然不是正式的游戏体验，但仍然是整体设计互动的一部分。这三款游戏展示了如何利用复述游戏来产生精彩的叙事效果。
All three of these game replay examples, NBA Courtside, Wreckless, and Gran Turismo 3, use retelling play not only to recall recent game actions, but to recast and extend them in a particular narrative light. In each case, the retelling play creates its own narrative experience appropriate for the particular game. The replays of NBA Courtside replicate the language of television sports coverage, narrativizing the context of the player’s TV as if the game just played was a televised sports event. In the action game Wreckless, the replay serves to retell the play of the game not as a sports show but instead as a fast-paced sequence from an action film. The flurry of filmic styles, camera angles, and rapid-fire editing references Hong Kong action films that also inspired the game’s settings, characters, and missions. Although this kind of shifting visual style would be too disconcerting to include in the real-time game play, the replay mode allows the cinematic underpinnings of Wreckless to reach full fruition. Lastly, the diverse replay options of Gran Turismo 3 suit the game very well. As a racing series known for its detailed simulation of driving physics, it is appropriate that some of the replay modes emphasize the minutiae of racing strategy (although the Video mode is always available as a lighter counterpoint). The act of replaying a game, although not formally part of the game experience proper, is still part of the overall designed interaction. These three games demonstrate how retelling play can be used to wonderful narrative effect.
雷卡姆斯
Recams
支持玩家将游戏体验转化为故事以供重新体验和分享的自然倾向的工具可以增强游戏的叙事性。此外，这些工具可以催生出新形式的叙事作品，这些作品源自游戏，但完全独立于游戏而存在。其中一个例子就是 recam 。
Tools that support players’ natural inclination to transform their experience of play into a story to re-experience and share can enhance the narrative play of a game. In addition, these tools can spawn new forms of narrative production that emerge from the game, but exist entirely apart from it. One such example is the recam.
Recam 起源于第一人称射击游戏文化，例如《DOOM》和《Quake》等游戏，这些游戏允许玩家录制和保存游戏玩法。这些录制内容被称为“演示”，很快成为玩家炫耀游戏实力的一种方式。玩家不仅可以观看重播，还可以编辑游戏镜头，将视角从第一人称改为第三人称，发布并与他人分享。术语“recam”指的是玩家在录制重播后改变摄像机位置、角度和动作的能力。Philosys Software 的 Uwe Girlich 博士是早期开发工具来帮助玩家制作这些 recam 演示的工具的开发者：
Recams originated from the culture of the first-person shooter, from games such as DOOM and Quake that gave players the ability to record and save their game play. Known as “demos,” these recordings quickly became a way for players to show off their gaming prowess. Rather than just watching a replay, players could edit the game footage, alter the perspective from first-person to third-person, post it and share it with others. The term “recam” refers to the ability of players to alter camera positions, angles, and motions after recording a replay. Dr. Uwe Girlich of Philosys Software was an early developer of tools to assist players in making these recam demos:
我通过 Wolfenstein 3D 和后来的 DOOM 认真接触了电脑游戏。通过 DOOM，我可以录制我的游戏过程并将此演示发送给其他人，以展示我解决某些谜题或在比其他人更短的时间内完成关卡的能力。我因 DOOM 演示而出名，但除了玩游戏之外，我对编程和分析这些演示文件更感兴趣，因此（经过一番研究）我创建了 LMPC，即小型电影处理中心。
I came into serious contact with computer games via Wolfenstein 3D and later DOOM. With DOOM I could create a recording of my game play and send this demo to other people to show my ability to solve some puzzles or complete a level in a shorter time than anyone else. I became fairly famous for my DOOM demos, but besides playing, I was more interested in programming and analyzing these demo files and so (after some research) I created LMPC, the Little Movie Processing Centre.
LMPC 是一个反编译器/编译器。它可用于将二进制演示文件转换为简单的 ASCII 文本文件（反编译）。可以使用任何编辑器编辑此类文本文件，然后将其转换回二进制演示文件（编译）。分析和修改演示文件非常容易，甚至可以创建演示文件，这不是某人玩游戏的实际记录，而是游戏引擎中纯粹虚构的动作。16
LMPC is a decompiler/compiler. It can be used to convert a binary demo file into a simple ASCII text file (decompile). Such a text file can be edited with any editor and afterwards it can be converted back into a binary demo file (compile). It is very easy to analyze and also to alter the demo file and even to create a demo file, which is not the actual recording of someone playing the game but a purely fictional movement in the game engine.16
Girlich 认识到玩家想要将游戏叙述化，甚至将其虚构化的动力。重拍镜头并非从第一人称视角（即玩游戏的视角）展示比赛，而是允许将视角转换为第三人称。玩家在重拍镜头中看到的屏幕内容与他们在玩游戏时看到的大不相同。在第一人称射击游戏中，游戏视角是玩家盯着枪管。玩家与游戏空间的互动由武器提供的视线决定。但在重拍镜头中，视角实际上是在动作之外。除了摄像机本身之外没有其他有利位置。
Girlich recognized players’ drive to narrativize game play—even to fictionalize it. Rather than showing the match from a first-person point of view, the perspective from which the game is played, a recam allows a shift in perspective to third person. What players see onscreen in a recam varies greatly from what they see while playing the game. In a first-person shooter, the game play perspective has players staring down the barrel of a gun. Player interaction with the game space is determined by the line of sight the weapon affords. But in a recam, the point of view is literally outside of the action. There is no vantage point other than the camera itself.
重拍强调了视角在叙事表现中的作用。例如，两位世界顶级 Quake 玩家 Thresh 和 Billox 之间的重拍比赛（由 Zarathustra Studios 的 Overman 熟练重拍）不仅让观众从第三人称视角体验游戏，而且让观众从字面上和比喻上摆脱了 Quake 和其他 FPS 游戏的军事化语言。重拍提供了玩家和观众之间的过渡点，打开了视线，包含了一种新的叙事视角。
Recams highlight the role of point-of-view in narrative representation. The recammed match between two of the world’s top Quake players, Thresh and Billox (expertly recammed by Overman of Zarathustra Studios), for example, not only lets viewers experience the game play from a third-person perspective, but situates the viewer both literally and figuratively outside of the militarized language of Quake and other FPS games. Recamming offers a point of transition between player and spectator, opening up the line of sight to include a new kind of narrative eye.
赛车和战斗游戏《Driver: You Are the Wheelman》为玩家提供了一种非常不同的复述游戏方式：让他们有机会制作自己的回放电影。首先，玩家要完成游戏任务。然后，玩家可以使用编辑工具来选择摄像机角度、胶片，并将游戏的瞬间剪辑成电影故事。复述游戏将游戏中零散的、瞬间的动作转化为一个统一的叙事事件。
The car racing and combat game, Driver: You Are the Wheelman, gives players a very different kind of retelling play: the opportunity to produce their very own recam movie. First, a player plays through a game mission. Then the player can access editing tools to select camera angles, film stock, and edit together moments of the game play into a cinematic story. The retelling play translates the fragmented, moment-to-moment action of a game into a single, unified narrative event.
这种叙事游戏可以真正具有变革性。Driver 的玩家有时会像电影中的演员一样玩游戏，根据重播中动作的戏剧性程度做出驾驶决策。玩家玩游戏不是为了实现游戏规则规定的目标，而是强加自己的外部叙事目标。玩游戏以实现电影复述绕过了游戏中任何动作>结果单元的通常含义。动作不再与游戏内部目标单独相关，而是逐渐包含外部表征问题。游戏是为了创造故事而进行的。
Narrative play of this sort can become truly transformative. Players of Driver sometimes play the game as if they were actors in a film, making driving decisions based on how dramatic the action will look in the replay. Rather than playing the game to achieve goals dictated by the game’s rules, players impose their own external, narrative goals. Playing the game to achieve a cinematic retelling bypasses the usual meaning of any action > outcome unit in the game. Actions are no longer singularly linked to goals internal to game play, but grow to encompass external, representational concerns. Play is pursued for the sake of creating story.
演示、重播和其他形式的复述都是由游戏设计中的一个或多个元素支持的叙事游戏形式。作为游戏正式系统的一部分，重播功能等功能有可能在各个层面上增强玩家体验。由于玩家倾向于根据自己的游戏体验构建故事并与他人分享这些故事，因此为玩家提供编写这些故事的工具可以通过提供交换经济来加强社交社区。这些工具还可以加深玩家的参与度，因为它们鼓励玩家以新颖且通常具有创新性的方式玩游戏。复述游戏能为您的游戏带来什么？
Demos, recams, and other forms of retelling are forms of narrative play supported by one or more elements of a game’s design. Created as part of a game’s formal system, features such as a replay function have the potential to enhance player experience on a variety of levels. Because players have a tendency to construct stories from their game play experience and to share these stories with others, giving players tools to craft these stories strengthens social community by providing an economy of exchange. These tools also deepen player engagement, as they encourage play in new and often innovative ways. What can retelling play do for your game?
游戏中的游戏
Games Within Games
我们以对叙事进行严格而正式的定义作为本章的开篇。我们逐一注意到了游戏的叙事元素，并将话题拉得越来越远，直到我们几乎退出了游戏本身。毫无疑问，游戏重播和重拍是整个游戏体验的一部分，但它们在魔法圈的边缘起舞，不知何故处于核心游戏玩法之外，但仍然在很大程度上参与了游戏的意义。
We began this chapter with a tightly focused, formal definition of narrative. One by one we took note of the narrative elements of games, pulling farther and farther back until we have all but exited the game itself. There is no doubt that game replays and recams are part of the total game experience, but they dance at the border of the magic circle, somehow just outside the core game play while still very much participating in the meanings of the game.
观察这种边界现象，或者研究游戏内外的方面当然没有错。我们的规则模式专注于游戏系统的内部运作，但随着我们探索游戏模式，我们会越来越发现自己在魔法圈之外，无论是观察所代表的游戏现实与“现实世界”之间的关系，还是研究发生在单个游戏之外的社会元游戏。当然，当我们到达文化模式时，我们将完全突破魔法圈的边界，更多地关注背景，而不是游戏内部的结构和玩法。
There is certainly nothing wrong with looking at such border phenomena, or in examining aspects of games that are both inside and outside the game itself. Our RULES schemas focused on the inner workings of game systems, but as we move through the schemas on PLAY, we will increasingly find ourselves peering outside the magic circle, whether it is to look at the relationships between represented game-reality and the “real world” or to examine the social metagames that occur outside the play of individual games. Of course, by the time we reach our CULTURE schemas, we will have pushed through the border of the magic circle entirely, focusing more on context rather than on the structures and play internal to a game.
下一个图式，游戏作为模拟游戏，将跨越魔法圈的边界。在前两章的基础上，我们将研究游戏通过模拟描述进行表现的方式，这种表现模式源于游戏作为动态系统的地位。从某种意义上说，分析模拟机制意味着剖析游戏的内部表现机制。同时，它还需要更广泛的关注，即研究游戏与其所引用的现实世界现象之间的关系，这种关系充满了元交流和游戏的双重含义。
The next schema, Games as the Play of Simulation, will straddle the border of the magic circle. Building on the previous two chapters, we look at the way games represent through simulated depiction, a mode of representation that grows from the status of games as dynamic systems. Analyzing the mechanisms of simulation in one sense means dissecting the internal representational machinery of games. At the same time, it also entails a much wider focus that looks at the relationship between games and the real-world phenomena they reference, a relationship fraught with the double-meanings of metacommunication and play.
如果你读这本书是为了用你的游戏讲述更好的故事，请不要在本章结束时停下来。本章之前和之后的图式，即“游戏作为意义的游戏”和“游戏作为模拟的游戏”，构成了一个特殊的三元组：这三章主要关注游戏作为表现系统。它们共同提供了一系列用于产生强大故事体验的结构。当然，它们也是理解有意义的游戏设计的三种方式。
If you are reading this book in order to tell better stories with your games, don’t stop at the end of this chapter. The schemas that precede and follow this one, Games as the Play of Meaning and Games as the Play of Simulation, make up a special triad: three chapters that focus on games as systems of representation. Together they provide a series of structures for generating strong story experiences. And of course, they are also three ways of understanding the design of meaningful play.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
电脑游戏与数字文化会议论文集，Frans Mäyrä，编辑
Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings, Frans Mäyrä, editor
CGDC 会议由芬兰坦佩雷大学超媒体实验室组织，重点关注计算机游戏的学术研究，包括游戏学和游戏研究。论文坦率地承认了学术界研究数字游戏的挑战。特别有趣的是，有几篇论文关注的是叙事、涌现、互动性和社区之间的关系。
Organized by the Hypermedia Laboratory of University of Tampere, Finland, the CGDC conference focused on the academic study of computer games, from perspectives including ludology and game studies. The essays readily acknowledge the challenge of studying digital games in the academic community. Of particular interest are several essays focusing on the relationships between narrative, emergence, interactivity, and community.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
《电脑游戏/电影/界面》，作者：Geoff King 和 Tanya Krzywinska
“Computer Games/Cinema/Interfaces,” by Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska
《为过场动画辩护》，作者：Rune Klevjer
“In Defense of Cutscenes,” by Rune Klevjer
《开放与封闭：涌现游戏与进步游戏》，作者：Jesper Juul
“The Open and the Closed: Games of Emergence and Games of Progression,” by Jesper Juul
赛博文本：遍历文学的视角，作者：Espen J. Aarseth
Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, by Espen J. Aarseth
Aarseth 仔细研究了电子文本，如超文本小说、文本冒险游戏、MUD 和 MOO。他将这些文本归类为“遍历”文学形式（借用物理学术语来描述开放系统），读者必须与之互动才能产生文学序列。虽然 Aarseth 的论点并不完全符合我们提出的叙事游戏模型，但他的作品对叙事和游戏研究产生了广泛影响。
Aarseth looks closely at electronic texts like hypertext fiction, text adventure games, MUDs, and MOOs. He categorizes these texts as forms of “ergodic” literature—a term borrowed from physics to describe open systems—with which the reader must interact to generate a literary sequence. Although Aarseth’s argument doesn’t fit cleanly within the model of narrative play we propose, his work has had a wide influence on the study of narrative and games.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第二章：范式和观点
Chapter 2: Paradigms and Perspectives
第5章冒险游戏中的阴谋与话语
Chapter 5: Intrigue and Discourse in the Adventure Game
游戏开始：电子游戏的历史和文化，Lucien King，编辑
GAME ON: The History and Culture of Videogames, Lucien King, editor
GAME ON是博物馆电子游戏展览的目录。这一系列文章涵盖了从神奇宝贝文化到电子游戏中暴力的争论等所有内容。三篇推荐文章分别从不同的角度看待游戏和叙事。
GAME ON is the catalog for a museum exhibition on videogames. The collection of essays covers everything from the culture of Pokémon to debates over violence in videogames. The three recommended essays each take a different point of view on games and narrative.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
《争夺空间的艺术》，亨利·詹金斯和库尔特·斯奎尔著
“The Art of Contested Spaces,” by Henry Jenkins and Kurt Squire
凯蒂·萨伦的《远程怪物电影》
“Telefragging Monster Movies,” by Katie Salen
《故事作为游戏空间：游戏中的叙事》，作者：Celia Pearce
“Story as Play Space: Narrative in Games,” by Celia Pearce
全息甲板上的哈姆雷特：网络空间叙事的未来，作者：珍妮特·默里
Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, by Janet Murray
默里探索了数字媒体的特性和乐趣与讲故事的未来之间的联系，尤其是电子小说。在研究互动小说、MUD、MOO、“网络剧”和数字领域内的其他讲故事形式时，默里讨论了作者身份、沉浸感、代理和电子表现美学等概念。本文有助于概述将数字媒体和讲故事形式联系起来的一些基本问题。
Murray explores the connection between the properties and pleasures of digital media and the future of storytelling, particularly electronic fiction. In looking at interactive fiction, MUDs, MOOs, “cyberdramas,” and other forms of storytelling within the digital realm, Murray discusses ideas of authorship, immersion, agency, and the aesthetics of electronic representation. The text is useful in outlining some of the basic issues connecting digital media and storytelling forms.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第三章：从附加形式到表达形式
Chapter 3: From Additive to Expressive Form
第 4 章：沉浸感
Chapter 4: Immersion
第 5 章：代理
Chapter 5: Agency
第 6 章：转变
Chapter 6: Transformation
Shared Fantasy, by Gary Alan Fine
这是目前为止最好的关于幻想游戏群体和角色扮演游戏的社会学研究之一，Fine 对角色扮演游戏作为一种亚文化进行了深入分析，确定了玩家如何在社交世界中产生意义和身份。Fine 的研究基于对桌面角色扮演游戏玩家的广泛观察，并对幻想和想象游戏在构建社交和互动叙事小说中的作用提供了许多见解。
In one of the best sociological studies of fantasy gaming groups and role-playing games available, Fine offers an in-depth analysis of RPGs as a subculture, identifying how players generate meanings and identities in social worlds. Fine’s research is based on extensive observation of tabletop RPG players and offers many insights into the role of fantasy and imaginative play in the construction of social and interactive narrative fictions.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第 1 章：FRP
Chapter 1: FRP
第 2 章：玩家
Chapter 2: Players
第三章：集体幻想
Chapter 3: Collective Fantasy
第 6 章：框架和游戏
Chapter 6: Frames and Games
笔记
Notes
1. RE.PLAY ：游戏设计 + 游戏文化。在线会议。2000 年。< www.eyebeam.org/replay >
1. RE.PLAY: Game Design + Game Culture. Online conference. 2000. <www.eyebeam.org/replay>
2. Jesper Juul，“游戏讲故事？游戏和叙事简述。” Gamestudies.org
2. Jesper Juul, “Games Telling Stories? A Brief Note on Games and Narratives.” Gamestudies.org
3. J. Hillis Miller，《叙事》，《 文学研究批判术语》，Frank Lentricchia 和 Thomas McLaughlin 编辑（芝加哥：芝加哥大学出版社，1990 年），第 77 页。
3. J. Hillis Miller, “Narrative,” In Critical Terms for Literary Study, edited by Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990), p. 77.
4.同上，第76页。
4. Ibid. p. 76.
5. Marc LeBlanc，1999 年游戏开发者大会上的演讲。
5. Marc LeBlanc, presentation at the Game Developers Conference, 1999.
6. Doug Church，“正式的抽象设计工具。” Gamasutra.com
6. Doug Church, “Formal Abstract Design Tools.”Gamasutra.com
7. Henry Jenkins 和 Kurt Squire，《争夺空间的艺术》。《GAME ON：电子游戏的历史和文化》 ，由 Lucien King 编辑（伦敦：Laurence King Publishing，2002 年），第 70 页。
7. Henry Jenkins and Kurt Squire,” The Art of Contested Spaces.” In GAME ON: The History and Culture of Videogames, edited by Lucien King (London: Laurence King Publishing, 2002), p. 70.
8.同上，第65页。
8. Ibid. p. 65.
9. Mark JP Wolf，《电子游戏中的空间》。《电子游戏媒介》，Mark JP Wolf 编辑（奥斯汀：德克萨斯大学出版社，2002 年），第 53-70 页。
9. Mark J. P. Wolf, “Space in the Video Game.” In The Medium of the Video Game, edited by Mark J. P. Wolf (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002), p. 53–70.
10. Marsha Kinder，《在电影、电视和视频游戏中玩弄权力：从布偶宝宝到少年变种人》（洛杉矶：加州大学出版社，1993 年），第 2 页。
10. Marsha Kinder, Playing with Power in Movies, Television, and Video Games: From Muppet Babies to Teenage Mutant (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993), p. 2.
11. Atari Inc.，Adventure. Atari 游戏程序说明(Sunnyvale, CA: Atari, Inc., 1980)，第 2-3 页。
11. Atari Inc., Adventure. Atari Game Program Instructions (Sunnyvale, CA: Atari, Inc., 1980), p. 2–3.
12. Rune Klevjer，《为过场动画辩护》，载于《计算机游戏与数字文化》，会议论文集，由 Frans Mäyrä 编辑（芬兰坦佩雷：坦佩雷大学出版社，2002 年），第 198 页。
12. Rune Klevjer, “In Defense of Cut-Scenes,” In Computer Games and Digital Cultures, Conference Proceedings, edited by Frans Mäyrä (Tampere, Finland: Tampere University Press, 2002), p. 198.
13.同上，第199页。
13. Ibid. p. 199.
14. Hugh Hancock，“通过过场动画实现更好的游戏设计。” Gamasutra.com
14. Hugh Hancock, “Better Game Design Through Cut-Scenes.” Gamasutra.com
16. Uwe Girlich 博士与 Katie Salen 之间的私人电子邮件通信，1999 年 11 月。
16. Personal email correspondence between Dr. Uwe Girlich and Katie Salen, November, 1999.
叙事游戏
概括
• 游戏和叙事研究是一个跨学科的研究领域，但争议颇多。游戏设计有一套特定的关注点，可以避开许多这样的争论。在将游戏视为叙事游戏时，主要问题不是游戏是否具有叙事性？而是游戏如何具有叙事性？
• The study of games and narrative is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that has been surprisingly contentious. Game design has a specific set of concerns that sidesteps many of these debates. In considering games as narrative play, the primary question is not Are games narrative? but instead How are games narrative?
• JH Hills Miller 将叙事定义为具有以下特征：
• J. H. Hills Miller defines a narrative as possessing the following characteristics:
•情况：随时间而变化的一系列事件。
• Situation: A series of events that change over time.
•人物：故事通过表现系统来传达。
• Character: A narrative is conveyed through a system of representation.
•形式：表现形式由图案化和重复构成。
• Form: Representation is constituted by patterning and repetition.
• 游戏元素可以具有嵌入式或突发式叙事结构：
• Games elements can have embedded or emergent narrative structures:
• 嵌入元素是预先生成的叙述组件，例如视频剪辑和脚本场景。
• Embedded elements are pre-generated narrative components such as video clips and scripted scenes.
•当玩家与游戏互动时，游戏系统会实时生成叙事元素。
• Emergent narrative elements are created on-the-fly as the player interacts with the game, arising from the operation of the game system.
• 游戏利用各种平衡中的嵌入式和新兴元素。游戏的叙事源自新兴叙事和嵌入式叙事元素的结合。
• Games make use of embedded and emergent elements in various balances. The narrative of a game arises out of the combination of emergent and embedded narrative components.
•目标通过使玩家的计划和决策结果清晰易懂，帮助构建叙事游戏。
• Goals help structure narrative play by making player planning and decision outcomes narratively legible.
•冲突是所有游戏的另一个特征，可以塑造叙事玩法。玩家之间或玩家与游戏系统之间的冲突可以与叙事冲突联系起来，以达到戏剧效果。
• Conflict is another characteristic of all games that can shape narrative play. Conflict between players or between players and the game system can be tied to narrative conflicts for dramatic effect.
•游戏结果的不确定性与戏剧性的不确定性有关，可以增强叙事张力。在叙事游戏中，游戏（或游戏的一部分）的未知结果与叙事的未知结果同义。
• Uncertainty of game outcome is linked to dramatic uncertainty that can fuel narrative tension. In narrative play, the unknown outcome of the game (or section of the game) is synonymous with the unknown outcome of the narrative.
•当游戏的核心机制被视为叙事活动时，它可以通过让玩家执行叙事行为来创建游戏故事。
• The core mechanic of a game, when considered as a narrative activity, can create game stories by having players perform narrative acts.
•游戏中的空间在塑造叙事框架和体验方面发挥着重要作用。数字游戏中呈现的叙事空间特别具有可塑性，可以通过精心设计来引发叙事游戏。
• Space in a game plays a large role in shaping the narrative frame and experience. Represented narrative space in digital games is particularly plastic and can engender narrative play through careful design.
•叙事描述符是参与游戏表现系统的任何游戏组件。说明性文字、游戏内过场动画、界面元素、游戏对象以及其他视觉和音频元素都是叙事描述符。所有这些元素都必须精心设计，以充分考虑叙事体验，从而最大限度地提升叙事体验。
• A narrative descriptor is any component of a game that participates in the game’s system of representation. Instructional text, in-game cinematics, interface elements, game objects, and other visual and audio elements are all narrative descriptors. All of these elements must be carefully crafted with narrative experience in mind in order to maximize narrative play.
• 叙事描述符暗示了一种表征逻辑，它限制和约束了可能性空间的设计。这些限制允许叙事整合和辨别游戏世界中包含的所有元素。
• Narrative descriptors imply a representational logic that limits and constrains the design of the space of possibility. These limitations allow for the narrative integration and discernability of all elements contained within the game world.
• 叙事描述符在游戏中扮演两种角色，作为虚构世界和故事事件：
• Narrative descriptors play two roles in a game, as fictive worlds and as story events:
•虚构世界是包含游戏世界叙事的更大框架。
• Fictive worlds are the larger frames that contain the game world narrative.
•故事事件是游戏进行过程中产生的叙事游戏个体时刻。
• Story events are the individual moments of narrative play generated as the game moves forward.
• 这两个元素是相互关联的。虚构世界创造了连贯的叙事空间，故事事件在其中发生并变得有意义。同时，故事事件有助于扩展和完善虚构世界。当这两个元素之间有很好的契合时，游戏就能保持一致且易于理解的叙事体验。
• These two elements are interrelated. Fictive worlds create the coherent narrative spaces in which story events take place and become meaningful. At the same time, story events help expand and refine the fictive world. Games maintain consistent and understandable narrative experiences when there is a good fit between these two elements.
• 游戏是一种叙事系统，玩家的叙事体验源自游戏整体的功能。与其他类型的复杂系统一样，整体大于部分之和，因为各个元素相互作用形成全局模式。
• A game is a narrative system in which the narrative experience of the player arises out of the functioning of the game as a whole. As with other kinds of complex systems, the whole is more than the sum of the parts, as individual elements interact with each other to form global patterns.
•过场动画是数字游戏中常用的叙事技巧。它们有助于定义游戏的虚构世界，并实现多种游戏功能。
• Cutscenes are a common storytelling technique used in digital games. They help define the fictive world of a game, as well as fulfill a number of game play functions.
•复述游戏是叙述游戏体验的流行现象。数字游戏已经开发出鼓励复述游戏的特定技术，包括：
• Retelling play is the popular phenomenon of recounting game experiences. Digital games have developed specific techniques for encouraging retelling play, including:
•重播，为玩家再次播放游戏体验。
• The replay, in which a game experience is played again for the player.
•重播是一种特殊的重播，玩家可以以电影的方式操纵重播中包含的信息。
• Recamming, a special kind of replay in which the player can cinematically manipulate the information contained within the replay.
二十七
27
游戏是一种模拟游戏
GAMES AS THE PLAY OF SIMULATION
模拟
simulation
程序性陈述
procedural representation
抽象
abstraction
数值
numerical
程式化
stylized
基于案例与一般
case-based vs. generalized
沉浸式谬误
immersive fallacy
整治
remediation
电子游戏通常会模拟一些现实生活中的情况：火箭在太空中加速和移动、乒乓球弹跳、河流中的皮划艇、生态系统中的食物链。国际象棋游戏是基于两小群战士之间的战斗的抽象概念：同样，电子游戏模仿生活。电子游戏是一种模拟、一种模型、一种隐喻。——沃伦·罗宾内特，《发明冒险游戏》
A video game usually mimics some real-life situation: rockets accelerating and moving in space, bouncing Ping-Pong balls, a kayak in river currents, the food-chain in an ecology. The game of Chess is an abstraction based on a battle between two small groups of warriors: similarly, video games imitate life. A video game is a simulation, a model, a metaphor.—Warren Robinett, Inventing the Adventure Game
引入模拟
Introducing Simulation
《游戏作为模拟游戏》是我们探索表征游戏的第三个也是最后一个图式。在《游戏作为意义游戏》中，我们研究了游戏如何通过意义化过程变得有意义。在《游戏作为叙事游戏》中，我们发掘了游戏讲故事的丰富技巧。为了构建这个图式，我们紧密关注游戏本身的机制，以及通过与游戏的互动，表征的动态构建方式。例如，棋盘游戏《外交》如何模拟谈判艺术？纸牌游戏《王牌之王》如何动态表现第一次世界大战的空战？数字游戏《杀出重围》如何通过设计的算法和规则描绘动作和阴谋？模拟的概念位于表征和动态系统的交汇处。作为模拟，游戏会创造表征，但它们是以一种非常特殊的方式做到的：通过游戏本身的过程。
Games as the Play of Simulation is our third and final schema exploring the play of representation. In Games as the Play of Meaning, we examined how games become meaningful through the process of signification. In Games as Narrative Play, we unearthed the wealth of techniques by which games tell stories. For the purposes of this schema, we hone in tightly on the mechanics of play itself, and the way representations are constructed dynamically, through interaction with a game. How, for example, does the board game Diplomacy simulate the art of negotiation? How does the paper-based game Ace of Aces dynamically represent World War I air combat? How does the digital game Deus Ex depict action and intrigue through designed algorithms and rules? The concept of simulation lies at the intersection of representation and dynamic systems. As simulations, games create representations, but they do so in a very particular way: through the process of play itself.
我们通过关注游戏系统的表征机制来寻找有关游戏和模拟问题的答案。游戏以多种方式创建表征，从其说明手册文本和富有想象力的虚构世界到其空间的视觉设计和其配乐的音频设计。所有这些描述的核心是游戏系统本身。该系统根据玩家与游戏的互动、游戏体验和逻辑生成表征。这种特殊的表征类型，以程序、行为集或交互形式的形式体验，是构建模拟的原材料。我们将这种形式的描述称为程序表征。这是一种基于模拟的游戏表征方法，是本模式的核心概念。
We look for answers to questions regarding games and simulations by focusing on the representational mechanics of game systems. A game creates representations in many ways, from its instruction manual text and imaginative fictive world to the visual design of its spaces and the audio design of its soundtrack. At the center of all of these depictions is the game system itself. This system generates representations from a player’s interaction with the game, out of the experience and logic of play. This special class of representations, experienced as procedures, sets of behaviors, or forms of interaction, is the raw material from which simulations are constructed. We call this form of depiction procedural representation. A simulation-based approach to representation in games, it is the central concept of this schema.
然而，程序性表征只是我们在本章中研究的一部分。除了探索程序性表征的机制之外，我们还研究了这些表征与游戏外部世界的关系。我们知道某事物是模拟的，部分原因是我们熟悉它所模拟的事物。《外交》是一种政治模拟，因为它模仿了现实世界中已知和熟悉的谈判过程。然而，尽管《外交》忠实地模拟了谈判的艺术，但它的表征在某种程度上仍然是人为的，包含在游戏中，与现实世界分离。游戏与其描绘的“现实”之间的关系是将游戏视为模拟的一个基本方面。
However, procedural representation is only part of what we study in this chapter. In addition to exploring the mechanisms of procedural representation, we also investigate the relationship of those representations to the world outside the game. We know something is a simulation, in part, because we are familiar with the thing that it is simulating. Diplomacy is a political simulation because it mimics processes of negotiation that are known and familiar in the real world. Yet even though Diplomacy faithfully models the art of negotiation, its representation is still in some measure artificial, contained within the game, separate from the real world. The relationship between a game and the “reality” that it depicts is a fundamental aspect of considering games as simulations.
这不是我们第一次提到表征和“现实”。早在《游戏即意义的游戏》中，我们就引入了认知框架的概念。认知框架是一种组织或理解世界的方式，是一种塑造解释的框架，因此可以塑造我们对事物含义的理解。不仅要考虑游戏如何模拟，还要考虑它模拟什么，这引发了关于游戏的人造世界与其相交的“现实生活”环境之间关系的问题。这些问题将在我们理解游戏作为模拟的过程中发挥重要作用，而且随着我们进入文化的主要模式，这些问题将变得越来越重要。
This is not our first mention of representation and “reality.” Back in Games as the Play of Meaning we introduced the concept of the cognitive frame. A cognitive frame is a way of organizing or understanding the world, a framework that shapes interpretation and therefore what we take things to mean. Considering not only how a game simulates, but also what it simulates raises questions regarding the relationship between the artificial world of a game and the “real life” contexts it intersects. These questions will play an important role in our understanding of games as simulations, and will become increasingly important as we move into our primary schema on CULTURE.
定义“模拟”
Defining “Simulation”
电子游戏是一个虚构的世界：其中的居民是不存在的生物，但眼睛可以看到，手可以移动。它是虚构的，因为图片背后没有坚实的现实。弹跳的球可以忠实地模拟，但移动的光点没有真正的质量或弹性。球的位置、速度、质量和弹性只是存储在控制视频游戏的计算机中的数字；控制球的轨迹和弹跳的物理定律只是存储在计算机程序中的数学方程式。——沃伦·罗宾内特，《发明冒险游戏》
A video game is an imaginary world: its inhabitants are nonexistent creatures that nevertheless the eye can see, and the hand can move. It is imaginary in the sense that there is no solid reality behind the picture. A bouncing ball may be faithfully simulated, but that moving blip of light has no real mass or elasticity. The ball’s position, velocity, mass, and elasticity are just numbers stored in the computer that controls the video game; and the laws of physics that govern the ball’s trajectory and its bounce are just mathematical equations stored in the computer’s program.—Warren Robinett, Inventing the Adventure Game
在《发明冒险游戏》一书中，以 Atari 2600 游戏《冒险》而闻名的游戏设计师兼程序员沃伦·罗宾内特 (Warren Robinett) 通过模拟的视角看待游戏。他对数字游戏的运作方式特别感兴趣用他的话来说，这是一个“虚构的世界”，玩家在其中体验到光和声音的闪烁，这是真实生活场景的代表。他描述了一个模拟弹跳球，在这个球中，位置、速度、质量和弹性等感官成分被剥离，以揭示编程软件的底层机制，这让我们想起了游戏的形式结构与通过游戏体验该结构之间经常隐藏的关系。
In Inventing the Adventure Game, Warren Robinett, the game designer and programmer best known for the Atari 2600 game Adventure, looks at games through the lens of simulation. He is particularly interested in the way that digital games are “imaginary worlds,” as he puts it, in which players experience blips of light and sound as a representation of some other real-life situation. His description of a simulated bouncing ball, in which the sensory components of position, velocity, mass, and elasticity are peeled back to reveal the underlying mechanisms of the programmed software, reminds us of the often hidden relationship between the formal structure of a game and the experience of that structure through play.
罗宾内特特别提到了电子游戏中的表现形式如何“模仿”各种现实世界现象，如弹跳的球和交战的士兵。“电子游戏是一种模拟、一种模型、一种隐喻，”罗宾内特写道。他的意思到底是什么？什么是模拟？游戏如何模拟？每个游戏都是模拟吗？模拟、模型、隐喻和现实世界之间的关系是什么？我们将在接下来的篇幅中解决这些棘手的问题。但首先，让我们花点时间来定义模拟的概念。教育游戏参考书《游戏设计手册》提供了一个很好的起点：
Robinett specifically addresses the way that representations in video games “mimic” real-world phenomena as diverse as bouncing balls and warring soldiers. “A video game is a simulation, a model, a metaphor,” writes Robinett. What exactly does he mean? What is a simulation? How are games simulations? Is every game a simulation? What is the relationship between a simulation, a model, a metaphor, and the real-world? We tackle these thorny questions in the pages to follow. But first, let us take a moment to define the concept of simulation. The educational game reference A Handbook of Game Design provides a good starting point:
模拟可以定义为“现实核心特征的操作表示”。该定义再次确定了两个核心特征，在将演习合理地描述为模拟之前，这两个特征必须同时存在。首先，它必须代表某种实际情况——要么是直接来自现实生活的情形，要么是可以从现实生活中想象出来的假想情形（例如，外星人入侵）。其次，它必须是可操作的，即必须构成一个持续的过程——这一标准有效地将照片、地图、图表和电路图等静态类似物排除在模拟类别之外，但包括所有类型的工作模型。1
A simulation can be defined as “an operating representation of central features of reality. “This definition again identifies two central features that must both exist before an exercise can reasonably be described as a simulation. First, it must represent an actual situation of some sort—either a situation drawn directly from real life, or an imaginary situation that conceivably could be drawn from real life (invasion by extraterrestrial beings, for example). Second, it must be operational, i.e., must constitute an on-going process—a criterion that effectively excludes from the class of simulations static analogues such as photographs, maps, graphs, and circuit diagrams, but includes working models of all types.1
作者 Eddington、Addinall 和 Percival 确定了使表示成为模拟的两个组成部分。首先，模拟表示某种事物：“实际情况”，它要么是现实生活中的情况，要么是可以想象的虚构情况。这个组成部分指出了模拟的指称性质：模拟指的是现实世界中的事物。值得注意的是，作者在描述模拟所代表的内容时使用了“现实的核心特征”而不是“现实”这个短语。正如我们将看到的，模拟无法描绘事物的每个方面；它必须选择一个非常小的特征子集来构建其表示。
The authors Eddington, Addinall, and Percival identify two components that make a representation a simulation. First, a simulation represents something: an “actual situation,” which is either a circumstance from real life or an imaginary situation that is conceivably real. This component points out the referential qualities of a simulation: a simulation refers to something in the real world. It is significant that the authors use the phrase “central features of reality” rather than just “reality” when describing what a simulation represents. As we will see, a simulation cannot depict every aspect of something; it has to choose a very small subset of characteristics around which to build its representation.
定义的第二个组成部分表明，模拟是一种非常特殊的表示类型，作者称之为“操作性”。根据他们的说法，模拟是一种“持续过程”形式的表示，而不是图表或流程图等静态表示。定义的这个组成部分描述了模拟的系统性。模拟是一个动态系统：一组相互关联形成整体的部分。因此，模拟是一种程序性表示，通过持续的过程实现。就游戏而言，持续的过程就是游戏。
The second component of the definition identifies the fact that a simulation is a very particular type of representation, what the authors call “operational.” According to them, a simulation is a representation in the form of “an on-going process” instead of a static representation such as a diagram or flowchart. This component of the definition describes the systemic character of simulations. A simulation is a dynamic system: a set of parts that interrelate to form a whole. A simulation is therefore a procedural representation, one achieved through an ongoing process. In the case of games, the ongoing process is play.
Eddington、Addinall 和 Percival 的陈述“模拟是现实核心特征的操作表示”提供了一个相当有效的小定义。然而，在提出我们自己的定义时，我们想做三点小调整：首先，为了符合我们基于系统的术语，我们将“操作”一词替换为“程序”。其次，我们将“核心特征”的概念概括为现实的“方面”。第三，我们在“现实”一词周围加上引号。结果是模拟的以下定义：
Eddington, Addinall, and Percival’s statement, “A simulation is an operating representation of central features of reality,” offers quite an efficient little definition. In proposing our own definition, we would, however, like to make three small adjustments: first, in keeping with our system-based terminology, we replace the word “operational” with “procedural.” Second, we generalize the idea of “central features” to “aspects” of reality. Third, we add quotation marks around the word reality. The result is the following definition of simulation:
模拟是“现实” 各个 方面的程序化表现。
A simulation is a procedural representation of aspects of “reality.”
这一定义的两个组成部分，即模拟以程序方式呈现和描绘“现实”的元素，都代表着令人惊讶的复杂概念。在接下来的几页中，我们将仔细研究模拟的这两个方面，并依次考虑每个方面。
Both components of this definition, the fact that simulations represent procedurally and that they depict elements of “reality,” represent surprisingly complex concepts. In the pages that follow, we look closely at these two aspects of simulations, considering each in turn.
游戏和非游戏模拟
Game and Non-Game Simulations
模拟的一般概念当然不仅限于游戏。例如，经济学家和社会学家使用模拟来研究变量之间的数学关系，通常是一组处理数据的方程式。数据可能是来自美国人口普查的信息——例如有关收入、住房和投票模式的人口统计信息——而方程式可能阐明数据之间的关系集。使用这种模拟，研究人员可以推测某些变量（例如收入和住房）的变化，将这些变化输入模拟，并观察投票模式将如何变化。这种模拟似乎“玩”起来并不好玩（它肯定不是游戏），但它确实满足了模拟的要求。模拟中代表了现实世界的指称（经济和政治现实），模拟通过一组程序处理数据来发挥作用。这个过程可能只是一个数学方程，但它仍然是一个过程。
The general concept of a simulation is certainly not restricted to games. For example, economists and sociologists use simulations to study mathematical relationships among variables, often as a set of equations that process data. The data might be information from the U.S. Census—demographic information about income, housing, and voting patterns, for example—and the equations might spell out sets of relationships among data. Using this kind of simulation, a researcher would be able to speculate on changes in some of the variables, such as income and housing, input these changes into the simulation, and see how voting patterns would change as a result. This kind of simulation doesn’t seem like much fun to “play” (it certainly is not a game), but it does fulfill the requirements of a simulation. There are real-world referents represented in the simulation (economic and political realities) and the simulation functions by processing data through a set of procedures. The process might be merely a mathematical equation, but it is a process just the same.
经济模拟很少具有明确的交互性。通常，研究人员设置数据，然后“运行”模拟来处理数据。然而，有些模拟被设计为高度参与性，例如训练模拟。这些包括基于计算机的模拟，允许飞行员在不离开地面的情况下练习飞行，现场角色扮演模拟，允许销售人员在难缠的客户身上提高社交技能，水下模拟，宇航员在游泳池中练习零重力机动，以及紧急情况模拟，公寓楼的居民举行消防演习。每个模拟都从现实世界的情况中获取其身份：驾驶真实飞机，推销真实销售，尝试真实太空行走或逃离真实火灾。在每种情况下，模拟创建的表示都是一个过程：飞行模拟器的复杂机械和交互性，角色扮演的社交和对话过程，身处外太空的物理模拟，以及人员沿着楼梯间和消防通道流动。
Economic simulations are rarely explicitly interactive. Usually, a researcher sets up data and then “runs” the simulation to process the data. However, some simulations are designed to be highly participatory, such as training simulations. These include computer-based simulations allowing airplane pilots to practice flying without leaving the ground, live role-playing simulations that allow salespeople to refine their social skills on difficult clients, underwater simulations where astronauts practice zero-G maneuvers in a swimming pool, and emergency simulations in which the residents of an apartment building hold fire drills. Each simulation takes its identity from a real-world situation: flying a real plane, pitching a real sale, attempting a real space walk, or escaping from a real fire. In every case, the representation the simulation creates is a process: the complex machinery and interactivity of a flight simulator, the social and conversational process of role-playing, the physical simulation of being in outer space, and the flow of bodies down stairwells and along fire escapes.
那些引号又是什么意思？
What About Those Quotation Marks?
那么，他们又如何呢？为什么我们要改变爱丁顿、阿迪纳尔和珀西瓦尔的定义，将“现实”一词放在引号中呢？这种调整是必要的，因为所谓的“现实”和表征之间的关系很复杂。现实是一个固定的已知量，还是由我们的感官、认知或文化理解构建的东西？现实是存在于表征之外的东西，还是由表征过程构建的东西？表征本身是否应该被包括在“现实”的一部分中？我们没有足够的篇幅来讨论这些长期争论的哲学问题。但我们要求您在本章中记住这样一个事实，即模拟所描绘的“现实”并不是一个简单的既定事实。在单词周围加上引号只是一个小小的标点符号，用来提醒我们这个事实。
Well, what about them? Why did we alter Eddington, Addinall, and Percival’s definition by putting the term “reality” in quotation marks? This adjustment was necessary because the relationship between so-called “reality” and representation is complex. Is reality a fixed and known quantity, or is it something constructed by our senses, cognition, or cultural understandings? Is reality something that exists outside of representation, or is it something that is constructed by the process of representation? Should representations themselves be included as part of “reality?” We don’t have the space to tackle these long-debated philosophical questions here. But we ask that over the course of this chapter, you keep in mind the fact that the “reality” that simulations depict is not a simple given. Putting quotation marks around the word is just a little punctuational string-around-the-finger to remind us of this fact.
显然，许多模拟并不是游戏。但游戏模拟又如何呢？在数字游戏行业，有一种游戏类型称为模拟，或简称为“sims”。例如，《模拟城市》是对城市规划、城市经济和人类社区演变过程的复杂描述；它是一款模拟游戏。其他游戏模拟则描绘了历史进程、自然生态系统或军用车辆。尽管模拟可能比其他游戏更明确地满足我们定义的两个组成部分（“现实”各个方面的程序化表示），但实际上所有游戏都可以被视为模拟。请记住，游戏设计模式必须适用于所有游戏。因此，在提出“游戏作为模拟游戏”的模式时，我们认为任何游戏都可以被视为模拟。
Clearly there are many simulations that are not games. But what about game simulations? In the digital game industry, there is a genre of games called simulations, or “sims” for short. Sim City, for example, is a complex depiction of the process of urban planning, city economics, and the evolution of a human community; it is a simulation game. Other game simulations depict historical processes, natural ecosystems, or military vehicles. Although sims, perhaps more than other games, explicitly fulfill both components of our definition (a procedural representation of aspects of “reality”), all games can in fact be considered simulations. Remember that a game design schema must be applicable to all games. Therefore in proposing the schema Games as the Play of Simulation, we are arguing that any game can be considered a simulation.
游戏可能是抽象的或奇幻的，但我们仍然可以将它们视为某种模拟。例如，国际象棋和井字游戏可以被视为领土冲突的表现，其中模拟单位为控制风格化的战场而战。涉及奇幻元素的游戏，如《龙与地下城》，也通过游戏进行模拟。例如，详细的规则模拟了不同武器对不同类型盔甲的影响方式。甚至《龙与地下城》中的施法系统也是一种模拟：它模拟了一种想象中的“现实”，一个根植于神话、宗教和流行文化的现实。正如艾丁顿、阿迪纳尔和珀西瓦尔引文中外星人入侵的例子所表明的那样，“现实”的某些方面可以指我们生活经验之外的事物。
As abstract or fantastical as games may be, it is possible to see them as simulations of one kind or another. Chess and Tic-Tac-Toe, for example, can be framed as representations of territorial conflict, in which simulated units war for control of a stylized battlefield. Games that involve fantastic elements, such as Dungeons & Dragons, also simulate through their play. Detailed rules, for example, simulate the way that different weapons impact different kinds of armor. Even the spell-casting system in D&D is a simulation of sorts: it simulates an imaginative “reality,” one rooted in myth, religion, and popular culture. As the example of extraterrestrial invasion in the quote from Eddington, Addinall, and Percival illustrates, aspects of “reality” can refer to things outside our lived experience.
有些游戏，比如俄罗斯方块，所呈现的指称更加模糊，但这并不意味着它们不是一种模拟。俄罗斯方块模拟了物体下落、堆积，甚至在滑动到彼此相邻的位置时发出声音的方式。这样，俄罗斯方块就是对重力的简单模拟。还有一个事实是，下落的俄罗斯方块物体被称为“砖块”，这些砖块形成了一个互锁的砖墙网格。游戏的这些方面指向一种不同类型的描述，也许是对建筑的模拟。俄罗斯方块可能不是对重力或建筑的特别准确或有指导意义的模拟，但准确性和指导性并不一定是游戏模拟的目的。游戏模拟，作为任何类型的游戏表现，可以是几何极简的、极其异想天开的，甚至是故意误导的。与为科学研究目的而设计的模拟不同，游戏模拟不受代表经验真理的概念的束缚。乒乓球对玩家来说并不有意义，因为它是乒乓球的科学准确表现；它很有意义，因为作为一种模拟，它为深入且引人入胜的游戏提供了背景。
Some games, such as Tetris, present more ambiguous referents, but that does not mean that they are not a kind of simulation. Tetris simulates the way objects can fall down, stack up, and even make noises when they slide into place next to each other. In this way, Tetris is a simple simulation of the forces of gravity. Then there is the fact that falling Tetris objects are called “bricks,” and these bricks form an interlocking brick wall grid. These aspects of the game point to a different kind of depiction, perhaps a simulation of construction. Tetris may not be a particularly accurate or instructive simulation of gravity or construction, but accuracy and instructiveness are not necessarily what a game simulation is about. A game simulation, as any kind of game representation, can be geometrically minimal, outrageously whimsical, or even intentionally misleading. Unlike a simulation designed for scientific research purposes, a game simulation is not beholden to a notion of representing empirical truth. Pong is not meaningful to players because it is a scientifically accurate representation of Table Tennis; it is meaningful because as a simulation it provides a context for deep and engaging play.
有意义的游戏和模拟
Meaningful Play and Simulation
将游戏设计为模拟游戏如何有助于设计有意义的游戏？在考虑模拟游戏时，我们只是重新设计了前几章中建立的基本游戏设计概念。虽然这里的重点是游戏如何创造表现，但有意义的游戏设计的基本原则保持不变。无论模拟游戏是让玩家体验已知和熟悉的事物的表现，还是让玩家体验极富想象力的事物的表现，它都是通过有意义的游戏设计来实现的。为了了解这一原则的作用，我们可以仔细看看 Ace of Aces，这是历史老师 Alfred Leonardi 于 1980 年设计的一款游戏。
How does framing a game as a simulation assist in designing meaningful play? In considering the play of simulation, we are simply re-working fundamental game design concepts established in previous chapters. Although the emphasis here is on how games create representations, fundamental principles of the design of meaningful play remain the same. Whether a simulation allows players to experience the representation of something known and familiar or fantastically imaginative, it does so through the design of meaningful play. In order to see this principle at work, we can take a close look at Ace of Aces, a game designed by history teacher Alfred Leonardi in 1980.
Ace of Aces 模拟了两架一战飞机之间的缠斗，使用复杂的形式系统来表示速度、机动性、可见性、武器射击以及双机空战的其他方面。Ace of Aces 的引人注目之处在于游戏不是在计算机上进行，甚至不是在纸质战争游戏地图上进行，而是在两本平装游戏书中进行。每个玩家都有自己的书，超过 200 页的每一页都有玩家从其飞机驾驶舱看到的插图。视点插图显示敌机相对于玩家自己的飞机处于一定距离、位置和角度。例如，如果插图显示对手的飞机越过您的尾翼向您飞来，则意味着另一个玩家就在您正后方！
Ace of Aces simulates a dogfight between two World War I aircraft, using a complex formal system to represent the speed, maneuverability, visibility, weapons fire, and other aspects of two-plane air combat. The striking thing about Ace of Aces is that the game takes place not on a computer or even on a paper wargame map, but instead inside two paperback game books. Each player has his own book, and each of the more than 200 pages has an illustration of what the player sees from his or her airplane cockpit. The point-of-view illustration shows the enemy plane at a certain distance, location, and angle relative to the player’s own plane. For example, if an illustration shows your opponent’s plane coming towards you over your own tail, it means the other player is directly behind you!
玩家在模拟中通过浏览自己的书本（玩家不能查看对方的书本）和选择动作进行互动。每页底部是玩家可以采取的动作列表，每个动作都分配有一个编号。两位玩家秘密选择一个动作并喊出相应的数字，这将决定每位玩家翻到书本的下一页。游戏优雅的形式系统在模拟一战两架飞机之间的混战方面非常有效。
Players interact within the simulation by navigating through their book (players cannot look into each other’s books) and selecting maneuvers. At the bottom of each page is a list of the possible maneuvers a player can take, with a number assigned to each. Both players select a maneuver in secret and call out the corresponding number, which determines the next page each player turns to in their book. The elegant formal system of the game is amazingly effective at simulating a dogfight between two World War I airplanes.
这似乎难以置信？考虑一下我们描述的场景：你的对手正跟在你身后。你选择减速并向右转弯，将自己的位置移到一边，最终与之前的位置平行——就像汽车换车道一样。假设紧随其后的对手认为你要逃跑，并决定全速前进——这个选择会导致对手的飞机从你减速的飞机旁边飞驰而过。当你翻到书中相应的页面并查看上一轮机动的结果时，插图会显示对手的飞机在你前方左侧；而在对手的书中，你的飞机会出现在后方右侧。
Does this seem hard to believe? Consider the scenario we describe: your opponent positioned directly on your tail. You choose a maneuver to slow down and perform a weaving turn to the right, in which you shift your position to the side, ending up parallel to your previous position—something like a car changing lanes. Let’s say your tailing opponent thought you were going to make a run for it and made a decision to move forward at top speed—this choice would cause your opponent’s plane to zoom right by your decelerating plane. When you turn to the appropriate page in your book and see the outcome of last round’s maneuvers, the illustration would show your opponent’s plane ahead of you and to the left; and in your opponent’s book your plane would be visible behind and to the right.
通过使用巧妙的空间模型，Ace of Aces 模拟了第一次世界大战空战的各个方面。它并没有模拟体验的方方面面（例如，没有规则来处理不同类型的天气及其对飞行的影响），但它确实代表了其指称物的重要方面。空间逻辑、战术机动、武器卡壳，甚至在几场战斗中技能的提高都是游戏描述的第一次世界大战空战的各个方面。此外，这些表现是通过动态系统实现的——动态系统是基于空战的多方面数学模型的过程。正是通过这个过程，Ace of Aces模拟了第一次世界大战的混战。
Through the use of a clever spatial model, Ace of Aces simulates aspects of World War I air combat. It does not simulate every facet of the experience (there are no rules to handle different kinds of weather and their effect on flying, for example), but it does represent important aspects of its referent. Spatial logic, tactical maneuvers, weapon jams, and even an increase in skill over several combats are all aspects of World War I air combat the game depicts. Furthermore, these representations are made possible through a dynamic system—a process based on a multifaceted mathematical model of air combat. It is through this process that Ace of Aces simulates a World War I dogfight.
Ace of Aces 通过结合突发元素和嵌入元素构建了此模拟。图画和页面本身是固定印刷的，不会随着游戏的进行而改变。从这个意义上讲，书页可以被视为嵌入的叙事元素，即玩家在游戏过程中体验到的预先编写的叙事描述。然而，底层游戏规则的复杂性将这些页面作为真正突发系统中的元素。Ace of Aces 书页不像《选择你自己的冒险》一书的页面，更像是实时模拟显示的视频帧，是正在进行的战斗的快照。在创建模拟时，突发元素和嵌入元素都可以纳入整个游戏。然而，由于模拟依赖于动态系统，将游戏构建为模拟往往会强调游戏的突发组件，即更纯粹的系统元素，它们以复杂的方式相互作用以产生意想不到的结果。
Ace of Aces constructs this simulation by combining emergent and embedded elements. The drawings and pages themselves are fixed in print, and do not change as the game is played. In this sense, the book pages might be considered embedded narrative elements, pre-scripted narrative descriptors experienced by the player during play. However, the complexity of the underlying game rules incorporates these pages as elements within a truly emergent system. The Ace of Aces book pages are less like the pages of a Choose-Your-Own Adventure book and more like video frames from a real-time simulation display, snapshots of an ongoing battle. In creating a simulation, both emergent and embedded elements can be incorporated into the overall game. However, because of the way that simulations rely on dynamic systems, framing a game as a simulation tends to emphasize the emergent components of the game, the more purely systemic elements that interact in complex ways to generate unexpected results.
Ace of Aces 不仅提供了丰富而连贯的空战模拟，还促进了有意义的游戏。由于这两本书的页面包含了飞机之间所有可能的空间关系（通过一组规则实现），玩家实际上是在游戏的可能性空间中导航，尝试各种机动，大胆冒险，并相互刺激。他们做出的每一个决定都是可辨别并融入更大的游戏体验，这种体验是由模拟实现的。模拟的表征机制有力地支持玩家的决策，建立了一个紧凑而有意义的互动领域。模拟创造了一个游戏空间，它存在于两本印刷书籍、玩家的社交互动以及在他们重叠的想象中展开的战斗之间。
Ace of Aces not only provides a rich and coherent simulation of air-to-air combat, but also facilitates meaningful play. Because the pages of the two books contain all of the possible spatial relationships between planes (made possible by a set of rules), the players are literally navigating through the game’s space of possibility, experimenting with maneuvers, taking daring risks, and psyching each other out. Each decision they make is both discernable and integrated into the larger game experience, an experience made possible by the simulation. The representational mechanics of the simulation solidly support player decisions, establishing a taut and meaningful domain of interaction. The simulation creates a space of play that exists somewhere between the two printed books, the social interaction of the players, and the battle playing itself out in their overlapping imaginations.
Ace of Aces 是一个引人入胜的游戏模拟例子，不仅因为它提供了有意义的游戏体验，还因为它通过意想不到的方式实现了这一点。自游戏首次发布以来，计算机上的实时飞行模拟已变得司空见惯，既用于训练，也用于娱乐。但 Ace of Aces 设法在没有幻觉般的 3D 图形和复杂的力反馈飞行员控制的情况下吸引玩家。玩 Ace of Aces 与驾驶飞机截然不同，但它仍然设法作为一个成功的模拟发挥作用。模拟不需要真正体现它们所模拟的现象的物质和感官形式。这就是罗宾内特将游戏称为“模拟、模型、隐喻”时的意思。作为表征，模拟通常以隐喻的方式表示，这意味着它们可以以非文字的方式创建表征。有时，游戏模拟会尝试复制它们所模拟事物的实际体验，例如 VR 显示器会占据玩家的整个视野。然而，更常见的是，模拟采用不那么文字的表征模式。有一个底层数学模型将 Ace of Aces 与在太空中飞行的飞机联系起来。但玩游戏的过程（翻页和喊数字）与坐在真正的驾驶舱中完全不同。事实上，Ace of Aces 的核心机制与其模拟参照物之间的这种隐喻差异是游戏乐趣的来源之一。
Ace of Aces is a fascinating example of a game simulation, not just because it provides meaningful play, but because it does so through such unexpected means. Since the game was first published, real-time flying simulations on computers have become commonplace, used both for training and entertainment purposes. But Ace of Aces manages to engage players without illusionistic 3D graphics and sophisticated force-feedback pilot controls. Playing Ace of Aces is radically different than flying a plane, yet it somehow still manages to function as a successful simulation. Simulations do not need to literally embody the material and sensual forms of the phenomena they are simulating. This is what Robinett means when he calls a game “a simulation, a model, a metaphor.” As representations, simulations often represent metaphorically, meaning they can create representations in non-literal ways. Sometimes, game simulations try and replicate the actual experience of the thing they are simulating, as with VR displays that take over a player’s entire field of vision. More often, however, simulations take on modes of representation that are not so literal. There is an underlying mathematical model that connects Ace of Aces to planes moving through space. But the activity of playing the game—turning pages and calling out numbers—is nothing like sitting in an actual cockpit. In fact, this metaphorical difference between the core mechanic of Ace of Aces and its simulated referent is one source of the game’s pleasure.
程序性陈述
Procedural Representation
游戏是一种模拟，是一种通过游戏构建表征的动态系统。例如，《小行星》通过玩家飞船的惯性漂移来表现浩瀚太空的感觉。游戏设计师可以创建他们想要的任何导航方案，例如一艘可以立即启动和停止并在运动中瞬间转弯的太空飞船。相反，玩家必须以复古火箭的方式操纵飞船，同时考虑加速度和动量。通过这种设计好的活动，游戏生动地描绘了深空。在《指环王》棋盘游戏中，索伦的黑暗力量被描绘成一个在轨道上稳步向玩家移动的人物；他的邪恶本性体现在他可怕的不可避免的前进以及在棋盘上与他相遇的致命后果中。棋盘游戏《逆流而上》通过由水平条组成的不同寻常的棋盘格式，以俏皮的方式重现了河流流动的体验。每回合，玩家从后面拿起条带并将其放在前面。就这样，玩家们的帆船必须与不断流动的水流搏斗，争取率先到达码头。
Seen as simulations, games are dynamic systems that construct representation through play. Asteroids, for example, represents the feeling of vast space through the inertial drift of the player’s ship. The game designers could have created any navigational scheme they wanted, such as a space ship that could start and stop instantly and turn on a dime even when in motion. Instead, the player must maneuver the ship retro rocket-style, taking into account acceleration and momentum. Through this designed activity, the game expressively depicts deep space. In the Lord of the Rings Board Game, the dark force of Sauron is represented as a figure on a track that moves steadily toward the players; his evil nature manifest in his terrifyingly inevitable advance as well as in the deadly ramifications of an encounter with him on the board. The board game Up the River playfully recreates the experience of a flowing river through the unusual format of its board, which is made out of horizontal strips. Each turn, a player takes the strip from the rear and places it in the front. In this way, the sailboats belonging to the players must battle the steadily flowing water current as they race to be the first to reach the dock.
在这三个例子中，游戏的形式和体验元素共同创造了一种从游戏玩法程序中浮现出来的表征。我们将这种描述形式称为程序表征。 “程序”一词是游戏可以表示的所有基于过程的方式的简写。程序表征可能源自计算机程序的 AI 功能；它可能是玩家遵守游戏规则的突发结果；或者它可能是一种引用游戏之外特定动作的富有表现力的核心机制。
In these three examples, formal and experiential elements of the game work to create a representation that emerges out of the procedures of game play. We call this form of depiction procedural representation. The term “procedural” is shorthand for all of the process-based ways that games can signify. A procedural representation might arise from the functioning of a computer program’s AI; it might be an emergent result of players following the rules of a game; or it could be an expressive core mechanic that references a particular action outside the game.
基于微缩模型的战争游戏之所以能够表现战争，部分原因是这些棋子本身类似于微型士兵，并且战场可以被描绘成有争议的地形。但这些视觉符号只是游戏更大表现的一部分。战争游戏表现也是程序性的，通过游戏规则和规则引发的玩家选择来创建。例如，游戏中的单位战争游戏通常具有移动等级，表示单位在一回合中可以移动的六角格或空间数量。在典型的战争游戏中，骑兵单位的移动等级将高于步兵单位。单位类型之间的这种统计差异不仅是形式上的区别；它是一种表现形式。
A miniatures-based wargame is a representation of war partly because the pieces themselves resemble miniature soldiers and because the battlefield can be painted to look like a contested landscape. But these visual signs make up only one part of the game’s larger representation. Wargame representation is also procedural, created through the rules of the game and player choices that the rules engender. For example, units in a wargame generally have a movement rating, representing the number of hexes or spaces through which the unit can move in a turn. In a typical wargame, a cavalry unit will have a higher movement rating than an infantry unit. This statistical difference between types of units is not only a formal distinction; it is a form of representation.
骑兵部队在游戏中比步兵部队移动速度更快，这一事实是一种意义表达，与游戏令牌的视觉美学有着根本的不同。它的表示是程序性的，基于部队的正式身份及其在游戏系统内的交互能力。当然，战争游戏中的部队还有许多其他类型的正式统计数据，从进攻和防御能力到不同类型地形上的移动优势和劣势。所有这些正式名称都是基于各种战斗单位的模拟特征。随着游戏的进行，这些正式身份成为构成战争动态、程序化表示的系统关系。
The fact that a cavalry unit moves more quickly in the game than an infantry unit is an act of signification that is fundamentally different than the visual aesthetics of the game token. Its representation is procedural, based on the unit’s formal identity and its interactive capabilities within the game system. Of course, the units in wargames have many other kinds of formal statistics as well, from offensive and defensive abilities to movement strengths and weaknesses on different types of terrain. All of these formal designations are based on the simulated characteristics of various battle units. As the game is played, these formal identities become systemic relationships that constitute a dynamic, procedural representation of war.
我们可以从两个层面将游戏视为程序表征。借用“游戏即意义的游戏”中的概念，我们知道游戏是一种表征，也能表征。游戏是一种表征，这意味着整个游戏都可以用来描绘某种事物。从宏观层面考虑程序表征，游戏是一个整体。《Pong》是乒乓球的程序表征；《Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3》是滑板的程序表征。游戏可以表征这一概念意味着游戏包含更小的内部描述。从程序方面考虑游戏表征时也是如此。我们可以从微观层面看待游戏的结构，并确定构成整体的程序表征，例如骑兵和步兵战争游戏单位的移动规则。
We can consider games as procedural representations on two levels. Borrowing concepts from Games as the Play of Meaning, we know that games are representations and also that they can represent. The idea that games are representations means that an entire game can serve to depict something. Considering procedural representation on this macro-level, a game represents as a whole. Pong is a procedural representation of Table Tennis; Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 is a procedural representation of skateboarding. The notion that games can represent means that games contain smaller, internal depictions. This also holds true when considering the procedural aspect of game representation. We can look at the structure of a game on a micro-level and identify the procedural representations that make up the whole, such as the movement rules for cavalry and infantry wargame units.
宏观和微观层面的程序表征可以相互嵌入。一款描绘十八世纪皇家宫廷社会生活的纸牌游戏，整体上模拟了某个特定的历史时刻。但在游戏中，我们发现了几种微观程序表征。可能有一套规则模拟剑斗决斗，另一套规则模拟宫廷当前的政治气氛。当然，这些微观程序表征在构成整体模拟的完整游戏系统中是相互联系的。数字游戏也是如此，模拟光线照射在 3D 物体上的代码通常与模拟计算机对手行为的代码是分开的。尽管它们模拟游戏主题的不同方面，但这些组件都包含在游戏模拟的更大的宏观系统中。
Macro- and micro-level procedural representations can be embedded in each other. A card game that depicts social life in an eighteenth century royal court is a game that as a whole simulates a particular historical moment. But within the game, we find several micro-procedural representations. There might be one set of rules to simulate swordfight dueling and another to simulate the current political climate of the court. Of course, these micro-procedural representations are linked together within the complete system of the game that constitutes the overall simulation. The same is true of digital games, where the code that simulates light falling on 3D objects is generally separate from the code that simulates the behavior of computer opponents. Although they simulate different aspects of the game’s subject matter, these components are all contained within the larger macro-system of the game simulation.
由于程序性表征源自游戏过程，因此玩家的参与对于赋予这些具有意义的程序以生命力至关重要。然而，与所有游戏表征一样，程序性表征也直接源自游戏规则，随着玩家通过游戏与之互动而获得意义。以下是三个游戏示例，它们对程序性表征的使用方式截然不同。在每种情况下，表征都是通过正式规则结构和游戏体验赋予生命的。
Because procedural representations emerge out of the play of a game, the player’s participation is crucial in bringing the signifying procedures to life. As with all game representations, however, procedural representations also grow directly from the rules of the game, gaining meaning as players interact with them through play. Following are three examples of games that make very different use of procedural representation. In each case, the representation is brought to life through both the formal rule structure and the experience of play.
外交
Diplomacy
棋盘游戏《外交》是对第一次世界大战政治谈判的复杂再现。游戏发生在欧洲地图上，玩家使用的令牌（取决于游戏的具体版本）可能类似于陆基和海军军事单位，也可能是抽象的形状。每个玩家都扮演欧洲军事强国的角色，争夺占领一些关键城市并征服欧洲大陆。
The board game Diplomacy is a complex representation of World War I political negotiation. The game takes place on a map of Europe and (depending on the particular edition of the game) the tokens used by players might resemble land-based and naval military units, or they might be abstract shapes. Each player assumes the role of a European military power, vying to occupy a number of key cities and conquer the continent.
游戏采用轮流进行。每轮，玩家在公共和私下进行有限的时间（通常约 10 或 15 分钟）谈判。在谈判期结束时，玩家写下并同时透露他们选择的行动。他们行动的结果取决于其他玩家的决定。例如，在一回合中，一名玩家将军队移至另一名玩家占领的领土。入侵玩家从其他玩家那里获得的支持决定了入侵的成功。如果入侵使一个攻击单位对抗一个占领单位，则行动失败。但是，如果入侵玩家得到了相邻地区另一名玩家单位的支持，则攻击成功：入侵的力量变成了两个单位对抗一个单位。这些规则使您的军队在棋盘上的推进变得困难，要求玩家结盟并协调他们的行动。
The game is played in turns. Each turn, players negotiate in public and private for a limited amount of time (usually about 10 or 15 minutes). At the end of the negotiation period, players write down and simultaneously reveal their selected actions. The outcomes of their actions that turn are contingent on the decisions of other players. For example, during a turn one player moves an army into a territory occupied by another player. Support that the invading player has garnered from other players determines the success of the invasion. If the invasion pits one attacking unit against one occupying unit, the action is unsuccessful. However, if the invading player received support from another player with a unit in an adjacent region, the attack is successful: the strength of the invasion becomes two units acting against one. These rules make advancement of your armies on the board difficult, requiring players to make alliances and coordinate their actions.
外交的正式游戏机制导致谈判联盟、不稳定协议和破裂和平条约的戏剧性程序化表现：换句话说，这是外交本身的表现。最终只有一名玩家可以成为胜利者，欺骗的滋生和玩家联盟的破裂、重组和重组通常只是时间问题。你的哪个盟友会背叛你——以及如何背叛你？在外交游戏中，就像它描述的外交过程一样，社交技巧至少与战略思维一样重要。
The formal game mechanics of Diplomacy result in a dramatic procedural representation of negotiated alliances, uneasy agreements, and broken peace treaties: a representation, in other words, of diplomacy itself. Only one player can ultimately emerge as victor, and it is usually just a matter of time before deceit festers and player alliances are broken, reshuffled, and reformed. Which of your allies are going to betray you—and how? In the game of Diplomacy, as in the diplomatic processes it depicts, social skills are at least as important as strategic thinking.
外交作为一个整体程序化地代表了外交的主题，它通过一系列内部表示来实现这一点，这些表示结合在一起形成了整体模拟。例如，虽然外交可以在抽象地图上进行，并且仍然保持相同的外交阴谋感，但地图也被用作程序表示的手段。例如，瑞士是一个中心但不可通行的中立领土，反映了它在第一次世界大战中的孤立主义作用。每个国家的起始力量也是一个微缩表示，与那个时代相适应：英国拥有最强大的海军力量，但陆军却很弱。
Diplomacy as a whole procedurally represents the subject matter of diplomacy, and it does so through a number of internal representations that combine to form the overall simulation. For example, although Diplomacy could take place on an abstract map and still maintain the same sense of diplomatic intrigue, the map is also used as a means of procedural representation. Switzerland, for instance, is a central but impassable neutral territory, mirroring its isolationist role in World War I. Each country’s starting forces are a representation in miniature as well, appropriate to the time period: England has the strongest naval force but a weak army.
外交是第一次世界大战政治谈判的一种引人入胜的程序化表现，但它之所以能成为模拟游戏，是因为设计决策非常谨慎。私人玩家谈判、同时玩家行动、偶然行动 > 结果、支持其他玩家行动的能力以及地图和令牌的程序化使用等程序结合在一起，创造了一种复杂的外交表现。这种表现是游戏过程的产物；这种表现只有在被体验为由玩家互动驱动的动态关系系统时才有意义。
Diplomacy is a wonderfully engaging procedural representation of World War I political negotiation, but it only achieves status as a simulation because of careful design decisions. Procedures embodied in private player negotiations, simultaneous player action, contingent action > outcomes, the ability to support other players’ actions, and procedural use of the map and tokens combine to create a complex representation of diplomacy. This representation is a product of the process of play; a representation that only gains meaning when it is experienced as a system of dynamic relationships driven by player interaction.
吸血鬼
Vampire
Vampire 也是一款依赖程序表示的游戏。这款游戏来自《新游戏书》，其中列出了以下规则：
Vampire is a game that relies on procedural representation as well. The game comes from the New Games Book, which lists the following rules:
首先，每个人都闭上眼睛（吸血鬼只在夜间出没）并开始四处走动。你可以相信裁判会阻止你与任何除了温暖的活人相撞。然而，你不能相信他会保护你免受后果，因为他会偷偷地通知你们中的一个人你是吸血鬼。
To start, everyone closes their eyes (Vampires only roam at night) and begins to mill around. You can trust the Referee to keep you from colliding with anything but warm living flesh. However, you can’t trust him to protect you from the consequences, for he is going to surreptitiously notify one of you that you are the vampire.
和其他人一样，吸血鬼闭着眼睛，但当她撞到别人时，情况就不同了。她抓住了他，发出一声令人毛骨悚然的尖叫。毫无疑问，他也会这样做……
Like everyone else, the vampire keeps her eyes closed, but when she bumps into someone else, there’s a difference. She snatches him and lets out a blood-curdling scream. He, no doubt, does the same . . . .
如果你是吸血鬼的受害者，你也会变成吸血鬼。一旦你恢复镇定，你也会四处寻找新的受害者。现在你可能觉得游戏很快就沦为全怪物大会了？啊，但你不知道当两个吸血鬼互相吞食时，他们会变回凡人。
If you are a victim of the vampire, you become a vampire as well. Once you’ve regained your composure, you too are on the prowl, seeking new victims. Now perhaps you are thinking that the game too quickly degenerates into an all-monster convention? Ah, but then you didn’t know that when two vampires feast on each other, they transform back into bread-and-butter mortals.
在所有凡人被吸血鬼污染之前，吸血鬼们会相互消灭吗？为什么不做个小实验看看呢？即使在血腥的人群中，也总有希望。2
Will the vampires neutralize each other before all mortals are tainted by the blood-sucking scourge? Why don’t you try a little experiment and see? There’s always hope, even in the midst of a blood-curdled crowd.2
《吸血鬼》模拟的对象与《外交》模拟的对象截然不同。《外交》程序化地再现了现实世界的历史情况，而《吸血鬼》则以滑稽的方式唤起了直接从低俗小说中撕下来的吸血鬼形象。然而，游戏设计实现其程序化表现的方式同样复杂。
The referent that Vampire simulates is quite different than the referent of Diplomacy. Whereas Diplomacy procedurally represents a real-world historical situation, Vampire comically evokes images of vampires ripped straight from the pages of pulp fiction. The way the game design achieves its procedural representation, however, is no less sophisticated.
因为《吸血鬼》不需要任何游戏材料（没有地图或游戏棋子），所以它完全依靠玩家的身体活动来产生游戏：游戏表征完全来自玩家之间的互动。游戏的最初限制是玩家在游戏过程中必须闭上眼睛，这精心安排了某种表征体验。在黑暗中，玩家脱离了普通世界，进入了吸血鬼之夜的想象世界，玩家在整个游戏过程中都在陌生的空间中跌跌撞撞地摸索着寻找彼此，这一事实放大了游戏场景的戏剧性。
Because Vampire requires no game materials (no map or game pieces), it relies entirely on the activity of the players’ bodies to generate play: game representations emerge solely from the interaction between players. The initial limitation on the game, the fact that players must keep their eyes closed for the duration of play, orchestrates a certain kind of representational experience. Enclosed in darkness, the player is taken out of the ordinary world and placed in the imagined world of the vampire night, a setting whose drama is amplified by the fact that players spend the entire game stumbling through an unfamiliar space, feeling around for each other.
这种充满紧张感的核心游戏机制让玩家之间的每一次相遇都充满惊喜。相遇有三种不同的方式，从两个非吸血鬼交换感激的松了一口气，到尖叫的吸血鬼攻击（如果两个吸血鬼相撞，则双重攻击）。当玩家漫无目的地游荡时，尖叫声映射出玩家周围的黑暗，将他们看不见的游戏世界变成了尖叫的戏剧性声音景观。除了支持游戏的滑稽恐怖风格外，声音组件还允许玩家“看到”更大的游戏场，发出行动区域的信号。那些令人毛骨悚然的叫喊声是来自安全遥远的地方吗？或者可能就在你的身后！这些简单的程序（闭着眼睛四处游荡、有意义的偶遇、黑暗中爆发的尖叫声）共同为游戏中的每个玩家创造了连贯而独特的吸血鬼体验。
This tension-filled core game mechanic makes every meeting between players a surprise. There are three different ways that an encounter can play out, from two non-vampires exchanging thankful sighs of relief to a screaming vampire attack, (or double-attack, if two vampires collide). As players wander aimlessly, the sound of shrill yells map the darkness surrounding the players, transforming their invisible game world into a screamingly theatrical sonic landscape. In addition to supporting the goofy-horror flavor of the game, the sound component allows players to “see” the larger playfield, signaling areas of action. Are those bloodcurdling yells coming from somewhere safely far away? Or perhaps from RIGHT BEHIND YOU! These simple procedures (wandering around with eyes closed, meaningful chance encounters, screams erupting in the darkness) together create a coherent and distinctive vampire experience for every player in the game.
此外，与许多 New Games 游戏一样，《吸血鬼》也遵循输赢的惯例。单个玩家会在《吸血鬼》中获胜吗？如何获胜？玩家是试图被咬伤吗？还是试图保持安全？作为吸血鬼，玩家是在寻找新的受害者吗？还是以另一个吸血鬼的形式来治愈他们的病情？游戏将如何结束？一片充满吸血鬼的土地还是整个群体的吸血鬼倾向都被清除了？游戏的新兴表征系统（玩家像带电粒子一样碰撞）呈现出不可预测的模式。游戏可以以两种状态之一结束，这一事实增强了体验的戏剧性，并给整个游戏带来了惊悚悬疑。
Furthermore, as with many New Games games, Vampire plays with the conventions of winning and losing. Does an individual player win at Vampire? How? Do players try to become bitten? Or do they try and remain safe? As vampires, are players seeking new victims? Or a cure for their condition, in the form of another vampire? How will the game end? With a field full of vampires or with the group purged of their vampiric tendencies? The emergent representational system of the game, in which players collide like charged particles, takes on unpredictable patterns. The fact that the game can end in one of two states heightens the drama of the experience and gives the overall game play the suspense of a thriller.
Vampire 通过一系列程序来创建表示，从游戏的直接核心机制到游戏的长期轨迹。Vampire 之所以能成为成功的表示，是因为它完全专注于玩家体验。从外部来看，Vampire 看起来像是一种愚蠢的团体活动。只有在游戏内部，程序表示才能发挥其魔力。
Vampire creates a representation through a number of procedures, from the game’s immediate core mechanics to the long-term trajectory of play. Vampire is successful as a representation because it is squarely focused on the player experience. From the outside, Vampire looks like a silly group activity. It is only inside the game that the procedural representation works its magic.
光明会
Illuminati
我们在《打破规则》中首先提到了棋盘游戏《光明会》 。这款游戏的设计非常出色，其中一个原因是它提供了一种鼓励在一定范围内打破规则的游戏变体。尽管《光明会》使用了许多方法来模拟其主题，但我们在这里关注的是打破规则本身如何创建程序性表示。
We first mentioned the board game Illuminati in Breaking the Rules. The game design is remarkable, among other reasons, because it offers a play variant that encourages rule-breaking within certain boundaries. Although Illuminati uses many means to simulate its subject matter, we focus here on how rule-breaking itself acts to create a procedural representation.
《光明会》以罗伯特·安东·威尔逊的光明会书籍以及与之相关的阴谋论亚文化为基础。《光明会》中的玩家扮演暗中权力掮客的角色，操纵世界事件和政治结构以达到自己的邪恶目的。玩家可以控制和联系一些团体游戏中的人物，从 FBI 到星际迷再到整个加利福尼亚州。这些元素都以非程序化的方式（通过插图和文字描述）和更程序化的方式（每个群体都通过一组属性来表示，例如，加利福尼亚州是一个比星际迷更有利可图的群体）来表示。
Illuminati is based on the llluminatus books of Robert Anton Wilson, and the subculture of conspiracy theory associated with them. Players in Illuminati assume the roles of shadowy power brokers that manipulate world events and political structures to their own devious ends. There are groups that players can control and link in the game, from the FBI to Trekkies to the entire state of California. Each of these elements is represented in non-procedural ways (through illustrations and text descriptions), as well as in more procedural ways (each group is represented through a set of attributes, making California, for example, a much more lucrative group to control than the Trekkies).
当玩家使用打破规则的变体时，会产生一种完全不同的表征体验。游戏的前提是玩家将现有的社会结构和制度扭曲，以实现光明会神秘而又荒谬的目的。例如，玩家可能会安排事情，让星际迷控制联邦调查局，而联邦调查局反过来控制加利福尼亚州。因此，将现有权力结构改造成不正当手段的想法已经是游戏整体表征的重要组成部分。但是，通过打破规则，玩家将操纵行为更进一步。游戏规则本身成为社会沉稳规则的表征，玩家作为暗中权力掮客，颠覆这些规则。打破规则的行为本身就是一个过程，代表玩家颠覆游戏世界的方式，以破坏现有权力结构和其他玩家精心策划的计划。
When players use the rule-breaking variant, a completely different kind of representational experience results. The premise of the game requires players to twist existing social structures and institutions to the mysterious—and often ridiculous—ends of the Illuminati. A player might arrange things, for example, so that Trekkies control the FBI, and the FBI in turn controls California. Therefore, the idea of reworking existing power structures to devious effect is already an important part of the overall representation of the game. But by breaking the rules, players take the act of manipulation one step further. The game rules themselves become a representation of the staid rules of society, which the players, as shadowy power brokers, subvert. The action of breaking the rules is itself a procedure, representing the way players turn the game world upsidedown in order to undo existing power structures and the well-laid plans of other players.
这种游戏玩法将玩家带到了魔法圈的边缘，他们参与了一种积极破坏游戏权威的体验。这正是它如此强大的表现手段的原因，因为打破规则可以让玩家发挥真正的力量。规则的权威、游戏的社会契约、游戏的安全性和信任，都受到了彻底的破坏，因为游戏正濒临自我毁灭。你能想象出一种更好的方式来表现光明会的混乱世界吗？
This kind of game play takes players right to the edge of the magic circle, as they engage in an experience that actively plays with the destruction of the game’s authority. This is precisely why it is such a powerful representational device, because breaking the rules allows players to play with genuine power. The authority of the rules, the social contract of a game, the safety and trust of play, all become radically undermined, as the game flirts with its own destruction. Can you imagine a better way to represent the topsy-turvy world of the Illuminati?
代表冲突
Represented Conflict
我们开始理解程序化表示如何通过动态描述来模拟现象。但在讨论游戏如何创建此类表示之前，有一个问题需要回答。那就是动态系统可以描述什么现象。游戏设计师可以选择任何东西来模拟吗，还是存在固有的限制？游戏是否倾向于模拟某些事物，某些主题是否自然而然地适合游戏？游戏设计师沃伦·罗宾内特 (Warren Robinett) 似乎认为几乎任何东西都可以模拟：
We are beginning to understand how procedural representations work to simulate phenomena through dynamic depictions. But there is a question that precedes a discussion of how games create such representations. It is the question of what phenomena a dynamic system can depict. Can a game designer pick anything to simulate, or are there inherent limitations? Are there certain things that games are predisposed to simulate, certain subjects that lend themselves naturally to games? Game designer Warren Robinett seems to think that just about anything might be simulated:
许多极其复杂的现象等待着我们去解释……在太空中运送货物的火车和其他交通工具、在湍急的河流中航行的皮划艇、围绕恒星运行的行星、不断进化的生态系统中相互竞争的生物、涂抹在和谐墙纸上的可见旋律、在悸动执行中循环运行的程序，以及在错综复杂的知识网络中飞奔的人类思维……
Many provocatively complex phenomena await interpretation . . . trains and other vehicles which move cargo through spaces, kayaks in swirling river currents, planets orbiting their stars, competing creatures in evolving ecologies, visible melodies smeared upon harmonic wallpaper, looping programs in throbbing execution, and human thought darting across a tangled network of knowledge . . . .
现实世界提供了大量可供模拟的现象——动物的行为、植物的生长、建筑物的弯曲、交通堵塞、雪花的形成。任何过程都是候选。词典中的每个动词都暗示着一个想法。3
The real world offers a vast set of phenomena to simulate—animals behaving, plants growing, structures buckling, traffic jamming, snowflakes forming. Any process is a candidate. Every verb in the dictionary suggests an idea.3
自从罗宾内特最初提出这一挑战以来，游戏的设计目的就是模拟他所描述的一些现象：《模拟生活》试图模拟生物的进化生态；共享软件游戏《桥梁建造者》模拟在火车重压下弯曲的结构。然而，他列出的许多现象仍然有待在游戏中实现。正如罗宾内特指出的，“字典中的每个动词都暗示着一种想法”来进行模拟。那么，为什么游戏似乎只专注于模拟一小段过程呢？为什么我们一遍又一遍地看到相同类型的游戏：格斗、赛车、战争、体育等等？当然，经济和商业问题极大地影响着游戏内容。但是，游戏的底层结构中是否还有其他更深层次的东西决定了它们可以和不能描绘的过程类型？
Since Robinett originally penned this challenge, games have been designed to simulate some of the phenomena he describes: Sim Life attempted to simulate evolving ecologies of creatures; the shareware game Bridge Builder simulates structures buckling under the weight of a train. However, many of the phenomena on his list are still waiting to find themselves in games. As Robinett points out, “every verb in the dictionary suggests an idea” for a simulation. Why then, do games seem to focus on a narrow range of processes to simulate? Why do we see the same genres of games over and over: fighting, racing, war, sports, and so on? Of course, economic and business concerns greatly influence game content. But is there something else, something deeper about the underlying structure of games that determines the kinds of processes they can and cannot depict?
我们对游戏的定义是，玩家参与由规则定义的人工冲突，并产生可量化结果的系统。定义中与我们当前关于模拟和表现的讨论相关的部分是冲突。游戏是权力的较量：它们是冲突的系统。冲突不仅是游戏规则的产物，也是其表现系统的产物。在某种程度上，每个游戏都动态地表现着冲突。游戏的元素——玩家、棋子、规则——都在产生表现方面发挥着作用。游戏通过动态过程表现冲突这一见解可能有助于解释游戏中某些内容的普遍性：也许某些形式的冲突比其他形式更容易建模。同时，了解游戏最常描绘的冲突类型也有助于我们制定游戏模拟的新主题策略。
Our definition of a game describes them as systems in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome. The part of the definition relevant to our present discussion of simulation and representation is conflict. Games are contests of power: they are systems of conflict. Conflict is not only a product of the game’s rules, but of its system of representation as well. Every game, on some level, dynamically represents conflict. The elements of a game—the players, the pieces, the rules—all have a role in generating the representation. The insight that games represent conflict through a dynamic process might help to explain the prevalence of certain content in games: perhaps some forms of conflict are simply easier to model than others. At the same time, understanding the kinds of conflict that games most often depict also helps us to strategize new kinds of subjects for games to simulate.
我们发现游戏中动态呈现的冲突形式有哪些？如果游戏具有很强的叙事成分，冲突就很容易发现。《指环王》棋盘游戏清楚地模拟了玩家扮演护戒使者霍比特人到达魔多末日山并摧毁魔戒的斗争。但在许多游戏中，很难确定模拟的冲突。棒球、跳棋或危险边缘中的冲突是什么？理解游戏模拟的冲突形式的关键是弄清楚争夺的是什么。冲突发生在什么样的舞台上？冲突是为了什么而发生的？如何衡量冲突的进展？冲突的哪些方面是动态呈现的？
What are the forms of conflict we find dynamically represented in games? If the game has a strong narrative component, the conflict is easy to spot. The Lord of the Rings Board Game clearly simulates the struggle of the players, as the Fellowship hobbits, to reach Mount Doom at Mordor and destroy the One Ring. But in many games, it is more difficult to pin down the simulated conflict. What is the conflict in Baseball, Checkers, or Jeopardy? The key to comprehending the form of conflict simulated by a game is to figure out what is being contested. In what kind of arena is the conflict being held? Over what is the conflict being waged? How is the progress of the conflict measured? What aspects of the conflict are dynamically represented?
为了回答这些问题，我们将游戏冲突的范围提炼为三大类：领土冲突、经济冲突和知识冲突。这三个类别既不独立也不相互排斥：许多游戏在设计中同时包含两个或全部三个类别。它们不是严格的类型学，而是用于查看游戏可以动态呈现的冲突类型的概念框架。接下来，我们将更详细地探讨这三个类别中的每一个。
In order to answer these questions we distill the range of game conflict into three general categories: territorial conflict, economic conflict, and conflict over knowledge. These three categories are neither discrete nor mutually exclusive: many games incorporate two or all three of them at once within their design. Rather than a strict typology, they are instead conceptual frames for looking at the kinds of conflict that games can dynamically represent. Next, we explore each of these three categories in more detail.
领土冲突
Conflict Over Territory
领土冲突可能是这三个类别中最直观的冲突。棋盘游戏（如国际象棋）是此类游戏的常见类型，棋子在有限的游戏场地上移动。在领土冲突游戏中，玩家战略性地部署他们的部队以捕获敌人并占领土地。这种冲突是战争的抽象表现：棋子代表军事单位，游戏区域动态地代表战斗发生的领土。
Conflict over territory is perhaps the most intuitive of the three categories. Board games such as Chess, in which pieces are moved on a limited playing field, are a common game of this sort. In games of territorial conflict, players strategically position their units to capture enemies and gain ground. Conflicts of this kind are abstract representations of war: the pieces depict military units, and the play area dynamically represents the territory over which the battle is waged.
围棋是另一个专注于占领领土的游戏的典范。当玩家放下棋子时，他们的主要目标是包围游戏区域以确保占领的空间。游戏结束时，每个玩家每占领一个网格交叉点就会获得一分（每俘获一个敌方棋子也会获得一分）。该游戏起源于军事模拟——在封建日本，围棋被认为是一种武术。作为领土冲突，围棋的表现形式非常优雅。
Go is another good example of a game focused on capturing territory. As players lay down their stones, their primary goal is to surround areas of the playfield to secure the captured space. At the end of the game, each player receives a point for each grid intersection secured (plus a point for each captured enemy piece). The game originated as a military simulation—in feudal Japan, Go was considered a martial art. As a territorial conflict, Go is a strikingly elegant representation.
还有许多其他游戏模拟了领土冲突的过程。井字游戏是一种简单的领土冲突，玩家试图以一种能够取得胜利的模式战略性地占领领土。足球等球类运动需要将一支球队或一个特殊标记穿过一片地形，进入对手的端区或球门：敌人入侵。战锤等桌面游戏提供了极其复杂的动态战争表现，有几十种不同类型的单位、大型详细地图和厚厚的规则手册来控制互动的细节。美国军方使用更复杂的战争游戏作为训练演习，数百甚至数千名士兵在真实和模拟环境中玩大量的激光游戏。
There are many other games that simulate the process of territorial conflict. Tic-Tac-Toe is a simple territorial conflict where players attempt to strategically occupy territory in a pattern that will lead to victory. Ball-based sports such as Football and Soccer entail moving a team or a special marker across a stretch of terrain into the opponent’s end zone or goal: the enemy invaded. Tabletop games such as Warhammer offer incredibly complex representations of warfare dynamically enacted, with dozens of different kinds of units, large detailed maps, and thick rulebooks controlling the particulars of interaction. The U. S. military uses even more complex war games as training exercises, in which hundreds or even thousands of troops play vast games of laser tag in real and simulated environments.
经济冲突是游戏中另一种常见的冲突形式。在经济冲突模拟中，争夺的不是地形，而是价值单位。“经济”一词不一定指金钱，而是指构成冲突发生系统的棋子、部件、点数、卡片或其他物品的集合。在弹球游戏中，您要努力获得高分。在《万智牌：聚会》中，您要努力将对手的生命值降至零。在这些游戏经济中，规则为每个单位赋予一个价值，游戏进程根据该经济赋予的价值来衡量。
Economic conflict is another common form of conflict in games. Within simulations of economic conflict, it is not terrain that is contested, but a unit of value. The word “economic” does not necessarily refer to money, but to any collection of pieces, parts, points, cards, or other items that form a system through which the conflict takes place. In a pinball game, you are trying to rack up a high score. In Magic: The Gathering, you are trying to reduce your opponent’s life to zero. In these game economies, the rules give each unit a value, and progress through the game is measured according to the values assigned by this economy.
游戏中的经济通常是一种有限经济。这意味着组成经济的单位是有限的，并且玩家通常知道经济的组成。在扑克游戏中，所有玩家都必须了解一副扑克牌的有限经济。了解牌堆中出现的牌可以让他们了解哪些牌更难组成。四条比一对更难组成；同花顺则更难组成。扑克的另一个经济——下注资金——可能是也可能不是有限经济。每个玩家可能以相同数量的筹码开始，在这种情况下，所有玩家都知道筹码经济的参数。如果玩家可以使用口袋里的钱或其他贵重物品进行下注，那么玩家就不知道经济的全部范围——尽管经济最终受到每个玩家在魔法圈之外拥有的资本的限制。另一方面，如果玩家不是下注“真钱”，而是使用无限的筹码来娱乐，那么通常有限的下注经济就会变得无限。
An economy in a game is generally a limited economy. This means that the units that make up the economy are finite, and usually the players know the composition of the economy. In Poker, it is crucial that all players understand the limited economy of a deck of playing cards. Knowledge about which cards appear in the deck allows them to understand which hands are more difficult to build. Four-of-a-kind is harder to build than a pair; a straight flush harder still. The other economy of Poker—the betting money—might or might not be a limited economy. Each player might start with the same amount of chips, in which case all players know the parameters of the chip economy. If players can use money in their pockets or other valuables for betting, the players don’t know the full extent of the economy—although the economy is ultimately limited by the capital each player possesses outside the magic circle. On the other hand, if players are not betting “real money” but are instead playing for fun using an endless supply of chips, the normally limited betting economy becomes unlimited.
由于经济冲突通常可以归结为数字和分数，而游戏本质上是数学的，因此我们可以用这种方式构建几乎任何游戏。例如，赛车游戏，玩家投掷骰子并沿着赛道移动标记，乍一看可能像是一场领土冲突。
Because economic conflict is generally reducible to numbers and points, and games are intrinsically mathematical, we can frame almost any game in this way. For example, a race game, in which players roll a die and move a marker down a track, might at first seem to be a territorial conflict.
然而，同样的游戏也可以通过投掷骰子并累计玩家每回合获得的点数来玩，从而使游戏更像一场经济冲突。由于这两款游戏具有相似的构成规则，因此操作规则将有助于确定游戏代表哪种冲突。然而，有些游戏结合了两种类别：Quake 是领土冲突还是经济冲突？它显然是混合体。游戏发生在一个空间表示中，其中每个时刻的相对位置都非常重要。然而，游戏的大部分内容是管理资源的经济性，例如健康、装甲、弹药、武器和杀戮。
However, the same game could also be played by throwing dice and adding up the points that players receive each turn, making the game more of an economic conflict. Since the two games would have similar constituative rules, the operational rules would help determine what kind of conflict the game represents. Yet some games combine categories: Is Quake a territorial conflict or an economic one? It is clearly a hybrid. The play takes place within the representation of a space, in which relative position at each moment is quite important. However, much of the game consists of managing economies of resources such as health, armor, ammo, weapons, and kills.
即使是领土意识强烈的国际象棋和围棋游戏，也可以看作是经济冲突的程序化表现。在国际象棋中，棋子代表一种经济，每个棋子的使用价值来自棋盘上的整体关系。当然，一个单位——国王——具有特殊价值，它决定了游戏的胜利者。同样，在围棋游戏结束时，领土被转化为点数，与赛跑游戏的例子一样，围棋可以被解释为一种经济——争夺点数。请记住，这三种冲突并不是固定不变的类别；它们只是我们用来理解游戏传统上模拟的冲突类型的框架。
Even the strongly territorial games of Chess and Go can be seen as procedural representations of economic conflict. In Chess, the pieces represent an economy, and the use-value of each piece is derived from the total set of relationships on the board. Of course, one unit—the King—has a special value, which determines the winner of the game. Similarly, at the end of a game of Go, territory is translated into points, and as with the race game example, Go could be interpreted as an economy—of contested points. Remember that the three kinds of conflict are not hard and fast categories; they are merely frames we use to understand the kinds of conflict that games traditionally simulate.
知识冲突
Conflict Over Knowledge
知识冲突为理解游戏模拟冲突的方式提供了一个不同的模型。例如，在《Trivial Pursuit》中，棋子确实会在棋盘的空间区域上移动。玩家在零件经济中获得一组彩色塑料棋子以赢得游戏，这也是事实。但这些构建《Trivial Pursuit》的方式似乎忽略了游戏冲突的关键组成部分：提出和回答琐事问题的过程。
Conflict over knowledge offers a different model for understanding the way games simulate conflict. In Trivial Pursuit, for example, it is true that pieces move about on the spatial territory of a board. It is also true that the players acquire a set of colored plastic pieces within an economy of parts in order to win the game. But these ways of framing Trivial Pursuit seem to leave out the key component of the game conflict: the process of asking and answering trivia questions.
在 Trivial Pursuit 中，与许多其他以信息本身为冲突舞台的游戏一样，游戏的争夺“领域”是知识。诸如 Hollywood Squares 之类的游戏节目、诸如 You Don't Know Jack 之类的计算机琐事游戏，甚至是有关将信息从一种形式转换为另一种形式的游戏，诸如 Charades，都可以理解为以知识为冲突的游戏。知识冲突本质上是文化冲突，因为游戏冲突本身涉及游戏之外的文化空间。在知识冲突游戏中，游戏行动的结果取决于玩家是否知道某种问题的正确答案。这与领土或经济冲突的表现截然不同：模拟的过程是获取和共享文化知识的冲突。以事实知识作为冲突系统一部分的游戏跨越了魔法圈的边界，创造了一种依赖于从外部来源带入游戏的信息的游戏。
In Trivial Pursuit, as with many other games in which information itself forms the arena of conflict, the contested “terrain” of the game is knowledge. Game shows such as Hollywood Squares, computer trivia games such as You Don’t Know Jack, and even games about translation of information from one form to another such as Charades, can all be understood as games in which the conflict is one of knowledge. Conflicts over knowledge are inherently cultural, because the game conflict itself engages with a cultural space that lies outside the game. In a game of conflict over knowledge, the outcome of a game action is dependent on whether or not the player knows the right answer to a question of some kind. This is quite different than representation of territorial or economic conflict: the process being simulated is the conflict of acquiring and sharing cultural knowledge. Games designed with factual knowledge as part of the system of conflict cross over the border of the magic circle, creating a game contingent on information brought into the game from external sources.
游戏将冲突表现为对领土、经济和知识的获取和争夺。这三个相当抽象的类别并没有告诉我们游戏能够模拟什么，而是描述了游戏最常模拟的一般过程。识别这三个类别还有助于解释为什么我们在游戏中一遍又一遍地看到同一种冲突。例如，为什么电子游戏似乎经常专注于模拟军事冲突：战斗、射击和征服？或者为什么这么多游戏充斥着可收集的物品经济：魔法硬币、金钱或其他贵重物品？不管你喜欢与否，游戏中对军事和经济表现的倾向由来已久，与大多数游戏固有的领土和经济冲突过程直接相关。
Games represent conflict as acquisition of and contestation over territory, economy, and knowledge. These three rather abstract categories don’t tell us exactly what games are capable of simulating, but describe the general sorts of processes that games most often simulate. Identifying these three categories also helps explain why we see the same kinds of conflict being modeled over and over in games. For example, why is it that video games often seem to focus on simulating military conflict: fighting, shooting, and conquering? Or that so many games overflow with collectable item economies: magic coins, money, or other precious objects? Like it or not, the tendency toward military and economic representation in games has a long history, directly linked to the processes of territorial and economic conflict intrinsic to most games.
例如，从围棋和国际象棋到战争游戏、战争微缩模型和角色扮演游戏，再从这些非数字化游戏到如今的 RPG、FPS 和 RTS（角色扮演游戏、第一人称射击游戏和实时战略游戏），存在着一条相对清晰的传承线。几个世纪以来，人们积累了大量关于战争游戏、军事模拟和其他形式领土冲突的设计思维。模拟骑兵和步兵之间的差异、近战和远程武器之间的差异、分散伤害的攻击和穿透攻击之间的差异、大小和机动性、力量和速度之间的差异等，多年来已经成为游戏表现的陈旧设计问题。从这个意义上说，当今高度细节化的军事游戏继承了数千年的设计思维。
There is a relatively clear line of descent, for example, from Go and Chess to Kriegspiel, wargaming miniatures, and role-playing games, and from these non-digital games to today’s RPGs, FPSs, and RTSs (role-playing games, first-person shooters, and real-time strategy games). A tremendous amount of design thinking regarding wargaming, military simulation, and other forms of territorial conflict has accumulated over the centuries. Simulating the difference between mounted units and infantry units; between melee and ranged weapons; between attacks that spread damage and attacks that penetrate; between size and maneuverability, strength and speed, and so on, have become well-worn design problems of game representation over the years. In this sense, today’s highly detailed military games are the inheritors of millennia of design thinking.
令人高兴的是，这段悠久的历史丝毫没有限制我们在游戏中模拟的可能性，即使是在冲突形式方面。当今游戏设计师面临的一个重要问题是：游戏还能模拟哪些其他类型的冲突？例如，罗宾内特的愿望清单呢？如何设计游戏来模拟社会冲突、心理冲突或人际冲突？这些都是非常艰巨的设计挑战。正如我们将在下文中看到的那样，挑战的一部分在于模拟需要彻底的简化和风格化。席德·梅尔的《文明》系列是出色的战略游戏，解决了模拟文化发展的艰巨任务。但由于游戏中的文化知识必须风格化为抽象单元（“你用一神论换取铁艺吗？”），游戏永远无法接近地展现其主题的微妙之处。
Happily, this long history in no way limits what it is possible to simulate in games, even when it comes to forms of conflict. An important question for today’s game designer is: What other kinds of conflict can games simulate? For example, what about Robinett’s wish list? How could a game be designed to simulate social conflict, psychological conflict, or interpersonal conflict? These are truly tough design challenges. As we will see in the following pages, part of the challenge lies in the fact that simulations require radical simplification and stylization. Sid Meier’s Civilization series are wonderful strategy games that tackle the Herculean task of simulating cultural development. But because cultural knowledge in the game is necessarily stylized into abstract units (“Do you trade Monotheism for Iron Working?’) the game never comes close to representing the subtlety of its subject matter.
游戏史上有许多模拟军事和经济冲突的有力例子。模拟社会或文化冲突的设计词汇可能需要几代人的时间才能开发出来。当然，这些尚未解决的挑战正是游戏设计领域如此引人注目的原因之一。尽管游戏是一种真正古老的现象，但仍然有无数的途径进行表现创新——只要你准备好质疑关于游戏是什么以及游戏可以是什么的长期假设。
The history of games contains many robust examples for simulating military and economic conflict. A design lexicon for simulating social or cultural conflict may take generations to develop. Of course, these unsolved challenges are part of what makes game design as a field so remarkable. Despite the fact that games are a truly ancient phenomenon, there are still countless avenues for representational innovation—as long as you are ready to question long-standing assumptions about what games are and what they can be.
程序角色
Procedural Characters
冲突是一种抽象的、基本的思考游戏模拟过程的方式。但它并不是将游戏定义为模拟的唯一方式。那么模拟和故事叙述呢？上一章讨论的任何游戏叙述都可以被视为模拟，只要它是通过动态过程来表现的。将叙述和模拟结合起来是一种将游戏视为表现媒介的有效思考方式，因为它迫使玩家采取一种真正体验式的方式来参与故事。正如雷纳·克尼齐亚在他为本书撰写的早期文章中所写的那样，他对《指环王》棋盘游戏的希望是它“不仅仅是重述托尔金的情节，更重要的是，它能让玩家感受到故事的情感环境。”
Conflict is an abstract, elemental way of thinking about the kinds of processes that games simulate. But it is not the only way to frame games as simulations. What about simulation and storytelling? Any of the game narratives discussed in the previous chapter could be thought of as a simulation, providing it was represented through a dynamic process. Combining narrative and simulation is a powerful way of thinking about games as a representational medium, because it forces a truly experiential approach to participating with a story. As Reiner Knizia wrote in his earlier essay for this book, his hope for the Lord of the Rings Board Game was that it would “not just re-tell Tolkien’s plot, but more importantly it would make the players feel the emotional circumstances of the story.”
以下四个例子只是叙事方程式的一部分，即角色元素。这四个例子分别探讨了通过角色程序化地创造叙事体验的非常不同的策略（这里我们使用“角色”的一般概念，指的是游戏表现中包含的虚构人物）。一些例子是玩家直接控制的角色，而其他例子则不受玩家控制。在所有情况下，规则和互动都用于程序化地构建角色，同时也将角色编织到游戏表现的更大结构中。
Following are four examples of just one part of the storytelling equation, the element of character. The four examples each examine a very different strategy for procedurally creating narrative experience via character (here we are using a general concept of “character” that refers to a fictional persona contained within a game representation). Some of the examples are characters under the direct control of a player, whereas others remain outside of player control. In all cases, rules and interaction are used to procedurally construct a character, while also weaving the character into the larger fabric of the game representation.
塞尔达传说：林克的觉醒
Zelda: Link’s Awakening
在这款 Game Boy 冒险游戏中，玩家控制一个名叫林克的角色，带他游历游戏的虚构世界，探索新空间，获取物品，击败敌人。游戏中的角色丰富多彩——除了林克之外，游戏世界中还有许多人物，包括玩家在游戏初期遇到的女巫角色。
In this adventure game for the Game Boy, players control a character named Link, moving him about the fictional world of the game, exploring new spaces, acquiring objects, and defeating enemies. The game is rich with characters—in addition to Link, many personalities populate the world of the game, including a witch character that players encounter early in the game.
女巫这个角色以多种不同方式体现“女巫”的概念。这个角色看起来像个女巫（她戴着一顶高高的尖顶帽子），坐在大锅旁边，说话时咯咯笑，还具有卡通女巫的其他典型特征。除了这些非程序性的表现外，对女巫的描述也是程序性的：女巫角色具有许多系统性特征，使她能够以非程序性角色无法做到的方式表达自己。
The character of the witch signifies the idea of “witch” in many different ways. The character looks like a witch (she wears a tall pointed hat), sits next to a cauldron, cackles as she talks, and possesses other stereotypical trappings of a cartoon witch. In addition to these non-procedural representations, depiction of the witch occurs procedurally as well: the witch character has a number of systemic qualities that allow her to signify in ways that a non-procedural character could not.
例如，和《塞尔达传说：林克的觉醒》中的许多角色一样，女巫的角色住在自己的房子里。大多数房子都位于村庄里，许多房子都挤在一起。因此，很容易找到。但女巫的房子却位于一片危险森林的深处。为了到达那里，玩家必须在迷宫般的森林中搜索，克服重重障碍。女巫不仅在游戏空间中过着与村民隔绝的生活，而且她与社会的隔离也使她的角色更难被发现。这两个属性（孤立和危险）都是非常“女巫”的特征。在游戏中，这些特征是女巫的房子相对于虚拟世界游戏网格上其他元素的位置的函数：它们是程序性的，从游戏的形式特征和玩家自己的游戏互动中发展而来。
For example, like many characters encountered in Zelda: Link’s Awakening, the witch’s character lives in her own house. Most houses are found in villages, where many of them are clumped together. As a result, they are easy to locate. But the witch’s house lies deep in the heart of a dangerous wood. In order to reach it, the player must overcome obstacles as he or she searches through the mazelike forest. Not only is the witch represented in the space of the game as living a life isolated from the villagers, but her very separation from society makes her character more difficult to find. Both of these attributes (isolated and dangerous to visit) are very “witchy” characteristics. In the game, these characteristics are a function of the position of the witch’s house relative to other elements on the game-grid of the imaginary world: they are procedural, growing from the formal characteristics of the game and the player’s own game interactions.
当玩家找到女巫时，她会通过屏幕上的文字告诉林克给她带一朵蘑菇。如果玩家回到森林里，采摘一朵蘑菇，然后带回给女巫，她会拿起蘑菇，搅拌她的大锅，为玩家制作出一种神奇的粉末。女巫会执行一个程序来改变蘑菇，改变它在游戏中的属性。作为一个生活在社会界限之外的临界角色，女巫有能力将自然物体转化为有用的技术。这种程序特征在冒险游戏中很常见（把物体 A 带给角色 X，得到物体 B）。然而，在女巫的例子中，它很好地描绘了她的角色。构成她的表现（她在世界上的位置、她转换物体的能力）确实具有女巫的特质，并且有助于塑造一个有效且令人难忘的角色。
When a player reaches the witch, she informs Link (via onscreen text) to bring her a mushroom. If the player goes back out into the forest, collects a mushroom, and then brings it back to the witch, she will take the mushroom, stir her cauldron, and produce a magical powder for the player. The witch enacts a procedure that transforms the mushroom, changing its properties within the game. As a liminal character living outside the bounds of society, the witch has the ability to convert natural objects to useful technologies. This kind of procedural characteristic is common in adventure games (take object A to character X and receive object B). Yet in the case of the witch, it works very well to depict her character. The procedural elements constituting her representation (her location in the world, her ability to convert objects) are truly witch-like and serve to create an effective and memorable character.
最后需要澄清的是：想象一本书中出现一个类似于《塞尔达传说：林克的觉醒》中女巫的角色。书中的故事将描述女巫如何生活在森林中、如何制作神奇的药水等等。这两个女巫之间有什么区别？她们不是基本上是同一个角色吗？或许是，但她们的表现形式截然不同。尽管这两个女巫可能具有相同的“文学”特征，但书中的女巫并不具备这些作为程序性特征的特征，这些特征是通过有意义的游戏活动触发的。事实上，故事中的女巫正是游戏中女巫所指的那种女巫。积极利用女巫的女巫特质，不仅仅是通过阅读，还要通过玩游戏，这就是她在游戏环境中如此强大的表现力的原因。
One last note of clarification: imagine a witch character in a book similar to the witch in Zelda: Link’s Awakening. The book’s story would describe how the witch lives in the woods, makes magical potions, and so on. What would be the difference between the two witches? Aren’t they basically the same character? Perhaps, but the form of their representation is radically different. Although both witches might have the same “literary” characteristics, the witch in the book would not possess these traits as procedural qualities, which are triggered as part of an activity of meaningful play. In fact, the witch in the story is exactly the kind of witch that the game witch references. Actively exploiting the witch’s witch-like qualities, not just by reading about them but also by playing with them, is what makes her representation so powerful to experience in the context of the game.
虚拟现实战士4
Virtua Fighter 4
格斗游戏《VR战士4》将程序化表现融入到游戏的叙事中，将格斗角色的正式特征与其外表、个性和背景故事联系起来。每个角色都有明确的优点和缺点，这些优点和缺点通过角色属性以程序化方式呈现。例如，Pai Chan 速度惊人，但缺乏力量和重击动作。Kage-Maru 拥有复杂的组合和特殊动作，但执行起来需要时间，这让他容易受到对手的攻击。Jeffry McWild 力量强大，但体型庞大、体重过重，因此灵活性较差。每个角色的优势都被逻辑上的弱点所抵消，形成了在每场比赛中展现出来的战斗“个性”。
The fighting game Virtua Fighter 4 integrates procedural representation into the narrative play of the game by tying the formal characteristics of the fighting characters to their appearance, personality, and embedded backstory. Every character is designed with explicit strengths and weaknesses, which are procedurally represented through character attributes. For example, Pai Chan has incredible speed but lacks power and hard-hitting moves. Kage-Maru has complex combinations and special moves, but they take time to execute, leaving him vulnerable to attacks from his opponent. Jeffry McWild has great power, but is large and heavy, and therefore less agile. Each character’s strengths are countered by logical weaknesses, adding up to a fighting “personality” that plays itself out during each match.
在精心设计的格斗游戏中，这些程序化表现与游戏的虚构世界和叙事有着密切的联系。角色的战斗方式通常是内在品质的外在表现，而战斗风格则反映在每个角色的叙事历史中，以及身高、体重、职业、性别和出生国家等更普通的信息中。所有这些非程序化叙事描述对于游戏玩法来说可能显得肤浅，但它们有助于创造一个综合角色，其中程序和非程序元素被整合在一个角色表现中，玩家可以在多个层面体验到这种表现。
In a well-designed fighting game these procedural representations have strong ties to the fictive world and narrative of the game. How a character fights is usually an external representation of internal qualities, and fighting styles are mirrored in the narrative histories provided for each character, as well as more mundane information such as height and weight, profession, gender, and country of birth. All of these non-procedural narrative descriptors may seem superficial to the game play, but they help create an integrated character in which procedural and non-procedural elements are brought together in a character representation that players experience on many levels.
例如，《VR 斗士 4》中的 Pai Chan 是一位动作片明星，她的爱好是跳舞。她身材娇小、体重轻，喜欢使用连击和快速反转的战斗风格。她的父亲 Lau 在之前的比赛中击败了她，在《VR 斗士 4》中，Pai 决心打败他，证明自己是父亲遗产的合格继承人。这个故事的每个部分都让玩家了解了这个角色的优点和缺点。Pai Chan 的动作英雄和舞者背景使她动作敏捷。她喜欢的战斗风格是快速的组合，如果她的攻击被阻挡，她往往会毫无防备。由于她强烈的愿望是打败她的父亲，Pai Chan 受情感而不是逻辑的驱动。因此，她的战斗风格是本能的和即时的。她反应迅速，但很少计划长期战斗。
For example, Virtua Fighter 4’s Pai Chan is an action film star whose hobby is dancing. She is small and light and favors a fighting style that uses combos and quick reverses. Her father, Lau, bested her in a previous tournament, and in VF4 Pai is determined to defeat him and prove herself a worthy successor to her father’s legacy. Each component of this narrative offers players insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the character. Pai Chan’s background as an action hero and dancer make her quick and agile. Her preferred style of fighting favors rapid combinations that often leave her defenseless if her attacks are blocked. Because of her intense desire to defeat her father, Pai Chan is driven by emotion, not logic. As a result, her fighting style is visceral and immediate. She reacts quickly, but rarely plans for the long fight.
这个人物速写不仅描述了 Pai Chan 本人，还描述了她的程序特征所导致的游戏风格。通过在比赛中“扮演”Pai Chan，玩家参与了她的再现，让她的程序特征栩栩如生。由于她的形式特征、外表、背景故事和新出现的个性之间精心设计的协同作用，游戏成为了一个有意义的再现。这种层次丰富的模拟是游戏通过一套综合的表征机制来表达其独特含义的一个绝佳例子。
This character sketch not only describes Pai Chan herself, but also the playing style that her procedural characteristics engender. By “playing” Pai Chan in a match, the player participates in her representation, bringing her procedural characteristics to life. The play becomes a meaningful representation because of the well-designed synergy between her formal characteristics, appearance, backstory, and emergent personality. This kind of richly layered simulation is a fantastic example of the unique ways that games signify through an integrated suite of representational mechanisms.
杀出重围
Deus Ex
Deus Ex 是一款为计算机和游戏机平台设计的角色扮演游戏。这款游戏的一大特色是计算机生成的角色，它们对游戏事件的反应非常微妙和富有表现力。这些角色遵循一系列人工智能算法，这些算法决定了它们在任何特定情况下的行为方式。在《剑与电路》一书中，Hallford 和 Hallford 重印了 Deus Ex 设计文档的一部分，其中概述了不同类型的角色在特定情况下的行为方式。这份引人入胜的文档揭示了游戏角色程序化表现的设计机制。以下是文档的简短摘录：
Deus Ex is a role-playing game designed for both computer and console platforms. A strong feature of the game is the computer-generated characters, which respond to game events in surprisingly subtle and expressive ways. These characters follow a series of AI algorithms that determine how they behave in any given situation. In Swords and Circuitry, Hallford and Hallford reprint a section of the Deus Ex design document that outlines how different character types act in certain circumstances. This fascinating document reveals the designed mechanisms by which the game’s characters are procedurally represented. Here is a brief excerpt from the document:
平民：
Civilian:
• 不会伤害平民
• Does not harm civilians
• 忽略不明声音
• Ignores unidentified sounds
• 了解警报
• Aware of alarms
• 攻击前发出警告
• Issues warning before attacking
• 受伤程度低于 X% 时逃跑（X 为高）
• Flees when wounded below X% (where X is high)
• 倾向于保护自己
• Tends to protect self
• 地面移动，正常
• Ground-based movement, normal
暴徒：
Thug:
• 不关心平民的安全
• No concern for safety of civilians
• 调查不明声音
• Investigates unidentified sounds
• 了解警报
• Aware of alarms
• 毫无预警的攻击
• Attacks without warning
• 受伤程度低于 X% 时逃跑（X 较低）
• Flees when wounded below X% (where X is low)
• 地面移动，正常
• Ground-based movement, normal
军队：
Military:
• 不会伤害平民
• Does not harm civilians
• 调查不明声音（如果可能的话，不要放弃岗位）
• Investigates unidentified sounds (if possible without abandoning post)
• 了解警报
• Aware of alarms
• 攻击前发出警告
• Issues warning before attacking
• 受伤时绝不逃跑
• Never flees when wounded
• 地面移动，快速4
• Ground-based movement, fast 4
这些角色描述相当高级——它们并没有正式指定每个角色的具体行为方式。例如，每个角色的速度仅定义为“正常”和“快速”，而不是数字。然而，作为一个抽象的角色草图，这些描述提供了游戏设计师在开发角色行为时做出的设计决策的快照。比较暴徒角色和军人角色。胆小的暴徒在健康状况不佳时会逃跑，而勇敢的军人角色永远不会放弃自己的岗位，会战斗到最后。无耻的暴徒会毫无预警地发动攻击，但光荣的军人角色会在攻击前发出警告。这样，角色的编程特征就呈现出模拟的个性，凭借其程序差异而变得富有表现力。通过添加根据多个参数定义的不同类型的角色，可以开发出一整套程序生成的演员阵容。
These character descriptions are quite high level—they do not formally specify exactly how each character will behave. For example, the speed of each character is only defined as “normal” and “fast” rather than numerically. However, as an abstract character sketch, these descriptions offer a snapshot of the sort of design decisions the game’s designers made as they developed the characters’ behaviors. Compare the thug character and the military character. Whereas the more cowardly thug will flee when his health is low, the brave military character will never abandon his post and will fight it out to the bitter end. The unscrupulous thug will attack without warning, but the honorable military character will issue a warning before attacking. In this way, the programmed characteristics of the characters take on a simulated personality, becoming expressive by virtue of their procedural differences. By adding different types of characters defined along a number of parameters, an entire cast of procedurally generated actors could be developed.
为了理解这些表现策略的复杂性，我们可以将《杀出重围》中的角色与《塞尔达传说》中的女巫进行比较。女巫的行为相当简单，而且完全可以预测（如果：收到蘑菇，那么：制造粉末）。相比之下，游戏中几个《杀出重围》角色的相遇创造了一个充满戏剧性的场景。例如，想象一下以下情况：一名暴徒接近一名平民。平民（无视不明声音）对接近的暴徒的脚步声毫不在意，暴徒开始无情地殴打平民（未经警告就发动攻击；不关心平民的安全）。暴徒发动一次攻击后，平民开始逃跑（受伤低于 X% 时逃跑，其中 X 为高），暴徒紧追不舍（两个角色都以正常速度移动）。他们俩被一名军人角色追赶，她注意到了他们（调查不明声音）并亲自追赶，很快就追上了他们（以快速移动）。军人角色无视平民，但追上了暴徒并开始发出警告……场景将如何展开？暴徒在收到警告后会停下来，让平民有时间逃跑吗？军人角色和暴徒会战斗到最后吗？还是整个场景会随着角色分道扬镳而散去？
To appreciate the sophistication of these strategies for representation, compare the Deus Ex characters to the witch in Zelda. The witch behavior is fairly simple and wholly predictable (if: receive mushroom, then: create powder). In contrast, several Deus Ex characters encountering each other in the game create a scene rife with emergent drama. Imagine, for example, the following situation: A thug approaches a civilian. The civilian (who ignores unidentified sounds) pays no heed to the footsteps of the approaching thug, who begins to mercilessly beat the civilian (attacks without warning; no concern for safety of civilians). After the thug strikes a single blow, the civilian starts to flee (flees when wounded below X%, where X is high), pursued by the thug (both characters move at normal speed). The pair of them run by a military character who takes notice of them (investigates unidentified sounds) and takes up the chase herself, quickly catching up to them (moving at fast speed). The military character ignores the civilian but catches up to the thug and begins to issue a warning . . . How will the scene play out? Does the thug pause when warned, giving the civilian time to flee? Do the military character and the thug battle to the finish? Or does the entire scene disperse as characters each go their separate ways?
这一系列动作不是预先编写的，而是从角色的模拟行为中产生的。每个角色都有非常独特的个性。当然，每个角色也有不同的外观、动作风格、语调等等。这些非程序性特征对于他们的整体表现当然很重要。但正是通过角色的程序性表现，即从行为特征中产生的表现，他们才能在游戏的戏剧性事件中扮演积极的角色。
This sequence of actions is not pre-scripted, but instead emerges from the simulated behaviors of the characters. Each character has a very distinct personality. Of course each character also has a different visual appearance, style of movement, tone of voice, and so on. These nonprocedural traits are certainly important to their overall representation. But it is through the procedural representation of the characters, representation emerging from behavioral characteristics, that they take on active roles in the dramatic events of the game.
斑点
Blob
程序化角色并非数字游戏领域所独有。我们最后一个例子来自一款非数字游戏，一款名为 Blob 的新游戏标签变体。
Procedurally represented characters are not exclusive to the domain of digital games. Our final example of a procedural character comes from a non-digital game, a New Games tag variant called Blob.
如果你沉迷于深夜电视怪物电影，这里有一个摆脱这个习惯并走向白天的有效方法……
If you’re addicted to late-night TV monster movies, here’s a sure way to kick the habit and break out into the light of day . . .
Blob 一开始只是个玩捉迷藏游戏的普通人，十分单纯。一旦她抓到某人，她就会和他携手合作。现在，他也是 Blob 的一部分，他们携手合作，寻找受害者。Blob 抓到的每个人（只有 Blob 两端的外侧手可以抓到玩家）都会与它携手合作，成为不断延长的原生质链的一部分。因此，阴险的 Blob 不断壮大。
The Blob begins innocently enough as a mere individual playing a game of tag. As soon as she catches someone, she joins hands with him. Now he’s part of the Blob too, and they both set out, hand-in-hand, in search of victims. Everyone the Blob catches (only the outside hand on either end of the Blob can snatch at players) joins hands with it and becomes part of the lengthening protoplasmic chain. And thus the insidious Blob keeps growing.
与那些疯狂科学家创造的普通 Blob 不同，这个 Blob 并不满足于仅仅四处游走寻找猎物。它会在田野里奔跑，将散落的跑步者逼到角落，迫使他们加入进来……
Unlike your run-of-the-mill, mad scientist-created Blobs, this one is not content to merely ooze along, seeking its prey. It gallops around the field, cornering stray runners and forcing them to join up . . . .
此外（恐怖），Blob 可以分裂成多个部分，并利用其优越的集体智慧，组织突袭队对付少数成功逃脱的孤单生物。当只剩下一名玩家代表人类英勇奋战时，惊心动魄的高潮就出现了。但遗憾的是，人类无法抵御 Blob，最终屈服了。（如果这看起来不公平，好吧，这就是情节。）
Moreover (horrors), the Blob can split itself into parts and, with its superior communal intelligence, organize raiding parties on the lone few who have managed to escape. The thrilling climax occurs when there’s only one player left to put up a heroic last-ditch stand on behalf of humanity. But alas, there is no defense against the Blob, and humanity succumbs. (If that seems unfair, well, that’s the plot.)
我们的故事寓意可能是，“你会成为你所害怕的人。”如果你有心再次毁灭人类，你可以让最后一个被抓住的人在下一场比赛中开始 Blob。5
The moral of our story could well be, “You become what you fear.” If you have the heart to destroy humanity again, you can have the last person caught start the Blob for the next game.5
Blob 游戏主要关注单个角色的程序化表示：Blob。角色的形态是一团移动的物体，与《塞尔达传说：林克的觉醒》、《VR 斗士 4》和《杀出重围》中以视觉图像和音频呈现的角色截然不同。然而，与这些角色一样，Blob 也是通过一组表示程序生成的。
The game of Blob is centrally focused on the procedural representation of a single character: the Blob. The form that the character takes, a mass of moving bodies, is quite different than the characters in Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Virtua Fighter 4, and Deus Ex, which are experienced as visual images and audio. Yet, like these characters, the Blob is generated out of a set of representational procedures.
Blob 模仿的是 B 级电影中的怪物：一种巨大、恐怖、像布丁一样的生物。游戏规则巧妙地通过一组行为程序将这个角色带入了现实。其他玩家试图避开 Blob 这一事实立即创造了一种恐惧的环境。缓慢移动的 Blob 会驱散前面的玩家，笨拙地穿过游戏场。接触 Blob 是致命的，并且当玩家被 Blob 的一个边缘刷到时，该玩家将被摄入并融入角色的身体中。
The Blob parodies a B-grade movie monster: a humongous, horrifying, pudding-like creature. The rules of the game cleverly bring this character to life through a set of behavioral procedures for representation. The fact that the rest of the players try to avoid the Blob immediately creates an environment of fear. The slow-moving Blob scatters players before it, lumbering through the playfield. The touch of the Blob is deadly, and when a player is brushed by one of the edges of the Blob, that player is ingested and incorporated into the body of the character.
随着 Blob 的成长，它往往会移动得更慢，同时覆盖更大的区域；它还可以以非常原生质的方式分裂和重组。Blob 的大小与在游戏场上自由奔跑的玩家数量成反比。越来越少的非 Blob 玩家变成了一个顽强的幸存者社区。哦不！别告诉我它也吞噬了 Sharyn！在游戏的高潮中，Blob 象征性地吞噬了整个世界，成为玩家群体的代名词，因为他们通过竞争和合作达到了终点。游戏的故事可能只有一个结局，但正如规则所指出的那样，故事有一个寓意。
As the Blob grows, it tends to move more slowly while covering a wider area; it can also fragment and recombine in a very protoplasmic way. The size of the Blob is an inverse function of the number of players running loose around the playfield. The dwindling non-Blob players become a community of hard-nosed survivors. Oh no! Don’t tell me it got Sharyn too! At the game’s climax, the Blob symbolically ingests the entire world, becoming synonymous with the group of players as they reach a competitively and cooperatively achieved endpoint. The game’s narrative may only have one ending, but as the rules point out, there is a moral to the story.
正如《塞尔达传说：林克的觉醒》中的女巫是通过创造独特“女巫”特征的程序来表现的一样，Blob 的角色拥有程序化的角色特征（胆小、稳步成长、吞噬玩家、分裂和重组、最终获胜），这些特征与 Blob 极为相似。Blob 是一个设计精美的游戏角色，它通过极其有效的程序手段生成角色——而且完全没有使用数字技术！
Just as the witch in Zelda: Link’s Awakening was represented through procedures that created distinctively “witchy” characteristics, the character of the Blob possesses procedural character traits (fearful, steadily growing, ingests players, fragments and recombines, inevitably wins) that are exceedingly Blob-like. An elegantly designed game persona, the Blob generates a character through exceptionally effective procedural means—and completely without digital technology!
设计模拟
Designing Simulations
程序化表示显然可以为游戏玩家提供有意义的游戏体验。但设计模拟却充满挑战。一旦你决定了想要你的游戏模拟什么，你如何将各个部分组合在一起，实现你想要的那种模拟？模拟作为一种表示过程，不仅仅是一系列产生结果的独立程序。模拟源于系统的操作，其中每个元素都以集成的方式为更大的表示做出贡献。
Procedural representations clearly can provide meaningful play for game players. But designing simulations is challenging. Once you decide what it is you want your game to simulate, how do you put the pieces together to arrive at the kind of simulation that you want? A simulation, as a representational process, is more than a series of independent procedures producing a result. A simulation arises from the operation of a system in which every element contributes in an integrated way to the larger representation.
设计该系统的机制给游戏设计师带来了许多具有挑战性的决定。在《发明冒险游戏》一书中，沃伦·罗宾内特概述了创建模拟所涉及的一些关键设计问题：
Designing the mechanisms of that system presents many challenging decisions for a game designer. In Inventing the Adventure Game, Warren Robinett outlines some of the key design issues involved in creating a simulation:
给定一个要模拟的现象，问题在于确定它的各部分是什么，如何用数值来表示这些部分，以及这些部分之间相互影响的关系是什么……
Given a phenomena to simulate, the problem is to decide what are its parts, how these parts can be represented with numerical values, and what the relationships are that let these parts affect one another . . . .
进行模拟是一个抽象的过程——从复杂的现实现象中选择哪些实体和哪些属性用于模拟程序。例如，要模拟弹跳的球，球的位置很重要，但其熔点可能并不重要。任何模型都有局限性，并不是对现实的完整描述。6
Making a simulation is a process of abstracting—of selecting which entities and which properties from a complex real phenomena to use in the simulation program. For example, to simulate a bouncing ball, the ball’s position is important but its melting point probably isn’t. Any model has limitations, and is not a complete representation of reality.6
在这几句话中，罗宾内特提出了一些关于模拟设计非常重要的观点，包括：
In these few sentences, Robinett makes a number of very important points about the design of simulations, including:
•模拟是抽象。您想在游戏中描绘的真实或想象的现象很可能充斥着层层细节。但与所有形式的表现媒体一样，您永远无法完全表现主题的方方面面。因此，正如罗宾内特指出的那样，您的模拟表现是一种抽象。国际象棋是战争的高度抽象表现。模拟城市是政府和城市规划的非常程式化的版本。D&D 甚至将人抽象为力量、智力、智慧、敏捷、体质和魅力等特征。模拟并不试图模拟其指称物的每个方面，而是专注于游戏所需的那些元素。Virtua Fighter 4 模拟了其角色的战斗能力：它不模拟他们的生物免疫系统或古典音乐品味，因为这些与游戏玩法无关。能够选择忽略主题的哪些组成部分以及保留和抽象哪些组成部分是一项绝对关键的游戏设计技能。
• Simulations are abstractions. The real or imagined phenomenon you want to depict in your game is most likely overflowing with layers of detail. But as with all forms of representational media, you will never be able to fully represent every facet of your subject. Thus your simulated representation, as Robinett points out, is an abstraction. Chess is a highly abstracted representation of war. Sim City is a very stylized version of government and city planning. D&D even abstracts people—into the characteristics of Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. A simulation does not attempt to simulate every aspect of its referent, but instead focuses on those elements necessary to the game. Virtua Fighter 4 simulates the fighting capabilities of its characters: it does not simulate their biological immune systems or taste in classical music, since these are not relevant to the play of the game. Being able to select which components of your subject to ignore and which to retain and abstract is an absolutely critical game design skill.
•模拟是系统。模拟是由更小、相互关联的部分组成的整体。与任何复杂系统一样，意义源自各部分的相互作用。仅仅集思广益列出您想要在模拟中包含的属性或效果是不够的。您必须构思一个包含所有这些属性或效果的系统。您可能想要一款可以模拟快速但虚弱的角色与缓慢但强大的角色之间差异的格斗游戏。但是“快”、“慢”、“强”和“弱”在您的系统中意味着什么？它们如何相互关联？这些属性如何影响玩家做出的决定和结果？所有游戏都是系统，但当我们将它们构建为模拟时，游戏的系统方面将直接用于表征效果。
• Simulations are systems. A simulation is a whole made up of smaller, interrelated parts. As with any complex system, meaning emerges from the interaction of the parts. Brainstorming a list of attributes or effects that you want to include in a simulation is not enough. You must conceive of a system that incorporates them all. You might want a fighting game that can simulate the difference between a fast but weak character and a slow but strong character. But what does “fast,” “slow,” “strong,” and “weak” mean in your system? How do they interrelate? How do these attributes affect the decisions and outcomes a player makes? All games are systems, but when we frame them as simulations, the systemic aspect of the game is harnessed directly for representational effect.
•模拟是数字的。模拟不仅是抽象的系统表示，而且可以简化为正式的数字结构。我们已经知道游戏的这一点：在某种程度上，游戏是由规则组成的，而在最正式的层面上，所有规则都是逻辑的、数学的、构成性的规则。前面列出的六个 D&D 统计数据在游戏中表示为 3 到 18 之间的数字。计算机游戏中的复杂物理模拟基于数学建模。无论是在《万智牌》卡牌上还是在《杀出重围》中，人造角色的行为都可以简化为其正式身份。模拟必须将其主题简化为正式的数值，这正是程序化地描述游戏中的社会、心理和其他体验复杂现象如此具有挑战性的原因。
• Simulations are numerical. Not only are simulations abstracted, systemic representations, but they are also reducible to a formal, numerical structure. We know this already about games: at some level games are composed of rules, and at their most formal level, all rules are logical, mathematical, constituative rules. The six D&D statistics listed previously are represented in the game as numerical digits between three and eighteen. Complex physics simulations in computer games are based on mathematical modeling. The behavior of artificial characters, whether on a Magic: The Gathering card or inside Deus Ex, can be reduced to their formal identity. The fact that simulations must reduce their subjects to formal, numerical values is exactly why it is so challenging to procedurally depict social, psychological, and other experientially complex phenomena in a game.
•模拟是有限的。由于模拟是数字抽象，因此它们本质上是有限的。正如罗宾内特指出的那样，“每个模型都有其局限性，并不是对现实的完整描述。”我们强调模拟的这一方面，是因为计算机游戏行业普遍认为更复杂的模拟会自动保证有意义的游戏。事实上，在数字平台上，即使是所谓的“现实”模拟也只描绘了现实世界或想象现象的一小部分。但这并不意味着模拟不能提供有意义的游戏。富有创意的共享软件游戏《桥梁建造者》模拟了它的主题，但它选择了桥梁建设的一个非常狭窄的方面——支撑结构的工程挑战。这种设计忽略了可能模拟的数千种其他可能的特征，从建筑材料的美观到桥梁建设对周围生态系统的影响。但这没关系。游戏将模拟的内在局限性转化为一种资产，将玩家的活动集中在建造桥梁的有趣和教育方面。
• Simulations are limited. Because simulations are numerical abstractions, they are intrinsically limited. As Robinett points out, “every model has its limitations and is not a complete representation of reality.” We emphasize this aspect of simulations because of prevalent ideas in the computer game industry that more complex simulations automatically guarantee meaningful play. In fact, on a digital platform even a supposedly “realistic” simulation only depicts a tiny slice of any real world or imagined phenomenon. But this doesn’t mean that simulations can’t provide meaningful play. The inventive shareware game Bridge Builder simulates its subject, but it chooses a very narrow aspect of bridge building—the engineering challenges of the support structure. This design leaves out thousands of other possible characteristics that might be simulated, from the aesthetics of the building materials to the effect of the bridge construction on the surrounding ecosystem. But that’s OK. The game turns the intrinsically limited nature of simulation into an asset, by focusing player activity on a fun and educational aspect of building bridges.
设计涉及选择：要创建模拟，您需要决定模拟什么以及如何模拟。作为游戏设计师，您做出的每一个选择都会打开一些可能性并关闭其他可能性。在特定模拟的背景下，什么是有意义的？当玩家驾驶悬挂式滑翔机时，将风吹到玩家脸上是否有意义？提供全身安全带让玩家在与模拟互动时可以躺在其中是否有意义？模拟玩家购买或租用悬挂式滑翔机的保险和法律程序是否有意义？任天堂娱乐系统的 Pilotwings 是一款流行的悬挂式滑翔模拟游戏，但不包括这些功能。
Design involves choice: to create a simulation, you need to decide what to simulate and how. Every choice you make as a game designer opens some possibilities and closes others. What is meaningful in the context of a particular simulation? Is it meaningful to blow wind into the face of the player as she is piloting a hang glider? Is it meaningful to provide a full-body harness in which the player can lie as she interacts with the simulation? Is it meaningful to simulate the insurance and legal procedures by which a player purchases or rents a hang glider? Pilotwings for the Nintendo Entertainment System, a popular game simulation of hang gliding, includes none of these features.
在数字游戏中，这种决策过程很大程度上涉及模拟的范围和深度。如果赛车游戏由一条赛道上的一辆车组成，那么它可能非常详细。它可能包括一组复杂的物理模型、汽车内部悬架的模拟，或轮胎胎面随时间推移的磨损。在同样的设计资源下，增加更多的汽车和更多的赛道意味着可以以同样详细的方式模拟更少的特征。如果增加更多的元素——比如可以变成喷气式飞机并在赛道上飞行的汽车——那么重点模拟的范围再次发生变化。如果角色可以下车、四处走动并与其他人互动，那么范围就会变得更广，模拟的“深度”也会相应减小。
In digital games, much of this decision-making process involves the scope and depth of a simulation. If a racing game is composed of a single car on a single track, it can be extremely detailed. It might include a complex set of physics models, simulations of the internal suspension of the car, or wear on tire treads as they are used over time. Given the same design resources, the addition of more cars and more tracks means that fewer characteristics can be simulated in an equally detailed way. If even more elements are added—such as cars that can transform into jets and fly around the track—the focus of the simulation shifts once more. If a character can get out of the vehicle, walk around, and interact with other people, that casts the net even wider and the “depth” of the simulation decreases accordingly.
在设计模拟游戏时，你必须决定要为玩家提供哪些类型的程序化表示。在《铁拳》等格斗游戏系列中，这是一个细节丰富（但又充满电影感）的格斗模拟游戏，角色不会坐上汽车在赛道上行驶。另一方面，在《莎木》等雄心勃勃的开放式游戏中，玩家的角色可以与环境中的许多其他角色进行简单的对话，检查、携带和使用各种各样的物体，并探索广阔而细致的空间。由于模拟的活动范围很广，《莎木》中的格斗系统比《铁拳》更加风格化，范围也更加有限。
In designing a simulation, you must decide exactly what kinds of procedural representations you want to provide for players. In a fighting game series such as Tekken, a detailed (if fancifully cinematic) fighting simulation, the characters don’t also get into cars and drive around a track. On the other hand, in an ambitiously open-ended game such as Shenmue, a player’s character can have simple conversations with many other characters in the environment, examine, carry, and utilize a wide array of objects, and explore a large detailed space. As a result of the range of activities simulated, the fighting system in Shenmue is much more stylized and limited in scope than that of Tekken.
为什么游戏无法高度详细地模拟一切？为什么游戏模拟不能既广泛又深入？原因有几个。有限的开发资源要求游戏设计师决定将这些资源花在何处。但时间和预算的限制并不是影响模拟范围的唯一因素。游戏设计因素也很重要。有意义的游戏源于玩家从一组有限的可知选项中做出有意义的选择的能力。如果玩家难以识别正在模拟的所有内容，他们对可知选项的理解就会减少。
Why is it that games can’t simulate everything with a high degree of detail? Why can’t a game simulation be both wide and deep? There are several reasons. Limited development resources require that game designers decide where those resources will be spent. But the limitations of time and budget are not the only things affecting the scope of simulations. There are game design factors as well. Meaningful play stems from the ability of players to make meaningful choices from a limited set of knowable options. If a player has trouble recognizing everything that is being simulated, an understanding of knowable options decreases.
游戏设计师哈维·史密斯（Harvey Smith）在一篇关于模拟和游戏的文章中说，7他举了一个虚构的车辆类游戏的例子，该游戏的地形模拟非常精确，以至于玩家驾驶的卡车的几何形状可能会卡在地面上的一个小凸起上。在这种情况下，设计师选择了错误的游戏元素来详细模拟。史密斯的例子还指出了认为模拟不是抽象的问题。游戏的“现实”是由它在魔法圈内创造的意义决定的。史密斯虚构例子中的地形模拟可能基于科学上精确的数学模型，但玩家唯一会体验到的是在看似相对平坦的地形上无法驾驶的令人沮丧的“不切实际”的体验。
In an essay by game designer Harvey Smith on simulation and games,7 he uses the fictional example of a vehicle-based game with terrain simulation so exacting that the geometry of a player-driven truck can get stuck on a tiny bump on the ground. In this case, the designer chose the wrong element of the game to simulate in detail. Smith’s example also points out the problem of thinking that a simulation is anything but an abstraction. The “reality” of a game is determined by the meanings it creates within the magic circle. The terrain simulation in Smith’s fictional example might be based on scientifically accurate mathematical models, but the only thing the player will experience is the frustrating, “unrealistic” experience of being unable to drive on what looks like relatively smooth terrain.
模拟的适当细节范围在很大程度上取决于游戏大环境设定的期望。在 Gran Turismo 中，这款深度模拟现实世界汽车物理的游戏，玩家期望获得精细的驾驶体验。然而，驾驶显然是游戏的重点。没有玩家期望下车，漫步到看台上，与观众互动。另一方面，像《莎木》这样的游戏因让玩家失望而受到批评。如果玩家可以与游戏中的许多不同类型的物体互动，为什么他们只能进入某些建筑物而不能进入其他建筑物？玩家的期望被提升到不切实际的水平：模拟的隐含广度远远大于游戏实际提供的范围。
The proper scope of detail for a simulation is largely determined by expectations set by the broader context of the game. In Gran Turismo, a game that deeply simulates real-world car physics, players come to expect a finely grained driving experience. However, driving is clearly the focus of the game. No player expects to exit their car, wander up into the stands, and interact with spectators. A game such as Shenmue, on the other hand, has been criticized for disappointing players. If players can interact with many different kinds of objects in the game, why can they enter only some of the buildings and not others? Player expectations are raised to unrealistic levels: the implied breadth of the simulation is far greater than what the game actually delivers.
鉴于模拟是抽象且有限的，作为游戏设计师，您必须明智地选择战斗。您选择通过模拟的程序表示来描述的元素决定了游戏的体验重点。哈维·史密斯的另一个思想实验是采用典型的赛车游戏，并通过让计算机对手注意他们的油耗并尝试直接跟在其他汽车后面行驶，策略性地利用风切变来节省燃料，从而为其增添深度。他将此与带有情感模拟的赛车游戏进行了对比，在这种游戏中，其中一个计算机对手可能会在比赛中鲁莽驾驶，因为他刚刚结束了与女友的关系。8
Given that simulations are abstract and limited, as a game designer you must choose your battles wisely. The elements you select to depict through the procedural representation of a simulation determine the experiential focus of your game. Another of Harvey Smith’s thought experiments is to take a typical driving game and give it additional depth by having computer opponents take note of their fuel consumption and try to drive directly behind other cars, strategically using wind shear to conserve fuel. He contrasts this to a driving game with emotional simulation, in which one of the computer opponents might drive recklessly during a race because he had just ended a relationship with a girlfriend.8
尽管史密斯更喜欢油耗调整而不是赛车游戏，但我们发现这两个游戏创意同样有趣。这两种场景都指向非常不同的游戏体验。这两款赛车游戏——一款是硬核战略模拟游戏，另一款是赛道上的浪漫游戏——都需要模拟不同类型的现象。这些程序化表示将成为更大游戏系统的一部分，并将决定游戏可以表示什么以及玩家将体验什么。您很可能不希望在同一款游戏中同时包含燃料消耗模拟和浪漫模拟。为什么？因为每个模拟都将可能性空间和游戏焦点拉向相反的方向。燃料消耗功能意味着整个详细的汽车模拟机制系统将成为游戏的中心焦点。心碎的司机意味着游戏系统将专注于模拟约会、情感和风格化的浪漫。当您在游戏系统中制作表示时，您同时创建了玩家将体验到的含义。
Whereas Smith prefers the fuel consumption adjustment to the driving game, we find both of the game ideas equally interesting. Each of the two scenarios points to a very different game experience. Both driving games—one a hardcore strategic sim and the other a romance set on a race course—would require simulating different kinds of phenomena. These procedural representations would be part of the larger game system and would determine what the game could represent and what the player would experience. You most likely wouldn’t want both the fuel consumption simulation and the romance simulation in the same game. Why? Because each pull the space of possibility and the focus of the play in opposite directions. The fuel consumption feature implies an entire system of detailed car simulation mechanics that would be the central focus of the game. The heartbroken driver implies a game system that would focus on simulating dating, emotions, and stylized romance. As you craft representations in your game system, you simultaneously create the meanings that players will experience.
关键是要记住，模拟的范围有限并不意味着它无法为玩家提供足够的内容。围棋的抽象玩法包含无数的战略选择。Gran Turismo 的精细驾驶重点支持有意义的探索，因为模拟会奖励玩家学习和利用其微妙之处。莎木宽广但肤浅的世界模拟让玩家专注于世界丰富的叙事表面，而不会陷入与游戏不相称的交互复杂性中。模拟的创建就是可能性空间的创建。通过定义游戏模拟的确切性质，您可以塑造游戏有意义的玩法形状。
The key is to remember that just because a simulation is limited in scope doesn’t mean that it is impoverished in what it can provide players. The abstract play of Go contains an infinite number of strategic options. The fine-grained driving focus of Gran Turismo supports meaningful exploration because the simulation rewards players for learning about and taking advantage of its subtleties. And the broad-but-shallow world simulation of Shenmue lets players focus on the rich narrative surface of the world without getting tripped up in interactive complexities that would not be appropriate to the game. The creation of a simulation is the creation of a space of possibility. By defining the exact nature of your game’s simulation, you are sculpting the shape of your game’s meaningful play.
从战争游戏中学习
Learning from Wargames
在模拟的固有限制内工作是游戏设计的主要挑战之一。你要在游戏中模拟什么？你要如何抽象它？你要包括现象的哪些特征，又要忽略哪些特征？你的模拟可以有多深、多广？你如何将模拟的每个方面与更广泛的玩家体验联系起来？为了更全面地理解这些设计决策，我们将详细研究一种特定的游戏类型，即历史战争游戏。
Working within the intrinsic limitations of simulations is one of the key challenges of game design. What are you going to simulate in your game? How are you going to abstract it? Which features of the phenomena will you include and which will you ignore? How deep and how broad can your simulation be? How do you tie each aspect of your simulation to the larger player experience? To understand these kinds of design decisions more fully, we look in detail at a particular genre of game, the historical wargame.
历史战争游戏是一种复杂的战略游戏，使用地图上的纸板筹码或金属人物来模拟战斗。我们已经注意到，游戏模拟并非普遍遵循“真实性”或“准确性”。但历史战争游戏是一种游戏设计类型，真实性和准确性都很重要。历史战争游戏设计师根据历史研究来设计他们的部队组成、地图布局和游戏规则，这是一种军事历史的数值方法，战争游戏设计师詹姆斯·邓尼根称之为“分析历史”。在历史战争游戏的游戏设计子学科中，设计精神的一部分是游戏准确模拟历史情况。
Historical wargames are complex strategy games that use cardboard chits or metal figures on a map to simulate a battle. We have already noted that game simulations are not universally beholden to “realism” or “accuracy.” But historical wargaming is a genre of game design where both realism and accuracy are important. Historical wargame designers base their troop composition, map layouts, and game rules on historical research, a numerical approach to military history that wargame designer James Dunnigan calls “analytic history.” In the game design sub-discipline of historical wargaming, part of the design ethos is that a game accurately simulates historical circumstances.
从广义上讲，历史代表着一系列固定的事件。但历史战争游戏也是一种游戏，这意味着不确定性、风险和不可预测的结果都会发挥作用。历史战争游戏真正模拟的是冲突的起始条件。冲突的展开方式是游戏体验变得有趣的原因。历史会重演吗？历史结果是不可避免的吗？高超的战略能对结果产生多大影响？这些都是战争游戏设计师和玩家在创作和玩游戏时试图回答的问题。历史战争游戏的意义不仅源于军事决策的战略复杂性，还源于游戏对历史参照物的忠实度。
History, in a very general sense, represents a fixed series of events. But a historical wargame is a game, which means that uncertainty, risk, and unpredictable outcomes play a role. What a historical wargame really simulates are the starting conditions of a conflict. The way that the conflict plays out is what makes the game interesting as a game experience. Will history repeat itself? Was the historical outcome inevitable? How much can masterful strategy affect the outcome? These are all questions that wargame designers and players seek to answer through the creation and play of their games. The meaningful play of a historical wargame derives not only from the strategic complexities of military decision making, but also from the fidelity of the game to its historical referent.
我们知道，模拟永远不可能包含模拟现象的所有可能方面。历史上的战争游戏至少在一个世纪里一直在努力应对这一挑战，这使其成为模拟设计的绝佳案例研究。我们已经触及了战争游戏设计的一个方面，即单位特征的抽象。战争游戏中的棋子比国际象棋等游戏中的棋子复杂得多。当战争游戏中的单位“攻击”敌方棋子时，模拟战斗的结果不仅仅是消灭被攻击的单位（如国际象棋）；相反，各种因素决定了结果。解决攻击可能涉及以下部分或全部：
As we know, a simulation can never contain every possible aspect of the phenomena being simulated. Historical wargaming has been wrestling with this challenge for at least a century, making it a wonderful case study for the design of simulations. We have already touched on one aspect of wargame design, the abstraction of unit characteristics. The pieces in a war-game are far more complex than in a game like Chess. When a wargame unit “attacks” an enemy piece, the outcome of the simulated combat is not simply to remove the attacked unit (as in Chess); instead, a variety of factors determine the outcome. Resolving an attack might involve some or all of the following:
• offensive strength of the attacking unit
• 防守部队的防守实力
• defensive strength of the defending unit
• 双方部队是否已在战斗中受伤
• whether or not either unit has already been wounded in battle
• 地形可能给任一部队带来优势和劣势
• terrain that might give advantages and disadvantages to either unit
• 附近可以提供支援的单位
• nearby units that can lend support
• 附近是否有将军或其他领导人
• the nearby presence or absence of a General or other leader
• 一个单位或其团队的士气
• the morale of a unit or of its team
• 随机掷骰子（模拟实际战斗的不确定性）
• a random dice roll (to simulate the uncertainty of actual combat)
通常，玩家会统计这些因素，并查阅列出遭遇战结果的相应表格。然而，模拟的复杂性还不止于此，因为攻击的结果也可能有多种形式，包括：
Generally, players tally these factors and consult an appropriate table that lists the outcome of the encounter. The complexity of the simulation doesn’t end there, however, because the result of an attack can also take a variety of forms, including:
• 一个或两个单位被淘汰
• one or both units is eliminated
• 一方或双方部队实力减弱
• one or both units is reduced in strength
• 一方或双方部队被迫撤退
• one or both units is forced to retreat
• 一个单位取代另一个单位的位置
• one unit displaces the other’s position
丰富的程序化表现源自战争游戏单位之间交战的各种因素。通过调整单位的形式特征和游戏的整体解决系统，游戏设计师可以对历史战役进行高度具体的程序化表现。根据具体游戏的不同，模拟可能是二战时期的坦克师遭遇敌方步兵，或古代中东的骑兵弓箭手与长矛兵方阵的战斗。
A rich procedural representation emerges out of the factors going into and coming out of an encounter between wargame units. By tweaking the formal characteristics of units and the overall resolution system of a game, game designers can arrive at highly specific procedural representations of a historical battle. Depending on the particular game, the simulation might be a World War II tank division encountering enemy infantry, or a troop of horse-mounted archers fighting a phalanx of spearmen in the ancient Middle East.
战争游戏极其注重细节。同时，战争游戏中单位的表示也高度程式化：一个简单的纸板筹码或金属人物“代表”一个军事单位，每个筹码代表一整群士兵或车辆，它们像一个方块一样移动；单位的直线或网格移动；战斗简化为简单的数字因素；一个人类玩家从鸟瞰视角指挥整个战斗。这些只是历史战争游戏彻底抽象其主题的众多方式中的几个例子。但是，如果你接受这些限制，如果你接受游戏类型的惯例，那么其中就有无限的游戏空间，既可以让玩家探索历史的变化，也可以让游戏设计师构建使历史模拟成为可能的系统。
Wargames are incredibly detailed. At the same time, everything about the representation of units in a wargame is highly stylized: a simple cardboard chit or metal figure “stands in” for a military unit, with each piece representing a whole group of soldiers or vehicles that move as a single block; the straightline or grid-based movement of the units; the reduction of combat to simple numerical factors; a single human player directing the entire battle from a birds-eye view. These are only a few examples of the many ways historical wargames radically abstract their subject matter. However, if you accept these limitations, if you take on the conventions of the game genre, within them there is room for endless play, both for the player exploring permutations of history and for the game designer constructing the systems that make the historical simulation possible.
战场
The Field of Battle
除了单位特征及其互动规则外，游戏场地的设计也带来了挑战。历史战争游戏既要具有可玩性，又要准确模拟历史，这两个方面往往相互矛盾。战争游戏设计师 James Dunnigan 撰写了有关创建游戏地图的一些设计问题的文章：
In addition to characteristics of the units and the rules for their interaction, the design of the field of play presents its own challenges. A historical wargame has to function as both a playable game and an accurate simulation of history, two concerns that can often be at odds with each other. Wargame designer James Dunnigan writes about some of the design concerns in creating a game map:
在查看地理游戏地图时，有两个主要事项需要牢记。首先，地图上通常叠加有网格，通常是六边形网格……第二点是，在大多数历史情况下，只有非常大（“粗糙”）的地形特征才会对行动产生重大影响。因此，地图上的大量细节通常会妨碍提供准确的模拟。设计师通常觉得有义务证明所有这些细节的合理性。通常，玩家也会同样期待所有这些细节都有用，否则为什么要费心去理会它们。有一种不言而喻的假设是，只显示必要的内容。如果游戏中包含的信息无助于理解正在发生的事情，通常被认为是一种糟糕的设计。9
There are two primary things to keep in mind when examining a geographical game map. First, it often has a grid, most often a hexagonal grid, superimposed over it . . . . The second point is that in most historical situations, only very large (“gross”) terrain features have any significant effect on operations. Thus, a great deal of detail on a map will often get in the way of providing an accurate simulation. The designer usually feels obliged to justify all of this detail. Often the gamer will be equally expectant that all of this detail be put to some use or otherwise why bother him with it. There is an unspoken assumption that only that which is essential is displayed. It is normally considered a bad design if information is included in the game that does not contribute to one’s understanding of what is going on.9
现实世界是无限丰富的，制图师（包括游戏地图制作者）面临着简化地理的表达挑战，以便对地图的预期用途有意义。在历史战争游戏的地图中，设计师必须决定要包含什么和要省略什么，如何抽象和构建信息以适应更大的游戏系统。正如 Dunnigan 所说，地形中过多的细节会妨碍玩家的理解；只有“粗略的”地形特征才会对军事行动产生真正的影响。抽象强调了理解地形的关键特征，同时最大限度地减少了不太重要的元素造成的“噪音”。
The real world is infinitely rich, and cartographers—including game map-makers—are faced with the representational challenge of simplifying geography in a way that is meaningful for the intended use of the map. In a map for a historical wargame, designers must decide what to include and what to leave out, how to abstract and structure the information to fit in the larger game system. As Dunnigan puts it, too much detail in the terrain can get in the way of a player’s understanding; only “gross” terrain features have a real impact on military operations. Abstraction emphasizes the features critical to understanding the terrain, while minimizing the “noise” created by less important elements.
地图的网格是一个重要的考虑因素。基于网格的战争游戏中的单位只能在叠加在地图上的六边形或正方形内移动。因此，网格和地形之间存在非常特殊的关系。游戏设计师不仅需要选择相关的地形特征，还需要决定这些特征如何融入网格。由于地形会影响移动，因此简单地将网格放在地形正确的地形上会产生形式上的歧义。例如，在特定游戏中，单位可能无法穿越河流。如果一条河流流过地图六边形的中间，这是否意味着玩家可以进入六边形但不能从另一边出来，或者他们根本就不能进入六边形？战争游戏地图设计中的一个常见解决方案是将河流的形状风格化，使它们仅位于六边形的边缘。这种解决方案使河流在游戏中阻碍移动的作用完全清晰。设计地形以适应游戏网格会降低地图的地理准确性：没有自然形成的河流可以精确地沿着六边形网格绘制。但对于游戏设计而言，消除形式歧义的抽象是必不可少的。
The grid of the map is one important consideration. Units in a grid-based wargame move only within the hexagons or squares superimposed on the map. Because of this, there is a very specific relationship between the grid and the terrain. The game designer not only needs to select the relevant terrain features, but also decides how those features fit into the grid. Because terrain can affect movement, simply laying a grid over topographically correct terrain creates formal ambiguity. For example, in a particular game, units might not be able to cross rivers. If a river flows through the middle of a map hex, does it mean that players can enter the hex but not exit out the other side, or that they cannot enter the hex in the first place? A common solution in wargame map design is to stylize the shape of rivers so that they are located only on the edges of hexes. This solution makes the movement-blocking role of rivers in the game completely clear. Designing the terrain to accommodate the game grid lessens the geographic accuracy of the map: there are no naturally occurring rivers that can be plotted exactly along a hexagonal grid. But for game design purposes, abstraction that eliminates formal ambiguity is essential.
关于河流和战争游戏地图设计的问题还不止于此。如果历史战争游戏的一个目的是忠实于真实战场，那么应该包括哪些河流？什么时候支流或溪流太小而无法在地图上标出？哪些河流应该对游戏玩法产生影响？正如 Dunnigan 指出的那样，如果某个东西在地图上很显眼，玩家就会期望它会影响游戏玩法：一个可见的特征对规则的运作没有帮助，那就是糟糕的设计。
Questions about rivers and wargame map design do not end there. If one purpose of a historical wargame is fidelity to the real battlefield, which rivers should be included? When does a tributary or stream become too small to be indicated on the map? Which rivers should have an impact on the play of the game? As Dunnigan points out, if something is prominent on the map, a player will expect it to impact game play: a visible feature that does not contribute to the functioning of the rules is bad design.
在设计战争游戏地图时，在决定要包含哪些特征以及如何在更大的模拟中表示这些特征时，您所做的不仅仅是创建地图。您正在构建一个意义空间。如果您的游戏模拟单个士兵之间的战斗，那么您包含的地形元素将对哪种类型的地形影响某种战斗做出代表性陈述。战争游戏地图的意义不仅源于其地理或图形特征：意义源于地图在更大的游戏体验中所扮演的角色。地图的形式特征使某些玩家动作成为可能，这些动作构成了游戏玩法的持续时刻。
In designing a wargame map, in deciding which features to include and how to represent them within the larger simulation, you are doing more than just creating a map. You are constructing a space of meaning. If your game simulates combat between individual soldiers, the terrain elements you include make a representational statement about which type of terrain affects a certain kind of combat. The meaning of a wargame map arises not just from its geographic or pictorial features: the meaning derives from the role the map plays in the larger game experience. The formal qualities of the map make certain player actions possible, actions that constitute the ongoing moments of game play.
并非所有战争游戏都使用网格。一些微缩模型游戏以英寸为单位测量单位移动，而在一些数字战争游戏中，单位移动是自由形式且高度精细的。在这些情况下，抽象和有意义的游戏原则仍然适用。地图元素是否将其含义传达给玩家？它们是否以在游戏的更大系统中有意义的方式影响游戏玩法？模拟是否创建了连贯的表现？玩家选择的结果是否有意义？随着游戏的逐一展开，游戏的整体体验逐渐显现。这样，模拟游戏将我们带回到游戏设计最基本的问题。
Not all wargames use a grid. Some miniatures games measure unit movement in inches, and in some digital wargames, unit movement is free-form and highly granular. In these cases, the principles of abstraction and meaningful play still hold. Are the map elements communicating their meaning to the player? Do they affect game play in ways that make sense within the larger system of the game? Is the simulation creating a coherent representation? Are the outcomes of the player’s choices meaningful? As play unfolds moment by moment, the total experience of the game emerges. In this way, the play of simulation brings us back to the most fundamental questions of game design.
情境模拟
Simulation in Context
历史战争游戏为更好地理解表现和模拟问题提供了绝佳的背景，因为该类型的游戏前提是游戏准确地描绘了现实世界的历史参照物。大多数类型的游戏对于它们如何准确地模拟“现实”并没有如此正统的看法。然而，在数字游戏中，一系列相关问题越来越突出。计算机或视频游戏究竟如何程序化地表现其主题？我们在历史战争游戏中探索的核心问题同样存在：游戏模拟如何创造有意义的游戏。
Historical wargaming provides a terrific context for better understanding issues of representation and simulation because the premise of the genre is that a game accurately depicts a real-world historical referent. Most kinds of games do not have such an orthodox view of how accurately they simulate “reality.” However, a related set of issues has increasingly come to prominence within digital games. Exactly how does a computer or video game procedurally represent its subject? At stake are the same core concerns we explored in historical wargames: how it is that a game simulation can create meaningful play.
计算机技术在模拟和管理复杂系统方面的能力不断增强，为数字领域的游戏设计开辟了新的可能性。游戏中对光、声音、物理、代理行为和其他现象的极其详细的模拟正变得越来越普遍。许多来自数字游戏设计师的最新文章都关注数字媒体的这一特性，并为游戏设计师在工作中提出了策略。让我们比较一下三个这样的例子：
The steadily increasing power of computer technology to simulate and manage complex systems has opened up new possibilities for game design in the digital realm. Incredibly detailed simulations of light, sound, physics, agent behavior, and other phenomena are becoming commonplace within games. Many recent writings from digital game designers focus on this feature of digital media and suggest strategies for game designers to use in their work. Let’s compare three such examples:
• 在《剑与电路》中，Hallford 和 Hallford 以手榴弹摧毁门为例讨论了游戏中的模拟设计。模拟这种效果的一种方法是指定游戏中每颗手榴弹和每扇门之间的关系。在这种情况下，游戏中手榴弹效果的每个可能实例都必须在程序中明确说明。相比之下，在更灵活的系统中，手榴弹属于造成伤害的一般物体类别，而门属于受到伤害时会损坏的一般物体类别。Hallford 和 Hallford 强烈支持后一种模拟设计方法。10
• In Swords & Circuitry, Hallford and Hallford discuss simulation design in games using the example of a grenade destroying a door. One approach to simulating this effect would be to specify the relationship between each grenade and each door in the game. In this case, every possible instance of a grenade effect in the game would have to be explicitly spelled out in the program. In contrast, in a more flexible system, grenades would belong to a general category of objects that cause damage, and doors would belong to a general category of objects that break when they receive damage. Hallford and Hallford strongly prefer this latter approach to simulation design.10
• 在《游戏设计：理论与实践》一书中，理查德·劳斯三世 (Richard Rouse III) 通过地牢谜题的例子讨论了一组相关的想法，在地牢谜题中，玩家通过将物体放在压力板触发器上来打开一扇秘密的门。一种设计方法是将每个物体和压力板之间的关系硬编码，这样被定义为“重”的物体就会触发压力板。劳斯主张创建一个通用的重量系统，其中游戏中的每个物体都有一个数字重量等级；如果压力板上物体的重量值达到一定数字，就会触发压力板。11
• In Game Design: Theory and Practice, Richard Rouse III discusses a related set of ideas through the example of a dungeon puzzle, in which players open a secret door by dropping objects on a pressure plate trigger. One design approach would be to hard-code relationships between every object and the pressure plate, so that objects defined as “heavy” trigger the plate. Rouse advocates the creation of a generalized weight system instead, in which every object in the game has a numeric weight rating; if the weight value of the objects on the pressure plate reaches a certain number, the plate is triggered.11
• 在《游戏设计的未来》一文中，哈维·史密斯在一个涉及鸟类行为的例子中表现出了类似的偏好。鸟类行为可以建模，这样当玩家在模拟鸟类的一定半径范围内移动时，鸟类就会飞到空中。然而，史密斯更希望看到一种更详细的模拟，其中鸟类的行为可以通过感知光、声音、运动或其他模拟刺激来触发，这些刺激将更紧密地融入整个游戏系统。12
• In “The Future of Game Design,” Harvey Smith shows a similar preference in an example involving bird behavior. Bird behavior could be modeled so that when a player moves within a certain radius of a simulated bird, the bird flies into the air. However, Smith would rather see a more detailed simulation in which the bird’s behavior could be triggered by the perception of light, sound, motion, or other modeled stimuli that would be more tightly integrated into the system of the game as a whole.12
这三个例子都表明了类似的观点：简单的、基于案例的模拟结构与依赖于集成系统关系的更复杂的广义结构之间存在差异。尽管这两种方法都创建了程序表示，但作者明显偏爱一种方法而不是另一种方法。在他们的工作中，他们列举了许多原因来说明为什么广义策略更适合设计模拟：
All three of these examples make a similar point: there is a difference between a simple, case-based structure for a simulation and a more complex generalized structure that relies on integrated, systemic relationships. Although both approaches create procedural representations, the authors show a clear preference for one approach over the other. In their work, they cite a number of reasons why a generalized strategy is better for designing simulations:
•减少工作时间：当游戏系统很大时，通用系统允许更灵活的设计。在手榴弹示例中，指定游戏中每种可能的武器和每种可能的物体之间的每种可能的交互将是一项重大的编程任务。一旦建立了这些关系（例如对金属门进行逆向工程以使其免受手榴弹损坏），就意味着要回到代码中并修改每个受影响的实例。通过创建对象类（如 Hallford 和 Hallford 所建议的），可以将对象类别移入和移出不同的效果类，以便游戏设计师可以快速尝试游戏中不同的关系组合。
• It decreases work time: When a game system is large, generalized systems allow for much more flexible design. In the grenade example, specifying every possible interaction between every possible weapon and every possible object in the game would be a major programming task. Making adjustments to these relationships once they are established (such as reverse-engineering metal doors to be immune to grenade damage) means going back into the code and modifying every affected instance. By creating classes of objects as Hallford and Hallford suggest, categories of objects can be moved in and out of different effect classes, so that game designers can quickly try out different combinations of relationships in the game.
•增加涌现性：更灵活的游戏模拟可提高整个游戏的涌现性。在 Smith 的例子中，对鸟类进行更详细的行为模拟，可为鸟类在游戏中创造更多不同的角色。如果鸟类对声音做出反应，而不仅仅是对距离做出反应，那么游戏中出现枪声响起、鸟群戏剧性地飞上天空的场景就成为可能。这不一定是直接设计到游戏中的，但它是控制鸟类行为的简单规则的涌现效果。通过更详细的模拟，可能性空间会扩大和复杂化。
• It increases emergence: More flexible game simulations lead to a greater degree of emergence in the game as a whole. In Smith’s example, having a more detailed behavioral simulation for the birds creates more varied roles for the birds to play in the game. If the birds react to sound and not just to proximity, a game moment in which gunshots ring out and the flock of birds dramatically takes to the sky becomes possible. This is not necessarily something designed directly into the game, but it is an emergent effect of the simple rules governing bird behavior. With more detailed simulations, the space of possibility is enlarged and complexified.
•增加了游戏选项：更通用的模拟系统为玩家提供了更多选择和更多解决问题的方法。在 Rouse 的地下城压力板示例中，没有物体可以放下的玩家可能会制造一场魔法暴风雪，在地板上产生足够的重量来影响压力板。鼓励独特的游戏风格，奖励玩家探索更多的可能性空间。这会带来更多独特的游戏风格和更多意义途径。例如，如果史密斯的一群鸟出现在死亡竞赛游戏中，聪明的玩家可能会战略性地定位自己，开枪驱散鸟群，然后利用鸟的运动作为对敌人的攻击的视觉掩护。
• It increases play options: More generalized simulation systems give players more choices and more ways to solve problems. In Rouse’s example of the dungeon pressure plate, a player that had no object to drop might create a magical snowstorm that created enough weight on the floor to affect the plate. Idiosyncratic play styles are encouraged, rewarding players for exploring the increased space of possibility. This leads to more distinct styles of play and more avenues for meaning. If a group of Smith’s birds were present in a deathmatch game, for example, a smart player might strategically position himself, fire a shot to scatter the flock, and then use the motion of the birds as visual cover for an assault on the enemy.
平衡的方法
A Balanced Approach
Hallford 和 Hallford、Rouse 和 Smith 强烈主张使用通用模拟设计技术，而不是基于案例的方法。但真的有可能将游戏的各个方面整合到一个通用系统中吗？游戏设计师 Marc LeBlanc 是这个话题的一位雄辩的思想家：
Hallford and Hallford, Rouse, and Smith strongly advocate the use of generalized simulation design techniques as opposed to a case-based approach. But is it really possible to integrate every aspect of a game within a generalized system? One eloquent thinker on this topic is game designer Marc LeBlanc:
我所说的“模拟”是指游戏系统是丰富、多方面的模拟模型，而“仿真”是指粗糙的、基于案例的游戏系统。射击游戏中的物理系统或角色扮演游戏中的伤害模型就是“模拟”的例子。系统规则为探索创造了空间，允许出现复杂性，等等。在这两种游戏中，“仿真”的例子可能是打开门的按钮。没有对打开门的机电过程进行物理模拟。它只是一条规则：“如果按下按钮，门就会打开。”按钮更像是一个语义对象，而不是物理对象；在某种意义上，它只存在于功能层面。仿真是一种障眼法。十三
By “simulation” I mean game systems that are rich, many-faceted analog models, whereas by “emulation” I mean coarse, case-based game systems. An example of “simulation” might be the physics system in a shooter or the damage model in an RPG. The rules of the system create a space for exploration, allow for emergent complexity, and so forth. An example of “emulation” might be, in either game, a button that opens a door. There is no physical simulation of the electro-mechanical process of opening the door. It’s just a single rule: “if button pushed, then door opens.” The button is more of a semantic object than a physical object; in some sense it exists only on a functional level. Emulation is the smoke-and-mirror approach.13
LeBlanc 阐明了我们在本章开头提出的观点：模拟可以嵌入。尽管整个游戏可以被视为一个单一的表示，但能够识别构成更大整体的较小程序表示非常重要。尽管 LeBlanc 也偏爱通用模拟设计策略，但他采取了一种慎重的方法，并最终建议在基于案例和通用技术之间取得平衡。没有游戏可以依赖完全依赖丰富、开放、突发的模拟。也不应该。为了展示这种平衡行为，勒布朗以他参与创作的电脑游戏《神偷》为例，玩家可以使用水来熄灭火炬：
LeBlanc brings to light a point we made at the start of this chapter: simulations can be embedded. Even though an entire game can be considered as a single representation, it is important to be able to identify the smaller procedural representations that make up the larger whole. Although LeBlanc shares a preference for generalized simulation design strategies, he takes a measured approach and ultimately suggests a balance of case-based and generalized techniques. No game can rely entirely on rich, open-ended, emergent simulation. Nor should it. To demonstrate this balancing act, LeBlanc takes an example from a title he helped create, the computer game Thief, in which players can use water to put out a torch:
这是一个模拟游戏系统；有一条规则，即水 100% 可以灭火。没有模拟；没有使用太少的水而只产生蒸汽的可能性，也没有淹没火炬使其永远无法重新点燃的可能性。但是，与该系统交互的其他系统是模拟的；您通常通过向火炬扔“水球”来浇灭火炬，水球的运动是物理模拟的。火炬发出的光影响您的视线的方式，以及更相关的是，影响您想要躲避的对手的视线的方式也是模拟的。14
This is an emulated game system; there’s a single rule that says water puts out fire 100 percent of the time. There’s no simulation; no chance of using too little water and just getting steam, and no chance of drowning the torch so that it can never be relit. However, the other systems that interact with that system are simulations; you typically douse a torch by tossing a “water balloon” at it, the motion of which is physically simulated. The way the light from the torch affects your vision, and more relevantly, the vision of the opponents you want to stay hidden from, is also simulated.14
（请记住，勒布朗使用的是他自己的术语 - 例如，他使用术语“模拟”来表示一种通用的设计方法，这只是我们认为的游戏模拟这一更大问题的一部分。）
(Remember that LeBlanc is using his own terminology—for example, he is using the term “simulation” to mean a generalized design approach, which is only one part of what we identify as the larger issue of simulation in games.)
LeBlanc 的例子包含相互交叉的表征系统，有些是基于案例的，有些是通用的。在 Thief 中，水总是能扑灭火焰。与具有各种可能结果的复杂物理模拟不同，它有一个可预测且一致的结果：水能扑灭火焰。但这种基于案例的方法与更复杂的结构相互作用。向火炬扔水球涉及运动的通用模拟；火炬熄灭后能见度的降低则源于光的通用模拟。整个游戏表征都来自这些部分的复杂关系。
LeBlanc’s example contains intersecting systems of representation, some case-based and some generalized. In Thief, water puts out fire 100 percent of the time. Rather than a complex physics simulation with a variety of possible results, there is a predictable and consistent outcome: water extinguishes fire. But this case-based approach interacts with more complex structures. Tossing a water balloon at the torch involves the generalized simulation of motion; the diminished visibility from the extinguished torch results from a generalized simulation of light. The whole of the game representation emerges from the complex relationships of these parts.
事实上，大多数游戏都采用了结合案例和广义表示的方法。Deux Ex 中的暴徒、平民和军事人员角色都是采用广义启发式方法设计的，这些启发式方法会产生突发行为。但游戏中的其他角色则采用简单的基于案例的行为设计，例如遇到时会激活电影过场动画的角色。即使是像 Candyland 这样的简单棋盘游戏也将广义移动系统与玩家可以降落的许多基于案例的特殊空间相结合。
In fact, most games use an approach that combines case-based and generalized representations. The Deux Ex characters of thug, civilian, and military agent were designed with generalized heuristics that produce emergent behavior. But other characters in the game were designed with simple, case-based behavior, such as a character that activates a cinematic cutscene when encountered. Even simple board games such as Candyland combine a generalized movement system with a number of case-based special spaces on which players can land.
如果 Rouse、Smith 和 Hallford 以及 Hallford 是正确的，如果通用方法可以节省时间、增加突发事件并为玩家提供更丰富的游戏体验，那么为什么数字游戏设计师（或任何游戏设计师）会使用基于案例的方法来构建程序表示呢？一个答案是，真正通用的系统很容易变得过于复杂，最终可能无法节省工作时间。另一个答案是，尽管基于案例的方法有时会变得简单和笨拙，但通用策略的危险恰恰相反。如果走得太远，通用模拟设计就会变得模糊和含糊。如果你在玩游戏时看到一群鸟突然无缘无故地飞起来，它们的行为会显得随机和毫无意义。可能是它们的行为被模拟得如此详细，以至于它们的生物钟告诉它们是时候离开场景并向南迁徙过冬了。不幸的是，玩家无法知道模拟的准确性，因为他们无法知道鸟儿行为的意义如何融入更大的游戏体验中。
If Rouse, Smith, and Hallford and Hallford are correct, if a generalized approach saves time, increases emergence, and provides players with richer play, why would a digital game designer (or any game designer) use a case-based approach for structuring a procedural representation? One answer is that a truly generalized system could easily become overly complex to implement and might not save work time in the end. Another answer is that although case-based approaches can sometimes become simple and flatfooted, the opposite danger is true of generalized strategies. Taken too far, generalized simulation design can become fuzzy and ambiguous. If you are playing a game and you see a group of birds that suddenly takes to the air for no reason, their behavior will seem random and meaningless. It might be that their behavior is simulated in such detail that their internal clocks told them it was time to leave the scene and migrate south for the winter. Unfortunately, the accuracy of the simulation would be lost on the player, who has no way of knowing how the meaning of the birds’ actions fit into the larger game experience.
案例式或通用的设计策略都不能保证成功的游戏体验。游戏设计的目标是创造有意义的游戏，这应该指导游戏中表征策略的选择。在塞尔达女巫的例子中，一个引人注目的角色是根据一个基于案例的核心程序创建的：如果玩家把蘑菇带给女巫，她会把它变成魔法粉末。这种程序性表征很好地融入了游戏中其他更通用的表征策略（女巫的小屋很偏僻，很难找到，而且到达那里很危险；蘑菇藏在森林里；魔法粉末在游戏中有特殊效果）。因此，女巫的意义从体验它的整个游戏环境中获得了力量。
Neither case-based nor generalized design strategies guarantee a successful game experience. The goal of game design is the creation of meaningful play, which should guide the selection of representational strategies in a game. In the example of the Zelda witch, a compelling character was created out of a central case-based procedure: if the player brings a mushroom to the witch, she will turn it into magic powder. This procedural representation was well-integrated into the other more generalized representational strategies of the game (the witch’s hut is isolated, difficult to find, and dangerous to reach; mushrooms are hidden in the forest; magic powder has special effects in the game). Thus the meaning of the witch gained its power from the total game context in which it was experienced.
丰富的含义可以从不基于软件复杂性的表示上下文中浮现出来，这一事实为游戏设计和模拟提供了重要的见解。正如我们所提到的，游戏目前受到模拟主题范围狭窄的困扰。尽管军事和经济冲突在游戏中盛行有着重要的历史原因，但其他形式的冲突，如社会、文化或情感冲突，也可以而且应该得到体现。一些人推测，技术复杂性的增加将使这种表现成为可能。例如，不久前，一家大型游戏机制造商的一位高管曾广为发表一句话，他期待着游戏角色的面部能够代表情感的那一天。据这位高管说，到那一天，游戏将成为一种成熟而复杂的文化产品形式。显然，文学、戏剧和漫画等媒体几个世纪以来一直能够进行复杂的表现，而无需依赖高分辨率动画。此外，即使在动画史上，许多动画眼泪已经从无数动画脸颊上滚落下来。仅凭这一事实并不能保证故事对观众有意义。就电脑游戏而言，虽然动画元素确实发挥了一定作用，但在设想该媒介的未来发展方向时，必须考虑该形式的系统性和交互性。
The fact that rich meanings can emerge from a representational context not based on software complexities offers an important insight into game design and simulation. As we’ve mentioned, games currently suffer from a narrow range of simulated subject matter. Although there are important historical reasons for the prevalence of military and economic conflict in games, other forms of conflict, such as social, cultural, or emotional conflict, can and should be represented as well. Some presume that an increase in technological complexity will make such representations possible. For example, a widely published quote from an executive at a major console manufacturer not too long ago looked forward to the day when the faces of game characters could represent emotion. According to the executive, on that day, games would become a mature and sophisticated form of cultural production. Clearly, media such as literature, theater, and comics have been capable of sophisticated representation for centuries without relying on high-resolution animation. Furthermore, even within the history of animation, many animated tears have already rolled down numerous animated cheeks. That fact alone is no guarantee that the story was meaningful to its viewers. In the case of computer games, although animated elements do play a part, the systemic and interactive qualities of the form have to be taken into account when envisioning future directions for the medium.
新型游戏内容的程序化表示已在我们的掌握之中，但只有关注游戏设计和有意义的游戏的基本原则才能发现新内容。游戏设计师需要更深入地了解他们的工作形式。在将游戏视为模拟时尤其如此。模拟与其模拟主体之间不仅仅是选择一种表示设计策略，还存在复杂的相互作用。我们现在关注的正是这种关系。
The procedural representation of new kinds of game content is within our grasp, but new content can only be discovered by paying attention to the fundamental principles of game design and meaningful play. Game designers need to cultivate a deeper understanding of the form in which they work. This is especially true in considering games as simulations. More than just choosing a representational design strategy, there is a complex interplay between a simulation and its simulated subject. It is to this relationship that our attention now turns.
现实的价值
The Value of Reality
我们已经到了本章的转折点。到目前为止，我们在考虑模拟游戏时主要关注的是模拟如何运作：产生程序性表征的机制、游戏设计师模拟特定主题时所需的抽象、构建模拟的案例和通用策略的选择。但是，我们需要考虑模拟的一个非常不同的方面。回想一下我们的定义：模拟是“现实”方面的程序性表征。到目前为止，我们的重点一直是模拟的程序性组成部分。但现在我们来谈谈关于模拟和“现实”的同样重要且极其复杂的问题。
We have come to a turning point in this chapter. Up to now, our primary focus in considering the play of simulation has been on how simulations operate: the mechanisms that generate procedural representation, the abstraction necessary when game designers simulate a particular subject, the selection of case-based and generalized strategies for structuring simulations. But there is a very different aspect of simulations for us to consider. Recall our definition: a simulation is a procedural representation of aspects of “reality.” So far, our emphasis has been on the procedural component of simulations. But now we turn to the equally important and immensely complicated set of questions regarding simulations and “reality.”
游戏的模拟内容与其现实世界或想象的指称物之间的关系是什么？在 1998 年的游戏开发者大会上，游戏设计师史蒂夫·杰克逊分享了一个有趣的轶事，关于基于他的经典纸上游戏《汽车大战》创建驾驶战斗电脑游戏。开发团队使用现实世界的物理和汽车数据，创建了一个异常详细的驾驶模拟，其中包含驾驶物理的细节和汽车引擎的详细模拟。他们还精确地根据现有赛道的几何形状创建了一条赛道。但是，当他们使用方向盘和踏板界面试驾他们的模拟汽车时，他们无法达到模拟所基于的汽车的最高速度。有一天，一位职业赛车手参观了这家公司。他坐到游戏原型机前，立即以极快的速度驾驶模拟汽车绕赛道行驶，接近现实世界的速度记录。
What is the relationship between the simulated content of a game and its real-world or imagined referent? At the 1998 Game Developers Conference, game designer Steve Jackson shared a fascinating anecdote about creating a driving combat computer game based on his classic paper game Car Wars. Using real-world physics and car data, the development team created an unusually detailed driving simulation that incorporated minute details of driving physics and a detailed simulation of the car engine. They also created a track based precisely on the geometry of an existing speedway. But when they test-drove their simulated car, using a steering wheel and pedal interface, they weren’t able to reach the top speeds of the car on which the simulation was based. One day a professional race car driver visited the company. He sat down at the game prototype and immediately drove the simulated car around the track at breakneck speed, completing it close to the real-world speed record.
模拟非常“准确”，需要专家操作才能模拟出它原本要复制的真实世界现象。这有什么教训呢？别忘了玩家。游戏设计师认为模拟设计只意味着正式地重新创建汽车和赛道的数学模型。事实上，游戏模拟不仅包括系统的正式机制，还包括这些机制引发并允许玩家行动的方式。规则从来不会单独决定游戏的玩法。规则总是在体验环境中实施，其中包括具有各自欲望、技能和期望水平的特定玩家。《汽车大战》设计师通过他们的设计创造了一定的可能性空间，但需要合适的玩家以应有的方式探索该空间。
The simulation was so “accurate” that it required expert manipulation in order to resemble the real-world phenomena it had been designed to replicate. What’s the lesson? Don’t forget the player. The designers of the game had assumed that simulation design meant only formally recreating a mathematical model of the car and the track. In fact, a game simulation not only includes the formal mechanisms of the system, but also the ways that those mechanisms engender and permit player action. The rules never solely determine the play of a game. The rules are always set into motion within an experiential context that includes particular players with their own levels of desire, skill, and expectation. The Car Wars designers had created a certain space of possibility with their design, but it took the right kind of player to navigate that space in the way it was meant to be explored.
《汽车大战》的轶事提醒我们，关于再现的“真实性”的问题从来都不像乍看起来那么简单。汽车模拟“准确”吗？还是只有在专业赛车手的手中才准确？坐在电脑显示器前和开车有什么区别？赛车手能用标准的游戏控制器达到最高速度吗？体验“只是一场游戏”这一事实是否会影响这些问题的答案？
The Car Wars anecdote reminds us that questions regarding the “reality” of a representation are never as simple as they seem at first glance. Was the car simulation “accurate”? Or was it only accurate in the hands of a professional race car driver? Is sitting in front of a computer monitor anything like driving a car? Would the race car driver have been able to reach top speeds playing with a standard console controller? Does the fact that the experience was “only a game” impact the answers to these questions?
当玩家与模拟互动时，他们永远不会与真实的东西互动。如果是，那就不能称之为“模拟”。同时，模拟确实通过图像、声音和程序引用其描绘的主题。但这些表示与它们的指称物有何关系？在语言中，我们知道字母 COW 在任何方面都与牛无关。但牛的照片确实与我们在现实世界中对牛的看法有些相似。游戏与它们所描绘的主题有何关系？为了回答这些重要问题，我们回到元沟通的概念。
When players interact with a simulation, they are never playing with the real thing. If they were, it couldn’t be called a “simulation.” At the same time, a simulation does reference its depicted subject through images, sound, and procedures. But how do these representations relate to their referents? In language, we know that the letters C-O-W don’t resemble a cow in any way. But a photograph of a cow does bear some similarity to our own perception of a cow in the real world. How do games relate to their depicted subject matter? To answer these important questions, we return to the concept of metacommunication.
模拟框架
Framing the Simulation
孩子们知道他们操纵的是他们对现实的想法，而不是现实本身；他们知道他们的游戏自我与日常自我并不相同。——布莱恩·萨顿·史密斯，《游戏的模糊性》
Children know that they are manipulating their thoughts about reality, not reality itself; and they know that their play self is not the same as their everyday self.—Brian Sutton-Smith, The Ambiguity of Play
在《游戏即意义的游戏》一书中，我们介绍了格雷戈里·贝特森的元沟通概念，即在游戏情境中发生的独特沟通形式。用贝特森自己的例子来说，当一只狗咬另一只狗时，这一咬表示了两件事。一方面，这一咬表示了咬；它是真实咬动作的替代。另一方面，这一咬表示的正好与咬相反：它表示两只狗在玩耍而不是在打架。这种元沟通——关于沟通的沟通——不仅存在于非正式游戏中，也存在于游戏中。它是游戏用来为玩家构建意义的复杂机制的重要组成部分。
In Games as the Play of Meaning, we introduced Gregory Bateson’s concept of metacommunication, the unique form of communication that takes place in the context of play. To use Bateson’s own example, when a dog nips another dog, the nip signals two things. On the one hand, the nip signifies a bite; it is a stand-in for the action of a real bite. On the other hand, the nip signifies just the opposite of a bite: it signals the fact that the two dogs are playing and not actually fighting. This kind of metacommunication—communication about communication—is present not just in informal play but in games as well. It is a significant part of the complex mechanisms games use to construct meanings for their players.
为什么元沟通的概念如此重要，特别是在模拟环境中？元沟通清楚地表明，玩游戏就是参与一种双重意识。游戏动作指的是现实世界中的动作，但因为它们发生在游戏中，所以它们与它们所指的现实世界动作是完全不同的。《转瓶子》中的亲吻或《雷神之锤》死亡竞赛中的杀戮指的是亲吻和杀戮，但同时也是传达“我不是在亲吻或杀死你。我只是在玩”的信息。魔法圈是这些矛盾信号变得有意义的空间。
Why is the concept of metacommunication so important, especially in the context of simulation? Metacommunication makes it clear that to play a game is to take part in a kind of double-consciousness. Game actions refer to actions in the real world, but because they are taking place in a game, they are simultaneously quite separate and distinct from the real world actions they reference. A kiss in Spin the Bottle or a frag in a Quake deathmatch refer to kissing and killing, but at the same time are actions that communicate I’m not kissing or killing you. I’m just playing. The magic circle is the space within which such paradoxical signals become meaningful.
在《游戏与幻想理论》中，贝特森用下图来说明游戏所体现的矛盾心理状态：15
In “A Theory of Play and Fantasy,” Bateson uses the following diagram to illustrate the paradoxical state of mind embodied in play:15
这个示意图是对埃庇米尼得斯悖论（也称为说谎者悖论）的重复。说谎者悖论是一个哲学问题，即某人断言“我在说谎”。如果说话者是骗子，那么他说的是真话，反之亦然：说谎者的陈述是合乎逻辑的悖论。图中的第一句“此框架内的所有陈述都是不真实的”与这一经典逻辑问题相呼应。但重要的是，它将陈述置于一个框架内，即一个有限的语境中，悖论句子在其中表达其含义。
This schematic is a riff on Epimenides’ Paradox, also known as the Liar Paradox. The Liar Paradox is the philosophical problem of someone asserting “I am lying.” If the speaker is a liar, then he is telling the truth, and vice versa: the liar’s statement is a logical paradox. In the diagram, the first sentence, All statements within this frame are untrue, echoes this classical logic problem. But significantly, it locates the statement within a frame, a limited context within which the paradoxical sentence asserts its meaning.
对于贝特森来说，框架是一种心理和哲学构造，它界定了游戏的特殊空间。对于游戏设计师来说，贝特森的框架提供了另一种理解游戏魔力圈的方式。它是一条边界，使游戏的矛盾意义成为可能。同时，框架只有通过游戏持续的元交流断言才能维持下去。在贝特森的说明中，框架使语句的含义成为可能，即使框架本身的含义直接来自语句本身。
For Bateson the frame is a psychological and philosophical construct that delimits the peculiar space of play. For game designers, Bateson’s frame offers another way of understanding the magic circle of a game. It is a boundary that makes the paradoxical meanings of play possible. At the same time, the frame is only sustained by virtue of the continued metacom-municative assertions of play. In Bateson’s illustration, the frame enables the statement’s meaning, even as the frame’s own meaning comes directly from the statement itself.
魔法圈既是游戏的先决条件，也是游戏的结果。它是游戏体验的强大背景。但它同样脆弱，游戏结束时它就会迅速消失。贝特森的图表是游戏认知框架的示意图，是对游戏环境中玩家心理状态的视觉重述。作为一种理解玩家进入魔法圈并玩游戏模拟时会发生什么的方式，这是一个微妙而有力的说明。
The magic circle is both a prerequisite and an effect of play. It is a robust context for the exhilarating experiences of game play. But it is similarly fragile, and vanishes quickly when a game ends. Bateson’s diagram is a schematic of the cognitive frame of play, a visual retelling of the state of mind of a player in the midst of a play context. As a way of understanding what happens when a player enters into the magic circle and plays with a game simulation, it is a subtle and powerful illustration.
那么另外两个陈述“我爱你”和“我恨你”又如何呢？这些陈述也是框架中捕捉到的矛盾含义的一部分。这两句话解决了贝特森关于集合论的一个更大的观点，以及框架中的部分或全部陈述是否可以被认为是真实的或不真实的。就我们目前的目的而言，我们将回避他的更大论点来提出我们自己的观点。贝特森本可以在框架中包含任何两个相互矛盾的句子。但他选择了关于爱和恨的情感陈述，这些陈述似乎是针对框架之外的其他人的。
What about the other two statements, I love you and I hate you? These statements are also part of the paradoxical meanings captured within the frame. The two sentences address a larger point Bateson makes about set theory, and whether some or all of the statements within the frame could be considered true or untrue. For our present purposes, we will sidestep his larger argument to make a point of our own. Bateson could have included any two contradictory sentences in the frame. But he chose emotional statements about love and hate, statements seemingly addressed to someone else outside the frame.
这两句话是纯粹情感的信号，提醒我们游戏和意义、元沟通和悖论的问题不仅仅是抽象的哲学闲聊。在理解游戏如何构建意义的过程中，我们正在探讨玩家参与游戏的深刻方式以及游戏反映和构建的情感和社会现实。元沟通心态与游戏的独特乐趣和体验紧密交织在一起。
These two little sentences, signals of pure emotion, remind us that the questions of play and meaning, of metacommunication and paradox, are not just abstract philosophical chatter. In understanding how games construct meaning, we are addressing the deeply felt ways that players engage with games and the emotional and social realities games reflect and construct. The metacommunicative state of mind is deeply intertwined with the unique pleasures and experiences of play.
沉浸式谬误
The Immersive Fallacy
所有形式的娱乐都力求创造一种暂停怀疑的状态，即玩家的大脑忘记自己正在接受娱乐，而是接受它所认为的现实。—— François Dominic Laramée，《沉浸感》
All forms of entertainment strive to create suspension of disbelief, a state in which the player’s mind forgets that it is being subjected to entertainment and instead accepts what it perceives as reality.—François Dominic Laramée, “Immersion”
稍后我们将回到贝特森关于元沟通和意义的思想。但现在，让我们把讨论带回到模拟游戏，特别是游戏与其所基于的“现实”之间的关系。前面的引文来自一本关于游戏设计的书，出现在一篇关于“沉浸感”的文章中。游戏设计师兼程序员 François Dominic Laramée 主张游戏玩家与游戏之间存在特殊关系，即玩家的心理状态与体验的感知现实之间的关系。他断言，游戏应该努力创造一种体验，让玩家忘记他或她正在体验设计的娱乐，而是相信玩游戏就是亲身体验现实。事实上，Laramée 指出“所有形式的娱乐”都是以这种方式运作的。这种观点与我们自己的观点大相径庭。
We will return to Bateson’s ideas about metacommunication and meaning in just a moment. But for now, let’s bring the discussion back to the play of simulation, specifically the relationship between a game and the “reality” upon which it is based. The preceding quote is from a book on game design, appearing in an essay on “Immersion.” Game designer and programmer François Dominic Laramée argues for a particular relationship between a game player and a game, between the player’s state of mind and the perceived reality of the experience. He asserts that a game should strive to create an experience in which the player forgets that he or she is experiencing designed entertainment and instead believes that playing the game is experiencing reality firsthand. In fact, Laramée states that “all forms of entertainment” function in this way. This is a point of view very much at odds with our own.
我们无意不公平地单挑 Laramée。他关于玩家如何体验游戏“现实”的想法在数字游戏行业、游戏媒体甚至广大公众中都极为常见。游戏设计师 Frank Lantz 称这些关于沉浸感的想法是“普遍持有但很少被检验”的信念。16我们完全同意这一观点，并在下文中驳斥这些观点，称其为沉浸式谬论。沉浸式谬论认为，媒体体验的乐趣在于它能够将参与者感官带入虚幻的模拟现实。
We don’t mean to unfairly single out Laramée. His ideas about how a player experiences the “reality” of a game are extremely common in the digital game industry, the game press, and even in the public at large. Game designer Frank Lantz has called these kinds of ideas about immersion “widely held but seldom examined” beliefs.16 We wholeheartedly agree, and in the pages that follow we refute these beliefs, referring to them as the immersive fallacy. The immersive fallacy is the idea that the pleasure of a media experience lies in its ability to sensually transport the participant into an illusory, simulated reality.
根据沉浸式谬论，这种现实是如此完整，理想情况下框架会消失，让玩家真正相信他或她是虚构世界的一部分。
According to the immersive fallacy, this reality is so complete that ideally the frame falls away so that the player truly believes that he or she is part of an imaginary world.
尽管沉浸式谬误已在许多领域扎根，但它在数字游戏行业尤为普遍。沉浸式谬误的讨论中普遍认为，娱乐技术必然会导致越来越强大的模拟系统的发展。这些技术将能够创造出与现实世界难以区分的完全虚幻的体验。在一次关于游戏未来的在线讨论中，游戏设计师沃伦·斯佩克特 (Warren Spector) 推测了这一话题：
Although the immersive fallacy has taken hold in many fields, it is particularly prevalent in the digital game industry. Common within the discourse of the immersive fallacy is the idea that entertainment technology is inevitably leading to the development of more and more powerful systems of simulation. These technologies will be able to create fully illusionistic experiences that are indistinguishable from the real world. In an online discussion about the future of gaming, game designer Warren Spector speculated on this topic:
《星际迷航》全息甲板是游戏作为模拟的必然结果吗？媒体（大众媒体和其他媒体）的历史似乎非常明显地朝着越来越忠实地接近现实的方向发展——从绘画中的透视幻觉发展到摄影，再到动态图像，再到有声彩色动态图像，再到通过电视直接传送到您家中的有声彩色动态图像，再到如今的沉浸式现实游戏，如《雷神之锤》和《网络奇兵》。这种发展是不可避免的吗？它会继续下去吗？还是我们已经走到了现实主义的尽头？17
Is the Star Trek Holodeck an inevitable end result of games as simulacra? The history of media (mass and otherwise) seems pretty clearly a march toward ever more faithful approximations of reality—from the development of the illusion of perspective in paintings to photography to moving pictures to color moving pictures with sound to color moving pictures with sound beamed directly into your home via television to today’s immersive reality games like Quake and System Shock. Is this progression inevitable and will it continue or have we reached the end of the line, realism-wise?17
公平地说，斯佩克特为了引发讨论，故意夸大了自己的观点。但在随后的辩论中，很明显许多参与者都理所当然地接受了斯佩克特所阐述的主张。
To be fair, Spector self-consciously exaggerated his views in order to spark discussion. But in the debate that followed, it was clear that many participants take for granted the propositions that Spector articulated.
斯佩克特精选的娱乐技术历史提供了一种对媒体发展的解读。但还有其他解读。历史很少提供这样的线性发展，而就沉浸感而言，文化发展往往是周期性的。正如理论家玛丽-劳雷·瑞安所说，“西方艺术史见证了沉浸感理想的兴衰。”18根据 Ryan 的说法，沉浸感作为一种表现目标，在过去几个世纪中经历了多个风格周期。她断言，在过去的几十年里，沉浸感在艺术和文学等领域实际上变得不那么突出和受人尊敬了。Ryan 在更大的文化运动方面可能是正确的，但在数字游戏行业中，对沉浸感谬论的信仰仍然存在。
Spector’s selective history of entertainment technologies offers one reading of the development of media. But there are others. History rarely provides such a linear progression, and in regard to immersion, cultural developments tend to be cyclical. As theorist Marie-Laure Ryan puts it, “The history of Western art has seen the rise and fall of immersive ideals.”18 According to Ryan, immersion as a representational goal has gone through a number of stylistic cycles over the centuries. In the last several decades, she asserts, immersion has in fact become less prominent and respected in fields like art and literature. Ryan may be correct in regard to larger cultural movements, but within the digital game industry, belief in the immersive fallacy remains alive and well.
元传播媒体
Metacommunicative Media
沉浸式谬误是技术矛盾观念的典型表现。一方面，人们热衷于技术，认为新技术的进化发展是体验设计的救命稻草。另一方面，人们又渴望抹去技术，使之变得无形，让体验周围的所有框架都消失不见。全息甲板的概念最清楚地表达了这些矛盾的理想，全息甲板是一种虚构的技术，首次出现在电视剧《星际迷航：下一代》中。全息甲板是沉浸式谬误的梦想，在这个房间里，物质和能量被操纵，创造出一个视觉、听觉、触觉、嗅觉和味觉的模拟环境，这种再现与现实生活完全无法区分。
The immersive fallacy is symptomatic of contradictory ideas about technology. On one hand, there is a technological fetishism that sees the evolutionary development of new technology as the saving grace of experience design. On the other hand, there is a desire to erase the technology, to make it invisible so that all frames around the experience fall away and disappear. Nowhere are these contradictory ideals more clearly expressed than in the concept of the holodeck, a fictional technology that first appeared in the television show Star Trek: The Next Generation. The holodeck is the dream of the immersive fallacy, a room in which matter and energy are manipulated to create a simulated environment of sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste that is a representation completely indistinguishable from lived reality.
这幅图有什么问题？它与游戏有什么关系？从某种程度上说，沉浸式谬误确实符合直觉。当我们玩游戏时，我们会感到投入和沉浸，游戏似乎具有其自身的“现实性”，这当然都是真的。但游戏实现这些效果的方式并不是以沉浸式谬误所暗示的方式发生的。游戏玩家确实会全神贯注于游戏，但这是一种通过游戏本身发生的参与。众所周知，游戏是一个元沟通的过程，是一种双重意识，玩家在其中非常清楚游戏情境的虚假性。
What is wrong with this picture, and how does it relate to games? On one level, the immersive fallacy actually does make intuitive sense. When we play a game, we feel engaged and engrossed, and play seems to take on its own “reality,” This is all certainly true. But the way that a game achieves these effects does not happen in the manner the immersive fallacy implies. A game player does become engrossed in the game, yes. But it is an engagement that occurs through play itself. As we know, play is a process of metacommunication, a double-consciousness in which the player is well aware of the artificiality of the play situation.
在斯佩克特发布这个故意挑衅的问题的同一场在线对话中，电影研究学者埃琳娜·戈芬克尔 (Elena Gorfinkel) 回应道：
During the same online conversation in which Spector posted his intentionally provocative question, film studies scholar Elena Gorfinkel responded:
沉浸感不是游戏或媒体文本的属性，而是文本产生的效果。我的意思是，沉浸感是游戏与玩家之间发生的体验，而不是游戏美学的内在因素。这种对话中的混淆是因为表征策略与沉浸感的效果相混淆。沉浸感本身与现实的复制或模仿无关。例如，人们可以沉浸在俄罗斯方块中。因此，沉浸于游戏玩法似乎至少与沉浸于游戏的表征空间一样重要。似乎需要将这些组成部分分开，以便公正地理解沉浸感作为体验和感知的一种类别是如何运作的。19
Immersion is not a property of a game or media text but is an effect that a text produces. What I mean is that immersion is an experience that happens between a game and its player, and is not something intrinsic to the aesthetics of a game. The confusion in this conversation has emerged because representational strategies are conflated with the effect of immersion. Immersion itself is not tied to a replication or mimesis of reality. For example, one can get immersed in Tetris. Therefore, immersion into game play seems at least as important as immersion into a game’s representational space. It seems that these components need to be separated to do justice and better understand how immersion, as a category of experience and perception, works.19
戈芬克尔提出了一些关键观点。首先，她以俄罗斯方块为例，指出有很多游戏的“沉浸感”与现实的感官复制无关。事实上，从电子音乐到漫画书再到表现主义绘画，有无数艺术和娱乐媒体的例子，显然不是建立在简单的怀疑之上。正如戈芬克尔所说，对沉浸感的错误认识可以归结为混淆了媒体对象的内在品质和对象产生的效果。戈芬克尔认为，要理解“沉浸感”的微妙之处，我们不仅需要关注游戏的属性（例如图形的精细程度），还需要关注游戏如何与玩家的体验相关。
Gorfinkel makes a number of critical points. First, with her example of Tetris she points out that there are plenty of examples of games in which “immersion” is not tied to a sensory replication of reality. In fact, there are countless examples of art and entertainment media, from techno music to comic books to expressionist painting, which are clearly not premised on a simple suspension of disbelief. As Gorfinkel states, mistaken ideas about immersion can be framed as confusion between the intrinsic qualities of a media object and the effects that object produces. Gorfinkel argues that to understand the subtleties of “immersion,” we need to look not just at the attributes of games (such as how detailed the graphics are), but at the way games function in relation to the experience of the player.
在游戏的情况下，我们知道元沟通始终在起作用。在《转瓶子》中亲吻另一个青少年或驾驶虚拟赛车的 Gran Turismo 玩家都知道他们的游戏参考了其他现实。但正是他们知道自己参与的是构建的现实，并有意识地承担了魔法圈的人造意义，这才是让他们的活动成为游戏的真正原因。可以说，游戏玩家是“沉浸式”的——沉浸在意义中。玩游戏就是参与复杂的意义相互作用。但这种沉浸与沉浸式谬论所承诺的感官传输截然不同。
In the case of play, we know that metacommunication is always in operation. A teen kissing another teen in Spin the Bottle or a Gran Turismo player driving a virtual race car each understands that their play references other realities. But the very thing that makes their activity play is that they also know they are participating within a constructed reality, and are consciously taking on the artificial meanings of the magic circle. It is possible to say that the players of a game are “immersed”—immersed in meaning. To play a game is to take part in a complex interplay of meaning. But this kind of immersion is quite different from the sensory transport promised by the immersive fallacy.
修复游戏
Remediating Games
从某种意义上说，这种多层次、元沟通的游戏状态与我们体验到的所有媒体都相似。理论家杰伊·大卫·博尔特和理查德·格鲁辛在他们的著作《补救》中分析了媒体运作的机制，他们认为媒体按照双重逻辑运作。一方面，媒体参与了博尔特和格鲁辛所说的即时性，即真实地再现世界并创造另一种现实的能力。与此同时，媒体也提醒观众，它们是被构建的、人造的，博尔特和格鲁辛将这一特征称为超媒体性。
In some sense, the layered, metacommunicative state of play is similar to our experience of all media. In their book Remediation, theorists Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin analyze the mechanisms by which media function, arguing that media operate according to a double logic. On one hand, media participate in what Bolter and Grusin call immediacy, the ability to authentically reproduce the world and create an alternative reality. At the same time, media also remind their audiences that they are constructed and artificial, a characteristic that Bolter and Grusin call hypermediacy.
与文艺复兴以来的其他媒体一样，尤其是透视画、摄影、电影和电视，新数字媒体在即时性和超媒体性、透明性和不透明性之间摇摆不定。尽管每种媒体都承诺通过提供更直接或更真实的体验来改革其前身，但改革的承诺不可避免地会让我们意识到媒体本身就是媒体。因此，即时性导致了超媒体性。20
Like other media since the Renaissance—in particular, perspective painting, photography, film, and television—new digital media oscillate between immediacy and hypermediacy, between transparency and opacity. Although each medium promises to reform its predecessors by offering a more immediate or authentic experience, the promise of reform inevitably leads us to become aware of the medium as a medium. Thus, immediacy leads to hypermediacy.20
例如，正如 Bolter 和 Grusin 指出的那样，网络摄像头虽然可以真实、实时地访问世界另一端，但保证了即时性。但用户必须在计算机、操作系统、浏览器、网页、界面内查看网络摄像头，这一事实提醒他们，他们并没有透明地体验网络摄像头所在的位置，而是在与高度人工化的媒体结构进行交互。Bolter 和 Grusin 提出的主要论点是，所有媒体都将这两个过程结合到他们所谓的“补救”中，即即时性和超媒体性并存的媒体体验。
For example, as Bolter and Grusin point out, a web cam promises immediacy though authentic, real-time access to another part of the world. But the fact that users have to view the web cam on a computer, in an operating system, in a browser, on a web page, inside an interface, reminds them that they are not transparently experiencing the locale where the web cam exists, but are instead interacting with a highly artificial media construct. The main argument made by Bolter and Grusin is that all media combine these two processes into what they term remediation, an experience of media in which immediacy and hypermediacy co-exist.
我们也可以在此模型中分析游戏。游戏的双重意识在补救过程中找到了强烈的对应关系，它将透明的即时性与对游戏构建性质的超中介意识相结合。在《警察与强盗》中，玩家愿意扮演罪犯和警察的戏剧角色，即使他们通过自己的行动为这些有趣的表现注入了意义。在第一人称视角中，像 Halo 这样的射击游戏，体验的一部分是导航连贯、虚构的 3D 空间所带来的感官眩晕感。但玩游戏还涉及对游戏界面的了解、对帧中断选项的战略性使用、基于文本的聊天的使用、波动的服务器速度以及在更大的社交环境中与朋友分享技巧。Halo 体验中这些与帧相关的方面提醒玩家，游戏是一种构建的、超中介的体验。
We can also analyze games within this model. The double consciousness of play finds a strong parallel in the process of remediation, which mixes transparent immediacy with a hyper-mediated awareness of the constructed nature of play. In Cops and Robbers, players willingly take on the theatrical roles of criminals and police, even as they infuse those playful representations with meaning through their actions. In a first-person shooter such as Halo, part of the experience is the sensual vertigo of navigating a coherent, imaginary 3D space. But playing the game also involves an awareness of the game interface, the strategic use of the frame-breaking options, the use of text-based chat, fluctuating server speeds, and the sharing of tips with friends in the larger social context of play. These frame-related aspects of the Halo experience remind the player that the game is a constructed, hypermediated experience.
Bolter 和 Grusin 模型的价值在于，它并没有摒弃幻觉式沉浸感，而是将其作为更复杂过程的一个元素。毫无疑问，感官参与的即时性是玩游戏乐趣的一部分，尤其是那些具有详细表现并能实时响应玩家动作的数字游戏。沉浸感谬论过分强调了这些形式的乐趣，从而歪曲了游戏提供的多样化体验。
The value of Bolter and Grusin’s model is that it doesn’t do away with illusionistic immersion, but includes it as one element within a more complex process. There is no doubt that the immediacy of sensory engagement is part of the pleasure of playing a game, particularly digital games with detailed representations that respond in real-time to player action. The immersive fallacy grossly overemphasizes these forms of pleasure, and in so doing, misrepresents the diverse palette of experiences games offer.
性格的性格
The Character of Character
沉浸式谬误的危险在于它歪曲了游戏的功能，因此游戏设计可能会受到影响。如果游戏设计师未能认识到游戏为玩家创造意义的方式——既独立于现实世界，又与现实世界联系在一起——他们将很难创造出真正有意义的游戏。为了突出这些复杂性，我们现在详细研究游戏表现的一个方面——角色，看看对元沟通的理解会如何影响游戏设计过程。
The danger of the immersive fallacy is that it misrepresents how play functions—and game design can suffer as a result. If game designers fail to recognize the way games create meaning for players—as something separate from, but connected to the real world—they will have difficulty creating truly meaningful play. To highlight these complexities, we now take a detailed look at just one aspect of a game’s representation, character, to see how an understanding of metacommunication can impact the game design process.
我们已经在这个模式中研究过一次角色，研究了程序表征如何构建《塞尔达传说：塞尔达传说：林克的觉醒》、《VR 斗士 4》、《杀出重围》和《幽浮怪兽》中的虚构人物。现在，我们将着眼于模拟方程的另一部分，指出角色表征与游戏外的“现实”之间的关系。出现了两个关键问题：玩家如何与游戏中的角色建立关系？如何从所代表世界的“现实”的角度来理解这种关系？为了保持重点，我们将分析限制在玩家直接控制的主角角色上，例如《超级马里奥世界》中的马里奥或《VR 斗士 4》中的 Pai Chan。
We have already looked at character once in this schema, examining the way that procedural representations construct fictional personas in Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Virtua Fighter 4, Deus Ex, and The Blob. Now we’ll take aim at the other part of the simulation equation, pointing out the way that character representation relates to the “reality” outside the game. Two key questions arise: How does the player relate to a character in a game? And how can this relationship be understood in terms of the “reality” of the represented world? Just to keep things focused, we will limit our analysis to protagonist characters that a player directly controls, such as Mario in Super Mario World or Pai Chan in Virtual Fighter 4.
沉浸式谬误认为玩家与角色之间存在“沉浸式”关系，扮演角色就是成为角色。在沉浸式谬误的理想游戏中，玩家将完全认同角色，游戏的框架将消失，玩家将完全迷失在游戏角色中。
The immersive fallacy would assert that a player has an “immersive” relationship with the character, that to play the character is to become the character. In the immersive fallacy’s ideal game, the player would identify completely with the character, the game’s frame would drop away, and the player would lose him or herself totally within the game character.
这些想法有一定道理，但它们仅代表了一个更大、更复杂的过程的一个元素。玩家与其直接控制的游戏角色之间的关系并不是简单的直接认同。相反，玩家通过游戏的双重意识与游戏角色建立联系。主角角色是玩家将自己带入想象世界的角色；这种关系可以是强烈的，在情感上可以“身临其境”。然而，与此同时，角色也是一个工具、一个傀儡、一个玩家根据游戏规则操纵的对象。从这个意义上说，玩家完全意识到角色是一个人造的构造。
These ideas have some validity, but they represent only one element of a much larger and more complicated process. A player’s relationship to a game character he or she directly controls is not a simple matter of direct identification. Instead, a player relates to a game character through the double-consciousness of play. A protagonist character is a persona through which a player exerts him or herself into an imaginary world; this relationship can be intense and emotionally “immersive.” However, at the very same time, the character is a tool, a puppet, an object for the player to manipulate according to the rules of the game. In this sense, the player is fully aware of the character as an artificial construct.
这种双重意识使得基于角色的游戏体验如此丰富和多层次。在扮演《最终幻想 VII》中的克劳德时，玩家可以进入游戏复杂的叙事世界。通过克劳德，玩家可以体验游戏世界的设置、角色和事件；许多玩家表示，他们对数字角色有着强烈的情感依恋。同时，《最终幻想 VII》是一款复杂的角色扮演游戏。游戏体验包括观看过场动画、引导克劳德和他的同伴穿越虚拟空间、管理武器、物品和魔法的详细清单、参与持续的战略战斗以及使用游戏复杂的电子表格界面。通过这些不同的活动，游戏表现承认并庆祝其自身的超中介结构。
This double-consciousness is what makes character-based game play such a rich and multi-layered experience. In playing the role of Cloud in Final Fantasy VII, the player has a portal into the complex narrative world of the game. Through Cloud, the player encounters the settings, characters, and events of the game world; many players report a strong emotional attachment to their digital counterpart. At the same time, Final Fantasy VII is a complex role-playing game. The play experience occurs by watching cutscenes, navigating Cloud and his comrades though virtual spaces, managing a detailed inventory of weapons, items, and magic, taking part in constant strategic battles, and engaging with the game’s intricate spreadsheetlike interface. Through these diverse activities, the performance of play acknowledges and celebrates its own hypermediated construction.
心理学家加里·艾伦·费恩 (Gary Alan Fine) 在其优秀著作《共同幻想》中提出了一个模型，用于理解玩家与角色之间的复杂关系。《共同幻想》是一项关于桌面角色扮演游戏社区的民族志研究。费恩借鉴心理学家欧文·戈夫曼 (Erving Goffman) 的框架分析理论，确定了玩家/角色游戏体验发生的三个“意义层次”：
The psychologist Gary Alan Fine, in his excellent book Shared Fantasies, offers a model for understanding the complex relationship between player and character. Shared Fantasies is an ethnographic study of tabletop role-playing game communities. Borrowing from psychologist Erving Goffman’s theories of Frame Analysis, Fine identifies three “levels of meaning” within which the player/character game experience takes place:
首先，游戏和所有活动一样，都以“基本框架”为基础，即人们对现实世界的常识性理解。这是一种没有层次的行动。这个框架不依赖于其他框架，而是依赖于事件的最终现实。
First, gaming, like all activity, is grounded in the “primary framework,” the commonsense understandings that people have of the real world. This is action without laminations. It is a framework that does not depend on other frameworks but on the ultimate reality of events.
其次，玩家必须处理游戏环境；他们的行为受一套复杂的规则和约束约束。他们操纵自己的角色，了解游戏结构，并掌握与其他玩家大致相同的知识。
Second, players must deal with the game context; they are players whose actions are governed by a complicated set of rules and constraints. They manipulate their characters, having knowledge of the structure of the game, and having approximately the same knowledge that other players have.
最后，这个游戏世界的关键在于玩家不仅操纵角色，他们就是角色。角色身份与玩家身份是分开的。21
Finally, this gaming world is keyed in that the players not only manipulate characters; they are characters. The character identity is separate from the player identity.21
这种玩家意识的三重框架——作为模拟世界中的角色、作为游戏中的玩家以及作为更大社交环境中的人——优雅地勾勒出游戏体验。玩家和角色框架都发生在魔法圈内，而人物框架的主要意义则来自游戏直接空间之外的文化背景。Fine 强调了这一点，即这些框架之间的移动是流畅且持续的，并且可以在单个口头陈述或游戏动作过程中多次在它们之间切换。
This three-fold framing of player consciousness—as a character in a simulated world, as a player in a game, and as a person in a larger social setting—elegantly sketches out the experience of play. The player and character frames both take place within the magic circle, whereas the person frame gains its primary meaning from the cultural context outside the immediate space of play. Fine makes the important point that movement among these frames is fluid and constant, and that it is possible to switch between them several times in the course of a single verbal statement or game action.
在数字游戏中，也会出现同样的多层次现象。想象一个玩家，手握一个类似操纵杆的控制器，看着玻璃屏幕。玩家沉浸在游戏活动中，汗流浃背，焦虑不安，全神贯注于眼前的空间，身体倾斜，与游戏的内在节奏同步，微笑着，表情痛苦，与对手战斗，他的行动在玻璃另一边的世界中展开。他在玩什么游戏？试试这两个答案：
In digital games, the same multi-layered phenomena occurs. Imagine a player, holding a joystick-like controller, looking at a glass screen. The player is deeply engrossed in a game activity, sweating and anxious, focused completely on the space in front of him, leaning his body in synch with the visceral rhythms of the game, smiling and grimacing as he battles opponents and his actions play out in the world on the other side of the glass. What game is he playing? Try on both of these answers for size:
他正在玩《古墓丽影》。我们的假想玩家正在看着电视屏幕并操作着游戏机控制器。从某种意义上说，我们的玩家沉浸在游戏的叙事世界中，扮演劳拉·克劳馥，拥有她必备的优点和缺点（我感到迷失……我不敢相信我居然从那个陷阱中幸存了下来！）。同时，他从后面看到她夸张的身体结构，按下按钮，像操纵木偶一样操纵她，以寻找能量提升、克服障碍并打开门以进入下一关（那个作弊码是什么？这个过场动画太烂了。）。他既是角色又是玩家。此外，他所处的更大的社会和文化背景构成了 Fine 对玩家作为人的分类。也许他正试图用他熟练的游戏技巧给朋友留下深刻印象。或者，也许他正在为将在学术会议上发表的演讲做心理笔记。无论如何，玩家始终是与现实世界联系在一起并处于现实世界中的人。
He is playing Tomb Raider. Our hypothetical player is looking at a television screen and manipulating a console controller. In one sense, our player immerses himself in the game’s narrative world, taking on the identity of Lara Croft with her requisite strengths and weaknesses (I feel lost . . . I can’t believe I survived that trap!). Simultaneously, he views her exaggerated anatomy from behind, pushing buttons and manipulating her like a puppet on his quest to find power-ups, overcome obstacles, and unlock doors to reach the next level (What was that cheat code again? This cutscene sucks.). He is both character and player. In addition, the larger social and cultural context in which he plays constitutes Fine’s category of the player as person. Maybe he is trying to impress a friend with his skillful play. Or perhaps he is taking mental notes for a lecture he is going to give at an academic conference. In any case, the player is always present as a person connected to and situated in the real world.
他正在参加 Comedy Central 的 BattleBots 比赛。在这个游戏中，玩家的角色是一个在现实世界中移动的战斗遥控机器人，玻璃不是电视屏幕，而是一大块有机玻璃，保护玩家和观众免受飞溅的金属碎片的伤害。BattleBots 玩家也沉浸在自己的活动中，和古墓丽影玩家一样，他始终意识到自己的行为受游戏规则的约束。在游戏过程中，他可能会多次在角色/玩家/人物框架之间切换，在与机器人角色的情感认同（哎哟！我刚刚被猛击！）和他在游戏比赛中作为玩家的角色（让我们看看我是否能让我的游戏机器人离开角落）之间切换。他甚至可能打破玩家的框架，向人群中的朋友挥手致意，或向电视主持人提供一段声音。
He is competing in Comedy Central’s BattleBots. In this case, the player’s character is a battling, remote-controlled robot moving about the real world, the pane of glass not a television screen but a large sheet of plexi that protects the players and audience from flying scraps of metal. The BattleBots player is immersed in his activity too, and like the Tomb Raider player he is always aware that his actions are governed by the rules of the game. During game play, he might switch between the character/player/person frames many times, moving between emotional identification with his robot character (Ouch! I just got slammed!) and his role as player in the game contest (Let’s see if I can get my bot out of the corner). He might even break the frame of player to wave to a friend in the crowd or to offer a sound bite to the television host.
Fine 的三层模型是对游戏双重意识的延伸。玩家始终知道自己在玩游戏，并在这种认知下可以自由地在人物、玩家和角色之间移动。游戏玩家可以自由地享受这种移动的灵活性，在沉浸感中进进出出，打破玩家和角色的框架，同时保持魔法圈。
Fine’s three-layer model is an extension of the double-consciousness of play. Players always know that they are playing, and in that knowledge are free to move among the roles of person, player, and character. Players of a game freely embrace the flexibility of this movement, coming in and out of moments of immersion, breaking the player and character frames, yet all the while maintaining the magic circle.
即使玩家没有直接控制游戏主角，这种模式也适用。在任何游戏中，玩家都会不断在认知框架之间移动，从深度沉浸于游戏的表现形式，到深度参与游戏的战略机制，再到承认魔法圈外的空间。沉浸式谬论的追随者往往认为这种混合意识是一种令人遗憾的状态，只有当技术到来时，它才会发展到纯粹沉浸的真正状态。游戏告诉我们事实并非如此。游戏过程中发生的多层次心理状态是值得庆祝的，而不是压抑的——它是游戏中一些独特乐趣的根源。
This model applies even when players are not directly controlling a game protagonist. In any game, players move constantly between cognitive frames, shifting from a deep immersion with the game’s representation to a deep engagement with the game’s strategic mechanisms to an acknowledgement of the space outside the magic circle. Devotees of the immersive fallacy tend to see this hybrid consciousness as a regrettable state of affairs that will only evolve to its true state of pure immersion when the technology arrives. Play tells us otherwise. The many-layered state of mind that occurs during play is something to be celebrated, not repressed—it is responsible for some of the unique pleasures that emerge from a game.
入侵全息甲板
Hacking the Holodeck
作为模拟游戏，围绕着的问题总是比它们最初出现的时候更加复杂。22玩家与角色、玩家与游戏或游戏与外部世界之间不存在简单的关系。这就是为什么沉浸式谬论继续占据大多数关于游戏未来和技术在创造引人入胜的体验中的作用的设计思维的原因之一：这只是一种更容易接受的立场。
The questions surrounding games as simulations are always more complex than they first appear.22 There is no simple relationship between player and character, or player and game, or game and outside world. This is one reason why the immersive fallacy continues to colonize most design thinking about the future of games and the role of technology in creating compelling experiences: it is simply an easier position to take.
但沉浸式谬论不仅仅是一种想法。它也是游戏设计进步的绊脚石，因为它代表了一种过于浪漫和过时的媒体运作模式。只要游戏设计师沉迷于对全息甲板技术的渴望，他们就缺乏眼光来欣赏当今游戏创新的潜力。如果游戏设计师将精力集中在积极发挥游戏的双重意识上，而不是渴望沉浸感，会怎么样？想象一下可能会产生的游戏类型：鼓励玩家不断改变游戏框架，质疑游戏内外的东西的游戏；利用玩家和角色之间的层级关系，通过创造性的叙事游戏形式推动和拉动这种联系的游戏；强调元游戏的游戏，或者将魔法圈与外部环境紧密联系在一起，使游戏看起来与日常生活同步的游戏。创新只会因未能看到游戏的基本原则而受到限制。
But the immersive fallacy is more than an idea. It is also a stumbling block to advances in game design, as it represents an overly romantic and antiquated model for how media operate. As long as game designers are caught up in a desire for the technology of the holodeck, they lack the vision to appreciate the potential for game innovation today. What if game designers focused their efforts on actively playing with the double-consciousness of play, rather than pining for immersion? Imagine the kinds of games that could result: games that encourage players to constantly shift the frame of the game, questioning what is inside or outside the game; games that play with the lamination between player and character, pushing and pulling against the connection through inventive forms of narrative play; games that emphasize metagaming, or that connect the magic circle so closely with external contexts that the game appears synchronous with everyday life. Innovation is only bound by a failure to see the fundamental principles of play.
游戏开发者普遍抱怨游戏不被视为重要的文化形式，缺乏多样化的大众受众。相反，游戏似乎被贬低为文化的死水一隅。只有当游戏设计师对其媒体的运作方式有了更深入的了解时，文化地位才会发生翻天覆地的变化。当代流行文化的强大形式并非建立在幼稚的沉浸感理念之上。只要看看嘻哈、时尚和动漫的明确自我意识就知道了。这些流行文化形式对媒体培养沉浸感的方式有着深刻的理解，同时明确了体验表现的机制。
A common complaint among game developers is that games are not recognized as a significant form of culture, and that they lack a diverse mass audience. Instead, games seem to be relegated to the backwaters of culture. A sea change in cultural status will only occur when game designers acquire a more sophisticated understanding of how their media operates. Robust forms of contemporary pop culture are not premised on naïve ideas of immersion. Just take a look at the explicit self-consciousness of hip-hop, fashion, and Animé. These forms of popular culture have a deep understanding of the way media cultivates immersion while making explicit the mechanisms through which the representation is experienced.
当然，这又把我们带回到模拟。尽管模拟的前提是忠实于其指称物，但它们是动态系统这一事实本身就意味着它们允许探索替代排列。模拟允许玩家通过游戏行为探索表征可能性的空间。当然，有很多游戏设计师的动机是讲故事并为玩家提供叙事世界。将游戏定义为模拟，作为程序表征的动态系统，释放了游戏作为强大的表征和叙事媒介的潜力。但游戏才刚刚开始。问题仍然存在：游戏可以代表什么？游戏如何通过有意义的游戏吸引玩家？游戏如何挑战、批评并为魔法圈外的世界做出贡献？
This, of course, brings us back to simulation. Even though simulations are premised on the notion of fidelity to their referent, the very fact that they are dynamic systems means they allow for the exploration of alternate permutations. Simulations allow players to explore a space of representational possibility through the very act of play. Certainly there are a great many game designers driven by a desire to tell stories and provide narrative worlds for players. Framing games as simulations, as dynamic systems of procedural representation, unlocks the potential of games as a powerful representational and narrative medium. But games have only just scratched at the surface. Questions remain: What can games represent? How can games engage players through meaningful play? And how can games challenge, critique, and contribute to the world outside the magic circle?
进一步阅读
Further Reading
虚拟现实叙事：文学与电子媒体中的沉浸感和互动性，作者：Marie-Laure Ryan
Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media, by Marie-Laure Ryan
《叙事作为虚拟现实》雄辩地阐述了文学理论、超文本和虚拟现实之间的关系，重点关注瑞恩认为的沉浸感和互动性之间的竞争利益。尽管瑞恩的精明方法使她摆脱了沉浸感谬论的常见陷阱，但她是沉浸感的辩护者，因此她对互动设计的讨论受到了影响。话虽如此，对于这本厚厚的书所涵盖的主题，它是必读之作。
An eloquent articulation of the relationships between literary theory, hypertext, and VR, Narrative as Virtual Reality focuses on what Ryan sees as the competing interests of immersion and interactivity. Although Ryan’s sophisticated approach elevates her above the usual pitfalls of the immersive fallacy, she is an apologist for immersion, and her discussions of interactive design suffers as a result. That said, for the topics that this thick volume covers, it is essential reading.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第二部分：沉浸的诗学
Part II: The Poetics of Immersion
第三部分：互动的诗学
Part III: The Poetics of Interactivity
补救：理解新媒体，作者：Jay David Bolter 和 Richard Grusin
Remediation: Understanding New Media, by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin
Bolter 和 Grusin 引入了“修复”的概念，即新媒体形式通过借用和改造旧媒体来定义自己的过程。这个过程也可以反过来：旧媒体形式借用新媒体形式，例如电视修复了计算机的窗口世界。本书对游戏设计师最有用的概念是即时性和超媒体性，它们指的是媒体形式既可以真实地再现世界，又可以提醒观众再现既是构建的又是人工的。
Bolter and Grusin introduce the concept of remediation, the process in which new media forms define themselves by borrowing from and refashioning old media. This process also works in reverse: older media forms borrow from new media forms, such as television remediating the windowed world of computing. The book’s most useful concepts for game designers are immediacy, and hypermediacy, which refer to the way media forms can both authentically reproduce the world while simultaneously reminding the audience that the reproduction is both constructed and artificial.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
引言：补救的双重逻辑
Introduction: The Double Logic of Remediation
第 1 章：即时性、超媒体性和补救
Chapter 1: Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and Remediation
第二章：调解与补救
Chapter 2: Mediation and Remediation
第 4 章：电脑游戏
Chapter 4: Computer Games
《共享幻想》，作者：加里·艾伦·法恩（见第 417 页）
Shared Fantasy, by Gary Alan Fine (see page 417)
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第 1 章：FRP
Chapter 1: FRP
第 2 章：玩家
Chapter 2: Players
第三章：集体幻想
Chapter 3: Collective Fantasy
第 6 章：框架和游戏
Chapter 6: Frames and Games
格雷戈里·贝特森的《游戏与幻想理论》 （见第 373 页）
“A Theory of Play and Fantasy” by Gregory Bateson (see page 373)
笔记
Notes
1. Henry Eddington、Eric Addinall 和 Fred Percival，《游戏设计手册》（伦敦：Kogan Page Limited，1982 年），第 10 页。
1. Henry Eddington, Eric Addinall, and Fred Percival, A Handbook of Game Design (London: Kogan Page Limited, 1982), p. 10.
2. Andrew Fluegelman 和 Shoshana Tembeck，《新游戏书》（纽约：Doubleday，1976 年），第 109 页。
2. Andrew Fluegelman and Shoshana Tembeck, The New Games Book (New York: Doubleday, 1976), p. 109.
3. Warren Robinett，《发明冒险游戏》，未出版手稿。
3. Warren Robinett, Inventing the Adventure Game, unpublished manuscript.
4. Neal Hallford 与 Jana Hallford 合著，《剑与电路：计算机角色扮演游戏设计师指南》（加利福尼亚州罗斯维尔：Prima Publishing，2001 年），第 175 页。
4. Neal Hallford with Jana Hallford, Swords and Circuitry: A Designer’s Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games (Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing, 2001), p. 175.
5. Fluegelman 和 Tembeck，《新游戏书》，第 107 页。
5. Fluegelman and Tembeck, The New Games Book, p. 107.
6.罗宾内特，《发明冒险游戏》。
6. Robinett, Inventing the Adventure Game.
7. Harvey Smith，《游戏设计的未来》，< www.gamasutra.com >。
7. Harvey Smith, “The Future of Game Design,” <www.gamasutra.com>.
8.同上。
8. Ibid.
9. James F. Dunnigan，《战争游戏手册》第三版：如何玩和设计商业和专业战争游戏（圣何塞：作家俱乐部出版社，2000 年），第 109 页。
9. James F. Dunnigan, Wargames Handbook, Third Edition: How to Play and Design Commercial and Professional Wargames (San Jose: Writers Club Press, 2000), p. 109.
10. Hallford 和 Hallford，《剑与电路》，第 170-171 页
10. Hallford and Hallford, Swords and Circuitry, p. 170–171
11. Richard Rouse III，《游戏设计：理论与实践》（德克萨斯州普莱诺：Wordware Publishing，2001 年），第 122-123 页。
11. Richard Rouse III, Game Design: Theory and Practice (Plano, TX: Wordware Publishing, 2001), p. 122–123.
12. Harvey Smith，《游戏设计的未来》
12. Harvey Smith, “The Future of Game Design”
13. RE: PLAY：游戏设计 + 游戏文化。在线会议，2000 年 < www.eyebeam.org >。
13. RE: PLAY: Game Design + Game Culture. Online conference, 2000 <www.eyebeam.org>.
14.同上。
14. Ibid.
15. Gregory Bateson，《游戏与幻想理论》，载《心灵生态学步骤》（芝加哥：芝加哥大学出版社，1972 年），第 184 页。
15. Gregory Bateson, “A Theory of Play and Fantasy” in Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972), p. 184.
16.Frank Lantz， 《Hacking the Holodeck》，未出版手稿。
16. Frank Lantz, Hacking the Holodeck, unpublished manuscript.
17. RE: PLAY：游戏设计 + 游戏文化。在线会议，2000 年。
17. RE: PLAY: Game Design + Game Culture. Online conference, 2000.
18 . Marie-Laure Ryan，《叙事作为虚拟现实：文学与电子媒体中的沉浸感和互动性》（巴尔的摩：约翰霍普金斯大学出版社，2000 年），第 2 页。
18. Marie-Laure Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2000), p. 2.
19. RE: PLAY：游戏设计 + 游戏文化。在线会议，2000 年。
19. RE: PLAY: Game Design + Game Culture. Online conference, 2000.
20. Jay David Bolter 和 Richard Grusin，《补救：理解新媒体》（剑桥：麻省理工学院出版社，1999 年），第 16 页。
20. Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999), p. 16.
21. Gary Alan Fine，《共享幻想》（芝加哥：芝加哥大学出版社，1983 年），第 186 页。
21. Gary Alan Fine, Shared Fantasies (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), p. 186.
22. Frank Lantz，《Hacking the Holodeck》，未出版手稿。
22. Frank Lantz, Hacking the Holodeck, unpublished manuscript.
游戏是一种模拟游戏
概括
•模拟是“现实”各方面的程序化表示。模拟以程序化的方式进行表示，并且与它们所表示的“现实”有着特殊的关系。
• A simulation is a procedural representation of aspects of “reality.” Simulations represent procedurally and they have a special relationship to the “reality” that they represent.
• 有很多种模拟并不是游戏。但是，所有游戏都可以理解为模拟，甚至包括非常抽象的游戏或模拟现实世界中不存在的现象的游戏。
• There are many kinds of simulations that are not games. However, all games can be understood as simulations, even very abstract games or games that simulate phenomena not found in the real world.
• 游戏模拟通常以隐喻的方式运作：它们不会逐字重现其主题的表象。游戏模拟与其指称之间的差异可以为玩家带来乐趣。
• Game simulations usually operate metaphorically: they do not literally recreate a representation of their subject matter. The difference between a game simulation and its referent can be a source of pleasure for players.
•程序化表示是一种基于过程的动态描述形式。程序化表示是模拟如何模拟其主题。这些表示形式源自游戏的形式系统和玩家与游戏的互动。
• A procedural representation is a process-based, dynamic form of depiction. Procedural representation is how simulations simulate their subject matter. These forms of representation emerge from the combination of the formal system of a game and the interaction of a player with the game.
• 整个游戏可以视为特定主题的程序化表示。此外，游戏还包括构成较大描述的较小程序化表示。
• An entire game can be considered a procedural representation of a particular subject. In addition, games include smaller procedural representations that make up the larger depiction.
• 游戏表现的主题与游戏可以表现的冲突类型相关。游戏通常表现领土冲突、经济冲突或知识冲突。大多数游戏结合了其中两个或所有三个类别。也可以表现其他形式的冲突。
• The subject matter of game representations is linked to the kinds of conflict that a game can represent. Games typically represent territorial conflict, economic conflict, or conflict over knowledge. Most games combine two or all three of these categories. It is possible to represent other forms of conflict as well.
• 模拟是思考叙事的一种强大方式，因为程序化表现是一种直接强调玩家体验的叙事方法。
• Simulations are a powerful way of thinking about narrative because procedural representation is an approach to storytelling that directly emphasizes the player’s experience.
• 模拟是抽象的、数字的、有限的和系统的。模拟不可能既广泛又深入。由于设计模拟意味着从根本上减少模拟的主题，因此游戏设计师必须仔细选择要描绘现象的哪些方面以及如何在游戏系统中体现它们。
• Simulations are abstract, numerical, limited, and systemic. A simulation cannot be both broad and deep. Because designing a simulation means radically reducing the simulation’s subject matter, a game designer must carefully select which aspects of a phenomenon to depict and how to embody them within the system of the game.
• 模拟，尤其是数字游戏中的模拟，可以按照基于案例的逻辑进行构建，其中系统的每个元素之间的关系都是预先指定的，也可以按照更通用的逻辑进行构建，其中系统元素共享一组通用属性。通用结构可以节省工作时间，并带来更多突发性游戏，玩家可以有更多行动选择。然而，在任何给定的游戏中，两种结构之间的平衡通常是必要的。
• Simulations, especially in digital games, can be structured according to a case-based logic, in which relationships between every element of a system are specified in advance, or a more generalized logic in which system elements share a set of general attributes. Generalized structures can save work time and lead to more emergent games where players have greater options for action. However, a balance between the two kinds of structures is usually necessary in any given game.
•元沟通现象意味着游戏玩家意识到游戏的框架，并且玩家的心理状态体现出一种既接受又反驳该框架的双重意识。
• The phenomenon of metacommunication implies that game players are aware of the frame of a game and that a player’s state of mind embodies a kind of double-consciousness that both accepts and refutes that frame.
•沉浸式谬误认为，媒体体验的乐趣在于这种体验能够将玩家感官带入虚幻的现实。尽管沉浸式谬误在数字游戏行业中盛行，但它没有考虑到游戏的元沟通性质。
• The immersive fallacy is the belief that the pleasure of a media experience is the ability of that experience to sensually transport a player into an illusory reality. Although the immersive fallacy is prevalent in the digital game industry, it does not take into account the metacommunicative nature of play.
• 媒体理论家 Bolter 和 Grusin 认为，所有媒体都是通过补救过程运作的。补救的两个对立要素是即时性（保证真实可靠的再现）和超媒体性（强调媒体再现的建构性）。
• Media theorists Bolter and Grusin argue that all media operate through the process of remediation. The two opposing elements of remediation are immediacy, which promises true and authentic representation, and hypermediacy, which emphasizes the constructed nature of media representation.
• 心理学家 Gary Allen Fine 认为游戏玩家意识分为三个层次：对游戏角色的直接认同、作为玩家参与游戏过程、以及作为个体存在于更大的社会环境之中。
• Psychologist Gary Allen Fine identifies three layers of game player consciousness: direct identification with the game character, engagement with the game procedures as a player, and existence in larger social contexts as a person.
二十八
28
游戏作为社交游戏
GAMES AS SOCIAL PLAY
玩社区
play community
玩家角色
player roles
新兴社会系统
emergent social systems
有界和无界社区
bounded and unbounded communities
安全与信任
safety and trust
理想规则与现实规则
ideal vs. real rules
变革性社交游戏
transformative social play
玩游戏
gaming the game
禁止玩耍
forbidden play
元游戏
metagaming
我们正在开始创建一个游戏社区——不是一个有固定代码的永久社区，而是一个有我们边走边制定的代码的临时社区，一个我们可以在任何地方、任何时候找到愿意与我们一起创建它的人时继续创建的社区。—— Bernard DeKoven，《创建游戏社区》
We are beginning to create a play community—not a forever community with a fixed code, but a temporary community with a code we make up as we go along, a community that we can continue creating anywhere, any time we find the people who want to create it with us.—Bernard DeKoven, “Creating the Play Community”
引入社交游戏
Introducing Social Play
最后几章有点孤单。在研究体验、乐趣和表现系统时，我们强调了单个玩家与游戏的关系。当然，将每个玩家视为个体很重要：游戏设计师需要确保每个进入游戏的玩家最终都能获得有意义的体验，无论其他玩家是谁。然而，在这种“游戏作为社交游戏”的模式中，我们不仅关注单个玩家与游戏之间的关系，还关注当多个玩家参与同一款游戏时发生的社交体验。过去几十年来，对单人电脑和视频游戏的关注在游戏的悠久历史中是一种异常现象。虽然也有明显的例外，比如单人纸牌游戏，但几个世纪以来，总的来说，游戏一直被视为社交体验，是人们相互联系的一种方式，是人们一起玩游戏的一种方式。数字游戏重新青睐多人游戏体验这一事实绝不是什么新趋势：它只是游戏回归其社交游戏的本源。
The last few chapters have been a little bit lonely. In looking at experience, pleasure, and systems of representation, we emphasized an individual player’s relationship to a game. It is, of course, important to consider each player as an individual: game designers need to make sure that every player who enters a game ends up having a meaningful experience, regardless of who else is playing. However, with this schema on Games as Social Play, we focus not just on the relationship between an individual player and a game, but also on the social experiences that occur when more than one player participates in the same game. The emphasis in the last few decades on single-player computer and video games is something of an anomaly in the eons-old history of gaming. While there are notable exceptions, such as solitaire card games, by and large over the centuries games have been valued as social experiences, as a way for people to relate to each other, as a way for people to play together. The fact that digital games are swinging back to favoring multiplayer experiences is not a new trend by any means: it is merely games returning to their roots as social play.
当玩家在魔法圈内相互交流时，他们的社交互动凸显了游戏设计的重要方面。有意义的游戏可以被视为一种社交现象。本章的重点是了解社交游戏如何变得有意义，既体现在单个游戏中发生的互动，也体现在更大的游戏社区中的互动。
As players mingle with each other inside the magic circle, their social interactions highlight important aspects of a game’s design. Meaningful play can be framed as a social phenomena. Understanding how social play becomes meaningful, manifest both as interactions occurring within an individual game, and as interactions across larger play communities, is the focus of this chapter.
这不是我们第一次讨论游戏中玩家之间的互动。例如，在《游戏作为博弈论系统》中，我们探讨了理性玩家在非常特殊的游戏中的决策过程。即使在博弈论极其狭窄的限制范围内，对双人策略的考虑也会将简单的选择转化为非常复杂的游戏问题。现在，当我们考虑整个社交游戏范围内的玩家互动时，事情确实变得非常棘手。
This is not the first time we have discussed the interaction between players in a game. In Games as Game Theory Systems, for example, we explored the decision-making process of rational players within very specialized kinds of games. Even within the incredibly narrow constraints of game theory, the consideration of two-player strategies transformed simple choices into remarkably complex game problems. Now as we consider player interaction within the full gamut of social play, things get very tricky indeed.
社会关系
Social Relations
当我们将游戏定义为社交游戏时，我们将游戏系统中元素之间的关系视为社交关系。“社交”一词广义上指玩家互动，分为两个层次。第一层次的社交互动发生在魔法圈内，是游戏正式系统的产物。例如，在 Tag 游戏中，玩家扮演“它”（追逐者）或“不是它”（被追逐者）的社会角色。这些社交互动源自内部，因为它们源自游戏规则。第二层次的社交互动源自外部— 社会角色从魔法圈外部带入游戏。例如，影响游戏内战略选择的先前存在的友谊和对手就是社交游戏的外部衍生元素。
When we frame a game as social play, we consider the relationships between elements in the game system to be social relationships. The word “social” refers broadly to player interaction, and occurs on two levels. The first level of social interaction occurs within the magic circle, as a product of the formal system of a game. For example, in a game of Tag players assume social roles of “It” (the chaser) or “not It” (the chased). These social interactions are internally derived, as they emerge from the game’s rules. The second level of social interaction is derived externally—social roles brought into the game from outside the magic circle. Pre-existing friendships and rivalries that affect in-game strategic choices, for example, are externally derived elements of social play.
无论是内部还是外部，玩家之间的社交关系都会因游戏中的每一个动作而改变。随着游戏的进行，社交角色会以有趣的方式变化和转变。（如果你反应敏捷，你可能是“它”，但不会持续太久！）驾驭、操纵和改变这些关系是玩家在社交领域实现有意义的游戏的一种方式。此外，玩家之间发生的社交游戏是游戏作为意义系统运作方式的一种功能。玩游戏会为玩家产生意义，从而重现和挑战社交互动的准则。玩家在游戏中和通过游戏相互联系时产生的各种意义是我们探索游戏作为社交游戏的核心。
Whether internally or externally derived, social relationships between players are modified by every action taken in the game. Social roles playfully shift and transform as the game proceeds. (You may be “It,” but not for long if you are quick!) Navigating, manipulating, and transforming these relationships is one way that players achieve meaningful play in the social realm. Furthermore, the social play that occurs between players is a function of the way the game operates as a system of meaning. Playing games generates meanings for players, which reproduce and challenge codes of social interaction. The kinds of meaning generated as players relate to one another within and through a game is at the center of our exploration of games as social play.
在前面的章节中，我们提出了游戏是意义的象征系统这一观点。通过社交游戏来扩展这一观点，我们可以将游戏视为玩家用来相互交流的象征系统。例如，两个玩家可以坐下来玩井字游戏，即使他们母语不同，因为他们都知道游戏的“语言”。这是通过游戏进行的交流，游戏成为通过社交互动进行程式化交流的背景。游戏规则决定了玩家之间的互动。沟通，限制玩家可以做什么和说些什么。在空网格上标记 X 和 O 是井字游戏玩家用游戏语言互相“交谈”的方式。
In earlier chapters, we established the idea that games are symbolic systems of meaning. Extending this idea through social play, we can consider a game as a symbolic system players use to communicate with each other. For example, two players can sit down and play Tic-Tac-Toe even if they don’t share the same native tongue, because they both know the “language” of the game. This is communication via game play, in which a game becomes a context for stylized communication, mediated through social interaction. The rules of a game determine the communication that takes place, limiting what players can do and say to each other. Marking Xs and Os on empty grid squares is how Tic-Tac-Toe players “speak” to each other in the language of the game.
外部环境也总是会影响通过游戏进行的交流。与游戏的其他方面相比，当考虑游戏的社交性时，外部环境给游戏带来的因素的影响尤其强烈。例如，随着玩家越来越熟悉游戏的内部运作，战略和运动技能通常会得到发展。相比之下，社交互动技能则直接建立在人类经验之上。因此，从社交角度来看，现有的信任与不信任、友谊与敌意关系会对游戏的玩法产生巨大影响。
External contexts always already affect communication via game play as well. Compared to other facets of play, the influence of factors brought to the game from external contexts is particularly strong when considering the social play of a game. Strategic and athletic skills, for example, generally evolve as a player becomes more familiar with the internal workings of a game. Social interaction skills, in contrast, build directly on human experience. Therefore, existing relationships of trust and distrust, friendship and enmity can have a tremendous impact on the way that a game is played from a social point of view.
由于游戏中发生的社交互动形式与游戏外的社交互动形式有着密切的联系，因此如果不稍微偏离文化领域，就不可能考虑社交游戏。因此， 《游戏作为社交游戏》具有某种民族志特征：理解游戏作为社交游戏需要大量细致的观察。这些对魔法圈边缘及更远地方的初步探索将有助于为接下来的《文化》章节奠定基础。
Because the forms of social interaction that occur within a game have strong connections to forms of social interaction outside the game, it will be impossible to consider social play without straying just a bit into the realm of culture. For this reason, Games as Social Play has a somewhat ethnographic character: understanding games as social play requires a great deal of careful observation. These initial forays to the edge of the magic circle and beyond will help set the stage for the CULTURE chapters to follow.
玩家角色
Player Roles
从社交游戏的角度来看，当玩家进入游戏系统时，该玩家会被赋予一个角色。我们所说的“角色”并不意味着玩家成为故事中的角色。相反，我们指的是每个玩家在游戏的社交网络中都有自己的角色。在这个社交关系系统中，玩家可以扮演各种各样的角色，从死敌到团队领导再到犯罪伙伴。角色不是固定的，在游戏过程中可能会多次改变。例如，在三人竞争游戏中，只有一个获胜者，在游戏过程中的任何时刻，一个玩家都可能扮演好朋友、死对头、令人讨厌的讨厌的人、令人恐惧的权力或怨恨的角色。玩家扮演的角色是其他玩家的临时盟友。随着游戏的进行和力量平衡的变化，这些角色会发生变化和波动，最终会有一个玩家成为赢家。游戏是复杂的新兴系统。系统中对象之间的关系（即玩家之间的关系）处于不断重新定义的状态。
From a social play point of view, when a player enters into the system of a game, that player is given a role to play. By “role” we don’t mean that a player becomes a character in a story. Rather, we mean that each player has a role in the social network of a game. Within this system of social relationships there are a wide variety of roles that players can assume, from arch-enemy to team leader to partner-in-crime. Roles are not fixed and may change many times within the course of a game. For example, in a three-player competitive game with one winner, at any moment during play one player might play the role of fast friend, bitter enemy, cloying annoyance, feared power, or grudgingly temporary ally to the other players. As the game proceeds and the balance of power shifts, these roles change and fluctuate, reaching an endpoint in which one player assumes the role of winner. Games are complex emergent systems. The relationships between objects in the system—between players—is in a constant state of redefinition.
澄清“社区”
Clarifying “Community”
近年来，“社区”一词已成为游戏行业的流行语，指的是在多人游戏内部和周围形成的玩家群体。虽然在 Everguest 等在线游戏中使用虚拟化身的玩家群体确实代表了一个游戏社区，但它只是一个非常特殊的例子。
The term “community” has gained status as a game industry buzzword in recent years, referencing the groups of players that can form inside and around multiplayer games. Although a group of players using their virtual avatars in an online game such as Everguest does indeed represent a game community, it represents only one very particular instance.
当我们在社交游戏的背景下使用“社区”一词时，我们指的是更基本、更多样化的东西。正如 DeKoven 在本章开头的引文中所指出的那样，游戏社区是指一群玩家聚在一起玩游戏时产生的。社区可能会持续数年或数十年，也可能只在一个下午形成。社区可能是由一场高度正规化的专业赛车比赛创建的，也可能是由两个朋友坐下来玩跳棋创建的。游戏社区可以存在于同一款游戏的多个实例中，也可以存在于随着时间的推移而玩许多不同游戏的过程中。社区可以围绕一款游戏、一系列游戏或更大的游戏环境而出现，范围从两个玩家在商场游戏厅快速玩《热舞革命》游戏，到每四年参加奥运会的数千名玩家。
When we use the term community in the context of social play we are referencing something much more elemental and varied. As DeKoven indicates in the quote that opened this chapter, a play community occurs any time a group of players gets together to play a game. The community may last for years or decades, or only come into being for a single afternoon. A community could be created by a highly formalized professional car race, or by two friends sitting down to play Checkers. Play communities can persist across more than one instance of the same game or across the play of many different games over time. Communities can arise around a single game, a series of games, or a larger game context, ranging from two players having a quick match of Dance Dance Revolution in the mall arcade, to several thousand players competing every four years in the Olympics.
每个月，gameLab 都会邀请一群来自纽约地区的游戏开发者来玩棋盘游戏。这些每月一次的聚会至少在三个层面上建立了一个社交游戏社区。首先，每个单独的游戏都会形成一个游戏社区，游戏开始时游戏社区便会形成，游戏结束时游戏社区便会结束。其次，每个晚上的聚会（玩家可能会玩一些不同的游戏）也代表了一个游戏社区，由参加活动的人组成。第三，也可以将数月或数年的多次聚会视为一个游戏社区，尽管参加的玩家和玩的游戏每晚都不同。
Every month, gameLab hosts a group of NYC-area game developers to play board games. These monthly gatherings create a social play community on at least three levels. First, each individual game forms a play community, which arises when the game begins and ends when the game concludes. Second, each evening get-together—in which a player is likely to play a handful of different games—also represents a play community, comprised of the people that attended the event. Third, it is also possible to consider a number of gatherings over months or years as a play community, even though the players that attend and the games that are played differ from evening to evening.
游戏社区概念的具体规模取决于您要解决的游戏设计问题。如果您的目的是让玩家单独参与游戏一两次，那么您很可能会关注单个游戏魔法圈内的游戏社区。您想在游戏玩法之间建立的凝聚力越大（续集和扩展、扩展游戏叙事的网站、粉丝俱乐部等），您的社交设计重点就需要越广泛。
The exact scale at which you might conceptualize the notion of a play community depends on the game design problem you are trying to solve. If your intention is to have players take part in a game only once or twice in isolation, then you will most likely focus on the play community that exists within the magic circle of an individual game. The more cohesion you want to create between plays of your game (sequels and expansions, a website that expands the narrative of the game, a fan club, etc.) the wider your social design focus will need to be.
例如，想象一种不同类型的游戏，玩家齐心协力实现共同目标：在这种情况下，玩家扮演同志的社会角色，必须通过团队合作才能一起玩得好。如果在朋友群中隐藏着一个敌人怎么办？突然间，玩家之间的关系呈现出完全不同的基调，游戏充满了欺骗的气氛。理查德·哈奇在电视连续剧《幸存者》第一季中扮演了“联盟”自封的领导者的角色，这导致该团体的其他三名成员之间产生了严重的分歧，最终产生了怨恨和背叛的感觉。虽然联盟最初被认为是一种合作游戏策略，但其中一名成员作为一个残酷的竞争对手的出现迫使人们重新评估游戏中的社会（和战略）角色。显然，游戏提供的社交角色对游戏的整体体验产生了巨大的影响。
For example, imagine a different kind of game in which players work together to attain a common goal: in this case, players take on the social role of comrades who must use teamwork to play well together. What if there was a single enemy hidden among the group of friends? Suddenly, the relationships between players take on a completely different tone, and the game is infused with an air of deceit. The role Richard Hatch assumed as the self-proclaimed leader of “the alliance” in the first season of the television series Survivor created a sharp divide among the three other members of the group, culminating in feelings of bitterness and betrayal. Although the alliance was originally conceived as a collaborative game strategy, the emergence of one of its members as a cutthroat competitor forced a re-evaluation of social (and strategic) roles within the game. Clearly, the social roles that a game provides exert a tremendous influence on the overall experience of play.
右侧图表列出了 Brian Sutton-Smith与 RE Herron 共同编辑的《儿童游戏》一书中的“游戏和游戏的句法”中列出的社会游戏角色。1 Sutton-Smith 所定义的每个角色都代表了游戏内部衍生的社交互动。换句话说，它们是由游戏的形式系统所创造的角色。Sutton-Smith 的“游戏动机”类别是对游戏核心机制的抽象。每个“动机”都指玩家之间的一种一般互动。
The chart to the right presents a list of social play roles from Brian Sutton-Smith’s “A Syntax for Play and Games” in Child’s Play, a book he edited with R. E. Herron.1 Each of the roles Sutton-Smith identifies represents internally derived social interactions. In other words, they are roles created by the formal system of a game. Sutton-Smith’s category “motive of play” is an abstraction of the game’s core mechanic. Each “motive” refers to a general kind of interaction between players.
尽管参与者和反参与者的对立并不是构建社交游戏玩法的唯一方式，但它是引起人们对游戏固有冲突质量关注的一种方式。在 Sutton-Smith 的模型中，参与者和反参与者的角色在构建游戏体验方面同样重要。实际的游戏活动是两个玩家角色的功能。例如，追逐活动发生在一个玩家（追逐者）试图抓住另一个玩家（被追逐者）时，后者反过来试图躲避追逐者。如果被追逐的玩家决定不再奔跑，放弃躲避追逐者的角色，追逐游戏就会结束（可能变成另一种活动，例如非正式摔跤的攻击游戏或偷吻的诱惑游戏）。
Although the opposition of an actor and a counteractor is not the only way to frame social game play, it is one way of calling attention to the quality of conflict intrinsic to games. In Sutton-Smith’s model, the roles of actor and counteractor are both equally important in constructing the experience of play. The actual play activity is a function of the two player roles. The activity of Chase, for example, occurs when one player (the chaser) attempts to catch another player (the chased), who in turn attempts to elude the chaser. If the chased player decided not to run anymore, to give up the role of eluding the chaser, the chase play would end (possibly turning into a different kind of activity, such as the attack play of informal wrestling, or the seduction play of stealing a kiss).
社会角色至关重要，因为游戏直接源于玩家之间的关系。从社交游戏的角度来看，《幸存者》是社会角色力量的一个引人注目的例子。关于哪位选手更优秀，争论十分激烈；事实上，理查德是更优秀的玩家，因为他认识到他可以操纵游戏中的社交关系来达到战略目的。（当然，这一观察为他赢得了一百万美元。）幸存者的例子直指本章的核心：当我们将游戏定义为社交游戏时，社交关系构成了整个游戏体验。即使在像 Chutes and Ladders 这样非常简单的游戏中，玩家仍然在进行一场竞赛，每个玩家都在努力保持领先或赶上其他玩家。
Social roles are crucial, because play emerges directly from the relationships between players. From a social play perspective, Survivor was a compelling example of the power of social roles. Debates raged about which contestant was the better person; the fact remains that Richard was the better player, as he recognized that he could manipulate social relations within the game to strategic ends. (And of course, this observation won him a million bucks.) The example of Survivor gets to the heart of this chapter: when we frame a game as social play, the social relationships constitute the entire experience of the game. Even in a very simple game like Chutes and Ladders, players are still enacting a race, in which each player is trying to stay ahead of, or catch up to, the other players.
Sutton-Smith 模型对于理解游戏作为玩家角色的功能非常有用。它提供了一种分析游戏中现有社交玩法的绝妙方法，并为新的社交玩法体验提供了思路。在思考如何将 Sutton-Smith 模型应用到游戏中时，请考虑以下几点：
Sutton-Smith’s model is quite useful in understanding play as a function of player roles. It provides a wonderful way to analyze the existing social play in your game, as well as provides ideas for new social play experiences. In thinking about how you might apply Sutton-Smith’s model to your game, consider the following:
•不只是两个玩家。尽管 Sutton-Smith 的模型基于两个玩家（一个演员和一个反演员）之间的关系，但这些角色不一定每个都由一个玩家扮演。游戏角色很少如此简单和单一。在捉迷藏（核心活动是搜索）中，扮演“它”的玩家扮演演员的角色，而所有其他玩家都是隐藏的反演员。
• Not just two players. Although Sutton-Smith’s model is based on a relationship between two players (an actor and a counteractor), these roles don’t have to be played by just one player each. Game roles are rarely so simple and singular. In Hide-and-Seek (where the core activity is the search), the player that is “It” plays the role of actor while all of the other players are the hiding counteractor.
•活动丰富。与其他类型的游戏一样，玩家可以在单个游戏过程中扮演一系列社交角色。在“夺旗”游戏中，图表中列出的几乎每一项活动都会在某个时间点发生，每个玩家在游戏的不同时刻都扮演着行动者和反行动者的角色。
• Many activities. As with other kinds of play, a player can assume a range of social roles in the course of a single game. In Capture the Flag, almost every one of the activities listed on the chart takes place at one point or another, with any individual player playing both actor and counteractor at different moments in the game.
•同时进行多项活动。除了切换角色之外，玩家还可以同时扮演多个角色。想象一下一对捉迷藏玩家躲在一起。他们一边等待时机，一边开玩笑地试图让对方发笑并透露藏身之处。笑声游戏是一个大胆的诱惑例子，玩家在其中诱惑并抵制禁止的行为。因此，躲藏的玩家同时扮演多个角色（隐藏者、诱惑者和被诱惑者）。
• More than one activity at once. Beyond switching roles, a player might inhabit more than one role simultaneously. Imagine a pair of Hide-and-Seek players hiding together. As they bide their time they playfully try to get the other to laugh and reveal the hiding place. The laughing game is a daring example of seduction, in which players tempt and resist a forbidden action. The hiding players are thus playing several roles simultaneously (hiders, seducers, and the seduced).
•不仅仅是人类玩家。这两个角色不一定非要由人类玩家来承担。跑步者可能试图在比赛中打破自己的最好成绩，在这种情况下，她之前的成绩就是对手。在单人街机游戏 Robotron 中，程序提供了不同的游戏元素，必须避免（不可摧毁的敌人）、摧毁（可射击的敌人）和营救（人类）。
• Not just human players. Both roles don’t have to be taken on by human players. A runner might be trying to beat her own best time in a race, in which case her previous time serves as the opponent. In the single-player arcade game Robotron, the program provides different game elements that must be avoided (indestructible enemies), destroyed (shootable enemies) and rescued (humans).
•不同级别的不同活动。根据游戏的框架，可以将不同的社交游戏活动应用于同一款游戏。尽管 Robotron 可以用追逐、攻击、捕获和救援来描述，但也可以将整场 Robotron 游戏框架为一场比赛，玩家试图打破之前的高分。
• Different activities at different levels. Different social game activities can be applied to the same game depending on how the game is framed. Although Robotron can be described in terms of chase, attack, capture, and rescue, it is also possible to frame an entire game of Robotron as a race, in which a player tries to beat a previous high score.
Sutton-Smith 的社交游戏角色列表相当广泛，但肯定不是详尽无遗的。MUD 设计师 Richard Bartle 的文章“红心、梅花、方块、黑桃：适合 MUD 的玩家”探讨了另一种社交游戏角色类型。与 Sutton-Smith 的模型相反，Bartle 的角色是外部衍生的，来自魔法圈之外。Sutton-Smith 的模型源自对儿童游乐场游戏的研究，而 Bartle 也同样关注一种游戏：基于文本的在线 MUD。Bartle 发现 MUD 中有四种类型的角色或游戏风格：成就者、探索者、社交者和杀手。尽管许多个人玩家都扮演混合角色，但根据 Bartle 的说法，通常有一种角色占主导地位。Bartle 将每个角色与扑克牌花色联系起来。在他对以下类别的描述中，他描述了每个玩家角色如何看待其他三种游戏风格：
Sutton-Smith’s list of social play roles is quite extensive, but it is certainly not exhaustive. The essay “Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs,” by MUD designer Richard Bartle, considers another typology of social play roles. In opposition to Sutton-Smith’s model, Bartle’s roles are externally derived, coming from outside the magic circle. Sutton-Smith derived his model from a study of children’s playground games, and Bartle similarly focuses on one kind of game: text-based online MUDs. Bartle finds that within MUDs there are four types of roles, or playing styles: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers, and Killers. Although many individual players assume hybrid roles, according to Bartle one is generally dominant. Bartle associates each role with a playing card suit. In his account of the categories below, he descibes how each player role regards the other three styles of play:
成就者（钻石级）将积分收集和升级视为主要目标，一切最终都服从于此。探索只是寻找新的宝藏来源或从中榨取积分的改进方法的必要条件。社交是一种放松的生活方式发现其他玩家对积分业务的了解，以便将他们的知识应用于获得财富的任务。杀戮只有在消灭对手或阻碍者时才有必要，或者为了获得大量积分（如果杀死其他玩家可以获得积分）。
Achievers [diamonds] regard points-gathering and rising in levels as their main goal, and all is ultimately subservient to this. Exploration is necessary only to find new sources of treasure, or improved ways of wringing points from it. Socializing is a relaxing method of discovering what other players know about the business of accumulating points, so that their knowledge can be applied to the task of gaining riches. Killing is only necessary to eliminate rivals or people who get in the way, or to gain vast amounts of points (if points are awarded for killing other players).
探险家[黑桃] 喜欢让游戏向他们展示其内部的阴谋。他们在荒野偏僻的地方尝试逐渐深奥的行动，寻找有趣的特征（即错误）并弄清楚事物的工作原理。得分可能是进入探索的下一阶段的必要条件，但这很乏味，任何有脑子的人都可以做到。杀戮更快，而且本身可能是一种建设性的活动……社交可以作为尝试新想法的来源，提供信息……真正的乐趣只来自于发现，以及制作现存最完整的地图集。
Explorers [spades] delight in having the game expose its internal machinations to them. They try progressively esoteric actions in wild, out-of-the-way places, looking for interesting features (i.e., bugs) and figuring out how things work. Scoring points may be necessary to enter some next phase of exploration, but it’s tedious, and anyone with half a brain can do it. Killing is quicker, and might be a constructive exercise in its own right . . . . Socializing can be informative as a source of new ideas to try out . . . . The real fun comes only from discovery, and making the most complete set of maps in existence.
社交者[心] 对人以及他们所说的话感兴趣。游戏只是一个背景，是玩家发生事情的共同基础。可能需要进行一些探索才能了解其他人在谈论什么，并且可能需要得分才能获得只有更高级别才可用的简洁交流咒语（以及在社区中获得一定地位）。然而，杀戮只有在徒劳的冲动报复行为，针对给亲密朋友造成无法忍受的痛苦的人时才可以被原谅。唯一最终令人满意的事情是……认识人们，理解他们，并建立美好持久的关系。
Socializers [hearts] are interested in people, and what they have to say. The game is merely a backdrop, a common ground where things happen to players. Some exploration may be necessary so as to understand what everyone else is talking about, and points-scoring could be required to gain access to neat communicative spells available only to higher levels (as well as to obtain a certain status in the community). Killing, however, is something only ever to be excused if it’s a futile, impulsive act of revenge, perpetrated upon someone who has caused intolerable pain to a dear friend. The only ultimately fulfilling thing is . . . getting to know people, to understand them, and to form beautiful, lasting relationships.
杀手[俱乐部] 以将自己强加于他人为乐。[杀手] 攻击其他玩家，目的是杀死他们的角色……造成的痛苦越大，杀手的喜悦就越大。通常需要正常的得分……并且需要某种探索来发现杀人的新奇方法。即使社交有时也比嘲弄最近的受害者更有价值，例如了解某人的游戏习惯，或与其他杀手讨论策略。然而，它们都只是达到目的的手段；只有当你知道某个地方的某个真实的人对你刚刚做的事情感到非常不安，而他们自己却无能为力时，才会有真正令人肾上腺素激增、刺激的乐趣。2
Killers [clubs] get their kicks from imposing themselves on others. [Killers] attack other players with a view to killing off their personae . . . . The more massive the distress caused, the greater the killer’s joy at having caused it. Normal points-scoring is usually required . . . and exploration of a kind is necessary to discover new and ingenious ways to kill people. Even socializing is sometimes worthwhile beyond taunting a recent victim, for example in finding out someone’s playing habits, or discussing tactics with fellow killers. They’re all just means to an end, though; only in the knowledge that a real person, somewhere, is very upset by what you’ve just done, yet can themselves do nothing about it, is there any true adrenaline-shooting, juicy fun.2
无论玩家是成就者、探索者、杀手、社交者还是其中的某种组合，互动在很大程度上取决于玩家在游戏世界中承担的社交身份。尽管社交者是唯一被描述为明显“社交”的群体，但这四种角色不仅代表游戏风格，而且更具体地说，代表社交游戏风格。成就者与其他成就者争夺权力；杀手用恶作剧惹恼其他玩家；探索者交易和觊觎信息；当然，社交者花时间交谈。每种类型的玩家角色都通过协商更大的游戏社区的社会框架来获得自己的身份。
Whether a player is an achiever, explorer, killer, socializer, or some combination, interaction depends in large part on the kind of social identity the player assumes within the game world. Although socializers are the only group described as overtly “social,” all four roles represent not just styles of play, but more specifically, styles of social play. Achievers compete with other achievers for power; killers annoy other players with their mischief; explorers trade and covet information; and socializers, of course, spend their time in conversation. Each type of player role gains its identity through negotiation of the social framework of the larger play community.
Bartle 所识别的玩家角色与 Sutton-Smith 提供的模型之间的一个主要区别在于，Bartle 关注的不是游戏的社交核心机制，而是玩家可以承担的更高级别的社交角色。例如，社交者是从一系列活动和优先事项中产生的角色，其中，与其他玩家输入聊天语句和访问游戏世界中用于社交互动的空间是最重要的。社交者的角色是一种宏观角色，从一系列相关活动和互动中产生。
One primary difference between the player roles Bartle identifies and the model Sutton-Smith offers is that Bartle is looking less at the social core mechanics of the game, and more at higher-level social roles that players can assume. Being a socializer, for example, is a role that emerges from a collection of activities and priorities, in which typing chat statements to other players and visting spaces of the game world devoted to social interaction are of primary importance. The role of socializer, is a kind of macro-role, emerging from a cluster of related activities and interactions.
三个新兴社交游戏
Three Emergent Social Games In
游戏新兴系统，我们确定游戏中有意义的玩法需要一个复杂的新兴系统。社交游戏也是如此：游戏中的社交互动与新兴概念密切相关。当我们将游戏定义为社交系统时，它实际上开始爆发出新兴的社交游戏。从扑克的新兴虚张声势，到 Gauntlet 的竞争性友情，再到大型 LARP 的合作故事讲述，社交游戏带来了各种新兴体验。想想 Bartle 的四类玩家。这些千差万别的玩家类型的显著特点是，它们都可以出现在同一个游戏中。如果游戏的可能性空间足够大，玩家就会找到方法来创造自己的角色和游戏风格。
Games Emergent Systems, we established that meaningful play in a game requires a complex, emergent system. The same is true for social play: social interaction in games is closely tied to the concept of emergence. When we frame a game as a social system, it literally begins to burst with emergent social play. From the emergent bluffing of Poker, to the competitive camaraderie of Gauntlet, to the collaborative storytelling of a large-scale LARP, social play results in a variety of emergent experiences. Think about Bartle’s four categories of players. The remarkable thing about these wildly varying player types is that all of them can occur within the same game. If the space of possibility of a game is large enough, players will find ways to create their own roles and styles of play.
接下来，我们来仔细看看三款体现新兴社交游戏的不同游戏。每款游戏都非常简单，通过一组有限的行为来设计玩家互动风格——但游戏中出现的社交角色和活动却非常新颖。
Next we take a close look at three different games that exemplify emergent social play. Each game is remarkably simple, stylizing player interaction through a limited set of behaviors—yet the social roles and activities that arise from the games is remarkably emergent.
小麦克斯
Little Max
第一个游戏示例表面上看起来相当正式。这是一款骰子虚张声势的游戏，有许多变化；我们将使用 Reiner Knizia 的《骰子游戏正确解释》中描述的传统游戏 Little Max 的规则。Little Max 不仅是一款简单而优雅的骰子虚张声势游戏，而且还是一款富有社交玩法的游戏。以下是 Knizia 描述的规则：
The first game example seems quite formal on the surface. It is a dice-bluffing game that has a number of variations; we will use the rules from the traditional game Little Max described in Reiner Knizia’s Dice Games Properly Explained. Not only is Little Max a simple and elegant version of a dice-bluffing game, but a game rich in social play. Here are the rules, paraphrased from Knizia’s description:
您需要两个骰子和一个杯子。游戏的目标是让其他玩家相信您对掷骰子所说的话，从而留在游戏中。游戏中最后剩下的玩家获胜。
You will need two dice and a cup. The object of the game is to remain in the game by making the other players believe what you say about your dice roll. The last remaining player in the game wins.
游戏按顺时针方向依次进行。第一个玩家摇动杯子下的骰子，然后偷看结果，以免其他玩家看到。然后他宣布他想要的任何结果，并将杯子传递给下一个玩家。当你收到杯子时，你有两个选择：
Play moves clockwise around the table in turns. The first player shakes the dice under the cup and then peeks at the result so that no other player can see. Then he claims any result he wishes and passes the cup to the next player. When you receive the cup, you have two options:
接受：如果您接受申领，则无需查看骰子，而是摇动杯子，查看结果，提出新的申领并传递杯子。您的申领总数必须高于前一位玩家的申领总数。
Accept: If you accept the claim, you don’t look at the dice but instead shake the cup, peek at the result, make your new claim and pass the cup. Your claim must be a higher total than the previous player’s claim.
挑战：您可以挑战并举起杯子。如果骰子显示的结果低于要求的结果，则提出虚假要求的玩家出局，您可以通过摇骰子开始新一轮。您可以要求骰子上的任何结果。但是，如果骰子显示的组合至少与要求的结果一样高，则您出局。下一位玩家开始新一轮。
Challenge: You can challenge and lift the cup. If the dice show a result lower than the claim, the player that made the false claim is out of the game and you start a new round by shaking the dice. You can claim any result on the dice you want. However, if the dice show a combination that is at least as high as the claim, you are out of the game. The next player starts a new round.
以下是骰子结果的排序：
Following are the ranking of dice results:
•当一个骰子显示 1 而另一个骰子显示 2 时， Little Max是游戏中的最高结果，并且在叫出时必须始终受到质疑。
• A Little Max, when one die shows a 1 and the other shows a 2, is the highest result in the game and must always be challenged when it is called.
•对子是第二高的结果，一对 6 是最高对子，一对 1 是最低对子。对子以下是数字，任何其他两个数字。
• Pairs are the next highest results, with a pair of 6s the highest pair and a pair of 1s the lowest. Below pairs are figures, any other two numbers.
•数字以最大数字在前的方式声明（因此 4 和 2 胜过 4 和 1）。6 和 5 是最大数字，而 3 和 1 是最小数字。
• Figures are declared with the highest number in front (so a 4 and a 2 beats a 4 and a 1). A 6 and a 5 is the highest figure and a 3 and a 1 is the lowest.
游戏继续进行，直到只剩下一名玩家。请注意，玩家可以决定不看自己的掷骰结果，而只是声明结果。如果他愿意，他甚至不必重新掷骰子，在这种情况下，他会传递未见过的杯子，并声明更高的结果。3
Play continues until only one player is left. Note that a player may decide not to look at his roll and simply claim a result. He doesn’t even have to reroll the dice if he wants, in which case he passes the cup unseen with a higher claim.3
除了描述之外，Knizia 还附上了一张图表，列出了每种可能骰子结果的概率百分比。此资源对于严格按照数字进行游戏的玩家很有用。但正如 Knizia 在游戏分析中所解释的那样，Little Max 中发生的事情远不止简单的数字运算：
Along with his description, Knizia includes a chart listing the percentage chance for being able to make each potential die result. This resource is useful for players who are going to play strictly by the numbers. But as Knizia explains in his analysis of the game, there is far more going on in Little Max than mere number-crunching:
鸭子的心理学
The Psychology, or How to be a Duck
除了保持一张坚定的扑克脸之外，小麦克斯还会在骰子递到你手中时做出正确的选择。
Besides keeping a firm Poker face, Little Max is about making the right choice when the dice are handed to you.
您是否决定挑战取决于您改进当前主张的机会，也取决于您对前一位玩家提出其主张的机会的评估……
Your decision to challenge depends on your chances to better the current claim, but also on your evaluation of the previous player’s chances to produce his claim . . . .
击败 6-1 或更好的几率正好是 50%。理论上，如果前一位玩家必须击败 6-1 或更好的玩家，您应该质疑这一说法，因为胜算对您有利。
The chances of beating a 6-1 or better are exactly 50%. In theory you should challenge the claim if the previous player had to beat 6-1 or better, because the odds are in your favor.
实际玩法则有所不同。挑战发生的频率较低，因为大多数玩家倾向于躲避并希望邪恶会越过他们。如果你可以假设下一个玩家会遵循这种趋势而不挑战你，你为什么要冒险呢？在鸭子中间躲避是最好的策略。
Practical play turns out to be different. Challenges happen less frequently as most players tend to duck and hope that the evil will pass over them. If you can assume that the next player will follow this trend and not challenge you, why should you take any risks? Ducking among ducks is the best strategy.
当你歪曲事实时，要小心不要给下一位玩家施加太大压力，否则他可能会被迫挑战你。另一方面，仅仅将结果提高一步看起来不太可信。你越超出原来的要求，就越显得在说实话，因为没人指望你会走得那么远。矛盾！即使你得出了更高的结果，但还是说出下一个可能的结果，那又怎么样呢？
When you bend the truth, be careful not to squeeze the next player too much or he might find himself forced to challenge you. On the other hand, just going one step higher with your result looks implausible. The more you exceed your old claim the more you appear to speak the truth, because nobody expects you to go that far over the top. A contradiction! What about calling out the next possible result even when you produced something higher?
肢体语言和紧张的神经通常会压倒逻辑分析。你很快就会发现自己拼命寻找一个好的组合，同时难以置信地盯着你那低得令人难以置信的骰子。嘟囔着“五六”之类的话显然表明你的心不在焉。可能是因为害怕吧？……
Body language and trembling nerves usually prevail over logical analysis. You will soon find yourself desperately searching for a good combination to claim while staring in disbelief at your incredibly low dice. Mumbling something like “five-six” obviously indicates that your mind is distracted. Could it be fear?. . .
在 Little Max 游戏中有一个奇妙的轶事，其中一枚骰子在游戏过程中丢失了，游戏继续进行了几轮，因为每个人都害怕被抓住。如果你在杯子下只有一个骰子的情况下获得“两个五”，那是一种什么样的感觉。4
There is the marvelous anecdote of a game of Little Max where one of the dice actually got lost during play and the game continued for several rounds because everyone was terrified of being caught out. What a feeling, if you claim “Two fives” with only one die under the cup.4
乍一看，这款游戏似乎是一款正式的游戏，玩家可以通过猜数字和掷骰子来碰碰运气。然而，正如 Knizia 所言，Little Max 实际上是心理和社交游戏。尽管这款游戏似乎是两个玩家之间一系列孤立的要求，但挑战与否的决定具有深远的影响。“躲避”并接受向你提出的要求更为安全；然而，一旦你这样做了，你就必须立即转身向其他人提出要求。刚刚扮演了猜测者的角色后，你现在必须扮演虚张声势的角色。
At first glance, the game seems to be a formal affair about number guessing and pushing your luck with the roll of a pair of dice. However, as Knizia makes clear, Little Max is really a game of psychology and social play. Even though it seems like the game takes place as a series of isolated claims between two players, the decision to challenge or not to challenge has far-reaching implications. It is safer to “duck” and accept a claim that comes to you; as soon as you do, however, you are going to have to immediately turn around and present a claim to someone else. Having just played the role of the guesser, you are now going to have to assume the role of the bluffer.
此外，作为一个虚张声势的人，你总是提出一个比前一个更不可能成立的主张，因为你每回合都必须声称更高的结果。在 Little Max 中，虚张声势是游戏的核心。在扑克中，你可以选择虚张声势或不虚张声势。但在 Little Max 中，如果你的掷骰子太低，情况可能会迫使你虚张声势。似乎这还不够，其他玩家也参与其中。你有多值得信赖？当然，你可以继续躲避，但最终杯子会回到你身边。到那时你的主张会有多荒谬？这组紧密相连的游戏角色的结果是一场极具吸引力的社交游戏。尽管 Little Max 是一个抽象的数字和概率游戏，但游戏的逻辑玩法很快就会变成一种绝望、紧张的欺骗性虚张声势体验。如此简单的规则，产生了如此突显的社交游戏！
Furthermore, as a bluffer you always present a claim that is less likely to be true than the previous one, because you have to claim a higher result each turn. In Little Max, bluffing is at the center of the game. In Poker, you can choose to bluff or not to bluff. But in Little Max, circumstances can force you to bluff if your roll is too low. As if that were not enough, the rest of the players also come into play. How trustworthy are you? You can keep on ducking, of course, but eventually the cup will come back to you. How ridiculous will your claim have to be by then? The result of this tightly interlocking set of play roles is a game of deeply engaging social play. Even though Little Max is an abstract game of numbers and probability, the logical play of the game quickly becomes a desperate, nervous experience of deceptive bluffing. Such simple rules, generating such emergent social play!
黑手党
Mafia
Little Max 的社交玩法源自游戏的形式结构与不断变化的游戏角色之间的紧密契合。《黑手党》是一款进一步剥离形式结构的游戏，创造出几乎完全社交性的游戏活动。与 Little Max 一样，尽管《黑手党》的规则很简单，但社交玩法却非常深刻。《黑手党》有很多变体，下面我们概述了一个我们喜欢的简单版本：
The social play of Little Max emerges from a tight fit between the game’s formal structure and its changing play roles. Mafia is a game that strips down the formal structure even further, creating play activities that are almost entirely social. As with Little Max, although the rules of Mafia are simple, the social play is incredibly deep. There are a great many variations on Mafia, and below we outline one simple version we enjoy:
黑手党游戏大约适合 8-10 名玩家，但也可以容纳更多或更少的玩家。当所有玩家都坐在桌子旁并能互相看到时，游戏效果最佳。游戏开始时，三名玩家会秘密分配角色。这通常是通过分发一组预先分类和洗好的扑克牌来完成的，每位玩家一张牌。该组扑克牌包括一张红心、两张黑桃，其余牌都是方块。
Mafia is a game for approximately 8–10 players, although it can be played with more or fewer participants. It works best when all of the players are sitting around a table and can see each other. At the beginning of the game, three of the players are secretly given roles. This is usually accomplished by passing out a pre-sorted and shuffled set of playing cards, one card for each player. The set includes one heart, two spades, and the rest of the cards are diamonds.
得到红心的玩家是主持人，退出游戏。主持人充当裁判并主持游戏。主持人在游戏开始时收集卡片——它们不是再次使用。拿到黑桃的两名玩家是黑手党成员。他们的目标是消灭游戏中的所有其他玩家。其余玩家是村民。他们的任务是消灭黑手党。
The player that receives the heart is moderator and is out of the game. The moderator serves as referee and runs the game. The moderator collects the cards at the start of the game—they are not used again. The two players that received spades are the members of the mafia. Their objective is to eliminate all of the other players in the game. The rest of the players are villagers. Their task is to eliminate the mafia.
一个回合由两个部分组成，即夜晚和白天，从夜晚开始。主持人指示所有玩家闭上眼睛。然后主持人告诉黑手党睁开眼睛。他们通过无声手势向主持人表示他们想要杀死谁。然后主持人让两名指定的黑手党玩家闭上眼睛。
A turn consists of two parts, night and day, beginning with the night portion of the turn. The moderator instructs all players to close their eyes. Then the moderator tells the mafia to open their eyes. Through silent gesture, they indicate to the moderator who they want to kill. The moderator then has the two designated mafia players close their eyes.
主持人宣布黎明，所有玩家睁开眼睛，主持人宣布黑手党在夜间杀死的玩家的名字。该玩家扮演一个可怕的死亡并出局。所有剩余的玩家开始辩论谁是黑手党成员。经过 5-10 分钟的讨论后，主持人要求投票。获得最多选票的玩家被村民起义杀死并出局。如果出现平局，主持人可以要求重新投票，或者如果真的陷入僵局，则可以在没有起义的情况下结束一天。然后主持人指示所有人闭上眼睛，夜幕再次降临，黑手党选择另一个受害者。
The moderator announces the dawn and all of the players open their eyes, as the moderator declares the name of the player that the mafia killed during the night. That player play-acts a horrible death and is out of the game. All of the remaining players begin a debate about who is in the mafia. After 5–10 minutes of discussion, the moderator calls for a vote. The player receiving the most votes is killed by an uprising of the villagers and is out of the game. A moderator can call for a re-vote if there is a tie, or can end the day without an uprising if there is a true deadlock. Then the moderator instructs everyone to close their eyes as night falls once more and the mafia select another victim.
游戏持续进行，直到两名黑手党玩家被淘汰，或者只剩下黑手党玩家，主持人宣布游戏结束。如果一名黑手党成员因起义被淘汰，游戏将继续进行（但村民不会被告知只剩下一名黑手党成员）。退出游戏的玩家不得交谈或给出任何形式的提示。请注意，由于投票机制，当黑手党和村民人数相等时，主持人可以将游戏结束为黑手党胜利。
The game continues until the two mafia players have been eliminated, or until there are only mafia players left and the moderator announces the end of the game. If one member of the mafia is eliminated by an uprising, the game continues (but the villagers are not informed that there is only one mafia member left). Players that are out of the game are not permitted to talk or give hints of any kind. Note that because of voting mechanics, the moderator can end the game as a mafia victory when there are equal numbers of mafia and villagers.
如果你从未玩过《黑手党》，这些规则可能看起来令人困惑。只要黑手党在选择受害者时不大声打手势，其他村民就没有什么逻辑依据来判断谁是黑手党的嫌疑成员
If you’ve never played Mafia, the rules might seem perplexing. As long as the mafia do not noisily gesture as they select a victim, the rest of the villagers have little logical basis for making their decisions about who is a suspected member of the mafia
在《小小麦克斯》中，虚张声势和猜测是基于虚张声势概率逐渐增加的正式框架。另一方面，在《黑手党》中，村民的决定完全基于直觉和社会猜测。《小小麦克斯》中游戏围绕的隐藏信息是骰子上的数字。《黑手党》的隐藏信息是玩家角色本身的分配。谁是黑手党？他们还剩下多少人？黑手党玩家不只是扮演一个角色，他们扮演双重角色，在晚上战略性地消灭村民，而在白天扮演村民。
In the case of Little Max, bluffing and guesswork are based on the formal framework of a progressively increasing probability of a bluff. In Mafia, on the other hand, the decision of the villagers is based entirely on hunches and social guesswork. The hidden information around which the game revolves in Little Max is the numbers on the dice. The hidden information of Mafia is the allocation of the player roles themselves. Who are the mafia? How many of them are left? The mafia players aren’t just playing a role, they are playing a double role, strategically eliminating villagers during the night while playing at being villagers during the day.
游戏中的戏剧性在于，受害者的圈子越来越小，这加剧了紧张感，并创造了一种非常微妙的社交体验。每个村民会如何猜测？一个玩家是否太健谈？还是太安静？她隐藏了什么？他有多无辜？这两个人交换眼神了吗？昨晚黑手党的动机究竟是什么？他们是否除掉了上一轮怀疑他们其中一人的村民？还是他们使用双重心理让村民杀死他们自己人？随着村民一个接一个地被消灭，悬念越来越大，黑手党和村民都越来越接近胜利，但也越来越接近被淘汰。每个玩家都代表复杂社会空间中的一个点，每个点都以微妙而令人费解的方式映射到其他点。没有一个村民能够完全信任任何人。虽然黑手党玩家可以合作，但他们必须对他们的伙伴关系保密。黑手党游戏确实是一团错综复杂的社交游戏。黑手党还巧妙地利用了魔法圈。一旦一名玩家被淘汰，该玩家就会走出魔法圈的一半，最终了解到他们一直在寻找的信息，但由于他们仍然遵守规则，他们被迫在引人入胜的戏剧展开时保持沉默。
The drama of the game, in which the circle of victims grows smaller and smaller, heightens the tension and makes for a remarkably subtle social experience. How will each villager make his or her guess? Has one player been too talkative? Or too quiet? What is she hiding? How innocent is he? Are those two exchanging glances? Just what motivated the mafia last night? Did they get rid of the villager that suspected one of them last turn? Or are they using double-psychology to get the villagers to kill one of their own? Suspense builds as the villagers are whittled away one by one, the mafia and the villagers both edging closer to winning, but also closer to elimination. Each player represents a point within a complex social space, each point mapped to the other points in delicate and puzzling ways. None of the villagers can fully trust anyone. Although the mafia players can work together, they have to keep their partnership a secret. The game of Mafia is truly a tangled knot of social play. Mafia also plays wonderfully with the magic circle. Once a player has been eliminated, that player steps halfway out of the magic circle, finally learning the information they had been seeking, but forced by the rules they are still observing to remain silent as the engaging drama unfolds.
我们用另一个表面上看似极其简单的游戏来补充我们的三个例子：它不包含任何隐藏信息，所有玩家都扮演相同的角色，而且他们只能做一件事。这款游戏叫做 Stand Up，来自《新游戏书》：
We complete our trio of examples with another game that seems extremely simple on the surface: it contains no hidden information, all players have the same role, and there is only one thing they can do. The game is called Stand Up, and it comes from the New Games Book:
坐在地上，与伴侣背对背，膝盖弯曲，手肘相扣。现在只需一起站起来。只要配合并练习一下，这应该不会太难。
Sit on the ground, back-to-back with your partner, knees bent and elbows linked. Now simply stand up together. With a bit of cooperation and a little practice, this shouldn’t be too hard.
当你掌握了这一点后，你可能会吸引到一位感兴趣的观众。让她和你一起躺在地上，然后三个人一起站起来。这一壮举应该只需要足够长的时间就能吸引到另一位旁观者。让他和你一起站起来。四个人一起站起来可能是一项真正的成就。
By the time you’ve got this mastered, you’ll probably have drawn an interested spectator. Have her join you on the ground, and all three try to stand up. This feat should take you just long enough to attract another onlooker. Have him join you. Four people standing up together might be a genuine accomplishment.
到那时你应该意识到，每次增加一个人，你都会遇到更多的挣扎、跌跌撞撞和咯咯笑声。但这个事实确保了你拥有无穷无尽的着迷的观众，他们随时准备加入进来帮助你起步。5
By this time you should realize that there’s more struggling, stumbling, and giggling each time you add another person. But this very fact assures you of an endless supply of fascinated spectators, ready to join up to help you get off the ground.5
信不信由你，Stand Up 实际上是一款游戏，一款合作游戏，玩家完成站立任务后即可共同获胜。是的，这款游戏极其简单，但社交性也非常丰富。Stand Up 的核心机制不仅对整个身体具有运动吸引力，而且社交性也很强。即使只有两名玩家参与游戏，他们也需要齐心协力，努力从一种稳定状态（坐姿）转变为另一种稳定状态（站姿），通过共同努力克服极度不平衡的间隙状态。
Believe it or not, Stand Up is in fact a game, a cooperative game in which the players win together when they accomplish the task of standing up. Yes, it is incredibly minimal, but it is also rich in social play. The core mechanic of Stand Up is not only athletically engaging for the entire body, but also extremely social. Even when only two players take part in the game, they are challenged to work in concert as they struggle to move from one stable state (sitting) to another (standing), by making their way together through an interstitial state of great unbalance.
当他们一起玩耍时，由于玩家背对着对方，因此他们主要的交流方式来自身体。如果你愿意，你可以和另一个玩家交谈，但一旦你开始站起来，你就没有时间做出复杂的陈述。肘部笨拙的交叉不仅限制了你的动作，而且将这些动作与你的搭档的动作紧密联系在一起。从某种意义上说，你们正在创造一个你们两个必须共同控制的身体。虽然这种互动似乎并不“社交”，但玩家之间的社交关系可以采取多种形式，包括身体互动。Stand Up 中显然有很多有意义的社交游戏。
As they play together, the fact that the players are facing away from each other means that their primary method of communication comes from their bodies. You can talk to the other player if you like, but you don’t have time to make complex statements once you begin to stand up. The awkward interlocking of your elbows not only limits your movements, but ties these movements closely to those of your partner. You are, in a sense, creating a single body the two of you together must control. Although this kind of interaction may not seem “social,” social relationships between players can take many forms, including physical interaction. There clearly is a great deal of meaningful social play in Stand Up.
加入游戏的人越多，群体行为就越突出，获胜的难度也就越大。参与游戏的人越多，加入单一集体有机体的人就越多；在这个不稳定的系统中，加入的活动部件越多，合作就越困难。作为一个奖惩系统，当团队共同实现目标时，他们感受到的成就感会缓和日益增加的挑战。这或许是 Stand Up 设计中最迷人的方面。正如描述所示，游戏本身代表了一种简单可重复的活动，可以成为一场有趣的公共表演。这意味着 Stand Up 的游戏本身可以作为吸引更多玩家加入游戏的诱饵。Stand Up 提供了社交游戏的绝佳示例。新游戏运动倡导的许多游戏都专门用于从周围环境中招募新玩家，同时还提供有意义的游戏体验。Stand Up 就是这样一款游戏的一个例子，旨在建立和发展游戏社区作为游戏本身的一部分。我们发现这是一个真正了不起的游戏设计。
The more people that are added to the game, the more emergent the group behavior becomes, and the more challenging it is to win. The more individuals that play, the more bodies there are to join into a single collective organism; the more moving parts added to this unstable system, the more difficult the collaboration becomes. As a system of rewards and punishments, the increasing challenge is leavened by the sense of accomplishment that the group feels when they achieve the goal together. This leads to what is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the design of Stand Up. As the description indicates, the game itself represents a simple repeatable activity that makes for an entertaining public spectacle. This means that the play of Stand Up itself can act as a lure to bring more players into the game. Stand Up offers a great example of social play in action. Many games advocated by the New Games Movement are specifically intended to recruit new players from the immediate environment, while also providing an experience of meaningful play. Stand Up is an example of such a game, designed to build and grow a play community as part of the play itself. We find it to be a truly remarkable game design.
有界社区
Bounded Communities
在本章前面，我们介绍了游戏社区的概念，这个术语借用自 Bernard DeKoven 的书《玩得好游戏》。我们喜欢他的术语，并按照 DeKoven 的精神使用游戏社区的概念，尽管我们对这个术语的使用与他的并不完全一致。对于我们的出于某种目的，游戏社区是一群参与游戏的玩家。游戏可能发生在单个游戏空间内，也可能发生在一系列游戏中。
Earlier in this chapter we introduced the concept of the play community, a term borrowed from Bernard DeKoven’s book, The Well-Played Game. We like his terminology and use the idea of a play community in the spirit of DeKoven, even though our use of the term does not exactly coincide with his. For our purposes, a play community is a group of players engaged in play. This play may occur within the space of an individual game or across a series of games.
游戏社区似乎是一种围绕游戏神秘而自发产生的社会现象。然而，游戏设计师可以对其游戏产生的游戏社区产生影响。因此，了解游戏社区是什么以及它如何运作非常重要。游戏社区源于游戏的运作。它是游戏规则、玩家的个性、玩家之间的互动以及游戏发生的更大社会环境的功能。
It may seem like play communities are social phenomena that spring up mysteriously and autonomously around a game. However, game designers can have an impact on the play communities generated by their games. It is therefore important to understand what a play community is and how it works. A play community arises out of the operation of a game. It is a function of the rules of the game, the personalities of the players, the interactions between players, and the larger social context in which the game takes place.
游戏社区源于游戏。尽管有些游戏社区变得相当正式，例如专业运动队，但大多数游戏社区都是非正式的、临时的。游戏社区通常不像住宅开发，需要大量的提前规划和准备才能正常居住。相反，游戏社区往往更像一场对话，其中即兴的交流行为本身创造了对话环境。这种社会游戏环境的出现与魔术圈的出现并无二致，魔术圈也是自发产生的，并且是暂时体验的。游戏社区的社会边界与其游戏的边界息息相关。
Play communities emerge from play. Although some play communities become quite official, such as professional sports teams, most play communities are informal, temporary affairs. A play community is not usually like a housing development, requiring extensive advance planning and preparation before it can be properly inhabited. Instead, a play community is often more like a conversation, in which the improvisational act of communication itself creates the conversational context. This emergence of a social play context is not unlike that of the magic circle, which also arises spontaneously and is experienced temporally. The social boundaries of a play community are tied to the boundaries of its game or games.
游戏和它所生成的游戏社区之间存在着一种矛盾的关系。从某种意义上说，游戏社区是游戏的结果，是游戏系统的一种新兴属性。同时，游戏没有激活它的游戏就没有生命，它依赖于游戏社区来维持。没有一个，另一个就不会存在。
There is a paradoxical relationship between a game and the play community it generates. In a sense, the play community is an effect of the game, an emergent property of the game system. At the same time, the game has no life apart from the play that activates it, and is dependent on the play community for its sustenance. One would simply not exist without the other.
为了理解这一悖论的美妙之处，我们可以重新审视系统理论以及封闭系统和开放系统的概念。封闭系统与外部环境没有交换，而开放系统则有某种交换。作为规则，游戏是封闭系统，作为文化，游戏是开放系统，但作为游戏，我们可以将游戏定义为封闭系统或开放系统，这取决于我们强调体验的哪些方面。作为具有自己特殊意义规则的人工社会系统，游戏是封闭的游戏系统。但作为影响玩家带入游戏的内容并受其影响的变革系统，游戏的玩法是一个开放系统。
To understand the beauty of this paradox, we can revisit systems theory and the concept of closed and open systems. A closed system has no exchange with its outside environment, while an open system does have some kind of exchange. As RULES, games are closed systems, as CULTURE, games are open systems, but as PLAY, we can frame games as either closed or open systems, depending on which aspects of the experience we highlight. As artificial social systems with their own special rules of meaning, games are closed systems of play. But as transformative systems that affect and are affected by what the players bring into the game, the play of a game is an open system.
类似地，游戏社区可以被定义为受单个游戏魔法圈限制或不受限制。受限制的游戏社区是一个封闭系统：它源自严格在单个游戏空间内进行的社交游戏。当我们以这种方式构建游戏社区时，它仅存在于魔法圈定义的时间和空间内。但是，我们也可以构建一个游戏社区，使其包含多个游戏实例。通过这种框架，我们考虑了跨多个游戏或跨多个游戏环节的一组玩家。这些社区不包含在单个游戏中，并且不受限制。不受限制的游戏社区是一个开放系统。这两种框架都很有用，在接下来的部分中，我们将分别讨论这两种框架，首先关注受限制的游戏社区。
Similarly, a play community can be framed as bounded or not bounded by the magic circle of a single game. A bounded play community is a closed system: it arises from the social play that takes place strictly within the space of an individual game. When we frame a play community in this way, it exists only within the time and space defined by the magic circle. However, we can also frame a play community to include more than one instance of a game. With this framing, we are considering a group of players across a number of games or across a number of sessions of play. These communities are not contained within an individual game and are not bounded. A play community that is not bounded is an open system. Both framings are useful, and in the sections that follow we look at each, focusing first on bounded play communities.
人工合同
Contract for Artifice
在游戏的有界游戏社区中，社区随着游戏的开始而出现，随着游戏的结束而消失。有界游戏社区更接近于单个游戏，游戏规则对游戏社区的性质和体验有很大影响。换句话说，有界游戏社区比无界游戏社区更加人为，因为它与魔法圈外的情境的交流较少。这种人为的社会契约影响着游戏有限情境中社会关系的意义。
Within the bounded play community of a game, the community arises with the onset of the game and disappears when the game is finished. A bounded play community is more synonymous with an individual game, and the rules of the game have a great influence on the nature and experience of the play community. In other words, a bounded play community is more artificial than an unbounded one, because it has less traffic with contexts outside the magic circle. This social contract for artifice affects the meaning of social relationships within the limited context of the game.
为了理解游戏的社会系统如何被视为人为的，我们来看看心理学家让·皮亚杰的作品。皮亚杰的大部分工作集中在儿童的认知发展上；他的研究对 20 世纪的心理理论产生了巨大影响。就我们的目的而言，皮亚杰最适用的作品是他的《儿童的道德判断》一书，他在书中详细介绍了他对儿童发展的一些研究。皮亚杰与来自瑞士某个地区的儿童一起工作，系统地研究了幼儿获得理解游戏规则能力的过程。他这样做是为了在理解游戏规则结构的过程和理解道德结构的过程之间建立关联。从这项工作中，皮亚杰得出了关于儿童整体社会和心理发展的结论，通过理解游戏规则所产生的社会契约来追踪儿童进入道德领域的过程。虽然我们不会详细介绍皮亚杰的实验或儿童心理发展的复杂阶段，但他提出了许多与社交游戏和游戏设计讨论相关的重要见解。
In order to understand how the social system of a game can be considered artificial, we turn to the work of the psychologist Jean Piaget. Much of Piaget’s work focused on the cognitive development of children; his research had a tremendous impact on theories of the mind in the twentieth century. For our purposes, the most applicable of Piaget’s works is his book The Moral Judgment of the Child, in which he details some of his research on child development. Working with children from a particular region of Switzerland, Piaget systematically studied the process by which young children acquire the ability to understand game rules. He did so in order to draw a correlation between the process of understanding game rule structures and the process of understanding moral structures. From this work, Piaget drew conclusions about a child’s social and psychological development as a whole, tracking the child’s entry into the moral realm through an understanding of the social contract engendered by the rules of play. Although we won’t be detailing Piaget’s experiments or the complex stages of a child’s psychological development, he makes a number of important insights relevant to a discussion of social play and game design.
《儿童的道德判断》所依据的假设之一是，游戏规则与塑造社会习俗的更大社会规则（例如指导道德和伦理行为的文化和法律规则）有着根本的不同。正如皮亚杰所言，差异恰恰在于游戏规则体系的人为性：
One of the assumptions shaping The Moral Judgment of the Child is that the rules of a game are fundamentally different than larger social rules shaping social convention, such as the cultural and legal rules that guide moral and ethical behavior. The difference lies precisely in the artificiality of a game’s rule-system, as Piaget makes clear:
一切道德都由一套规则组成，一切道德的本质都在于个人对这些规则的尊重。
All morality consists in a system of rules, and the essence of all morality is to be sought for in the respect which the individual acquires for these rules.
现在，孩子学会尊重的大多数道德规则都是从成人那里获得的，这意味着，孩子是在成人充分阐述之后才获得这些规则的，而且这些规则的阐述通常不是针对孩子本人或根据需要而制定的，而是一劳永逸地并通过早期成人的不间断传承而制定的。
Now, most of the moral rules which the child learns to respect he receives from adults, which means that he receives them after they have been fully elaborated, and often elaborated, not in relation to him and as they are needed, but once and for all and through an uninterrupted succession of earlier adult generations.
相反，在最简单的社交游戏中，我们面对的规则是由孩子们独自制定的……弹珠游戏规则就像所谓的道德现实一样，一代一代地传承下来，并且仅靠个人对它们的尊重来保存。唯一的区别是，在这种情况下，关系只存在于孩子之间。6 [我们的重点]
In the case of the very simplest social games, on the contrary, we are in the presence of rules which have been elaborated by the children alone . . . the rules of the game of marbles are handed down, just like so-called moral realities, from one generation to another, and are preserved solely by the respect that is felt for them by individuals. The sole difference is that the relations in this case are only those that exist between children.6 [our emphasis]
尽管皮亚杰特指的就是传统的儿童民间游戏，比如弹珠游戏，但我们可以从他的前提中得出一个更大的观点。“社会规则”，比如道德准则，渗透到我们生活的社会体验中，影响着我们与他人的所有互动。一个人可能需要钱才能乘坐地铁，但总的来说，遵守社会规则（无论是出于个人、文化还是法律原因）可以防止地铁乘客强行从陌生人那里拿走钱。这些行为规则和准则是理解社会身份的一种方式。
Although Piaget is referring specifically to traditional children’s folk games such as Marbles, we can glean a larger point from his premise. “Rules of society,” such as moral guidelines, permeate our lived social experience and affect all of our interactions with others. A person might need money to get on the subway, but by and large, observance of society’s rules (for whatever mix of personal, cultural, and legal reasons) keep subway riders from taking that money by force from a stranger. These kinds of behavioral rules and guidelines are one way of understanding social identity within society.
另一方面，游戏规则则大不相同。我们知道，游戏只在魔法圈的时空范围内进行。只有在下棋时，玩家才会觊觎国王，避免将棋子在棋盘上向后移动的违法行为。在游戏之外，玩家不会感到必须“吃掉”国王棋子，也不会按照国际象棋规则来安排自己的行为。相反，在有边界的游戏社区中，游戏行为并不完全受到游戏之外生活的约束。正如赫伊津哈所说（或许有些夸大），“在游戏圈内，普通生活的法律和习俗不再重要。”7
Rules of games, on the other hand, are quite different. We know that games operate only within the time and space of the magic circle. Only when a game of Chess is in play do players covet the King and avoid the illegality of moving pawns backward on the board. Outside a game, players do not feel compelled to “capture” a king piece, or otherwise structure their behavior according to the rules of Chess. Conversely, within bounded play communities, game behavior is not entirely constrained by life outside of the game. As Huizinga states (or perhaps overstates), “Inside the circle of the game, the laws and customs of ordinary life no longer count.”7
这就是为什么皮亚杰可以将儿童游戏作为社会规则的一个特殊、孤立的案例：因为规则实际上是在不考虑更大的社会机构的情况下产生的。规则来自游戏本身的背景，即儿童的游戏，而不是来自整个文化。正如皮亚杰所指出的，“我们面对的是儿童精心制定的规则 皮亚杰对儿童民间游戏自主性的深刻见解在某种程度上适用于所有游戏。即使是成年人为成年人设计的商业游戏，游戏也创造了自己的私人社交领域。虽然游戏规则与社会规则之间确实存在大量相互作用，例如旨在传播某种意识形态或利用现有社会内容的游戏，但游戏创造的有界游戏社区存在于某种与整个社会划定的人工空间中。
This is why Piaget can use children’s games as a special, isolated case of social rules: because the rules are, in fact, generated without concern for larger social institutions. The rules emerge from the context of the games themselves, the play of children, rather than from culture at large. As Piaget notes, “We are in the presence of rules which have been elaborated by the children alone.” Piaget’s marvelous insight into the autonomy of children’s folk games is true to some extent of all games. Even in the case of commercial games designed by adults for adults, there is a sense in which the games create their own private social sphere. Although it is true that there is plenty of interplay between game rules and societal rules, such as a game designed to propagate a certain ideology or make use of existing social content, the bounded play communities games create exist in an artificial space marked off in some way from society at large.
由于这种孤立，游戏的有限游戏社区意味着一种社会契约。这种契约由决定玩家如何在游戏中互动的规则以及玩家通过游戏赋予生命的意义和价值观组成。要将契约维持到游戏结束，玩家必须保持魔法圈的完整性。违反规则的人会破坏这个脆弱的框架。作弊的玩家会测试社会契约的极限，并可能破坏它。破坏性游戏可能会彻底摧毁社会契约。
As a result of this isolation, the bounded play community of a game implies a kind of social contract. This contract consists of rules that determine how players interact with each other in the game, as well as the meanings and values that the players give life through play. Sustaining the contract to the end of a game requires players to maintain the integrity of the magic circle. Rule-breakers can damage this fragile frame. A cheating player will test the limits of the social contract and possibly disrupt it. A spoil sport is likely to destroy the social contract entirely.
社会契约是对一套共同的行为和价值观的承诺，是理解进入魔法圈意味着什么的社会框架。例如，游戏是一个结果不确定的冲突空间。在我们生活的其他领域，我们大多数人都不愿意卷入冲突，尤其是有真正损失风险的冲突。游戏的社会契约充当了一种心理缓冲，可以抵御不确定性，保护玩家免受游戏固有的风险。这种社会契约有许多要素，比如我们在《游戏作为冲突系统》中讨论的公平冲突环境。游戏的社会契约也具有明显的人际关系方面。DeKoven 在《玩得好游戏》中描述了其中的两个方面，即安全和信任：
A social contract, a commitment to a shared set of behaviors and values, is a social frame for understanding what it means to enter into the magic circle. For example, a game is a space of conflict with an uncertain outcome. In other spheres of our lives, most of us would not willingly enter into a conflict, especially one with a real risk of loss. The social contract of a game acts as a kind of psychological buffer against uncertainty, protecting players from the risk inherent in game play. There are many elements to this social contract, such as the level playing field of conflict we discussed in Games as Systems of Conflict. There are also distinctly interpersonal aspects of the social contract of a game as well. DeKoven describes two of these, safety and trust, in The Well-Played Game:
安全
Safety
我们在玩的游戏里感觉越安全，我们就越愿意玩下去。但是，对于这种安全感，我们不能仅仅依赖游戏。我们还必须能够相信我们彼此之间是安全的。
The safer we feel in the game we’re playing, the more willing we are to play it. But, for this experience of safety, we can’t rely solely on the game. We must also be able to believe that we are safe with each other.
相信
Trust
我们需要……某种保证，无论在我们追求这场精彩的游戏中发生什么，我们都不会冒超过我们准备承担的风险。尽管我知道我可能会因为试图和你一起爬这座山而丧命，但我可以接受这是游戏的一部分。另一方面，当我发现你为了先爬到山顶而割断我的绳子时，我发现自己不太愿意玩了。8
We need . . . some guarantee, somewhere, that no matter what happens in our pursuit of the well-played game, we will not be risking more than we are prepared to risk. Even though I’m aware that I might die as a result of trying to climb this mountain with you, I can accept that as part of the game. On the other hand, when I discover that you’re cutting my rope so that you can get to the top first, I find myself much less willing to play.8
安全和信任是游戏社会契约的两个要素。一般来说，玩家必须感到安全和信任，才能安心地进入游戏的社交空间。在许多方面，安全和信任的概念更多地取决于玩家现有的关系和态度，而不是游戏所保证的东西。正如 DeKoven 所说，玩家“不能完全依赖游戏”来获得信任。他们必须相互依赖。信任感首先让玩家能够进入游戏。什么是信任？它是一种共同的理解，不仅是对特定游戏规则的了解，而且是对所有游戏玩法的理解，包括让你相信其他玩家不会作弊、破坏运动或欺凌他人的礼仪规则。
Safety and trust are two elements that are part of the social contract of a game. Generally, players must feel a sense of safety and trust to be comfortable enough to enter into the social space of a game. The concepts of safety and trust are, in many ways, more a function of a player’s existing relationships and attitudes than something a game guarantees. As DeKoven states, players “can’t rely solely on the game” for trust. They must rely on each other. Having a sense of trust allows players to enter into the game in the first place. What is trust? It is a shared sense of understanding, not just of the knowledge of the rules of a particular game, but of the way all games are played, including the rules of etiquette that allow you to trust that other players won’t become cheaters, spoil sports, or bullies.
我们再次陷入了悖论。游戏本身是玩家进入的人工社交空间，但玩家建立信任感的“规则”却属于游戏之外的世界，属于共同的社会和文化价值观领域。游戏价值观和现实世界价值观之间的联系是什么？答案是我们在许多章节之前介绍过的一个概念：游戏的隐性规则。
Once again we have a paradox. The game itself is an artificial social space that players enter, yet the “rules” by which players come to know a sense of trust belong to the world outside the game, to the realm of shared social and cultural values. What connects the values of the game and the values of the real world? The answer is a concept we introduced many chapters ago: the implicit rules of a game.
了解规则
Knowing the Rules
当孩子们在街上或后院玩耍时，他们也建立了一个游戏社区。当有人受伤时，游戏就停止了。当周围有一个小孩时，你要照顾他，当你靠近他时，你要玩得更温柔，你要让孩子休息一下。在任何时候，你都要承担起与你一起玩耍的人的安全责任。——伯纳德 ·德科文，《玩得好的游戏》
When children play together, in the street or the back lot, they too establish a play community. When someone gets hurt, the game stops. When there’s a little kid around, you watch out for him, you play softer when you’re near him, you give the kid a break. At all times there is an acceptance of a shared responsibility for the safety of those with whom you play.— Bernard DeKoven, The Well-Played Game
在《三个层次的规则》中，我们确定了三个层次的游戏规则：游戏的基本构成规则、直接指导玩家行动的操作规则以及适当游戏行为的隐性规则，例如礼仪。DeKoven 在上面的文章中给出的例子，即当有人受伤时游戏就会停止，或者当小孩加入游戏时游戏就会变得轻松，这些都是隐性规则，即关于如何玩游戏的不言而喻的指导方针。
In Rules on Three Levels, we identified three layers of game rules: the underlying constituative rules of a game, the operational rules that directly guide player action, and the implicit rules of proper game behavior, such as etiquette. The examples DeKoven gives in the passage above, that a game stops when someone gets hurt or that play is softened when little kids join a game, are implicit rules, unspoken guidelines for how to play.
游戏的隐性规则弥合了游戏的人工空间与游戏的社会背景之间的矛盾关系。井字游戏的双方都知道，每轮游戏都会花费合理的时间，这是社会信任的一部分，使玩家能够坐下来一起玩游戏。假设玩家不会作弊或破坏游戏，也是社会信任的一部分。所有这些都是隐性规则的例子。同样，DeKoven 发现的隐性规则促进了社区外场游戏社区的社交游戏。当有人受伤时停止游戏的隐性规则之所以有内在影响（游戏暂时暂停），只是因为有外在的社会规则（帮助受伤的人）。
The implicit rules of a game bridge the paradoxical relationship between the artificial space of the game and the social context in which the game is played. The fact that both players in a game of Tic-Tac-Toe know that each will take a reasonable amount of time on their turn is part of the social trust that enables players to sit down and play together. So is the assumption that players will not cheat or become spoil sports. All are examples of implicit rules. Similarly, the implicit rules that DeKoven identifies facilitate the social play of a neighborhood backlot play community. The implicit rule of stopping the game when someone gets hurt has an intrinsic effect (the game pauses temporarily) only because of an extrinsic social rule (help people that are injured).
考虑到隐性规则在社交游戏中的作用，问题就出现了。隐性规则是通过什么过程形成的？玩家如何了解这些规则？它们如何影响游戏？为了找到答案，我们再次转向皮亚杰的《儿童的道德判断》。皮亚杰概述了儿童在学习弹珠游戏规则时所经历的不同阶段。在解释皮亚杰更复杂的公式时，我们将游戏规则的习得分为三个阶段：
Considering the role of implicit rules in social play, questions arise. By what process do implicit rules come into being? How do players come to know these rules? How do they affect play? For answers, we turn again to Piaget’s The Moral Judgment of the Child. Piaget outlines distinct stages through which children progress as they learn the rules of Marbles. In paraphrasing Piaget’s more complex formulations, we divide the acquisition of game rules into three stages:
第一阶段，从 5 岁左右开始，孩子还不理解游戏的固定规则。这个年龄段的孩子会以即兴的方式玩弹珠游戏，对规则的概念比较模糊，但还不理解固定规则的概念。
During the first stage, beginning around age 5, the child does not yet understand there are fixed rules to the game. Children of this age will play Marbles in an improvisational way, possessing a vague notion of rules but not yet understanding the idea of fixed rules.
第二阶段，大约8-10岁，孩子开始知道有规则，并会以近乎宗教般的崇敬对待这些规则。他们觉得这些规则有其隐含的权威，不容置疑。
In the second stage, around ages 8 to 10, the child comes to know that there are rules, and will regard these rules with a near religious reverence. The rules are felt to have their own implicit authority, which cannot be questioned.
第三阶段也是最后阶段通常始于 10 岁以后。此时，孩子开始意识到游戏规则取决于社会契约，如果所有玩家都同意，游戏规则可以更改。这个最后阶段基本上就是成年人如何看待游戏规则。9
The third and final stage generally begins after age 10. Here the child comes to realize that the rules of a game are dependent on a social contract and can be changed if all of the players agree to do so. This final stage is essentially how adults view the rules of games.9
我们感兴趣的是过渡到第三阶段，也就是最后阶段，在这个阶段，孩子对规则的意识会发生彻底的转变。孩子们不再相信规则是绝对固定的，而是开始将规则视为通过相互尊重的同意而达成的自由决定的结果。皮亚杰对这一转变进行了精辟的总结：
Our interest is in the transition into the third and final stage, when a child’s consciousness of the rules undergoes a complete transformation. Rather than believing that rules are absolutely fixed, children begin to see rules as the outcome of a free decision reached through respectful mutual consent. Piaget sums up this transformation elegantly:
他不再像最小的孩子那样依赖全知的传统。他不再认为过去一切都已安排得最好，避免麻烦的唯一方法是虔诚地尊重既定的秩序。他相信实验的价值，只要它得到集体意见的认可。10
He no longer relies, as do the littlest ones, upon an all-wise tradition. He no longer thinks that everything has been arranged for the best in the past and that the only way of avoiding trouble is by religiously respecting the established order. He believes in the value of experiment in so far as it is sanctioned by collective opinion.10
皮亚杰的规则习得模型阐明了与社交游戏相关的许多问题。当孩子了解游戏规则时，他或她也会了解游戏的社会契约。与成人一样，处于这一发展阶段的儿童能够将规则视为描述玩家在游戏中如何相互联系的结构，无论是正式的还是社交的。他们还能够认识到游戏世界是一个可以集体改变的灵活世界。这是认识到游戏社区存在的重要部分。
Piaget’s model for the acquisition of rules sheds light on a number of issues relating to social play. When a child acquires an understanding of a game’s rules, he or she also develops an understanding of the social contract of a game. Like adults, children at this stage of development are able to see rules as structures that describe how players are to relate to one another within the game, both formally and socially. They are also able to recognize that the game world is a flexible world that can be altered collectively. This is an important part of recognizing the existence of a play community.
此外，皮亚杰的发展模型与成年玩家了解游戏的方式有松散的相关性。当玩家最初进入游戏的魔力圈时，玩家通常还不熟悉游戏的具体规则。相反，玩家对游戏的操作有一个模糊的感觉，类似于皮亚杰模型第一阶段的孩子。当玩家学习玩游戏时，游戏的机制似乎是固定的，玩家的注意力集中在学习如何玩游戏上，就像第二阶段的孩子一样。玩家玩游戏越多，她就越把游戏看作一个可以操纵的系统（尽管必须尊重其约束性权威）。例如，当玩家在玩电脑冒险游戏时卡住时，她可能会购买策略指南或上网查找攻略指南。在她后来的游戏体验中，她可能会下载一个黑客程序，设计自己的关卡，或创建一个粉丝网页。经验丰富的玩家的游戏模式表明他们对游戏的理解是可以改变的。从非常近似的意义上讲，玩家在游戏中的进步或游戏的一般文化重现了皮亚杰的儿童逐渐理解游戏规则概念的模型。
Additionally, Piaget’s developmental model has a loose correlation to the way an adult player comes to know a game. When a player is initially brought into the magic circle of a game, a player is often not yet familiar with its specific rules. Instead, a player has a vague sense of the game’s operation, similar to a child in Stage one of Piaget’s model. When a player is learning to play a game, the mechanisms of a game seem fixed and the player’s attention is focused on learning how to play, like a child in Stage two. The more that a player plays a game the more she sees the game as a system open to manipulation (albeit one whose binding authority must be respected). When the player gets stuck in the middle of a computer adventure game, for example, she might purchase a strategy guide or go online to find a walkthrough guide. Later in her play experience, she might download a hack, design her own level, or start a fan web page. The play patterns of an experienced player demonstrate an understanding of the game as something that is amenable to change. In a very approximate sense, the progress of a player into a game or the general culture of games recapitulates Piaget’s model of a child coming to understand the concept of game rules.
变革性社交游戏
Transformative Social Play
无论是描述孩子如何了解 Marbles 规则，还是描述成年人如何逐渐加入游戏粉丝社区，游戏规则都是通过社交游戏来体验和改变的。在《游戏的定义》中，我们将变革性游戏定义为游戏的一种实例，即在游戏更严格的结构中自由移动实际上会改变游戏结构本身。我们还可以从社交游戏的角度来考虑变革性游戏，我们将这种现象称为变革性社交游戏。
Whether describing the way a child comes to know the rules of Marbles or the way an adult gradually enters into a game’s fan community, the rules of a game are experienced and transformed through social play. In Defining Play, we identified transformative play as an instance of play when free movement within the more rigid structure of a game actually changes the game structure itself. We can also consider transformative play from a social play point of view, a phenomenon we call transformative social play.
在变革性社交游戏中，玩家利用游戏环境来改变社交关系。他们积极参与游戏规则系统，操纵它来改变、扩展或颠覆他们与其他玩家的关系。变革性社交游戏迫使我们重新评估对规则的正式理解，即规则是固定的、明确的和无所不能的。在任何类型的变革性游戏中，游戏结构都会受到质疑，并被玩家的行为重新塑造。在变革性社交游戏中，这些转变的机制和影响发生在社会层面。
In transformative social play, players use the game context to transform social relationships. They actively engage with the rule system of a game, manipulating it in order to shift, extend, or subvert their relations with other players. Transformative social play forces us to reevaluate a formal understanding of rules as fixed, unambiguous, and omnipotently authoritative. In any kind of transformative play, game structures come into question and are re-shaped by player action. In transformative social play, the mechanisms and effects of these transformations occur on a social level.
变革性社交游戏如何运作？借用民俗学家肯尼斯·戈德斯坦 (Kenneth Goldstein) 的一些有用术语，让我们首先对“理想”规则和“现实”规则进行基本区分。11 理想规则是指游戏的“官方”规则，即写在《塞尔达传说》玩家指南中或印在《糖果乐园》游戏封面内的规则。而真正的规则则是游戏社区所遵守的准则和惯例。真正的规则是游戏应该如何进行的共识。
How does transformative social play work? Borrowing some useful terms from folklorist Kenneth Goldstein, let’s begin by making a basic distinction between “ideal” and “real” rules.11 Ideal rules refer to the “official” regulations of a game, the rules written in a player’s guide to Zelda or printed on the inside cover of a game of Candyland. Real rules, on the other hand, are the codes and conventions held by a play community. Real rules are a consensus of how the game ought to be played.
正如社会学家弗兰克·曼宁 (Frank E. Manning) 在《游戏世界》中指出的那样，“真正的规则体现了玩家的游戏价值观和社会关系，而理想的规则具有法律效力，但不具有社会效力。”12理想规则与现实规则之间的区别与规则的解释关系不大（例如，玩 Pictionary 游戏的玩家是否可以使用手势来鼓励潜在的猜测），而与玩家对游戏规则的阐述关系更大。例如，打篮球的小孩可能会详细阐述“禁止双重运球”的规则，并将其转变为“除非你忍不住，否则不要双重运球”。从理想或合法规则到现实或流行规则的转变，让我们深入了解了玩家群体所持有的社会价值观。
As sociologist Frank E. Manning notes in The World of Play, “Real rules embody the players’ ludic values and social relations while ideal rules have a legal, but not social, validity.”12 This distinction between ideal and real rules has less to do with the interpretation of rules (whether or not players of Pictionary may use hand gestures to encourage potential guesses, for example) and more to do with the elaboration of the rules of the game by players. Young kids playing Basketball, for example, might elaborate on the rule of “no double-dribbling” and transform it into “no double-dribbling unless you can’t help it.” This movement from the ideal, or legal rule, to the real, or popular rule, offers insight into the social values held by a community of players.
理想与现实的 Foursquare
Ideal and Real Foursquare
20 世纪 80 年代初，社会学家琳达·休斯（当时是宾夕法尼亚大学的研究生）花了三年时间观察孩子们在费城郊区的操场上玩 Foursquare 游戏。她的兴趣在于了解孩子们如何制定规则来支持现有的社会关系。休斯特别关注游戏的“基本”（或理想）规则与玩家定义为“真正规则”的规则之间的差异。Four-square 的基本规则要求玩家：
In the early 1980s, sociologist Linda Hughes (then a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania) spent three years observing children playing the game of Foursquare on a playground in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Her interest was in understanding how children elaborate rules to support existing social relations. Hughes focused specifically on the difference between the “basic” (or ideal) rules of a game and the rules that were defined as the “real rules” by players. The basic rules of Four-square require that players:
1. Hit a ball that lands in your square to another square.
2. 让球在你的方格内弹跳一次，但仅一次。
2. Let the ball bounce once, but only once, in your square.
3. 不要击打落在另一个方格的球。十三
3. Don’t hit a ball that lands in another square.13
然而，游戏的真正规则描述的是一组更为复杂的互动。休斯记录的一系列游戏内叫声揭示了丰富的社交游戏语言（见图1）。叫声包括 Babies、Bops 或 Spins 等镜头，以及 Nice 或 Friends 等游戏类型，这些类型描述了玩家互动的质量和社交基调。真正的规则对玩家来说非常重要，因为它们改变了正式结构以支持现有的社会关系。玩家经常将基本规则视为“你必须做的事情”——它们并不包括在孩子们报告的“真正规则”列表中。正如休斯所指出的，“玩家对他们生成和控制的规则更感兴趣，他们可以利用这些规则为游戏带来刺激、多样性、策略和乐趣。”14将基本的理想规则精心设计为一套复杂的真实规则是一种变革性的社会游戏。这并不是说游戏的基本规则发生了根本性的变化；相反，它们在社会背景下被体验，这种社会背景降低了它们的价值，取而代之的是一套玩家可以更好地控制的社会偏见规则。
The real rules of the games, however, describe a much more complex set of interactions. A list of in-game calls documented by Hughes reveals a rich language of social play (see Figure 1). Calls include such shots as Babies, Bops, or Spins, as well as types of play, such as Nice or Friends, which describe the quality and social tone of player interaction. The real rules matter a great deal to players, for they transform the formal structure to support existing social relations. Players often dismissed the basic rules as “just things you had to do”—they were not included among the list of “real rules” reported by the children. As Hughes notes, “Players were far more interested in the rules they generated and controlled, and that they could use to introduce excitement, variety, strategy, and fun into the game.”14 This elaboration of basic, ideal rules into a complex set of real rules is transformative social play. It is not that the basic rules of the game undergo a radical change; rather, they are experienced within a social context that decreases their value in favor of a socially-biased ruleset over which players have more control.
在《超越游戏规则：为什么 Rooie 规则很棒？》一书中，休斯介绍了一个案例研究，研究了她观察到的儿童制定的一套特定的 Foursquare 规则。Foursquare 为此类研究提供了沃土，因为每轮游戏前，单个玩家（“国王”）都会宣布一套规则。“这种宣布可用于多种目的，包括增加游戏刺激性、调整难度级别以及帮助或责怪其他玩家。”17这些规则规定和禁止某些行为，同时为特定回合的游戏设定总体基调。例如，一条规则是“Rooie 规则”，以当时操场上的常客之一、名叫 Rooie 的女孩的名字命名。
In “Beyond the Rules of the Game: Why Are Rooie Rules Nice?” Hughes presents a case study of a specific Foursquare ruleset developed by the children she observed. Foursquare offered fertile ground for such a study because a ruleset is called by an individual player (the “king”) before each round of play. “Such calls can be used for a wide variety of purposes, including increasing game excitement, adjusting the level of difficulty, and assisting or scapegoating other players.”17 These rulesets prescribe and prohibit certain actions while setting a general tone for a particular round of play. A call of “Rooie Rules,” for example—a ruleset named after a girl named Rooie who was one of the regular players on the playground at the time
图 1：Foursquare 的“真正规则”15
Figure 1: The “Real Rules” of Foursquare’15
这个游戏社区的许多社会关注点都体现在他们的用语中。例如，“卑鄙”、“好”、“朋友”和“目的”等术语被广泛用于标记游戏“动作”。
Many of the social concerns of this play community are apparent in their terminology. Terms such as “mean,” “nice,” “friends,” and “purpose,” for example, are extensively used to label game “moves.”
休斯的研究旨在让球员们“好好打球”。鲁伊规则包括以下内容：“禁止抱球”（必须击球，不能接球和抛球）；“禁止猛击”（球从球员头顶高高弹起）；禁止“鸭脚”（腿被击中）；允许“旋转”等等。“鲁伊规则”是一系列个人判罚的简写。
Hughes’ research was conducted—meant that players were to play “nice.” Rooie Rules included the following: “no holding” (the ball must be hit, not caught and thrown); “no slams” (bounces high over a player’s head); no “duckfeet” (being hit on the legs); “spins” are allowed; and so on. “Rooie Rules” operated as shorthand for a long list of individual calls.
在休斯观察的玩家群体中，“鲁伊规则”的号召为玩家互动建立了一个总体框架。这个框架建立在公平性、感知意图（玩家是“故意”还是“无意”非法持球）和群体内适当的举止（“友好”地打球）等共同的社会标准之上。然而有趣的是，尽管每个人都能遵守鲁伊规则，但没有一个玩家（包括鲁伊）能够提供这个号召所包含的真正规则的完整列表。休斯认为，“游戏之所以能够在对游戏确切规则的明显模糊性下继续进行，是因为玩家们都心照不宣地认为鲁伊规则是‘友好’的，而‘友好’也许是这些玩家最关心的问题。理解‘友好’打法远比理解规则重要得多。”16玩家社区使用“nice”一词来指代一套相当复杂的社会权利和义务。游戏的真正规则指的是社会行为标准，玩家必须接受并遵守这一标准，才能继续留在游戏中。
Among the community of players Hughes observed, the call of “Rooie Rules” created a general framework for player interaction. This framework rested upon shared social standards for fairness, perceived intentionality (did a player illegally hold the ball “on purpose,” or accidentally), and appropriate demeanor within the group (playing “nice”). Yet interestingly enough, despite the fact that everyone was able to play by Rooie Rules, no player, including Rooie, was able to supply a complete list of the real rules this call encompassed. According to Hughes, “What allows the game to proceed with such apparent ambiguity concerning the precise rules of the game is the tacit understanding that Rooie Rules are ‘nice,’ and ‘nice’ is perhaps the paramount concern among these players. It is far more important to understand ‘nice’ play than to understand the rules.”16 The community of players used the term “nice” to refer to a rather complex matrix of social rights and obligations. The real rules of the game referred to a standard of social behavior, a standard which players had to accept and uphold if they were to remain a part of the game.
当玩家不再“友善”时
When Players Won’t Be “Nice”
在操场残酷的社会生态系统中，游戏通常是主张和挑战社会权力的场所。在以下休斯研究的扩展摘录中，Foursquare 成为男孩玩家和女孩玩家冲突的舞台。理想规则和现实规则之间的紧张关系凸显出来，双方都利用社会权威以特定方式定义游戏。
In the cutthroat social ecosystem of the playground, games are often contexts for asserting and challenging social power. In the following extended excerpt from Hughes’ research, Foursquare becomes an arena of conflict for boy players and girl players. The tension between the ideal and real rules comes to the fore, with both sides brokering social authority to define the game in a particular way.
正如这个年龄段的男孩和女孩可以预料到的那样，男孩们会非常明显地使用“粗暴的动作”（“猛击”和“甩动”）让女孩们退出比赛，这几乎立刻让女孩们抓狂。这并不意味着女孩们不会使用这样的动作。让她们愤怒的是，男孩们无法用“好球”所要求的“我没办法”的表现来掩饰“有目的的动作”。例如，男孩们会喊道“粗暴的直击。发球时出局”，然后在发球时将球高高地砸过一个女孩的头顶。
As might be predicted among boys and girls of this age, the boys almost immediately drove the girls crazy by very overtly using “rough stuff” (“slams” and “wings”) to get the girls out of the game. This does not mean the girls were also not using such moves. What enraged them was the boys ‘failure to disguise “purpose stuff” in the kinds of “I couldn’t help it” performances demanded by “nice” play. The boys would, for example, call, “Rough square. Getting out on serves,” and then slam the ball high over one of the girls’ heads on the serve.
当其中一人成为“国王”时，女孩们会非常愤怒，并大喊“Rooie 规则”来反击。但是，正如我们所料，喊出“好”规则并没有起到什么作用。男孩们公然继续“猛击”和“甩动”球。由于女孩们仍然受“好”规则的约束，这些规则禁止直接对抗此类行为，因此她们无能为力。然而，随着比赛的进行，女孩们逐渐放弃了一些“好”比赛的陷阱。他们开始以完全不同的方式处理违规行为。以下是现场笔记的摘录。我们从球场上的三个女孩和一个男孩开始。
Totally outraged, the girls would counter, when one of their number was “king,” with a call of “Rooie Rules.” But, as we might expect, calling “nice” rules had little effect. The boys blatantly continued to “slam” and “wing” the ball past them. Since the girls were still bound by their “nice” rules, which prohibited direct confrontation over such actions, there was little they could do. As play proceeded, however, the girls gradually abandoned some of the trappings of “nice” play. They began handling violations quite differently. The following are excerpts from field notes. We begin with three girls and one boy on the court.
安吉（“国王”）[跟注的玩家]： “罗伊规则。罗伊规则。”
Angie (the “king”) [the player that makes the call]: “Rooie Rules. Rooie Rules.”
安吉停顿了一下，环顾四周，然后走到排队等待进入游戏的玩家身边。
Angie pauses, looks around, and then walks over to the players waiting in line to get into the game.
安吉（对正在排队的罗伊）：“罗伊，告诉他们你的规则。”
Angie (to Rooie, who is waiting in line): “Rooie, tell them your rules.”
当安吉回到她的广场时，她怒视着刚刚进入游戏的男孩安迪，而罗伊则列出了她的规则。
As Angie returns to her square, she glares rather pointedly at Andy, the boy who just entered the game, while Rooie lists her rules.
（需要注意的是，这些玩家之间的另一种理解是，玩家只对他们所知道的规则负责。只有在他们知道并违反规则的情况下，他们才被剥夺了最后一轮的接管权。这种试图非常明确地列出现行规则的做法非常不寻常。它起到了对违规玩家的一种警告的作用。）
(It should be noted that another understanding among these gamers is that players are only responsible for violating a rule they know about. Only if they know, and then violate, a rule can they be denied a takeover of the last round. This attempt to list very explicitly the rules in effect is highly unusual. It functions as a kind of warning to the offending players.)
A little later, Cindy (who is now “king”) calls: “Rooie Rules.”
但安迪继续“挥棒”和“猛击”球。经过几次这样的击球后，排队等候的罗伊走到了安迪的广场。
But Andy continues to “wing” and “slam” the ball consistently. After several such hits, Rooie, who is waiting in line, walks over to Andy’s square.
罗伊（对安迪）：“你出局了！翅膀没了！”
Rooie (to Andy): “You’re out! Wings are out!”
Cindy 走上前去支持 Rooie。
Cindy steps forward to back Rooie up.
辛迪（对安迪说）： “我叫了 Rooie 规则，但是没有鸡翅！你出局了！”
Cindy (to Andy): “I called Rooie Rules and there’s no wings! You’re out!”
当安迪离开球场时，他嘟囔了一些自己是“鱼”的话。
As Andy leaves the court he mumbles something about being a “fish.”
“fish” 一词指的是替罪羊。在观察这场比赛的六个多月里，这是作者第一次看到有人因为“翅膀”而被叫出局。上面的交流与通常的比赛模式有很大不同。安迪很清楚这一点。他知道自己被骗了。
The term “fish” refers to a scapegoated player. In over six months of observing this game, this was the first time the author had observed anyone being called out for “wings.” The exchange above is a very significant departure from the usual patterns of play. Andy is well aware of this. He knows he’s been had.
然而，女孩们的报复是短暂的。为了回应男孩们拒绝“友好”地玩耍，女孩们更加明确地宣告规则，并对违反规则的行为进行直接制裁，女孩们开始给自己挖一个相当深的坑。例如，她们将“鲁伊规则”的宣告扩大为“鲁伊规则。不许猛击。不许翅膀。不许粗暴行为。”她们试图明确禁止男孩们的每一种违规行为。当然，男孩们总能找到女孩们没有明确禁止的行为。一位特别恼火的“国王”意识到了问题所在，她在宣告规则时加上了“你们什么都不能做！”当然，另一方面，女孩们无法完全避免违反她们自己的规则，因为现在规则的定义已经不同了。男孩们非常乐意指出这一点。18
The girls’ revenge was short-lived, however. In reacting to the boys’ refusal to play “nice” by becoming more explicit in their calls of the rules, and by applying direct sanctions for violations, the girls began digging themselves into a rather deep hole. They expanded a call of “Rooie Rules,” for example, to “Rooie rules. No slams. No wings. No rough stuff.” They tried explicitly to prohibit each of the boys’ offending actions. Naturally, the boys could always find actions the girls had not specifically prohibited. One particularly exasperated “king” recognized the problem when she tagged her call of the rules with, “And nothing you guys do!” Of course, on the other side, the girls could not completely avoid violating their own rules, now differently defined. The boys were not only too happy to point this out.18
Foursquare 玩家不仅仅是在玩 Foursquare。他们是在玩 Foursquare 的规则，策略性地改变和调整真实规则以获取优势。值得注意的是，每个小组的目标不仅仅是获胜，而是以体现正确游戏精神的方式玩游戏，以表达其社会存在的方式玩游戏。这些玩家不仅仅是在玩游戏；他们是在玩游戏本身，在理想规则和他们所处的更大社会环境所确定的界限内操纵真实规则。将游戏定义为游戏本身与我们在《打破规则》中探讨的一些游戏风格相呼应——它也预示了《文化》中即将出现的许多现象。
The Foursquare players are not just playing Foursquare. They are playing with the rules of Foursquare, strategically bending and tweaking the real rules to their advantage. Significantly, the goal of each group is not just to win, but to play the game in a way that embodies the proper spirit of play, to play the game in a way that expresses their social being. These players are not merely playing a game; they are gaming the game itself, manipulating real rules within the boundaries established by the ideal rules and the larger social context in which they are playing. Framing play as gaming the game echoes some of the play styles we visited in Breaking the Rules—and it also foreshadows many of the phenomena to come in CULTURE.
Rooie Rules 为社会领域中的变革性游戏提供了一个极好的例子。与皮亚杰对儿童和弹珠游戏规则的研究一样，休斯揭示了指导游戏社区行为和动机的潜在社会机制。显然，游戏体验必须被理解为一个高度复杂的互动系统，受到形式、社会和文化因素的影响。这些因素以奇妙且往往出乎意料的方式塑造了游戏的玩法。
Rooie Rules offers an excellent example of transformative play within the social realm. Like Piaget’s study of children and the rules of Marbles, Hughes exposes the underlying social mechanisms that direct the actions and motivations of a play community. Clearly, the experience of play must be understood as a highly complex system of interaction that is influenced by formal, social, and cultural factors. These factors shape the play of a game in wonderful and often unexpected ways.
禁忌游戏
Forbidden Play
每条规则都有例外。我们之前对隐性社会规则的讨论假设，游戏内外的礼仪和得体行为都是一样的。毕竟，只有当玩家感受到熟悉的社会框架的安全和信任时，他或她才会安心地进入魔法圈。然而，社会的隐性规则和游戏的隐性规则之间也可能存在很大差异——在每种情况下允许的规则之间也存在很大差异。游戏创造了社会环境，在这些环境中，通常会发生在整个社会中被严格禁止的行为。在游戏中，你可以策划背叛你的朋友，在他们最意想不到的时候背叛他们。你可以扮演犯罪行为。或者你可以戴上加垫手套，试图把另一个人打昏。
There is an exception to every rule. Our prior discussions of implicit social rules have assumed that etiquette and proper behavior are the same both inside and outside of a game. After all, it is only when a player feels the safety and trust of a familiar social framework that he or she will be comfortable entering into the magic circle. However, there can also be strong differences between the implicit rules of society and the implicit rules of a game—between the rules for what is permitted in each context. Games create social contexts in which, very often, behaviors take place that would be strictly forbidden in society at large. In a game, you can plot treachery against your friends and backstab them when they least expect it. You can engage in representations of criminal behavior. Or you can put on padded gloves and try to knock another person unconscious.
游戏允许并经常鼓励通常的禁忌行为或被禁止的游戏。纵观历史和世界，游戏颠覆了社会行为规范。也许这这并不奇怪。在魔法圈的人造背景下，游戏不仅创造了意义，而且也玩弄意义。游戏的社会契约确保游戏空间是“安全”的空间，其中的风险比外部世界更少。在《俄亥俄州青少年的接吻游戏》一书中，布莱恩·萨顿-史密斯调查了 1959 年高中生和大学生玩的接吻游戏，以及它们引起的复杂社会互动。关于这些游戏的禁忌，萨顿-史密斯写道：
Games permit and often encourage normally taboo behavior, or forbidden play. Games throughout history and across the world have subverted norms of social behavior. Perhaps this should come as no surprise. Inside the artificial context of the magic circle, games not only create meaning, but they play with meaning as well. The social contract of a game ensures that play spaces are “safe” spaces in which risks have fewer consequences than in the outside world. In “The Kissing Games of Adolescents of Ohio,” Brian Sutton-Smith investigated kissing games played by high school and college students in 1959, and the complex social interplay they engendered. About the forbidden play of these games, Sutton-Smith writes:
[接吻游戏] 允许玩家表达既定的冲动，但同时通过限制这些冲动的表达方式来保护玩家。也就是说，游戏允许玩家按照自己想要的方式成长，但又保护玩家避免冒太大的风险。游戏本质上是一种无风险的冒险。19
[A kissing game] allows for the expression of given impulses but at the same time safeguards players by putting limits on the way in which those impulses can be expressed. That is, the game allows the player to grow along the lines that he desires, but it safeguards him against the danger of risking too much. The game is essentially an adventure of a nonhazardous kind.19
禁忌游戏与所有游戏一样，都是“在规则规定的范围内自由进行的”。20回想一下我们在《游戏》中分析过的起跑线上的跑步者，这是一种愉悦的游戏。跑步者想要向前冲，但等待发令枪的愉悦限制增加了游戏的乐趣。在禁忌游戏中，愉悦的限制感贯穿整个游戏体验，玩家总是有超越游戏的社会界限、抢跑和打破魔法圈的危险。
Forbidden play, like all play, is “free within the limits set by the rules.”20 Recall the runner at the starting line we analyzed in Games as the Play of Pleasure. The runner wants to spring forward, but the pleasurable restriction of waiting for the starting gun heightens the pleasure of the play. In forbidden play, the sense of pleasurable restriction continues through the entire play experience, the player always in danger of overstepping the social boundaries of play, jumping the gun, and breaking the magic circle.
当然，不同之处在于，禁忌游戏体现了玩家之间通常不允许的行为。禁忌游戏既认可又限制了萨顿-史密斯在上面的引文中概述的复杂欲望之舞中的社交游戏。接吻游戏将隐含的游戏规则延伸到足以容纳游戏中的接吻行为的程度，但从未延伸到足以威胁到社会秩序的彻底崩溃。这些游戏同时挑战和强化了社会规则。
The difference, of course, is that forbidden play embodies behaviors not normally permitted between players. Forbidden play both sanctions and restricts social play in the complex dance of desire that Sutton-Smith outlines in the quote above. Kissing games stretch the implicit rules of play just enough to accommodate the kissing behaviors of the game, but never quite going far enough to threaten a complete breakdown of the social order. These games simultaneously challenge and reinforce the rules of society.
在这一页和下一页中，我们引用了对 Sutton-Smith 在其文章中描述的几款游戏的描述并提供我们自己的评论。22每个游戏都提供了一个有趣的例子，说明游戏如何通过批准和禁止特定的游戏行为来塑造和形成欲望和社会关系。
On this page and the next, we quote descriptions and provide our own commentary on several games Sutton-Smith describes in his essay.22 Each game offers a fascinating example of how games mold and shape desire and social relations by sanctioning and forbidding particular play actions.
纸牌游戏：玩家围成一圈，轮流从一副牌中抽一张牌。抽完牌后，他们再选一个异性。如果他们抽到黑桃，他们就会拍拍他们选中的人的背。如果抽到梅花，他们就会握手。如果抽到方块，他们就会当众接吻。如果抽到红心，他们就会私下接吻。
The Card Game: The players go round in a circle, and take turns to pick a card from a pack. Having picked a card they then pick a person of the opposite sex. If they pick a spade they slap the person they have chosen on the back. If a club, they shake hands. If a diamond it is a public kiss. If a heart, a private kiss.
禁忌游戏：这款游戏是一种系统，用于确定一对玩家将进行何种社交互动。运气在这款游戏中起着非常重要的作用，就像在大多数接吻游戏中一样。玩家可以选择他们希望与谁成为伴侣，但牌会决定确切的动作。因此，洗好的牌组负责实际的接吻，让玩家摆脱这项既繁重又令人向往的任务。
The forbidden play: This game operates as a system for determining the form of social interaction that a pair of players will have. Chance plays a very important role in this game, as it does in most kissing games. The players get to choose who they wish to have as a partner, but the cards determine the exact action. Thus the shuffled deck takes responsibility for the actual kissing, relieving players of that socially onerous yet libidinally desirable task.
抽签和亲吻：所有玩家的名字都放在一个盘子里。所有玩家一起把手放在盘子里，抽一个名字。他们必须亲吻抽出的名字，并被抽出名字的人亲吻。一旦他们亲吻并被亲吻，他们就可以跑到一排椅子上就座。椅子少了一把，剩下的人必须亲吻所有人。
Draw and Kiss: All the player’s names are placed in a dish. All the players place their hands in together and draw a name. They must kiss the name drawn out as well as be kissed by the person who has drawn their name. As soon as they have kissed and been kissed they may run to take their place in a line of chairs. There is one chair short, and the person who is left over must kiss everyone.
禁忌游戏：抽牌和亲吻是纸牌游戏的结构反转。互动形式是固定的（亲吻），但机会决定谁亲吻谁。这个游戏中有一个总体“失败者”这一事实令人着迷。隐含的社会信息是什么？最慢的玩家是最拘谨和犹豫的玩家还是最放纵的玩家？被其他人亲吻是一种惩罚还是一种反向奖励？
The forbidden play: Draw and Kiss is a structural inversion of The Card Game. The form of interaction is fixed (kissing) but chance determines who kisses whom. The fact that there is an overall “loser” in this game is fascinating. What is the implied social message? Is the slowest player the one that was most prudish and hesitant or the most indulgent? Is being kissed by everyone else a punishment or an inverted reward?
耐力接吻：本质上是一种有趣的耐力测试，情侣们可以看看他们能在不呼吸的情况下接吻多久。使用手表。旁观者嘲笑参赛者。通常只与固定的约会对象一起。在双人约会中，失败者可能需要为获胜者买一杯可乐。
Endurance Kissing: It is essentially a comic endurance test, in which a couple sees how long they can hold a kiss without breathing. A watch is used. The bystanders laugh at the competitors. It is done usually only with one’s steady date. On a double date the losers might be expected to buy a Coke for the winners.
禁忌游戏： 在《忍耐之吻》中，我们发现了一种异常激烈的禁忌游戏竞赛，而不是基于机会的活动。禁忌活动——接吻——通过延长时间变得更加性放纵。同时，通常亲密的行为变成了一种技巧的表演，这使得该活动成为一场比赛，掩盖了其性本质。以一瓶苏打水为赌注强调了该活动的竞争性质。
The forbidden play: In Endurance Kissing, we find an unusually agônistic forbidden play competition instead of a chance-based activity. The taboo activity—kissing—is made even more sexually indulgent by extending its length. At the same time, the normally intimate act is transformed into a performance of skill, which sanctions the activity as a contest, disguising its sexual nature. The wagering of a soda emphasizes the competitive nature of the activity.
手电筒：情侣们坐在一间漆黑房间的边缘。一个人拿着手电筒坐在中间。如果他把手电筒照到没有接吻的情侣身上，那么他就会加入这对情侣中的异性成员，另一个成员拿着手电筒站在中间……简而言之，在这个游戏中，接吻是正常的，被发现没有拥抱是不正常的。
Flashlight: Couples sit around the edge of a dark room. One person sits in the center with a flashlight. If he flashes it onto a couple that is not kissing, then he joins the opposite sex member of that couple, and the other member takes his place in the center with the flashlight . . . . In short it was normal in this game to be kissing, not normal to be caught unembraced.
禁忌游戏：在《Flashlight》中，接吻与禁忌之间存在着复杂的相互作用。游戏提供了身体接触的机会，同时也提供了对亲密关系可能性的防御。玩家在接吻时躲在黑暗中，这一事实清楚地表明接吻不是一项公开活动。同时，游戏的整个前提是另一个玩家花时间“检查”玩家是否在接吻。这位主持人通过监视行为来强调禁忌的方面，同时惩罚不参与的玩家。游戏也充当着一种分类机制：如果你对伴侣的喜爱程度不足以亲吻他或她，你就成为监视者，寻找一对不接吻的情侣和适合你的伴侣。
The forbidden play: In Flashlight, there is a truly complex interplay with the taboo of kissing. The game provides opportunity for physical contact, while also offering a defense against the possibility of intimacy. The fact that players are hiding in the dark as they smooch makes it clear that kissing is something that is not a public activity. At the same time, the entire premise of the game is that another player spends his time “checking” to see if players are kissing. This moderator heightens the forbidden aspect by monitoring the action, while also punishing players who are not taking part. The game also acts as a sorting mechanism: if you don’t like your partner enough to kiss him or her, you become the monitor, looking for a non-kissing couple with a partner that suits you.
传递橙子：这通常是接力赛。橙子放在下巴下面，然后下一个玩家（异性）努力不用手将橙子放在下巴下面。或者也可以由男女双方轮流围成一圈玩……在许多报道中，如果情侣在将橙子从一个下巴传递到另一个下巴时掉落了橙子，他们就必须接吻。在其中一个报道中，如果他们成功传递了橙子，他们就接吻。
Pass the Orange: This is usually played as a relay. The orange is placed under the chin and then the next player, a member of the opposite sex, endeavors to get it under his chin without the use of his hands. Or it may be played with the members of each sex alternating around in a circle . . . . In a number of reports the couple must kiss if they drop the orange while passing it from one chin to the next. In one, they kiss if they pass it on successfully.
禁忌游戏：与忍耐之吻一样，传递橙子游戏通过将游戏定性为一项竞争性活动，允许在公共场合进行身体接触。游戏中的接吻部分可以作为扔下橙子的奖励或惩罚，具体取决于所使用的游戏变体。这种模糊性清楚地表明，禁忌、欲望和性接触的元素可以在游戏的社交游戏空间中以无数种方式配置。
The forbidden play: Like Endurance Kissing, Pass the Orange permits physical contact in public, by framing the game as a competitive activity. The kissing component of the game can act as either a reward or punishment for dropping the orange, depending on the game variant used. This ambiguity makes it clear that the elements of taboo, desire, and sexual contact can be configured in a myriad of arrangements within the social play space of the game.
转瓶子：所有版本都有传统的玩家围成一圈，中间有一个玩家旋转瓶子……通常，中间的玩家必须亲吻瓶子指向的外围玩家。通常亲吻是在公开场合进行的，但情侣可以私下亲吻。如果瓶子指向同性玩家，该玩家可以进入中心，或者可以再次旋转，或者可以亲吻右边的人……有很多关于假装避开瓶子的报道，也有作弊的报道，这样瓶子最终指向的是漂亮或英俊的人，而不是没有吸引力的人。
Spin the Bottle: All versions have the traditional circle of players with one player in the center spinning the bottle . . . . Generally, the center player must kiss the peripheral player pointed out by the bottle. Usually the kissing is done in public, but the couple may go off and do it in private. If it points to a player of the same sex that player may go into the center, or it may be spun again, or the person to the right may be kissed . . . . There is much report of pretending to avoid the bottle, and of cheating so that it ended up pointing toward the pretty or the handsome and not towards the unattractive.
禁忌游戏：转瓶子仍然是青少年接吻的经典游戏。它提供了一种灵活的结构，既允许公开接吻，也允许私下接吻，同时也提供了一种对选择责任的防御。就像我们在《游戏作为不确定性系统》和《打破规则》中讨论过的 eenie-meenie-miney-moe“数数”游戏一样，转瓶子中的机会作用显然是游戏玩法的一部分。
The forbidden play: Spin the Bottle remains the classic game of adolescent kissing. It offers a flexible structure that allows for both public and private smooching, while also providing a defense against the responsibility of choice. As with the eenie-meenie-miney-moe “counting out” games we discussed in Games as Systems of Uncertainty and Breaking the Rules, the role of chance in Spin the Bottle is clearly manipulated as part of the play of the game.
接吻游戏的社交玩法是高度结构化的，允许玩家在受限的环境中体验通常属于禁忌的行为。诸如《传递橙子》和《忍耐之吻》等游戏保证满足某些欲望（身体接触），同时限制过度接触。正如 Sutton-Smith 所说，“人们可以享受接吻关系，但要避免更全面、更亲密的承诺。游戏的结构消除了‘可能’发生什么的不确定性。”21
The social play of kissing games is highly structured, allowing players to experience normally taboo behavior within restricted contexts. Games such as Pass the Orange and Endurance Kissing guarantee gratification of certain desires (physical contact), while placing limitations on excess. As Sutton-Smith notes, “One may enjoy a kissing relationship, but be protected from a more total and intimate commitment. The uncertainty of what “might” happen is removed by the structure of the game.”21
禁忌游戏需要改变游戏的隐性规则。以运动员的方式玩游戏通常意味着遵守游戏之外的正确行为礼仪。隐性规则体现了更普遍的社会价值观。在游戏中作弊是不对的，就像欺骗配偶是不对的一样。但是，通过允许在规定的范围内进行不当行为，禁忌游戏的操作规则胜过社会的隐性规则。因此，当玩家参与禁忌游戏时，他不仅在反抗游戏的一般规则，也在反抗更大的社会规则。如果不是这样，禁忌游戏就不会具有被禁止的越轨性质。与 Rooie Rules Foursquare 玩家一样，参与禁忌游戏的人不仅在玩游戏，还在玩弄社会结构。Foursquare 玩家在玩弄规则体系。禁忌游戏参与者在欲望与社会允许的限度之间的紧张关系中博弈。
Forbidden play entails a shift in the implicit rules of a game. Playing in a sportsmanlike manner usually means adhering to the etiquette of proper behavior that exists outside the game. Implicit rules embody more general social values. It isn’t proper to cheat in a game, in the same way that it isn’t proper to cheat on your spouse. But by permitting improper behavior within defined limits, the operational rules of forbidden play trump the implicit rules of society. Thus when a player engages in forbidden play, he isn’t only rebelling against the general rules of game play, he is also rebelling against larger social rules as well. If that were not the case, forbidden play would not have the transgressive quality of being forbidden. Like the Rooie Rules Foursquare players, people engaged in forbidden play don’t just play games, but play with social structures. The Foursquare players gamed the system of rules. Forbidden play participants game the tension between desire and the limits of the socially permissable.
禁忌游戏既可以出现在商业游戏，也可以出现在民间游戏中，而且不一定涉及性游戏。例如，在 LARP 中打扮和扮演虚构角色是一种只发生在游戏授权空间内的行为。SiSSYFiGHT 2000 中残酷的暴徒心态，或全接触武术锦标赛和橄榄球比赛中的身体混战也是如此。在所有这些例子中，禁忌游戏都架起了游戏边界内外的社会关系桥梁。如果没有游戏之外存在的“适当”社会背景，隐藏欲望的嬉戏表达、疯狂行为或通常的犯罪行为就不会被视为令人愉悦和越轨；禁忌游戏只是普通的游戏。同时，游戏的魔法圈保护游戏内的人免受制裁。游戏本身与现实世界之间存在着这种矛盾的张力：禁忌游戏的发生仅仅是因为游戏的人为性，尽管它在挑战和满足现实世界的欲望时获得了强度。
Forbidden play can appear in commercially designed games as well as in folk games, and it doesn’t have to involve sexual play. Dressing and acting like a fictional character in a LARP, for example, is a kind of behavior that only happens within the sanctioned space of a game. So is the ruthless mob mentality of SiSSYFiGHT 2000 or the physical melee of full-contact martial arts tournaments and Rugby matches. In all of these examples, forbidden play bridges social relations inside and outside the game’s boundaries. Without the “proper” social contexts that exist outside the game, the playful expression of hidden desires, nutty behavior, or normally criminal actions would not gain status as pleasing and transgressive; forbidden play would just be plain old play. At the same time, the game’s magic circle protects those within the game from sanction. The game itself maintains this paradoxical tension with the real world: the forbidden play occurs only because of the artificiality of the game, even while it gains intensity as it both challenges and satisfies real-world desires.
元游戏：更大的社会背景
Metagame: the Larger Social Context
在整个图式中，我们研究了许多种游戏社区，从参与者和反参与者的基本社会角色到禁忌游戏的复杂社会纠葛。每种社区都提供了游戏与外部世界之间、魔法圈两侧社会互动之间相互作用的不同实例。我们在本章的最后提出了一个强有力的概念，这个概念可以帮助我们理解游戏玩法的虚假性与真正的社会现实之间的关系。这个概念就是元游戏。拉丁语词根“meta”的意思是“之间”、“与”、“之后”、“后面”、“上方”或“周围”。因此，元游戏的意思是“游戏之外的游戏”，指游戏玩法中不是源自游戏规则而是源自与周围环境相互作用的方面。
Throughout this schema, we have investigated many kinds of play communities, from the elemental social roles of actor and counteractor to the complex social tangles of forbidden play. Each offered a different instance of the interplay between the game and the outside world, between social interactions on both sides of the magic circle. We finish this chapter by presenting a powerful concept, one that can help us make sense of the relationship between the artificiality of game play and genuine social reality. This concept is the metagame. The Latin root “meta” means between, with, after, behind, over, or about. Thus metagame means “the game beyond the game” and refers to the aspects of game play that derive not from the rules of the game, but from interplay with surrounding contexts.
元游戏是指游戏与外部元素之间的关系，包括从玩家态度和游戏风格到社会声誉以及游戏的社会环境等一切。赛后更衣室里关于比赛的对话是元游戏互动。记住拼字游戏词典中的单词是一种元游戏活动，是磨练游戏技能的一种活动。某位围棋大师的典型游戏策略是元游戏信息，如果你在下周的比赛中与他对战，这些信息将非常有用。在所有情况下，元游戏是指游戏与魔法圈边缘之外的空间中渗透的因素互动的方式。
Metagaming refers to the relationship between the game and outside elements, including everything from player attitudes and play styles to social reputations and social contexts in which the game is played. Post-game locker room conversations about the match are metagame interactions. Memorizing words in the Scrabble dictionary is a metagame activity, the honing of in-game skills. The typical playing strategies of a particular Go master are metagame information, useful if you are playing against him in a tournament next week. In all cases, the metagame refers to the way a game engages with factors permeating the space beyond the edges of the magic circle.
游戏玩家以多种不同方式使用“元游戏”一词。例如，在真人角色扮演游戏中，“元游戏”是指玩家通过使用其角色不具备的信息获得优势——这通常被认为是作弊。某些形式的元游戏，例如在壁球比赛中用垃圾话分散对手的注意力，属于违反体育道德的行为。还有其他类型的元游戏，例如绘画和准备战争游戏人物，被认为是有价值的追求。该术语的这些不同用法本质上都指同一件事：将游戏与外部环境联系起来的活动。
Game players use the term “metagame” in several different ways. For example, in live-action role-playing games,’ “metagaming” is when a player gains an advantage by using information that his or her character would not possess—and it is generally considered cheating. Some forms of metagaming, such as trash-talking to distract your opponent in a Racquetball match, fall into the category of unsportsmanlike behavior. Still other kinds of metagaming, such as painting and preparing wargaming figures, are thought of as valuable pursuits. These various uses of the term essentially all refer to the same thing: activities that link the game to outside contexts.
元游戏模型
A Metagame Model
在为《末日骑士：角色扮演论文集》撰写的一篇题为“元游戏”的文章中，游戏设计师理查德·加菲尔德提出了一个思考元游戏的有用模型。在这篇文章中，他将元游戏定义为“游戏与自身之外的互动方式”。23在这一广泛定义的框架下，加菲尔德涵盖了各种各样的社交游戏现象。他将元游戏的表现形式分为四类：
In an essay titled “Metagames,” written for Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Essays on Roleplaying, game designer Richard Garfield presents a useful model for thinking about metagames. In it, he defines metagame as the way in which “a game interfaces outside of itself.”23 Under the rubric of this broad definition, Garfield includes a wide array of social play phenomena. He divides manifestations of the metagame into four categories:
1. 玩家给游戏带来了什么
1. What a player brings to a game
2. 玩家从游戏中获得了什么
2. What a player takes away from a game
3.比赛间会发生什么
3. What happens between games
4.比赛期间除了比赛本身还会发生什么24
4. What happens during a game other than the game itself24
在接下来的几页中，我们将使用加菲猫本人提供的一些例子，依次概述每个类别。
On the next few pages, we outline each of these categories in turn, using some of the examples that Garfield himself presents.
至：玩家给游戏带来了什么
To: What a Player Brings to a Game
玩家总是会为游戏带来一些东西，有时是有形的，有时不是。例如，参加《万智牌：聚会》游戏时携带的一副牌或参加棒球比赛时携带的球棒都是玩家可能携带的实物。对国际象棋某些开局的研究或记住红心大战中牌的能力都是无形的精神资源的例子。玩家通常可以在一定程度上选择带什么东西参加游戏，但有些资源是强制性的：没有足球，就不能参加足球比赛。加菲尔德指出，为游戏选择资源是一个玩家经常喜欢的过程。在《战锤》等微缩模型战争游戏中，玩家在游戏开始前会花很多时间来设计他们的军队，既要美观又要有战略性。
Players always bring something to a game, sometimes in tangible form and sometimes not. For example, a deck taken to a game of Magic: The Gathering or a bat carried to a Baseball game are physical components a player might bring. The study of certain openings in Chess or the ability to memorize cards in Hearts are examples of intangible, mental resources. A player usually has some level of choice in what to bring to a game, though some resources are mandatory: no Soccer ball, no Soccer game. Garfield notes that the selection of resources for a game is a process that players often enjoy. In minatures wargaming such as Warhammer, players spend many hours prior to a game designing their armies, both aesthetically and strategically.
加菲猫将玩家带入游戏的资源分为四类。游戏资源是指必要的游戏组件，例如一副牌、一对骰子、一把网球拍、棒球棒，甚至是身体反应。战略准备或训练包括研究对手的打法或记住关卡。外围游戏资源是指可选元素，例如游戏指南、作弊手段和游戏模式知识。这些资源通常由游戏社区创建和共享，通过“官方”渠道或非官方渠道（例如粉丝网站）。玩家声誉是玩家带入游戏的最后一类资源，通常不是自愿的。您是否以虚张声势、提前打开棋盘或利用较弱的玩家而闻名？
Garfield organizes what players bring to a game into four categories. Game Resources refers to necessary game components, such as a deck of cards, a pair of dice, a Tennis racket, Baseball bat, or even physical reflexes. Strategic Preparation or Training includes studying an opponent’s playing style or memorizing levels. Peripheral Game Resources refers to optional elements like game guides, cheats, and knowledge of play patterns. These resources are often created and shared among a game community, either through “official” channels or unofficial ones, such as fan sites. Player Reputation is the final category of what players bring to a game, and is often not voluntary. Are you known to bluff, open up the board early, or take advantage of weaker players?
出自：玩家从游戏中获得了什么
From: What a Player Takes Away from a Game
玩家总是会从游戏中获得一些东西。例如，为了某种赌注而玩游戏并不罕见。赢得一场赌注游戏可能意味着拿走一些定量的东西，比如奖金或正式比赛中的排名，或者赌注可能是一些不那么有形的东西，比如炫耀的权利或一群玩家中的社会地位。有时，玩家在一场比赛后就会失去一些东西。其他时候，胜利可能是在一系列比赛中产生的：三局两胜。大型锦标赛可能持续数周或数月。玩家对一场比赛的认真程度受到当前游戏对另一场比赛的影响程度的影响，特别是在阶梯结构或其他有组织的比赛中。元游戏的这一方面可能会对玩家的态度和表现产生强烈的积极或消极影响。
Players always take something away from a game. It is not uncommon, for example, to play a game for some kind of stakes. Winning a stakes game might mean taking away something quantitative, like prize money or standings in a formal competition, or the stakes might be something less tangible, like gloating rights or social status among a group of players. Sometimes, a player takes something away after just a single game. Other times, victory might emerge from a series of games: best two out of three. Large-scale tournaments can span weeks or months. The seriousness with which players take a game is affected by how much the current game affects another game, particularly within a ladder structure or other organized contest. This aspect of the metagame can have a strong postive or negative influence on player attitude and performance.
玩家还会从游戏中获得一些与赌注无关的东西，比如游戏本身的体验。玩家的体验可能会证实或反驳他们对对手或整个游戏的看法，从而影响未来的游戏。通过将游戏体验编造成故事，玩家还可以获得游戏的故事：从失败中夺取胜利的方式（反之亦然）、惊人的好或坏举动、游戏过程中发生的怪异事件玩。我不敢相信我投出了一场完美的比赛！正如我们在“游戏作为叙事游戏”中讨论的那样，一些游戏，例如具有重播功能的赛车游戏，将这种复述游戏作为游戏的明确部分。当然，玩家也可以带走资源用于未来的游戏，无论是关于游戏如何运作的知识还是作为游戏赌注赢得的收藏卡。
Players also take things away from a game unrelated to the stakes, such as the experience of the game itself. A player’s experience might serve to validate or contradict their beliefs about an opponent or about the game as a whole, thereby influencing future games. Crafting play experience into a tale, a player can also take away the story of the game: the way victory was seized from the jaws of defeat (or vice versa), spectacularly good or bad moves, the bizarre occurrences that happened during the course of play. I can’t believe I pitched a perfect game! As we discussed in Games as Narrative Play, some games, such as a driving game with replay capability, make this retelling play an explicit part of the game. Of course, players can also take away resources for future games, whether it is the knowledge about how the game works or a collectible card won as the stakes of the game.
之间：游戏之间会发生什么
Between: What Happens Between Games
游戏间隙中充满了丰富的元游戏活动，这些活动可以为核心游戏体验增添价值。对于许多玩家来说，游戏间隙中的活动与游戏过程中发生的事情一样重要。玩家通常会反思策略、训练或计划下一场比赛。下次我必须打得更积极。计划下一场比赛要带什么，无论是组装一副新的游戏王牌组、购买一把新网球拍，还是计划新的围棋策略，都是重要的游戏间隙活动。但游戏间隙中发生的一切并非都是孤独的追求，游戏间隙的元游戏可以包括玩家彼此交流上一场比赛发生的事情，或者玩家传播故事和建立声誉。
The space between games is filled with a rich palette of metagame activities that can add value to the core play experience. For many players, the activities that take place between games can be as important as what happens during a game. Players commonly reflect on strategy, training, or planning for the next game. I have got to play more aggressively next time. Planning what to bring to the next game, whether that involves assembling a new deck for Yu-Gi-Oh, buying a new Tennis racket, or planning a new Go strategy, are all important between-game activities. But not everything that happens between games is a solitary pursuit, and between-game metagaming can include players communicating with each other about what happened last game or players spreading stories and building reputations.
此外，并非所有游戏间元游戏都是战略性的。在 X Games 比赛之间用贴纸装饰滑板，或阅读即将在微缩模型战争游戏中上演的战役的历史记录也是元游戏的一部分。这两种活动都发生在游戏之间，增加了游戏体验的意义，但通常都不是为了获胜而做的。
Additionally, not all between-game metagaming is strategic. Decorating a skateboard with stickers between X Games competitions, or reading historical accounts of a battle about to be enacted in a miniatures wargame is also part of the metagame. Both of these activities occur between games and add to the meaning of the play experience, but neither is usually done primarily in order to win.
游戏期间：游戏期间除了游戏本身之外还会发生什么
During: What Happens During a Game Other than the Game Itself
这种元游戏类型非常多样化，指的是现实生活对游戏的影响。除了魔法圈之外，还有许多因素会影响游戏体验，这些因素始终存在，而且通常非常强大。元游戏在游戏中出现的方式包括竞争和友情等社交因素，或游戏的物理环境，例如良好的灯光或嘈杂的氛围。说垃圾话、玩“心理游戏”和利用玩家声誉也会影响元游戏。如果你在打乒乓球，并试图用一连串大声辱骂来分散对手的注意力，那么你就是在与他玩元游戏。这种元游戏行为可能会变成违反体育道德的行为，违反游戏的隐性规则。然后由玩家的社会社区来认可或审查元游戏行为。
This category of the metagame is quite diverse, and refers to the influence of real life on a game in play. There are many factors external to the magic circle that enter into the experience of play, factors that are always present and often quite powerful. Among the ways that the metagame occurs during play are social factors such as competition and camaraderie, or the physical environment of play such as good lighting or a noisy atmosphere. Trash talking, playing “head games,” and exploiting player reputations all affect the metagame as well. If you are playing Table Tennis and are trying to distract your opponent with a steady stream of vociferous insults, you are playing a metagame against him. This kind of metagaming behavior may turn into unsportsmanlike behavior, violating implicit rules of play. It is then up to the social community of players to either endorse or censor the metagame behavior.
加菲尔德的“到”、“从”、“之间”和“期间”类别阐明了元游戏的各种可能性。在他的文章中，加菲尔德使用这些类别来讨论《万智牌：聚会》的元游戏，这是他职业生涯早期设计的一款游戏。这款游戏广受欢迎，很大程度上要归功于加菲尔德积极将元游戏玩法融入游戏设计本身的创新方式。甚至游戏的副标题“聚会”也将游戏称为进出魔法圈的零件集合。以下关于这款游戏的评论摘自加菲尔德在 2000 年游戏开发者大会上的一次演讲：
Garfield’s categories of To, From, Between, and During illuminate the diverse possibilities of the metagame. In his essay, Garfield uses these categories to discuss the metagame of Magic: The Gathering, a game he designed early in his career. Its wildly popular success is due in large part to the innovative way in which Garfield actively incorporated metagame play into the game design itself. Even the game’s subtitle, “The Gathering,” references the game as a collection of parts that pass in and out of the magic circle. The comments that follow regarding the game are taken from a talk Garfield gave at the 2000 Game Developers Conference:
To：《万智牌》的独特之处在于，每位玩家都会为游戏带来一半的牌。选择要带的游戏资源是吸引许多玩家的一大因素，而且它占用的时间与实际玩游戏的时间一样多。这是游戏中非常重要的一部分，以至于有专门研究它的玩家，他们不是万智牌玩家，而是牌组构建者和分析师。
To: Magic was distinctive in that each player brings half of the cards for the game. Choosing game resources to bring is a large part of the appeal to many players, and it can occupy as much time as the actual play of the game. This is such an important part of the game that there are players who specialize in it, known not as Magic players but as deck constructors and analysts.
出处：玩万智牌的传统方法是先下前注，即每位玩家在游戏开始前从牌堆中随机抽取一张牌，并将其放在一边。获胜的玩家将赢得两张牌。
From: A traditional way to play Magic is for ante, in which each player randomly selects a card from her deck before play and sets it aside before the game starts. The winning player wins both cards.
魔术也经常在正式的锦标赛中进行，比赛中可以产生官方排名或现金奖励。
Magic is often played in formal tournament settings as well, in which official standings or cash prizes can result from play.
之间：在万智牌游戏之间，游戏资源和信息流通非常频繁。玩家交换卡牌、分享策略，并参与丰富的玩家社区。
Between: Between games of Magic, there is much circulation of game resources and information. Players trade cards, share strategies, and take part in rich player communities.
期间：声誉对所有玩魔术的孩子来说都很重要。虽然有些人只是努力尽可能多地获胜，但其他人则以不寻常的策略取胜，或者为了证明特定的牌组合是可行的。二十五
During: Reputation is important in all kids of Magic play. While some people simply strive to be victorious as often as possible, others are driven to win with unusual strategies, or in order to prove that particular combinations of cards are viable.25
设计元游戏
Designing the Metagame
Magic 丰富的元游戏源自一些关键的游戏设计决策。游戏的基本结构是玩家创建自己的卡牌收藏并将它们带到游戏中。由于准备是游戏的必要部分，玩家很快就会明白，Magic 的规划元游戏与游戏中的面对面决斗密切相关。
Magic’s rich metagame emerges from a handful of key game design decisions. The essential structure of the game is that players create their own collections of cards and bring them to a game. Because preparation is a necessary part of play, players quickly understand that the planning metagame of Magic goes hand in hand with the game’s face-to-face dueling.
游戏规则围绕着一个简单的回合结构。《万智牌》的复杂性并非来自这些核心规则，而是来自成千上万张不同牌可能产生的许多特殊情况。游戏设计师 Greg Costikyan 称《万智牌》为“例外游戏”，即在一套简单的标准规则上包含许多变体的游戏。26例如，《万智牌》包含一套简单的规则来解决生物攻击，但个别卡片详细说明了许多特殊类型的生物，例如只能防御的墙壁，或可以绕过任何非飞行防御生物的飞行生物。这些“例外”导致了新的生物组合，例如可以拦截飞行生物但只能防御的飞墙。这种分类复杂性，加上生物“统计数据”的多变性（施法成本、攻击等级、防御等级、颜色类型），再加上许多其他“特殊情况”能力，产生了数千种不同类型的可能生物。而生物只是万智牌的几种类型之一！
The rules of play revolve around a simple turn structure. The complexity of Magic doesn’t come from these core rules but instead from the many special cases that the thousands of different cards make possible. Magic is what game designer Greg Costikyan calls an “exceptions game,” a game that contains many variants on a simple set of standard rules.26 For example, Magic contains a simple set of rules to resolve creature attacks, but individual cards detail many special kinds of creatures, such as walls, which can only defend, or flying creatures, which can bypass any non-flying defending creatures. These “exceptions” lead to new creature-combinations, such as flying walls, which can intercept flying creatures, but can only defend. This kind of classificatory complexity, combined with variability in creature “stats” (casting cost, attack rating, defense rating, color type), plus numerous other “special case” abilities, makes for thousands of different kinds of possible creatures. And creatures are only one of several types of Magic cards!
万智牌卡牌的模块化和专业化特性确保元游戏的一部分是探索卡牌的范围、卡牌组合、牌组构造和游戏策略。作为游戏道具，卡牌便于携带和收藏，并且自然适合交易和下注。在无数层面上，万智牌：聚会促进并鼓励元游戏玩法。这就是为什么它在发布十多年后仍然吸引着玩家的原因之一。
The modular, specialized nature of Magic cards ensures that part of the metagame is exploring the range of cards, card combinations, deck constructions, and play strategies. As game pieces, the cards are portable and collectible and lend themselves naturally to trading and wagering. On innumerable levels, Magic: The Gathering facilitates and encourages metagaming play. That is one of the reasons why, more than ten years after its release, it still continues to engage players.
为了保证游戏的长期成功，设计师必须考虑元游戏。正如游戏设计师 François Dominic Laramée 所写，“元游戏可以大大延长游戏的寿命。我记得有一款在线冒险游戏，玩家在解开谜团后会继续玩几个月，充当‘长老’，给新手提供线索。”27如果没有元游戏，游戏体验将会提供其自身短暂的内在乐趣，但不会影响游戏外部环境中的有意义的游戏。
To guarantee a game’s long-term success, the designer must take the metagame into account. As game designer François Dominic Laramée writes, “Metagaming can drastically increase a game’s life span. I remember an online adventure game where players stayed on for months after solving the mystery, serving as ‘elders’ and giving clues to newbies.”27 Without a metagame, a play experience will provide its own short-lived intrinsic pleasures, but will not affect meaningful play in contexts outside the game.
设计有意义的社交游戏通常意味着设计一个有意义的元游戏。但是如何设计呢？正如我们在前面章节中提到的，游戏设计是一个二阶设计问题。游戏设计师只直接设计规则；游戏体验是规则产生的间接结果。同样，社交游戏，尤其是元游戏，只与正式的游戏设计间接相关。事实上，任何给定游戏的大多数元游戏都超出了游戏设计师的范围，因为它来自游戏社区及其更大的社交世界。
Designing meaningful social play, usually means designing a meaningful metagame. But how? As we have noted in earlier chapters, game design is a second-order design problem. Game designers only directly design rules; the play experience is an emergent, indirect outcome of the rules. In a similar sense, social play, and the metagame in particular, are only indirectly linked to formal game design. In fact, most of any given game’s metagame is beyond the reach of the game designer, for it emerges from play communities and their larger social worlds.
然而，精心的游戏设计有助于丰富元游戏的出现。在许多在线游戏中，聊天系统等网络社区功能通过元游戏改变了游戏玩法，允许玩家建立和培养游戏内社交关系，这些社交关系在游戏之外也能获得活力。例如，在线游戏群体家庭主妇会花几个小时在线玩红心大战和桥牌，同时将大部分注意力放在与朋友聊天上。通过玩红心大战结交朋友的玩家家庭主妇不仅会因为游戏提供的正式游戏体验而看重游戏，还会因为作为元游戏的一部分而发展起来的社交社区而看重游戏。这个社区的力量，就像《万智牌》一样，很大程度上来自于赋予它意义的设计环境。虽然元游戏只能间接设计，但您可以鼓励玩家获得您想要的体验，无论是在您设计的游戏内还是游戏周围。理查德·加菲尔德可能没有设计特定玩家的《万智牌》垃圾话风格，但他帮助提供了使用它的游戏环境。
Yet careful game design can contribute to the emergence of a rich metagame. In many online games, web community features such as chat systems transform play via the metagame by allowing players to establish and nurture in-game social relations that gain life outside of game play. For example, the online gaming group homemakers spends hours online playing Hearts and Bridge while devoting most of their attention to chatting with friends. Players who make friends playing Hearts with homemakers will value the game not only for the formal play experience it provides, but also for the social community developed as part of the metagame. The strength of this community, like that of Magic, largely derives from the designed context in which it makes it meanings. Although the metagame can only be indirectly designed, it is up to you to encourage the experiences you want for your players, both within and around the games you design. Richard Garfield might not have designed a particular player’s style of Magic trash-talking, but he helped provide the play context in which it is put to use.
游戏设计师常常陷入设计和制作的复杂细节中，而忽视了游戏的更大社交背景。玩家会从你的游戏中带来什么？他们在游戏期间和游戏之间会如何进行元游戏？你能提供哪些结构来鼓励正确的元游戏？是开启富有想象力的元游戏玩法的叙事世界吗？是奖励玩家在游戏前研究策略的深度形式结构？是鼓励社交交易和赌注游戏的实体经济？是让玩家创建自己的游戏社区的工具？游戏设计方法无穷无尽。
Too often, game designers get caught up in the intricacies of design and production, losing sense of the larger social contexts where their game will be played. What will players bring to and from your game? How will they metagame between and during play sessions? What structures can you provide that will encourage the right kind of metagame? Will it be narrative worlds that open up imaginative metagame play? Deep formal structures that reward players for boning up on strategy before a game? Physical economies that encourage social trading and playing for stakes? Tools that let players create their own play communities? There are endless game design approaches.
关键在于：记住观察玩家。在进行迭代设计过程中，注意玩家在游戏前、游戏后和游戏之间的互动情况。问问他们如果让他们把游戏带回家，他们会怎么玩。让他们把游戏带回家，看看会发生什么。确实，你不能直接设计元游戏。但只要明白你总是在社交环境中进行设计，并为其设计，你就可以尽最大努力培养丰富的元游戏玩法。
One key: remember to observe your players. As you go through the iterative design process, pay attention to how your players interact before games, after games, between games. Ask them how they’d play if you let them take your game home. Let them take your game home—and see what happens. It is true that you can’t directly design the metagame. But by understanding that you are always already designing within and for social contexts, you can do your best to cultivate rich metagaming play.
社交游戏的局限性
The Limits of Social Play
元游戏和社交游戏将我们带到了魔法圈的边缘，甚至更远。在我们基于规则的游戏探索中，我们对游戏系统的理解是封闭的。在游戏中，事情发生了变化。我们有时将游戏视为封闭的、内部驱动的体验系统，有时将其视为与整个世界互动的系统。这种双重框架在我们对社交游戏的讨论中表现得最为明显。无论是有界和无界的游戏社区，还是理想和真实的游戏规则，社交游戏都取决于规则的形式结构，同时也是更大社会背景的产物。
The metagame and social play bring us to the brink of the magic circle and beyond. In our RULES-based explorations of games, we kept our understanding of game systems firmly closed. In PLAY, things shifted. We sometimes viewed games as enclosed, internally driven systems of experience, at other times as systems that interact with the world at large. Nowhere has this double-framing been as evident as in our discussion of social play. Whether it is bounded and unbounded play communities or the ideal and real rules of games, social play is at once contingent on the formal structures of rules, while also very much a product of larger social contexts.
那些更大的社会背景是什么？当然，它们就是游戏文化。每个魔术决斗者、每个家庭主妇纸牌高手、每个转瓶游戏爱好者都不仅仅存在于游戏社区中，而且是无数文化背景的一部分，从国籍和民族到意识形态和政治信仰。我们现在转向这些背景，转向玩游戏的文化。这样，我们就离开了有时开放、有时封闭的游戏领域，转而接受游戏作为文化的奇妙开放景观。
What are those larger social contexts? They are, of course, the cultures of games. Every Magic duelist, every homemaker card shark, every Spin The Bottle kisser doesn’t merely exist in a play community, but is part of myriad cultural contexts, from spheres of nationality and ethnicity to ideologies and political beliefs. It is to those contexts we now turn, to the cultures in which games are played. In doing so we leave behind the sometimes open, sometimes closed territory of PLAY to take up instead the wonderfully open-ended landscape of games as CULTURE.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
“超越游戏规则：为什么 Rooie 规则很好？”作者：Linda A. Hughes
“Beyond the Rules of the Game: Why are Rooie Rules Nice?” by Linda A. Hughes
这是关于儿童玩 Foursquare 的优秀案例研究，以及理想规则和“真实”规则之间的差异。“真实”规则是指儿童实际使用的规则，而不是他们应该使用的规则。休斯的研究揭示了游戏与游戏的社会背景之间的密切联系，并有助于确定玩家之间的社会关系如何极大地影响正式规则体系的制定。
An excellent case study of children playing Foursquare and the differences they hold between ideal rules and “real” rules. “Real” rules refer to the actual rules children make use of, rather than the rules they are supposed use. Hughes’ study reveals the close connection between games and the social contexts in which they are played, and helps to identify how social relationships between players dramatically impact the enactment of a formal systems of rules.
儿童民俗：资料书，Brian Sutton-Smith、Jay Mechling、Thomas W. Johnson 和 Felicia R. McMahon 编辑。
Children’s Folklore: A Source Book, Brian Sutton-Smith, Jay Mechling, Thomas W. Johnson, and Felicia R. McMahon, eds.
本书收录了美国研究、民俗学、人类学、心理学、社会学和教育学等领域的论文，重点关注儿童在玩耍时的互动。这些论文包括案例研究、历史调查和研究游戏与儿童的方法论论文。其中几篇论文对游戏背景下出现的互动进行了出色的探索，并深入了解了游戏带来的不同形式的乐趣和社交游戏。
A collection of essays from fields as far ranging as American studies, folklore, anthropology, psychology, sociology, and education, focusing on interactions among children at play. The essays include case studies, historical surveys, and methodological treatises on the study of play and children. Several of the essays offer excellent explorations of the interactions that emerge from the context of play, and offer insight into different forms of pleasure and social play engendered by games.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
概述：儿童民俗学方法”，布赖恩·萨顿·史密斯
Overview: Methods in Children’s Folklore,” Brian Sutton-Smith
双荷兰语和双相机”，安·里奇曼·贝雷辛
Double Dutch and Double Cameras,” Ann Richman Beresin
《城市校园》，安·里奇曼·贝雷辛
Urban Schoolyard,” Ann Richman Beresin
儿童游戏和游戏”，Linda A. Hughes
Children’s Games and Gaming,” Linda A. Hughes
红心、梅花、方块、黑桃：适合 MUD 的玩家”，作者：Richard Bartle < http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm >
Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs,” by Richard Bartle <http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm>
在这篇在线文章中，Bartle 创建了一个分类法，概述了玩 MUD 的四种方法。不同类型的玩家以不同的方式相互互动并与游戏世界互动，以实现截然不同的目的，Bartle 概述了如何建立和管理社区以鼓励特定类型的玩家。他的论文有助于思考游戏鼓励的社交互动类型和游戏风格，尤其是在在线多人游戏中。
In this online essay, Bartle creates a taxonomy outlining four approaches to playing MUDs. Different player types interact with each other and with the game world in different ways toward radically distinct ends, and Bartle outlines how to build and manage communities to encourage particular player types. His essay is useful in considering the kinds of social interactions and play styles games encourage, especially in online multiplayer games.
儿童的道德判断，作者：让·皮亚杰
The Moral Judgment of the Child, by Jean Piaget
皮亚杰对 Marbles 的“游戏规则”的研究，将儿童玩游戏和理解游戏的认知发展与儿童学会辨别是非的道德发展进行了类比。皮亚杰关注从一组儿童传给另一组儿童的规则的质量，并追踪儿童对这些规则的权威态度的变化。
Piaget’s study of “the rules of the game” of Marbles draws a parallel between the cognitive development that allows children to play and understand games and the moral development by which children learn to distinguish right and wrong. Piaget focuses on the qualities of rules handed down from one group of children to another, and tracks the changing attitudes of children toward the authority of these rules.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
游戏规则，第 1-6 章
The Rules of the Game, chapters 1–6
笔记
Notes
1 . Brian Sutton-Smith，《游戏与游戏的句法》，载于Brian Sutton-Smith 和 RE Herron 所著的《儿童游戏》（纽约：John Wiley and Sons，1971 年），第 304 页。
1. Brian Sutton-Smith, “A Syntax for Play and Games” In Child’s Play, Brian Sutton-Smith and R. E. Herron (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1971), p. 304.
2. Richard Bartle，《红心、梅花、方块、黑桃：适合 MUD 的玩家》。< http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm >。
2. Richard Bartle, “Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs.” <http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm>.
3. Reiner Knizia，《骰子游戏的正确解释》（塔德沃思，萨里：Right Way Books，1992 年），第 197-8 页。
3. Reiner Knizia, Dice Games Properly Explained (Tadworth, Surrey: Right Way Books, 1992), p. 197–8.
4.同上，第198-99页。
4. Ibid., p. 198–99.
5. Andrew Fluegelman 和 Shoshana Tembeck，《新游戏书》（纽约：Doubleday，1976 年），第 65 页。
5. Andrew Fluegelman and Shoshana Tembeck, The New Games Book (New York: Doubleday, 1976), p. 65.
6.让·皮亚杰，《儿童的道德判断》（纽约：自由出版社，1997 年），第 13-14 页。
6. Jean Piaget, The Moral Judgment of the Child (New York: Free Press, 1997), p. 13–14.
7. Johann Huizinga，《游戏人：文化中的游戏元素研究》（波士顿：Beacon Press，1955 年），第 12 页。
7. Johann Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture (Boston: Beacon Press, 1955), p. 12.
8. Bernard DeKoven，《玩得好的游戏》（纽约：Doubleday，1978 年），第 16-17 页。
8. Bernard DeKoven, The Well-Played Game (New York: Doubleday, 1978), p. 16–17.
9 . 皮亚杰，《儿童的道德判断》，第28页。
9. Piaget, The Moral Judgment of the Child, p. 28.
10.同上，第65页。
10. Ibid., p65.
11. Kenneth Goldstein，《算牌策略》，载于《游戏研究》，Elliott Avedon 和 Brian Sutton-Smith 编辑（纽约：John Wiley & Sons，1971 年），第 172-177 页。
11. Kenneth Goldstein, “Strategies in Counting Out” In The Study of Games, edited by Elliott Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1971), p. 172–177.
12. Frank E. Manning，《游戏的世界》。《游戏人类学研究协会第七届年会论文集》（纽约：休闲出版社，1983 年），第 19 页。
12. Frank E. Manning, The World of Play. Proceedings of the 7th Annual Meeting of The Association of the Anthropological Study of Play (New York: Leisure Press, 1983), p. 19.
13 . Linda Hughes，《儿童游戏和博彩》。《儿童民俗：资料手册》，由 Brian Sutton-Smith、Jay Mechling、Thomas W. Johnson 和 Felicia R. McMahon 编辑（洛根：犹他州立大学出版社，1999 年），第 100 页。
13. Linda Hughes, “Children’s Games and Gaming.” In Children’s Folklore: A Source Book, edited by Brian Sutton-Smith, Jay Mechling, Thomas W. Johnson, and Felicia R. McMahon (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1999), p. 100.
14.同上，第100页。
14. Ibid., p. 100.
15.同上，第100页。
15. Ibid., p. 100.
16 . Linda Hughes，《超越游戏规则：为什么 Rooie 规则很好？》摘自 Frank E. Manning 编辑的《游戏世界》。
16. Linda Hughes, “Beyond the Rules of the Game: Why are Rooie Rules Nice?” In The World of Play, edited by Frank E. Manning.
17.同上，第192页。
17. Ibid., p. 192.
18 . 同上，第 192-194 页。
18. Ibid., p. 192–194.
19. Brian Sutton-Smith，《俄亥俄州青少年的接吻游戏》。《游戏研究》，由 Elliott Avedon 和 Brian Sutton-Smith 编辑（纽约：John Wiley and Sons，1971 年），第 213 页。
19. Brian Sutton-Smith, “The Kissing Games of Adolescents of Ohio.” In The Study of Games, edited by Elliott Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1971), p. 213.
20. Roger Caillois，《人、游戏和游戏》（伦敦：泰晤士和哈德逊，1962 年），第 8 页。
20. Roger Caillois, Man, Play, and Games (London: Thames and Hudson, 1962), p. 8.
21。Sutton-Smith，《俄亥俄州青少年的接吻游戏》，第 213-216 页。
21. Sutton-Smith, “The Kissing Games of Adolescents of Ohio,” p. 213–216.
22.同上，第213页。
22. Ibid., p. 213.
23. Richard Garfield，《元游戏》。《天启四骑士：角色扮演论文集》（伦敦：Jolly Roger Games，2000 年），第 16 页。
23. Richard Garfield, “Metagames.” In Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Essays on Roleplaying (London: Jolly Roger Games, 2000), p. 16.
24.同上，第17页。
24. Ibid., p. 17.
25 . < http://www.gdconf.com/archives/proceedings/2000/ >
25. <http://www.gdconf.com/archives/proceedings/2000/>
26. Greg Costikyan，《别做电子游戏白痴：电脑游戏设计师能从非电子游戏中学到什么》。1998 年游戏开发者大会演讲。存档于：< www.costik.com/vidiot.hmtl >。
26. Greg Costikyan, “Don’t be a Vidiot: What Computer Game Designers can Learn from Non-Electronic Games.” Speech given at the 1998 Game Developer’s Conference. Archived at: <www.costik.com/vidiot.hmtl>.
27 . < http://www.gignews.com/fdl_mainstreamdesign.htm >。
27. <http://www.gignews.com/fdl_mainstreamdesign.htm>.
游戏作为社交游戏
概括
• 当游戏被视为社交游戏时，游戏系统中元素之间的关系被视为社交关系。
• When games are framed as Social Play the relationships between elements in the game system are considered to be social relationships.
•社交游戏互动可能以两种不同的方式出现：
• Social play interactions may emerge in two different ways:
•内部衍生的互动源于游戏规则的运作。
• Interactions internally derived emerge from the functioning of game rules.
•外部衍生的交互来自于魔法圈之外。
• Interactions externally derived come from outside the magic circle.
•一群玩家聚在一起玩游戏时，就会形成社交游戏社区。游戏社区可能出现于以下情况：
• A social play community occurs anytime a group of players get together to play a game. Play communities can arise around:
• 一款游戏
• a single game
• 一场游戏活动或一系列游戏
• a game event or series of games
• 更大的游戏背景
• a larger game context
•玩家角色是指游戏中玩家之间存在的社会关系。角色并不固定，在游戏过程中可能会多次变化。
• Player roles refer to the kinds of social relationships that exist between players in a game. Roles are not fixed and may change several times within the course of a game.
• Sutton-Smith 的玩家角色模型包括一名参与者、一名反参与者以及游戏的总体“动机”或格式。例如，如果动机是夺取，参与者的角色就是夺取，而反参与者的角色则是避免被夺取。
• Sutton-Smith’s model for player roles includes an actor, a counteractor, and an overall “motive” or format for play. For example, if the motive is capture, the actor’s role is to take, while the role of the counteractor is to avoid being taken.
• Bartle 的玩家角色模型将在线 MUD 玩家分为四类：
• Bartle’s model of player roles divides online MUD players into four categories:
•成就者：追求提升经验和力量的玩家。
• Achievers: Players that seek to advance in experience and power.
•探险家：想要探索世界遥远空间的玩家。
• Explorers: Players that want to explore the remote spaces of the world.
•社交者：重视直接社交互动的玩家。
• Socializers: Players that place a premium on direct social interaction.
•杀手： “反社会”玩家，试图伤害和挫败他人。
• Killers: “Antisocial” players that seek to harm and frustrate others.
• 游戏是新兴的社会系统，其中简单的游戏行为和社交互动可以带来极其复杂的游戏体验。
• Games are emergent social systems in which simple play behaviors and social interactions can result in incredibly complicated experiences of play.
•有界游戏社区是一个封闭系统：它源于严格在个人游戏空间内进行的社交游戏。无界游戏社区是一个开放系统，因为游戏与其环境之间存在交流。游戏社区是否有界通常取决于其框架。
• A bounded play community is a closed system: it arises from the social play that takes place strictly within the space of an individual game. A play community that is not bounded is an open system, as there is an exchange between the game and its environment. Whether or not a play community is bounded or not bounded often depends on how it is framed.
• 游戏的有限游戏社区产生了一种社会契约。社会契约：
• The bounded play community of a game results in a form of social contract. The social contract:
• emerges from the rules stylizing the ways that players interact with each other in the game
• 由玩家通过游戏赋予的意义和价值组成
• consists of the meanings and values which the players give life through play
• 确保游戏空间是“安全”的空间，玩家可以在这里冒险，而承担的后果比在现实世界中要少
• ensures that play spaces are “safe” spaces where players can take risks with fewer consequences than in the real world
•安全和信任是游戏社会契约的两个要素。它们也是玩家必须感受到的必要心理品质，以便能够舒适地进入游戏的社交空间。
• Safety and trust are two elements of the social contract of the game. They are also requisite psychological qualities that players must feel in order to be comfortable enough to enter into the social space of the game.
•皮亚杰认为，当孩子理解游戏规则时，他们也会理解游戏的社会契约。随着孩子的成长，他们学会将规则视为可以通过集体共识进行更改的灵活结构。
• Piaget argues that when a child acquires an understanding of a game’s rules, he is also developing an understanding of the social contract of a game. As children develop, they learn to see rules as flexible structures that can be altered through collective consensus.
• 在变革性社交游戏中，玩家通过游戏本身来扩展、变革和操纵现有的社会关系。
• In transformative social play players extend, transform, and manipulate existing social relationships through play itself.
• 玩家会区分“理想”规则和“真实”规则。理想规则是指游戏的“官方”规则。真实规则是玩家社区所遵守的准则和惯例。真实规则反映了对游戏应该如何进行的共识。
• Players make a distinction between “ideal” and “real” rules. Ideal rules refer to the “official” regulations of a game. Real rules are the codes and conventions held by a community of players. Real rules reflect a consensus of how the game ought to be played.
• 玩家通常通过主张相互竞争的真实规则集来操纵社会权力。这就是游戏现象，玩家不仅在游戏中玩游戏，而且对规则进行解读并提出自己的游戏变体。
• Players often broker social power by asserting competing sets of real rules. This is the phenomena of gaming the game, when players don’t merely play within the game, but play with interpretations of rules and propose their own play variants.
• 游戏允许并经常鼓励通常的禁忌行为，即禁忌游戏现象。禁忌游戏既违背了游戏的隐性规则，也违背了更大的社会价值观。游戏规则既允许禁忌游戏，又对其进行限制。
• Games permit and often encourage normally taboo behavior, the phenomenon of forbidden play. Forbidden play rebels against both the implicit rules of game play and against larger social values. The rules of a game both permit and put limits on forbidden play.
•元游戏是指游戏与游戏外元素之间的关系。加菲猫的元游戏模型包括四个类别：
• Metagaming refers to the relationship of a game to elements outside of the game. Garfield’s model of the metagame includes four categories:
• 玩家给游戏带来了什么
• What a player brings to a game
• 玩家从游戏中获得了什么
• What a player takes from a game
•比赛之间会发生什么
• What happens between games
•游戏过程中除了游戏本身之外还会发生什么
• What happens during a game other than the game itself
委托游戏 3
COMMISSIONED GAME 3
基拉·斯奈德
Kira Snyder
潜行
Sneak
适合 3 人或以上玩家的游戏
A game for 3 or more players
介绍
Introduction
你对你的朋友有多了解？在 Sneak 中，你会发现这一点，以及他们有多么有创造力——以及多么狡猾。
How well do you know your friends? In Sneak, you’ll find that out, as well as how creative—and deceitful—they can be.
一半的玩家是 Sporks，其余的是 Foons。但你们其中一人是 Sneak，可以伪装成 Spork 或 Foon。在执行所给的挑战时，你能找出谁是 Sneak 吗？
Half the players are Sporks, and the rest are Foons. But one of you is the Sneak, and can masquerade as either Spork or Foon. Can you figure out who’s the Sneak as you perform the challenges you are given?
规则
Rules
目标
Goal
通过成功猜出谁是 Sneak 并欺骗其他玩家猜错，获得最高分。您将根据玩家对书面或表演的“挑战”的反应得出结论。
Earn the most points by successfully guessing who the Sneak is, and by fooling other players into guessing incorrectly. You’ll draw your conclusions based on how players react to written or acted “challenges.”
材料
Materials
• 挑战（见本书第 506-587 页，文化主要模式）
• Challenges (found on p. 506–587 in this book, the CULTURE primary schema)
• 计数器（豆子、硬币、回形针等）
• Counters (beans, pennies, paper clips, etc.)
• 大量索引卡或空白纸条
• Lots of index cards or slips of blank paper
• 钢笔或铅笔
• Pens or pencils
配置
Setting up
此游戏适合 4 名或更多玩家。每位玩家有 4 个筹码、一些书写用具和一些索引卡。
This game is for 4 or more players. Each player gets 4 counters, something to write with, and a number of index cards.
分配营地
Assigning Camps
每个玩家都是 Spork、Foon 或 Sneak。这些不是团队，而是表明您的游戏身份，称为您的“阵营”。在这个游戏中，每个人都在为自己着想。
Each player is a Spork, a Foon, or the Sneak. These aren’t teams, but indicate your game identity, called your “camp.” Everyone’s looking out for themselves in this game.
将纸条或索引卡放入帽子中：一张纸条上写着“Sneak”，其余纸条上写着“Spork”或“Foon”。每个阵营的名称出现在一半的卡片上。如果玩家人数为偶数，则一个阵营将多出一名玩家——这是哪个阵营应该在开始时就说明清楚，这样每个人都知道有多少 Sporks 和 Foons。
Slips of paper or index cards are put into a hat: one slip reads “Sneak” and the rest read either “Spork” or “Foon.” Each camp’s name appears on half the cards. If there are an even number of players, one camp will have an extra player—which camp this is should be made clear at the start, so everyone knows how many Sporks and Foons there are.
每个玩家抽一张牌。这是玩家的阵营卡，保密。如果玩家被挑战要求切换阵营，他们将更新这张牌以反映他们的新阵营。只有在比赛结束时，每个人都投票选出他们认为的潜行者后，这张牌才会向所有玩家展示。
Each player draws a card. This is the player’s camp card and is kept secret. If players are directed by a challenge to switch camps, they will update this card to reflect their new camp. This card is only revealed to all players at the end of a match after everyone votes on who they think is the Sneak.
游戏按顺时针方向进行，从拥有帽子的玩家开始。轮到自己时，每个玩家可以：1) 为小组选择一个挑战或 2) 购买信息或 3) 发起投票。
Play moves clockwise, starting with the player who owns the hat. For his or her turn, each player can: 1) Select a challenge for the group to perform or 2) Purchase information or 3) Call for a vote.
当每个人都轮过一轮后，一轮就结束了。当进行投票后，一场比赛就结束了。三场比赛组成了一场完整的 Sneak 游戏。
A round is over when everyone’s had one turn. A match is over when a vote occurs. Three matches make a complete game of Sneak.
绘画挑战
Drawing Challenges
玩家可以翻到这本书的CULTURE模式中的任意一页，页面的边距处印有挑战。挑战在阅读前选择 — 禁止偷看！有些挑战是私人的，标记为“写”，而另一些挑战是公开的，标记为“表演”。
The player flips to a random page in the CULTURE schema of this book with a challenge printed in the gutter space of the page. The challenge is chosen before reading—no peeking! Some challenges are private, marked “Write,” and others, marked “Act,” are public.
玩家大声朗读挑战。挑战包含针对玩家的指示，无论是针对一个阵营还是针对所有人。读完指示后，所有玩家执行挑战。潜行者（潜行者）可以遵循 Spork 或 Foon 的指示，除非挑战要求他或她像特定阵营那样行动。
The player reads the challenge aloud. The challenges contain instructions for the players, either for one camp or for everyone. After the instructions are read, all players perform the challenge. The Sneak (being sneaky) can follow either the Spork or Foon instruction, unless the challenge tells him or her to act like a specific camp.
挑战类型
Types of Challenges
写下挑战——涂鸦、回答问题——写在卡片上，每张卡片一个挑战，并且对其他玩家隐藏。
Write challenges—doodle, answer a question—are written on cards, one challenge per card, and are kept hidden from other players.
表演挑战——接受或给予反击，表演猜字谜游戏——是每个人都能看到的。
Act challenges—take or give counters, perform a charade—are ones everyone can see.
如果所选挑战要求玩家切换阵营，则每个 Spork 和 Foon 都会在阵营卡上划掉他们之前的阵营名称，并写下他们的新阵营名称，并将卡片隐藏起来。潜行者仍然是潜行者。
If the selected challenge directs players to switch camps, then each Spork and Foon crosses out their previous camp name on the camp card and writes down their new camp name, keeping the card hidden. The Sneak remains the Sneak.
如果所选挑战是向其他玩家展示您的一张“写”卡，并且比赛中还没有任何“写”挑战，则当前玩家应翻开新的挑战。如果所选挑战在该轮已经执行，则玩家应翻开新的挑战。
If the selected challenge is to show another player one of your Write cards and there haven’t been any Write challenges yet in the match, the current player should flip to a new challenge. If the selected challenge has already been performed that round, the player should flip to a new challenge.
购买信息
Purchasing Information
玩家不必从书中选择挑战，而是可以购买任何玩家的挑战卡之一。购买者通过挑战命名卡片，例如“给我看看你的宇航员/外星人卡片”。被瞄准的玩家必须出示卡片：不得拒绝买家。
Instead of choosing a challenge from the book, a player can buy a look at one of any player’s Write challenge cards. The purchaser names the card by challenge, such as “Show me your astronaut/alien card.” The player who’s been targeted must show the card: no refusing the buyer.
对于一个计数器，卡片会显示给所有玩家。对于两个计数器，卡片只会显示给购买信息的玩家。计数器归购买信息的玩家所有。
For one counter, the card is shown to all players. For two counters, the card is shown only to the player who bought the information. Counters go to the player whose information was purchased.
任何玩家都可以在自己的回合发起投票。如果玩家发起投票并且猜对了，则可获得加分（解释如下）；如果玩家发起投票并且猜错了，则将受到扣分。
Any player can call for a vote during his or her turn. There’s a scoring bonus (explained below) if the player calls for a vote and guesses correctly, and a scoring penalty if he or she calls for a vote and guesses wrong.
潜行者可以像其他玩家一样发起投票，但不会受到惩罚或加分。
The Sneak can call for a vote just like any other player, but gets no penalty or bonus points.
强制投票
Force Vote
如果三轮之后（每个人都进行了三轮）没有人要求投票，则强制投票，比赛结束。
If after three rounds (everyone has taken three turns each) no one has called for a vote, a mandatory Force Vote occurs and the match is over.
表决
Voting
投票（无论是玩家发起还是强制投票）都会结束比赛。所有玩家秘密投票选出谁是潜行者，并将他们的猜测写在阵营卡上。潜行者写“我是潜行者！”
A vote—whether called for by a player or a Force Vote—ends the match. All players vote secretly on whom the Sneak is, writing their guesses on their camp cards. The Sneak writes “I’m the Sneak!”
投票结束后，所有玩家举起自己的阵营卡，公开结果，然后大家标记自己的分数。
When the vote is complete, all players hold up their camp cards, making the results public, then everyone marks their scores.
评分
Scoring
叉勺和福恩
Sporks and Foons
• 正确猜出 Sneak 的玩家：+5 分
• Player who correctly guessed the Sneak: +5 points
• 玩家猜错：-1 分
• Player guessed wrong: −1 point
• 玩家不是潜行者，但被其他玩家点名：每个被错误点名的玩家 +1
• Player wasn’t the Sneak but was named by another player: +1 for each player incorrectly named as the Sneak
潜行
The Sneak
• 每猜对一位玩家，-1 分
• −1 point for each player who guessed correctly
• 每位猜错的玩家 +3 分
• +3 points for each player who guessed wrong
投票奖励和惩罚
Vote bonus and penalty
• 玩家发起投票并且猜对：+3 分（加上猜对的分数，共计 +8 分）
• Player called for a vote and guessed correctly: +3 points (in addition to correct-guess points, for +8 total)
• 玩家发起投票并猜错：-2 分（加上猜错的分数，共计 -3 分）
• Player called for a vote and guessed wrong: −2 points (in addition to wrong-guess points, for −3 total)
如果潜行者是发起投票的人，或者强制投票结束了该回合，则没有人会获得奖励或惩罚。
If the Sneak is the person who called for a vote or a Force Vote ended the round, no one gets the bonus or penalty.
囤积者要小心：你剩余的计数器数量不会影响你的分数。
Hoarders beware: the number of counters you have left doesn’t affect your score.
每场比赛玩家都从头开始。新阵营卡会被写入并放入帽子中，玩家会从头开始，有 4 个计数器。玩家可以多次担任潜行者。
Players start fresh each match. New camp cards are written and put into the hat, and players start over with 4 counters. A player can be the Sneak more than once.
游戏期间
During the Game
玩家不得做书面笔记。观察并记住……
Players may NOT take written notes. Observe and remember . . .
阵营卡可以帮助玩家记住自己的阵营，以免有人感到困惑。玩家可以在游戏过程中根据需要随时查阅此卡。
The camp card can help remind players of their camp, should anyone get confused. Players can consult this card as often as they need to during the game.
这个游戏是增进彼此了解的机会，同时也是玩智力游戏的机会。欢迎玩家在游戏过程中分享和讨论他们的答案和策略。
This game is a chance to get to know each other better—and also play head games. Players are welcome to share and discuss their answers and strategies throughout the game.
游戏继续在桌子周围进行，直到有玩家要求投票，或需要强制投票。
Play continues around the table until a player calls for a vote, or until a Force Vote is required.
获胜
Winning
3 场比赛结束后，得分最高的玩家获胜。
At the end of 3 matches, the player with the most points wins.
基拉·斯奈德
Kira Snyder
Kira Snyder 为 There, Inc. 担任设计师，并为舞台、银幕和互动媒体撰写了大量文章。在加入 There 之前，她曾担任 Electronic Arts 的游戏设计师和 Majestic 的首席编剧，在此之前，她还开发了 ZDTV 的在线社区。她曾在 Microsoft、Purple Moon 从事故事、游戏和虚拟世界设计工作，并参与过各种独立项目，从 3D 科幻冒险到文本 MUD 再到女性角色扮演剧。Kira 拥有斯坦福大学戏剧专业荣誉学士学位和纽约大学互动电信项目硕士学位。
Kira Snyder designs for There, Inc. and has written extensively for stage, screen, and interactive media. Before joining There she was the Game Designer and Lead Writer on Majestic at Electronic Arts, and prior to that developed ZDTV’s online community. She has worked in story, game, and virtual world design at Microsoft, Purple Moon, and in a wide range of independent projects, from a 3D sci-fi adventure to text MUDs to an RPG drama for women. Kira holds an Honors B. A. in Drama from Stanford and a Masters from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.
设计日记
DESIGN DIARY
基拉·斯奈德
Kira Snyder
潜行
Sneak
最初的想法
Initial idea
社交欺骗游戏。3 名或更多玩家。玩家被盲目分配到两个小组之一，一名玩家是双重间谍。回合制游戏。玩家掷硬币，然后翻到书中的一页（例如正面=偶数，反面=奇数）。页眉或页脚中有两个简单任务，小组根据其分配执行。双重间谍可以执行其中任何一项。任务可以是公开的（例如 A 举起右手，B 举起左手）或私人的（A 写下 1-10 的数字，B 写下 10-20 的数字）。游戏机制允许您购买窥视私人信息。在一轮结束时，玩家猜测双重间谍的身份。猜对可获得积分，等等。所有玩家重新分配到下一轮，游戏继续。X 轮结束时得分最高的玩家获胜。
Social deception game. 3 or more players. Players are blindly assigned to one of two groups, one player is a double agent. Turn-based play. Players flip a coin, and turn to a page in the book (e.g. heads=even, tails=odd). In the header or footer are two simple tasks, which the group performs according to their assignation. Double agent can do either. Tasks can be public (e.g. A’s raise right hand, B’s raise left) or private (A’s write down a number 1–10, B’s a number 10–20). Game mechanics allow you to buy peeks at private information. At the end of a round, players guess the identity of the double agent. Points awarded for correct guesses, etc. Players all reassigned for next round, play continues. Player with the most points at end of X rounds wins.
初始记录
Initial Notes
斗篷与匕首
Cloak and Dagger
• 团队、斗篷和匕首、一名双重间谍。
• Teams, Cloaks and Daggers, one double agent.
• 游戏开始时，纸条被放入帽子里，一个是双重间谍，其余的是斗篷和匕首，尽可能均匀（如果某一类型多一个，则没有问题）。
• At beginning of game, slips are put into a hat, one Double Agent, the rest are Cloaks and Daggers, as even as can be devised (not a problem if there’s one more of one type).
• 一些用于计数的东西——硬币、豆子、纸条。每个玩家有 3 个这样的物品。
• Something for counters—coins, beans, slips of paper. Each player gets 3 of these.
• 轮流：抛硬币，翻到书的奇数页或偶数页。阅读任务，例如，斗篷写下数字 1-10，匕首写下数字 10-20。双重间谍可以做任何一件事。
• Turns: flip coin, go to odd or even page in book. Read task, e.g. Cloaks write down a number 1–10, Daggers write a number 10–20. Double agent can do either.
• 有些任务是私人的，有些是公开的。例如举起右手、左手。换座位。给豆子。
• Some tasks private, some public. E.g. raise right hand, left hand. Change seats. Give beans.
• 您可以与其他玩家交换单子，而不是执行任务，并查看他们的整个列表。
• Instead of task you can exchange slips with another player, viewing their entire list.
• “付款”玩家——偷看最后一项可得一粒豆子。
• “Pay off” player—one bean for peek at last entry.
• 每个人轮流完成任务（10 项任务？）后，人们写下他们认为谁是双重间谍。
• After everyone’s had a turn (10 tasks?), people write down who they think the double agent is.
• 每猜对一粒豆子可得 5 分，Double Agent 每猜对一粒豆子将扣除 1 分。同样，每粒豆子扣 1 分。
• Get 5 points for correct guess, Double Agent loses 1 point for each correct guess. 1 point per bean as well.
• 然后每个人都被重新分配，新的双重间谍，新一轮。
• Then everyone’s reassigned, new Double Agent, new round.
• 3 轮结束时，得分最高的人获胜。
• At the end of 3 rounds, person with the most points wins.
• 多页上都需要页眉或页脚空间。
• Header or footer space required on a number of pages.
我计划在五周内进行三次游戏测试，留出时间收集反馈并迭代规则。
I plan to hold three playtests over the course of 5 weeks, allowing time in between to gather feedback and iterate the rules.
起草并修订了规则和任务列表。有些任务非常明确，也就是说，你可以通过某人写的内容判断他们属于哪个派系。其他任务则更加狡猾，可以随意解读，允许所有玩家偷偷摸摸（从而导致其他玩家猜错并失分），而不仅仅是偷偷摸摸。我发现这些行动往往更有趣——绘画或个人信息——而不是像 Cloak and Dagger 这个名字所暗示的那样像间谍一样。玩家可能希望找到一种方式与团队分享更多此类信息。还包括一些让每个人都转换派系的任务。
Drafted and revised rules and list of missions. Some missions are clear-cut, meaning that you can tell by what someone wrote what faction they belong to. Others are more slippery and open to interpretation, allowing all players to be sneaky (thereby causing other players to guess wrong and lose points), not just the sneak. I’m finding the actions are tending to be more playful—drawings or personal information—than spyish, as the name Cloak and Dagger might suggest. Players may well want a way to share more of this info with the group. Also included some missions that make everyone switch faction.
共计 50 次任务
50 missions total
• 6 人转阵营
• 6 are switch-faction
• 15 个是公开的（其中 5 个仅对一人公开）
• 15 are public (5 are public to one person only)
• 35 个是私人的
• 35 are private
斗篷与匕首
Cloak and Dagger
第一次游戏测试规则
Rules for Playtest 1
材料
Materials
任务
Missions
硬币
Coin
计数器（豆子、硬币、回形针等）
Counters (beans, pennies, paper clips, etc.)
索引卡和铅笔
Index cards and pencils
配置
Setting up
每个玩家有 3 个计数器。
Each player gets 3 counters.
编号的任务被放入偶数堆和奇数堆（模仿书本布局）。这样，任务就可以被丢弃，以进行测试。
The numbered missions are placed into Even and Odd piles (mimicking the book layout). This is so the missions can be discarded, for purposes of testing.
分配派系
Assigning Factions
写有派系名称的纸条被放入帽子中。其中有一张是双重间谍纸条，其余的纸条上写着 Cloak 或 Dagger，尽可能均匀地分布在玩家人数范围内（派系数量相差 1 也没关系）。玩家在第一张索引卡上写上他们的派系或双重间谍，并将其正面朝下放在他们面前。
Slips of paper with faction names are put into a hat. There is one Double Agent slip, the rest read either Cloak or Dagger, as evenly distributed as can be for the number of players (it’s fine if the factions are uneven by 1). Players write their faction, or Double Agent, on their first index card and place it face down in front of them.
游戏从随机选择的第一个玩家开始顺时针进行。轮到自己时，每个玩家可以分配任务或购买信息。
Play moves clockwise from some randomly chosen first player. For his or her turn, each player can either assign a mission or purchase information.
分配任务
Assigning Missions
玩家掷硬币。如果硬币正面，玩家从偶数堆中随机选择一个任务。如果硬币反面，玩家从奇数堆中随机选择一个任务。应在阅读前选择任务——禁止偷看。
The player flips a coin. If the coin is heads, the player chooses a mission at random from the Even pile. If the coin is tails, the player chooses a mission at random from the Odd pile. The mission should be chosen before reading—no peeking.
然后玩家大声朗读任务。任务包含对玩家的指示，无论是派系还是所有玩家。读完任务后，所有玩家都要执行任务，无论是公开任务还是私人任务。私人任务应该写得让其他玩家看不到。双重间谍可以执行 Cloak 或 Dagger 任务。
The player then reads the mission aloud. The missions contain instructions to the players, either by faction or to all players. After they’ve been read, all players perform the mission, be it public or private. Private missions should be written such that other players cannot see. The Double Agent can perform either Cloak or Dagger missions.
一旦任务完成后，它将被放入弃牌堆并从游戏中移除。
Once the mission has been performed, it is placed onto a discard pile and removed from play.
购买信息
Purchasing Information
玩家无需分配任务，只需用一个计数器即可查看任意一个玩家最近的私人任务条目。该计数器归正在查看其信息的玩家所有。只有购买信息的玩家才能看到它。
Instead of assigning a mission, the player can buy a look at any one player’s most recent private mission entry with one counter. This counter goes to the player whose information is being looked at. Only the player who bought the information can see it.
评分
Scoring
在一轮结束时（每个玩家轮流两次后），所有玩家都会秘密投票选出双重间谍。
At the end of a round (after each player has had two turns), all players vote secretly on who the Double Agent is.
• 猜测正确：+5 分
• Correct guess: +5 points
• 猜错：-1 分
• Incorrect guess:-1 point
• 双重间谍：每猜对一次，-1 分；每猜错一次，+3 分
• Double Agent:-1 point for each correct guess, +3 points for each incorrect guess
• 玩家每剩余一个计数器，即可获得 +1 分
• Players also get +1 point for each counter they still have
下一轮
Next rounds
每轮游戏玩家都从头开始，从帽子中抽取新的纸条，并用 3 个纸条重新开始。玩家可以多次担任双重间谍。
Players start fresh each round, drawing new slips from the hat and starting over with 3 counters. A player can be the Double Agent more than once.
获胜
Winning
3 轮结束时，得分最高的玩家获胜。
At the end of 3 rounds, player with the most points wins.
第一次游戏测试笔记
Notes from Playtest 1
5 名玩家。进展顺利。游戏很有趣。得到了一些关于哪些地方不尽如人意、哪些地方人们喜欢以及改进规则的想法的很好的反馈。
5 players. Went well. Game was fun. Got some great feedback on what didn’t work, and what people liked as well as ideas for refining the rules.
• 不要让一轮游戏包含 X 轮，而是尝试让游戏持续进行，直到有人要求投票。如果您要求投票但猜错了，您将失去分数。
• Rather than have a round comprise X turns, try having play continue until someone calls for a vote. If you call for the vote and guess wrong, you lose points.
• 绘画：关于您自己的信息很有趣。人们确实希望有更多机会公开这些信息。在下一次测试中，我又添加了 5 个公开动作，玩家可以大声说出答案或表演出来。
• Drawings: info about yourself was fun. People indeed wanted more opportunities to make this public. For next test I added 5 more public actions, where players state answers aloud or act them out.
• Cloak and Dagger 这个名字不太合适。更轻松、更能代表动作趣味性的名字可能更好。下次测试时，将使用“Sneak”作为游戏名称，Spork 和 Foon 作为阵营名称。
• Cloak and Dagger not really working as a name. Something lighter and more representative of the playful nature of the actions would probably work better. For next test, will go with “Sneak” as the game title and Spork and Foon as the camp names.
• 需要某种机制来防止双重间谍只跟随一个派系。双重间谍在一轮中只与一个阵营结盟。对于下一次测试，添加了一条规则，即潜行者不能始终按照一个阵营行事。
• Need some mechanism to keep the double agent from just following one faction. The Double Agent in one round just allied with one camp. For next test, added a rule that the Sneak can’t act in accord with one camp throughout.
• 有些任务不太好。修改了这些任务，去掉了那些无聊或测试中不起作用的任务。
• Some missions didn’t quite cut it. Revised them to get rid of ones that were boring or didn’t work in testing.
• 计数器数量和计分系统似乎运行良好。
• Number of counters and the scoring system seemed to work fine.
• 似乎不太容易猜出双重间谍，特别是在第二轮中，当每个人都掌握了情况时。
• Didn’t seem too easy to guess double agent, especially in the second round when everyone had the hang of things.
共 55 个动作
55 actions total
• 6 人转阵营
• 6 are switch-camp
• 20 个是公开的
• 20 are public
• 5 个仅对一人公开
• 5 are public to one person only
• 35 个是私人的
• 35 are private
潜行
Sneak
第二次游戏测试规则
Rules for Playtest 2
目标
Goal
成功猜出谁是 Sneak，并欺骗其他玩家猜错，从而成为获得最高分的玩家。
Be the player to earn the most points by successfully guessing who the Sneak is and fooling other players into guessing incorrectly.
操作
Actions
硬币
Coin
计数器（豆子、硬币、回形针等）
Counters (beans, pennies, paper clips, etc.)
索引卡和钢笔或铅笔
Index cards and pens or pencils
配置
Setting up
每个玩家有 3 个计数器。
Each player gets 3 counters.
编号的操作被放入偶数堆和奇数堆（模仿书本布局）。这样就可以丢弃这些操作，以进行测试。
The numbered Actions are placed into Even and Odd piles (mimicking the book layout). This is so the actions can be discarded, for purposes of testing.
分配营地
Assigning Camps
写有阵营名称的纸条被放入帽子中。其中有一张是 Sneak 纸条，其余的纸条上写着 Spork 或 Foon，尽可能均匀地分布在玩家人数中（阵营数量相差 1 也没关系）。玩家在索引卡上写上他们的阵营或“Sneak”，并将其面朝下放在一边。
Slips of paper with camp names are put into a hat. There is one Sneak slip, the rest read either Spork or Foon, as evenly distributed as can be for the number of players (it’s fine if the camps are uneven by 1) Players write their camp, or “Sneak,” on an index card and set it aside, face down.
转数
Turns
游戏从随机选择的第一位玩家开始，按顺时针方向进行。轮到自己时，每位玩家可以：1) 为小组绘制一个动作或 2) 购买信息或 3) 发起投票。
Play moves clockwise from some randomly chosen first player. For his or her turn, each player can: 1) Draw an action for the group to perform or 2) Purchase information or 3) Call for a vote.
绘图操作
Drawing Actions
玩家掷硬币。如果硬币正面，玩家从偶数堆中随机选择一个动作。如果硬币反面，玩家从奇数堆中随机选择一个动作。应在阅读前选择动作——禁止偷看。
The player flips a coin. If the coin is heads, the player chooses an action at random from the Even pile. If the coin is tails, the player chooses an action at random from the Odd pile. The action should be chosen before reading—no peeking.
然后玩家大声朗读动作。动作包含对玩家的指示，无论是阵营还是所有玩家。读完后，所有玩家都会执行动作，无论是公开的还是私下的。私下的动作应该写得让其他玩家看不到。潜行者可以执行 Spork 或 Foon 动作，除非他们被指示执行特定阵营的动作。
The player then reads the actions aloud. The actions contain instructions to the players, either by camp or to all players. After they’ve been read, all players perform the action, be it public or private. Private actions should be written such that other players cannot see. The Sneak can perform either Spork or Foon actions, unless they are directed to perform the action of a specific camp.
如果操作是转换阵营，那么每个玩家的新阵营卡应该加入原来的阵营卡，脱离常规游戏玩法（即这些卡不能被视为私人条目）。
If the action is to switch camps, then each player’s card with their new camp should join the original camp card, out of regular game play (i.e. these cards are not viewable as private entries).
如果该操作是需要使用私人操作的公共操作并且尚未执行私人操作，则玩家应该丢弃该操作并绘制一个新的操作。
If the action is a public one requiring the use of a private action and there hasn’t been one yet the player should discard that action and draw a new one.
一旦执行完该操作，它将被放置在弃牌堆上并从游戏中移除。
Once the action has been performed, it is placed onto a discard pile and removed from play.
玩家无需分配操作，而是可以用一个计数器购买查看任何一名玩家最近的私人操作条目的机会。此计数器归正在查看其信息的玩家所有。只有购买信息的玩家才能看到它。
Instead of assigning an action, the player can buy a look at any one player’s most recent private action entry with one counter. This counter goes to the player whose information is being looked at. Only the player who bought the information can see it.
呼吁投票
Calling for a Vote
如果玩家知道谁是潜行者，他或她可以发起投票。
If a player has an idea of who the Sneak is, he or she can call for a vote.
游戏继续在小组内进行，直到进行投票为止。
Play continues around the group until a vote is called for.
评分
Scoring
投票时，所有玩家都会秘密投票选出谁是潜行者。当每个人都投票后，所有玩家都会举起自己的阵营卡，公布结果，然后进行计分。
When a vote is called for, all players vote secretly on whom the Sneak is. When everyone has voted, all players hold up their camp card, making the results public, then play is scored.
• 猜测正确：+5 分
• Correct guess: +5 points
• 猜测错误：-1 分
• Incorrect guess: −1 point
• 潜行：每猜对一次，-1 分；每猜错一次，+3 分
• Sneak: −1 point for each correct guess, +3 points for each incorrect guess
• 发起投票并猜错：-5 分
• Called for a vote and guessed wrong: −5 points
• 玩家每剩余一个计数器还可获得+1 分。
• Players also get +1 point for each counter they still have.
下一轮
Next rounds
每轮玩家都从头开始，从帽子中抽取新的纸条，并用 3 个计数器重新开始。玩家可以多次扮演潜行者。
Players start fresh each round, drawing new slips from the hat and starting over with 3 counters. A player can be the Sneak more than once.
获胜
Winning
3 轮结束时，得分最高的玩家获胜。
At the end of 3 rounds, the player with the most points wins.
第二次游戏测试笔记
Notes from Playtest 2
4 名玩家。改进似乎奏效了，公开信息和私人信息的平衡更接近玩家想要的。实现目标……
4 players. Refinements seemed to work, and the balance of public to private info was closer to what players wanted. Getting there . . .
• 呼吁投票基本上是可行的，但人们似乎需要更强烈的激励才能做出呼吁。将为呼吁正确而增加奖励，以平衡呼吁错误而受到的惩罚。
• Calling for a vote basically worked but people seemed to need a stronger incentive to make the call. Will add a bonus for calling and being right, to try to balance out the penalty for calling and being wrong.
• 选择行动时无需抛硬币。将更改规则，让玩家随机选择行动。
• There’s no real need for coin flip when choosing an action. Will change rules to have players just pick an action at random.
• 仍需解决如何防止潜行者只与某一阵营结盟的问题。“因为这是规则”似乎不够有力。将修改一些行动，要求潜行者与特定阵营结盟。
• Still need to address keeping the Sneak from just aligning with one camp. “Because it’s a rule” just didn’t seem strong enough. Will revise some actions to require Sneak to align with specific camp.
• 人们仍然希望采取更多公开行动。将尝试扩大购买信息选项——2 个计数器，私人查看。1 个计数器，公开，意味着所有玩家都可以看到条目。将计数器数量增加到 5 个。
• People still wanted more public actions. Will try out expanding the purchasing-info option—for 2 counters, private view. For 1 counter, public, meaning all players see the entry. Increase number of counters to 5.
• 营地卡。仅用于日常管理——一张卡上记录了您所有的营地安排。
• Camp card. Just for housekeeping—one card that contains all your camp assignations.
• 将更改规则以允许选择查看哪些私人条目。由于最新/第一的限制，许多条目被埋没了。
• Will change rules to allow choice about which private entry to view. With the limitation of latest/first, many got buried.
• 我们遇到了很多转换阵营的情况。将减少到 4 个。
• We hit a lot of switch-camps. Will trim down to 4.
• 可能还不足以完成整个游戏？未使用的堆似乎有点薄。又添加了 11 个：4 个公开的，7 个私人的。
• Maybe not quite enough actions for full game? Unused pile seemed a little thin. Added 11 more: 4 public, 7 private.
共 65 个动作
65 actions total
• 4 人转阵营
• 4 are switch-camp
• 8 需要潜行者跟随特定营地
• 8 require the Sneak to follow a particular camp
• 25 个是公共的
• 25 are public
• 6 个仅对一人公开
• 6 are public to one person only
• 40 个是私人的
• 40 are private
第三次游戏测试笔记
Notes from Playtest 3
6 名玩家。新的购买信息机制很成功，公共和私人行为之间的平衡终于感觉很好。玩家玩得很开心，并报告说猜测潜行者的难度不太难也不太容易。
6 players. The new buying-info mechanism was successful, and the balance of public and private actions felt right finally. Players had fun, and reported that the difficulty of guessing the Sneak not too hard or too easy.
• 这次计数器的数量似乎有点多。最终版本将改为 4 个。
• Number of counters seemed a little high this time. Will change to 4 in final version.
• 将计数器从计分中移除。虽然没有人这样做，但它似乎促进了除了实际玩游戏之外的另一种策略：囤积计数器并随机猜测潜行者的身份，因为这样你只会失去 1 分。
• Will remove counters from scoring. Although no one did this, it would seem to promote an alternate strategy aside from actually playing the game: hoarding counters and guessing the Sneak’s identity randomly, since you only lose 1 point that way.
• 为偶数添加了一个动作，认为这对书籍布局更有帮助。
• Added one action for an even number, thinking that would be more helpful for the book layout.
最终计数
Final count
共 66 个动作
66 actions total
4 人转阵营
4 are switch-camp
8 要求潜行者跟随特定营地
8 require the Sneak to follow a particular camp
7 仅对一人公开
7 are public to one person only
40 个是私人的
40 are private
感谢我所有的游戏测试员：Michael Becker、Lisa Clark、Zack Ford、Roy Gatchalian、Margaret Foley-Mauvais、Eileen McMahon 和 George Rivello。
Thanks to all my playtesters: Michael Becker, Lisa Clark, Zack Ford, Roy Gatchalian, Margaret Foley-Mauvais, Eileen McMahon and George Rivello.
Eric 和 Katie 的游戏测试笔记
Notes from Eric and Katie’s playtesting
由 Eric 和 Katie 组织的另一个小组进行游戏测试时，我收到了一些有用的反馈。根据他们的评论，我做了一些进一步的修改。
Helpful feedback came in from playtesting with a different group, organized by Eric and Katie. Based on their comments, I made some further changes.
• 对规则进行了详细的说明，并且我添加了“游戏期间”部分以说明一般的游戏规则。
• The rules were clarified in spots, and I added a “During the Game” section for general game play rules.
• 现在将操作标记为“写入”和“行动”，以明确哪些是私有的，哪些是公开的。
• Actions are now labeled “Write” and “Act” to make clear which are private and which are public.
• 如果某位玩家不是潜行者，但获得了其他玩家的投票，则每个为其投票的人都会获得一分。
• A player who was not the Sneak but who got another player’s vote gets a point for each person who named him or her.
• 玩家仍然犹豫是否要发起投票，导致回合有点拖沓。我将发起投票然后猜错的惩罚减少了 1 分，并添加了强制投票，如果到那时没有人发起投票，则在桌子周围转了 3 圈后进行强制投票。有趣的是，这是规则第一次迭代中的机制，在回合期间发起投票的选项之前。似乎自愿投票和强制投票都是必要的，以保持节奏和高风险。
• Players still were hesitant to call for a vote, leading to rounds that dragged on a bit. I reduced the penalty for calling for a vote then guessing wrong by 1 point, and added a Force Vote, which occurs after 3 trips around the table if no one’s called for a vote by then. Interestingly, this was the mechanism in the first iteration of the rules, before the option to call for a vote during a turn. Seems that both the voluntary and mandatory votes are needed to keep the pace moving and the stakes high.
我将更新后的规则发送给了几位朋友进行冷读（感谢 Jennie Sharf、Allen Blue 和 Greg Gibson！），并根据反馈进一步修改了它们。
I sent the updated rules to several friends for a cold read (thanks, Jennie Sharf, Allen Blue, and Greg Gibson!), and further revised them based on that feedback.
• 添加了简介部分来简要描述游戏。
• Added an Introduction section to briefly describe the game.
• 将“行动”重命名为“挑战”。这是一个更有趣的词，而且由于“行动”现在是一种挑战类型，因此更不容易混淆。
• Renamed “actions” to “challenges.” A more interesting word, and less confusing now that “Act” is a challenge type.
• 消除了回合/轮次/比赛的混淆以及其他有点模糊的部分。
• Cleared up the turn/round/match confusion and other sections that were a bit vague.
• 对整个过程进行润色，使规则更加个性化，不那么枯燥。
• Gave the whole shebang a polish to give the rules more personality and make them less dry.
第四单元：文化
Unit 4: CULTURE
定义文化
Defining Culture
游戏作为文化修辞
Games as Cultural Rhetoric
游戏作为开放文化
Games as Open Culture
游戏作为文化抵抗
Games as Cultural Resistance
游戏作为文化环境
Games as Cultural Environment
...媒体从不孤立地运作。在街机上玩游戏与在家里或军事训练中玩游戏的体验截然不同。媒体消费通过与构成我们日常生活的一系列其他活动相关联而获得其意义。 —亨利·詹金斯，《利特尔顿的教训：国会不想听到关于青年和媒体的事情》
. . . media never functions in a vacuum. Playing a game in an arcade is a very different experience than playing it in one’s own home or as part of a military training exercise. Media consumption gains its meaning through association with a range of other activities that constitute our everyday life.—Henry Jenkins, “Lessons from Littleton: What Congress Doesn’t Want to Hear About Youth and Media”
没有哪一款游戏是一座孤岛。
No game is an island.
游戏总是在某个地方由某个人出于某种原因进行。换句话说，它们存在于某种背景中，即周围的文化环境中。魔法圈是一个游戏环境，规则在其中具有特殊意义。但魔法圈本身存在于一个环境中，即更大的文化领域中。在接下来的章节中，我们将继续从魔法圈的核心向外发展，超越规则和游戏，进入广阔而丰富多彩的文化领域。
Games are always played somewhere, by someone, for some reason or another. They exist, in other words, in a context, a surrounding cultural milieu. The magic circle is an environment for play, the space in which the rules take on special meaning. But the magic circle itself exists within an environment, the greater sphere of culture at large. In the following chapters, we continue our outward movement from the heart of the magic circle, beyond RULES and PLAY, into the vast and colorful expanse of CULTURE.
二十九
29
定义文化
DEFINING CULTURE
文化
culture
语境
context
反映文化
reflecting culture
转型文化
transforming culture
文化文本
cultural text
1.要有一个球：它要很大。
1. There must be a ball: it should be large.
（这是对康妮·霍金斯和朱利叶斯·欧文的先见之明，他们的双手将彻底改造篮球，就像吉米·亨德里克斯的双手彻底改造摇滚乐一样。）
(This in prescient expectation of Connie Hawkins and Julius Erving, whose hands would reinvent basketball as profoundly as Jimi Hendrix’s hands reinvented rock-and-roll.)
2. 禁止带球跑动。
2. There shall be no running with the ball.
（从而减轻了拥有便携式财产的权利。在足球运动中，延长对球的所有权是一种美德。在篮球运动中，控球永远不是所有权；它总是暂时的，并且取决于你用它做其他事情。）
(Thus mitigating the privileges of owning portable property. Extended ownership of the ball is a virtue in football. Possession of the ball in basketball is never ownership; it is always temporary and contingent upon your doing something else with it.)
3. 在比赛进行期间，任何一队的球员都不得被限制接球。
3. No man on either team shall be restricted from getting the ball at any time that it is in play.
（这样就消除了足球中存在的职业分工，根据足球规则，只有处于“技术位置”的球员才可以触球，其余的球员只是帮忙而已。在篮球中，每个位置都有其独特的技能，但每个人都必须跑、跳、接球、投篮、传球和防守。）
(Thus eliminating the job specialization that exists in football, by whose rules only those players in “skill positions” may touch the ball. The rest just help. In basketball there are skills peculiar to each position, but everyone must run, jump, catch, shoot, pass, and defend.)
4. Both teams are to occupy the same area, yet there is to be no personal contact.
（因此没有严格的领土制度，除非你得分，否则也不会因暴力入侵对手领土而获得任何奖励。足球的模型是相邻国家之间的战争戏剧。篮球的模型是城市人行道上的多语言舞蹈。）
(Thus no rigorous territoriality, nor any rewards for violently invading your opponent’s territory unless you score. The model for football is the drama of adjacent nations at war. The model for basketball is the polyglot choreography of urban sidewalks.)
5.球门应为水平、高位。
5. The goal shall be horizontal and elevated.
（最杰斐逊式的原则是：努力必须与抱负相匹配。要得分，你必须一路努力，但你也必须飞跃！飞向星空。） —詹姆斯·奈史密斯的《篮球指导原则》，1891 年，（戴夫·希基在《空气吉他》中评论）
(The most Jeffersonian principle of all: Labor must be matched by aspiration. To score, you must work your way down court, but you must also elevate! Ad astra.)—James Naismith’s Guiding Principles of Basket-Ball, 1891, (With commentary by Dave Hickey, in Air Guitar)
引入文化
Introducing Culture
为什么文化评论家戴夫·希基会将篮球大小的规则与康妮·霍金斯和朱利叶斯·欧文等球员的手进行比较？他提出篮球运动的模式是“城市人行道上的多语言编排”，或者高架篮筐在原则上是杰斐逊主义的，这是什么意思？希基对詹姆斯·奈史密斯的《篮球指导原则》的评论不同于《规则与比赛》的形式和体验重点。他的兴趣主要不在于比赛的形式结构，也不在于球员在比赛中的体验。通过分析篮球比赛的原始规则，希基的兴趣不在于比赛内部，而在于其他地方：比赛所处的文化空间。
Why would cultural critic Dave Hickey compare a rule about the size of a basketball to the hands of players such as Connie Hawkins and Julius Erving? What does he mean by suggesting the model for Basketball is the “polyglot choreography of urban sidewalks,” or that the elevated hoop is Jeffersonian in principle? Hickey’s comments on James Naismith’s Guiding Principles of Basket-Ball differs from the formal and experiential focus of RULES and PLAY. His interest is not primarily in the formal structure of the game, nor in what players experience as they play. Analyzing the original rules of the game of Basketball, Hickey’s interest is situated not inside the game, but elsewhere: in the cultural spaces within which the game is embedded.
到目前为止，我们主要关注的是游戏魔法圈内的空间。在探索“规则与游戏”的过程中，我们偶尔会冒险进入魔法圈的边界，并尝试着越过边界。例如，我们考虑过如何打破规则将玩家变成设计师，以及现实世界中的社会关系如何影响游戏空间内的社会关系。但是，如果我们继续向外推进，进入游戏边界之外的空间，会怎样？我们会发现什么？当然是游戏的背景。我们从系统理论中知道，每个系统都有一个环境。但是，哪些背景构成了游戏的环境？文化背景如何影响表现和游戏玩法？反过来，游戏又如何影响文化背景？这些问题是我们最后一组游戏设计模式的重点，这些背景框架将游戏设计带入了内容丰富的文化领域。
Much of our emphasis so far has been on the space inside the magic circle of a game. Occasionally, in our explorations of RULES and PLAY, we ventured to the border of the magic circle and took tentative steps just beyond it. We considered, for example, how breaking the rules can turn players into designers, and how social relations in the real world impact social relations within the space of play. But what if we continued pushing outwards, into the space beyond the boundaries of games? What would we find? The context of the game, of course. We know from systems theory that every system has an environment. But what contexts constitute the environment of a game? How do cultural contexts affect representation and game play? How do games, in turn, affect cultural contexts? These questions are the focus of our final set of game design schemas, contextual frameworks that usher game design into the richly textured realm of CULTURE.
《文化》中所包含的图式超越了规则和游戏，映射了魔法圈与整个文化之间的关系。在《区域防守的异端》中，希基写的不是篮球规则，而是这些规则所代表和重塑的文化背景。简单地说，游戏就是文化。《蛇梯棋》不仅仅是儿童的玩乐活动，而且是一份具有丰富历史的文化文献，旨在表达特定时间和地点的宗教教义。《模拟人生》不仅仅是郊区的模拟，而且是文化互动的代表，它依赖于超出实际游戏范围的意识形态现实。奥运会不仅仅是一系列体育赛事，而是一个复杂的背景，全球政治在许多层面上融入了游戏的玩法。所有游戏都是文化的一部分。正如任何游戏都可以根据其形式或体验品质来构建框架一样，它们也可以根据其作为文化对象的地位来构建框架。
The schemas contained within CULTURE move beyond rules and play to map relationships between the magic circle and culture at large. In “The Heresy of Zone Defense,” Hickey is writing not about the rules of Basketball, but the cultural contexts these rules represent and reinvent. Stated simply, games are culture. Chutes and Ladders is not just a children’s playtime activity, but a cultural document with a rich history, designed to express a religious doctrine of a particular time and place. The Sims is not merely a simulation of suburbia, but a representation of cultural interaction that relies on an ideological reality located beyond the scope of actual game play. The Olympics are not just a series of sporting events, but a complex context in which global politics infuse the play of the games on many levels. All games are part of culture. Just as any game can be framed in terms of their formal or experiential qualities, they can also be framed according to their status as cultural objects.
与《规则与游戏》中的图式不同，文化游戏设计图式并非直接源自游戏的内部、内在品质；相反，它们源自游戏与游戏所处的更大环境之间的关系。这些环境可能是意识形态的、实践的、政治的，甚至是物理的。在所有情况下，环境都独立于游戏本身而存在：无论是否在那里玩棒球，市中心的废弃场地都存在。因为我们的重点不是游戏的形式品质或其体验效果，所以有很多方法可以进行文化分析。从这个意义上说，我们提供的文化图式只是构建游戏设计与文化之间关系的一些方法。《规则与游戏》中提出的图式也是如此，但在这里尤其明显。文化是独一无二的开放式的，我们毫不怀疑会出现新的视角来丰富和扩展我们引入的概念。
Unlike the schemas in RULES and PLAY, cultural game design schemas do not directly derive from the internal, intrinsic qualities of games; rather, they come from the relationship between games and the larger contexts in which they are played. These contexts might be ideological, practical, political, or even physical. In all cases, the contexts exist separately from the games themselves: the inner-city abandoned lot exists whether stickball is played there or not. Because our focus is not on the formal qualities of a game or its experiential effects, there are many ways to approach cultural analysis. In this sense, the cultural schemas we offer represent only a sampling of ways to frame the relationship between game design and culture. This is true also of the schemas presented in RULES and PLAY, but it is especially pronounced here. Culture is inimitably open-ended, and we have no doubt that new perspectives will emerge to enrich and extend the concepts we introduce.
文化：一个框架
Culture: A Framework
游戏是经过精心设计的对象，可以在多个层面上吸引文化。作为表现系统，游戏反映了文化，描绘了性别形象（例如《芭比时装设计师》、《毁灭公爵》或《古墓丽影》），以及种族和阶级的描绘（《街头霸王 II》、《紧急状态》或《毒品战争》）。在这种情况下，游戏的文化维度是游戏本身的一部分，反映了周围环境的价值观和意识形态。另一方面，作为交互系统，游戏为玩家提供了参与形式，将游戏的界限扩展到魔法圈的边缘之外。从玩家制作的物品（如皮肤、模组或游戏补丁）到玩家探索和改变个人身份的角色扮演游戏，游戏都有可能改变文化。这些文化转变源于游戏，在游戏框架之外拥有自己的生命。
Games are designed objects that engage culture on several levels. As systems of representation they reflect culture, depicting images of gender (think of Barbie Fashion Designer, Duke Nukem’, or Tomb Raider), as well as portrayals of race and class (Street Fighter II, State of Emergency, or Dope Wars). In this case, the cultural dimensions of a game are part of the game itself, reflecting values and ideologies of surrounding contexts. As interactive systems, on the other hand, games offer players forms of participation that extend the boundaries of play beyond the edges of the magic circle. From player-produced objects like skins, mods, or game patches, to role-playing games in which players explore and alter their personal identity, games have the potential to transform culture. These cultural transformations emerge from the game, to take on a life of their own outside the framework of game play.
游戏能够影响游戏环境，这代表了变换式游戏的一种文化实例。正如我们在《游戏的定义》中所指出的，当游戏的自由运动改变了游戏发生的更为严格的结构时，就会发生变换式游戏。将动漫《美少女战士》中的物品散落在空间中，使《DOOM》的哥特式虚构世界女性化的模组就是变换式游戏的一个例子。两个敌对国家之间进行的足球比赛会导致国际争端或文化联盟，这也是变换式游戏。游戏补丁的设计也是如此，它会用戴兜帽的三K党成员填充《Tempest》的位图空间。这些变换式游戏的每一个实例都发生在形式和体验层面。然而，这些例子的一个重要特征是它们引用、影响和改变游戏形式限制之外的文化背景的方式。
This ability of games to affect the contexts in which they are played represents a cultural instance of transformative play. As we noted in Defining Play, transformative play occurs when the free movement of play alters the more rigid structures in which it takes place. A mod that feminizes the gothic fictive world of DOOM by littering the space with objects from the Animé Sailor Moon is an example of transformative play. A Soccer match played between two rival nations that leads to international disputes or cultural alliances is also transformative play. So is the design of a game patch that fills the bitmapped spaces of Tempest with hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan. Each of these instances of transformative play occurs on formal and experiential levels. However, a significant feature of these examples is the way they reference, influence, and alter cultural contexts beyond the formal limits of the game.
这两种理解游戏作为文化的方式，即反思和转化，并不适用于所有游戏。我们确实相信所有游戏都在某种程度上反映了文化，因为它们是在整个文化中产生和玩的对象。但并非所有游戏都表现出变革性的文化游戏，从而真正改变文化。只有某些游戏才能超越魔法圈，对文化背景产生真正的影响游戏的创作和游戏环境是文化的起源。本章的重点是了解游戏如何反映和改变文化。游戏设计师如何结合游戏的形式和体验品质来探索游戏的文化维度？游戏设计的反思和变革能力是什么？游戏究竟如何成为文化？游戏设计师很少涉及的一个观点是，游戏与文化背景之间的联系承认了游戏设计师在塑造我们所居住的文化方面所发挥的作用。
These two ways of understanding games as culture, reflection and transformation, are not both universal to all games. We do believe that all games reflect culture to some degree, as they are objects produced and played within culture at large. But not all games manifest transformative cultural play to actually transform culture. Only certain games transgress the magic circle in such a way as to have a genuine effect on the cultural contexts in which they are created and played. Arriving at an understanding of how games can reflect and transform culture is the focus of this chapter. How can game designers explore the cultural dimensions of games in concert with their formal and experiential qualities? What are game design’s reflective and transformative capabilities? How exactly are games culture? A point of view game designers rarely address, the connection between games and cultural contexts acknowledges the game designer’s role in shaping the very cultures we inhabit.
文化结构：清单
Cultural Structures: A List
从游戏设计的角度来看，了解游戏涉及的文化结构类型至关重要。您的游戏是否像《文明》、《帝国时代》或《卡坦岛》等历史或准历史模拟游戏一样，体现了过去的态度和信仰？您的游戏是否像《SSX Tricky and Cool Boarders》中面向年轻人的滑雪板内容一样，体现了亚文化的风格和行为？您的游戏是否像《Parappa the Rapper》那样，通过提供替代或混合形式的人物形象来挑战文化刻板印象？由于所有游戏都可以被视为文化，因此您创建的任何游戏都具有文化特质。然而，仅仅指出游戏和文化可以相互影响是不够的。相反，我们需要仔细研究它们之间发生的具体关系。
From a game design perspective, it is crucial to understand the kinds of cultural structures your games engage. Does your game enact a set of past attitudes and beliefs, as with historical or quasi-historical sims such as Civilization, Age of Empires, or Settlers of Catan? Does your game engage the style and behavior of a subculture, as with the youth-oriented snow-boarding content of SSX Tricky and Cool Boarders? Does your game challenge cultural stereotypes in the fashion of Parappa the Rapper by offering alternative or hybrid forms of character representation? Since all games can be considered culture, any game you create will have cultural qualities. Yet it is not enough to merely point out that games and culture can affect one another. Instead, we need to look closely at the specific kinds of relationships that occur between them.
游戏和文化有何关系？让我们先来探讨一下这个基本模式的关键术语。“文化”一词通常指社会或群体所共有的所有知识和价值观，通常用于统称一个社会及其生活方式。19 世纪英国人类学家爱德华·泰勒 (Edward Tylor) 最初提出了文化的当代定义，即“社会模式化的人类思想和行为”。1但由于文化是一个复杂而开放的概念，我们可以选择许多其他定义。例如，请考虑一下人类学家约翰·H·博德利根据泰勒的研究编制的“文化”开放式定义列表：
How do games and culture relate? Let’s begin by interrogating the key term of this primary schema. The word “culture” commonly refers to all of the knowledge and values shared by a society or group, and often is used to refer collectively to a society and its way of life. It was Edward Tylor, the nineteenth-century British anthropologist, who originally proposed the contemporary definition of culture as “socially patterned human thought and behavior.”1 But because culture is such a complex and open-ended concept, there are plenty of other definitions from which we can choose. For example, consider this open-ended list of “culture” definitions compiled by anthropologist John H. Bodley, based on the work of Tylor:
主题：文化包括主题或类别列表中的所有内容，例如社会组织、宗教或经济。
Topical: Culture consists of everything on a list of topics, or categories, such as social organization, religion, or economy.
历史：文化是传承给后代的社会遗产或传统。
Historical: Culture is social heritage, or tradition, that is passed on to future generations.
行为：文化是共享的、习得的人类行为，一种生活方式。
Behavioral: Culture is shared, learned human behavior, a way of life.
规范性：文化是理想、价值观或生活规则。
Normative: Culture is ideals, values, or rules for living.
功能：文化是人类解决适应环境或共同生活问题的方式。
Functional: Culture is the way humans solve problems of adapting to the environment or living together.
精神：文化是观念或习得习惯的复合体，它抑制冲动并将人与动物区分开来。
Mental: Culture is a complex of ideas, or learned habits, that inhibit impulses and distinguish people from animals.
结构性：文化由有模式且相互关联的观念、符号或行为组成。
Structural: Culture consists of patterned and interrelated ideas, symbols, or behaviors.
象征性：文化基于社会共享的任意指定的意义。2
Symbolic: Culture is based on arbitrarily assigned meanings that are shared by a society. 2
此列表中的每个元素都为“文化”提供了一个可能的定义。尽管这些列表在视角上似乎各不相同，但每个列表都直接或间接地涉及相同的三个基本组成部分：人们的想法、他们做的事情以及他们生产的物质产品。这些文化定义没有一个是正确的或不正确的。事实上，与我们的许多其他关键术语不同，我们不会为文化概念提出单一的定义。研究和理解“文化”的方法有很多，因此单一的定义会过于严格地限制这一概念。
Each element in this list offers a possible definition for “culture.” Although the listings seem diverse in perspective, every one directly or indirectly involves the same three basic components: what people think, what they do, and the material products they produce. None of these definitions of culture is correct or incorrect. In fact, unlike many of our other key terms, we will not propose a single definition for the concept of culture. There are so many ways to study and understand “culture” that a solitary definition would too sharply limit the concept.
就游戏设计而言，我们理解的“文化”是指游戏魔法圈之外的东西，即游戏发生的环境或背景。文化的这种广义表述，作为游戏规则和玩家体验的背景，本身可以用多种方式来构建，例如上面的定义列表。游戏的文化背景可能是它的历史背景；或者是它所反映和转变的一套意识形态价值观；或者是游戏融入玩家生活方式的方式。文化是一个多样化且灵活的概念。
For the purposes of game design, we understand “culture” to refer to what exists outside the magic circle of a game, the environment or context within which a game takes place. This broad formulation of culture, as a context for game rules and player experience, can itself be framed in many ways, such as the list of definitions above. The cultural context of a game might be its historical context; or the set of ideological values that it reflects and transforms; or the way the game fits into the lifestyle of its players. Culture is a diverse and flexible concept.
因此，解决文化和游戏设计的问题非常困难。每当你考虑游戏的文化方面时，你都需要准确定义你认为的文化是什么。
Grappling with questions of culture and game design is therefore quite difficult. Whenever you consider the cultural aspects of a game, you need to define exactly what you consider culture to be.
但这并不意味着所有游戏的文化解读都同样有用。对于游戏设计师来说，文化游戏分析的目标始终与本书的核心追求一致：设计有意义的游戏。调查游戏的文化特征只是游戏设计师创造成功游戏体验的另一种方式。文化被认为是一种共同的思想、价值观和行为体系，随着时间的推移而不断协商和转变，文化可以在塑造游戏意义方面发挥重要作用。了解哪些意义系统构成了游戏环境对于设计有意义的游戏至关重要。正是通过游戏本身，意义的层次才会出现和积累，从而塑造魔法圈内外的游戏体验。
This does not mean, however, that all cultural readings of games are equally useful. For a game designer, the goal of a cultural game analysis stays true to the core pursuit of this book: the design of meaningful play. Investigating the cultural identity of a game is simply another way for game designers to generate successful play experiences. Conceived as a system of shared ideas, values, and behaviors negotiated and transformed over time, culture can play a powerful role in shaping the meaning of a game. Understanding which systems of meaning make up the context in which your game is to be played is critical to the design of meaningful play. It is through play itself that layers of meaning emerge and accumulate to shape the play experience, inside as well as outside the magic circle.
文化意义：几个例子
Cultural Meanings: A Few Examples
虽然游戏体验的许多方面都取决于游戏的形式和体验结构所建立的关系，但还有其他重要的品质可以通过文化产生共鸣。例如，在炎热的夏夜，在布鲁克林街角玩多米诺骨牌游戏，其“意义”因一系列背景因素而丰富：闷热的空气为拍打象牙牌的声音提供了完美的声学缓冲；四个波多黎各裔美国人围坐在临时牌桌旁，姿势轻松随意；一个众所周知的故事，据说这位大冠军从未输过一场比赛，但现在却准备输掉比赛。这些背景因素中的每一个都在限定游戏在特定时刻的意义方面发挥着作用。
Although many facets of a play experience depend on relationships established by a game’s formal and experiential structures, there are other important qualities that achieve resonance by way of culture. The “meaning” of a game of Dominos played on a hot summer night on a Brooklyn street corner, for example, gains richness from a whole slew of contextual factors: the hot, sultry air that provides a perfect acoustical buffer to the slapping ivory tiles; the loose and easy postures of the four Puerto Rican-American men gathered around the makeshift card table; the well-known story of the grand champion who is said to have never lost a match but who now sits poised to lose. Each of these contextual factors plays a role in qualifying just what the game means at any particular moment.
从多米诺骨牌和 DigDug 到乒乓球和弹球，任何游戏都包含许多不同层次的有意义的玩法。除了规则和玩法之外，所有游戏都涉及一系列文化结构，游戏的玩法也在这些文化结构中发生。
From Dominos and DigDug to Pong and Pachinko, any game admits to many different levels of meaningful play. More than just rules and play, all games involve a series of cultural structures against and within which the play of the game occurs.
从粉丝参与的社会等级制度到游戏进行的建筑空间，文化中的“游戏”直接影响着游戏体验。请看 Stefan Fatsis 的著作《Word Freak 》中的以下段落，他在书中指出了拼字游戏内部和周围的一些文化结构：
From the social hierarchies of fan participation to the architectural spaces where games take place, what is “at play” in culture directly affects the game experience. Consider the following passage from Stefan Fatsis’ book Word Freak, in which he points out some of the cultural structures at play in and around the game of Scrabble:
罗西·奥唐纳经常谈论她对拼字游戏的痴迷。高雅人士也喜欢它。在谈到佛罗里达州神秘的旅游陷阱时，加里森·凯勒列出了国际拼字游戏名人堂。查尔斯·布考斯基的诗《拉下阴影》以这样的句子结尾：“这该死的苏格兰威士忌真棒。我们来玩拼字游戏吧。”弗拉基米尔·纳博科夫在他的小说《艾达》中描述了一种古老的俄罗斯游戏，据说它是拼字游戏的前身。该游戏是文化上的变色龙：艾森豪威尔时代家庭价值观的可笑象征，是极客的替代品，是一种绝对不时髦的消遣方式，但它却很时髦。3
Rosie O’Donnell regularly talks about her Scrabble addiction. Higher brows love it, too. In a bit about mythical Florida tourist traps, Garrison Keillor lists the international Scrabble Hall of Fame. Charles Bukowski’s poem “pulled down shade” ends with the lines: “this fucking / Scotch is / great. / let’s play / Scrabble. Vladimir Nabokov, in his novel Ada, describes an old Russian game said to be a forerunner of Scrabble. The game is a cultural Zelig: a mockable emblem of Eisenhower-era family values, a stand-in for geekiness a pastime so decidedly unhip that it’s hip. 3
流行文化产物还是高雅消遣？怪异的象征还是悲剧性时尚的象征？从文化角度来看，拼字游戏兼具所有这些特点，甚至更多。拼字游戏出现在如此多的文化背景中，并以如此多的方式与文化互动，以至于欣赏拼字游戏文化游戏的每一个方面都是一项不可能完成的任务。
Pop cultural artifact or highbrow pastime? Emblem of geekiness or symbol of the tragically hip? Scrabble is all of these things and more, when considered from a cultural perspective. Scrabble appears in so many cultural contexts and interacts with culture in so many ways that appreciating every aspect of Scrabble’s cultural play would be an impossible task.
任何在文化中建立强大影响力的游戏都会立即与无数的文化结构产生联系。以篮球为例。这项运动与魔术圈之外的哪些背景相关联？我们可以考虑球员、教练、裁判、啦啦队或球迷的角色，他们每个人都会影响比赛的文化身份和体验。需要考虑的是竞技场的物理环境，以及摊贩、技术人员、票贩子和吉祥物的角色。媒体的背景呢，包括电视和广播播音员、报纸、卫星广播和按次付费电视？或者使这项运动成为可能的经济学，从门票和授权 T 恤销售到球员薪水的谈判？然后还有管理和管理这项运动的专业组织。对于球迷或球员来说，除了比赛之外，篮球还可以成为建立社会地位、群体归属、文化认同或获得大学教育机会的背景。所有这些元素都对比赛的整体文化意义做出了贡献。无论球员和观众是否意识到这一点，当他们参加或观看比赛时，他们都在参与生成、体现和转变这些文化意义。这些意义并不是固定的，而是总是以某种方式在现有的文化结构中“发挥作用”。
Any game that establishes a strong presence in culture immediately engages with innumerable cultural structures. Take Basketball, for example. With what contexts outside of the magic circle does the game connect? We could consider the roles of players, coaches, referees, cheerleaders, or fans, each of whom affects the cultural identity and experience of the game. There is the physical context of the arena to consider, as well as the roles of the vendors, technicians, ticket scalpers, and mascots. What about the context of the media, including television and radio announcers, newspapers, satellite broadcasting, and Pay-Per-View TV? Or the economics that make the game possible, from ticket and licensed t-shirts sales to the negotiation of player salaries? Then there are the professional organizations that regulate and administrate the game. For fans or players of the game, Basketball can also be a context for establishing social status, group affiliation, cultural identity, or access to a college education. Every one of these elements contributes to the overall cultural significance of the game. Whether players and spectators realize it or not, when they play or watch a game they are taking part in generating, embodying, and transforming these cultural meanings. These meanings are not fixed, but are always in some way “at play” within existing cultural structures.
我们从前面的章节中知道，游戏是在更严格的结构中自由活动。认识到哪些文化结构可以融入游戏的文化游戏是一种强大的设计策略。例如，《侠盗猎车手 III》利用了城市犯罪文化和黑帮电影的神话；《Jet Grind Radio》对涂鸦和滑板文化进行了时尚的科幻阐述。另一方面，《寂静岭 II》则将恐怖片和黑色电影类型作为其文化游戏。这种游戏可以将文化惯例的更严格的力量与人类参与的松散和诗意品质结合起来。当我们玩《Jet Grind Radio》或《侠盗猎车手 III》等游戏时，我们不仅仅是在玩游戏规则：我们也在玩游戏反映和改变的文化规则和惯例。
As we know from earlier chapters, play is free movement within more rigid structures. Recognizing just what cultural structures can be brought into the cultural play of a game is a powerful design strategy. Grand Theft Auto III, for example, plays with the mythos of urban criminal culture and gangster cinema; Jet Grind Radio offers a stylish sci-fi exposition on graffiti and skate cultures. Silent Hill II, on the other hand, looks to the genres of horror and film noir for its cultural play. This kind of play can pair the more rigid forces of cultural convention with the loose and poetic qualities of human participation. As we play a game like Jet Grind Radio or GTA III, we are not just playing with the game rules: we are also playing with the rules and conventions of culture that the games reflect and transform.
文化文本：符号贩卖
Cultural Texts: Trafficking in Signs
在之前的游戏设计方案中，我们探索了游戏作为形式和体验系统所具有的表征能力。例如，在黑手党游戏中，刺客的无声手势代表“杀戮！”，而夜幕降临时闭上眼睛的行为则表明玩家是“村民”。这些表征行为发生在游戏世界的人造空间中，尽管这种表征可能有助于模拟现实世界中的某些事物，但它的主要价值仅在游戏本身创造的意义空间内。我们认为游戏既能够从内部表征现象，又能够作为整体进行表征。黑手党从内部表征黑手党成员、村民、白天和黑夜以及死亡。作为一个整体，它是一种风格化的表征，描绘了一个村庄与隐藏的、阴暗的黑手党人物作斗争。
In previous game design schemas, we explored the ways in which games, as both formal and experiential systems, have the capacity to represent. In the game of Mafia, for example, an assassin’s silent hand gesture represents “kill!” and the act of closing one’s eyes at nightfall marks a player as a “villager.” These acts of representation take place within the artificial space of the game world, and although the representation may serve to simulate something in the real world, it only gains its primary value within the space of meaning created by the game itself. We framed games as being able to represent phenomena internally, as well as being representations as a whole. Mafia internally represents Mafiosi, villagers, day and night, and death. As a whole, it is a stylized representation of a village struggling against hidden, shadowy mafia figures.
但是，如果我们将视角从游戏的表征能力转变为游戏的文化表征形式，会发生什么情况呢？这种转变要求我们从外部看待游戏，思考如何将游戏本身视为文化对象，将其视为反映其文化背景的对象。当我们以这种方式看待游戏时，我们会将它们视为文化文本。
But what happens if we shift our perspective from looking at the capacity of games to represent or as representations, to games as forms of cultural representation? Such a shift requires us to regard the game from the outside, to consider ways we might read games as cultural objects in their own right, as objects that reflect their cultural contexts. When we view games in this way, we regard them as cultural texts.
作为游戏设计师，我们可以将游戏视为文化文本，以展示设计如何为游戏的意义做出贡献。例如，Capcom 的《洛克人》设计中的哪些元素充分体现了“男孩文化”及其精神？新游戏运动设计的游戏如何代表以社区为基础的社会乌托邦理想？游戏设计可用于表示游戏空间之外的文化理念和现象。以吃豆人小姐为例。从游戏内部的角度来看，吃豆人小姐代表什么？我们可能会说她代表了一个吃点心、捉鬼的化身，或者我们可能会提到游戏中的背景故事，讲述吃豆人和吃豆人小姐相遇并坠入爱河的故事。但如果我们从游戏之外的文化角度来看待吃豆人小姐，我们对这个角色的解读就会发生巨大变化。我们可能会将吃豆人小姐视为一个强大而积极的女权主义偶像，是原版吃豆人的优秀继承者。或者，我们可能将她视为一个非常不女权的象征，一个将口红和发饰与女性联系起来的衍生角色。我们可能将吃豆小姐视为一种新型的电子游戏“名人”；资本主义消费的永不满足的象征；或者日本流行音乐改变全球电子文化的历史时刻的标志。将游戏解读为象征性对象、反映其背景的文化文本的过程，是理解游戏文化的一种方式。
As game designers, we can consider games as cultural texts in order to demonstrate how design contributes to their meaning. What in the design of Capcom’s Mega Man, for example, fully embodies “boy culture” and its ethos? How do games designed by the New Games Movement represent community-based, socially utopian ideals? Game design can be used to represent cultural ideas and phenomena existing beyond the space of the game. Take Ms. Pac-Man, for instance. From a perspective internal to the game, what does Ms. Pac-Man represent? We might say that she represents a dot-munching, ghost-busting avatar, or we might refer to the in-game backstory that tells the tale of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man meeting and falling in love. But if we consider Ms. Pac-Man from a cultural point of view external to the game, our reading of the character changes dramatically. We might see Ms. Pac-Man as a powerful and positive feminist icon, a superior successor to the original Pac-Man. Or we might view her as a very unfeminist symbol, a derivative character that equates lipstick and a hair bow with the female gender. We might see Ms. Pac-Man as a new kind of video game “celebrity”; as an ever-hungry symbol of capitalist consumption; or the marker of a historical moment when Japanese pop transformed global electronic culture. This process of interpreting games as symbolic objects, as cultural texts that reflect their contexts, is one way of understanding games as culture.
将游戏视为文化文本为我们审视“文化”一词带来了另一种视角。人类学家克利福德·格尔茨写道：“人是一种动物，悬浮在自己编织的意义之网中……我认为文化就是这些网，因此对文化的分析不是寻找规律的实验科学，而是寻找意义的解释科学。”4格尔茨将人类学家分析文化的方法与文学评论家分析文本的方法进行了比较：“理清意义结构……并确定它们的社会基础和意义……进行民族志研究就像试图阅读（在‘构建阅读’的意义上）一份手稿。”5
Framing games as cultural texts brings an additional perspective to our interrogation of the term culture. Anthropologist Clifford Geertz writes that “Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun . . . . I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretative one in search of meaning.”4 Geertz compares the methods of an anthropologist analyzing culture to those of a literary critic analyzing a text: “Sorting out the structures of signification . . . and determining their social ground and import . . . . Doing ethnography is like trying to read (in the sense of ‘construct a reading of’) a manuscript.”5
“阅读文化”这一概念来自社会科学，特别是文化人类学及其近亲文化研究。阅读文化的实践是指将对象、过程和现象（如亚文化）“阅读”为故事或叙事的可能性。这些故事可能讲述政治关系的故事，例如《外交》等游戏，也可能讲述伦理道德的故事，例如《黑与白》等游戏。文化文本的地位甚至可以应用于游戏的正式材料。以一副牌的设计为例。这副牌在 14 和 15 世纪的欧洲流行，四种花色代表中世纪社会的四个阶层：黑桃代表贵族；红心代表神职人员；方块代表商人；梅花代表农民。6因此，一副牌可以被“解读”为历史某一特定时期社会的代表。
This concept of “reading culture” comes from the social sciences, and in particular, from the discipline of cultural anthropology and its more recent cousin cultural studies. The practice of reading culture refers to the potential of objects, processes, and phenomena (such as subcultures) to be “read” as stories or narratives. These stories might tell the tale of political relations, as in the case of a game such as Diplomacy, or of ethics and morality, as in a game such as Black & White. The status of a cultural text can even be applied to the formal materials of games. Consider the design of a deck of cards. Popularized in Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the four suits represent the four classes of medieval society: spades, the nobility; hearts, the clergy; diamonds, the merchants; and clubs, the peasants. 6 A deck of cards can thus be “read” as a representation of society at a particular point in history.
社会科学家和人文学者的任务之一就是阅读这些文化文本并制定框架，以帮助游戏设计师制定游戏创作和分析策略。例如，克利福德·格尔茨的著名文章《深度游戏：巴厘岛斗鸡笔记》详尽地描述了文化如何成为文本的集合，而游戏是其中的重要组成部分。媒体学者亨利·詹金斯在视频游戏和粉丝文化方面的研究使他得以在国会山就媒体暴力的影响作证，反驳了许多影响当前立法的流行假设。设计师和教育家艾米·布鲁克曼和艾米·乔·金在 MUD 和 MOO 方面的工作为游戏开发者提供了新的框架，让他们可以在此框架内考虑创建在线社区。布伦达·劳雷尔的作品，尤其是她最近的著作《乌托邦企业家》，不断挑战我们质疑我们对如何“阅读”电脑游戏和电脑文化其他方面的文化假设。虽然并非所有研究都是从设计角度撰写的，但它可以提供大量见解，让我们了解游戏的“意义”如何从其形式、体验和文化特征的交汇中产生。了解评论家和学者如何解读游戏文化是游戏设计师的职责之一。如果你能更好地将自己的游戏理解为一种文化文本，那么无论玩家在何种情境下遇到你的游戏，你都能更好地为玩家设计出强大的体验。
It is one of the tasks of social scientists and humanists to read these cultural texts and formulate frameworks that help game designers develop strategies for creating and analyzing games. Clifford Geertz’s famous essay “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight,” for example, richly describes how a culture is an ensemble of texts, of which games are an important part. Media scholar Henry Jenkins’ work with video games and fan culture has led him to testify on Capitol Hill about the effects of media violence, countering many popular assumptions shaping current legislation. The work of designers and educators Amy Bruckman and Amy Jo Kim on MUDs and MOOs has given game developers new frameworks within which to consider the creation of online communities. Brenda Laurel’s work, especially her recent book The Utopian Entrepreneur, continually challenges us to question our cultural assumptions about how we “read” computer games and other facets of computer culture. Although not all this research is written from a design perspective, it can offer tremendous insight into how the “meaning” of a game arises from the intersection of its formal, experiential, and cultural features. Being cognizant of how critics and scholars read game culture is part of being a game designer. If you can better understand your own game as a cultural text, you will be better equipped to design powerful experiences for players in whatever context they encounter your game.
重新定义：定位设计
Redefinition: Locating Design
正如有无数种方式将游戏解读为文化一样，也有无数种视角来理解文化本身的概念。我们最后对文化进行了一个框架，将我们的焦点重新带回到设计上。设计历史学家理查德·布坎南将文化定义为“一种有序、混乱和重新排序的活动，目的是寻求理解和指导行动的价值观。”7 Buchanan 的定义挑战并颠覆了许多关于设计和文化的常识性观念。正如他所说，设计的命运“并不完全掌握在设计文化的框架内或少数天才的手中。它掌握在整个文化的框架内。”8 “排序、混乱、重新排序”的活动表明设计实践首先是一种文化实践。
Just as there are endless ways to read games as culture, there are innumerable perspectives from which to understand the concept of culture itself. We conclude with a final framing of culture that brings our focus squarely back to design. Design historian Richard Buchanan defines culture as “an activity of ordering, disordering, and reordering in the search for understanding and for values which guide action.”7 Buchanan’s definition challenges and de-centers many common sense notions of design and culture. As he puts it, the fate of design “does not lie entirely within the framework of design culture or in the hands of a few gifted individuals. It lies within the framework of culture as a whole.”8 The activity of “ordering, disordering, and reordering” suggests that the practice of design is, above all, a cultural one.
许多游戏设计师回避文化方法，更喜欢以工艺为中心的方法，压制文化的存在。在更大的文化背景下设计游戏。您可能会或可能不会选择承认，作为一名游戏设计师，您是文化的创造者。您可以选择依赖其他人设定的文化惯例，这些惯例充其量是创新和洞察力的障碍，最坏的情况是与种族主义、性别歧视和仇外心理有关的破坏性意识形态。
Many game designers eschew cultural approaches to their work, preferring craft-centric methods that repress the existence of games within larger cultural contexts. You might or might not choose to recognize that as a game designer you are a producer of culture. You may choose to rely on the cultural conventions set by others, conventions that are at best obstacles to innovation and insight and at worst destructive ideologies tied to racism, sexism, and xenophobia.
不管你采用哪种方法，游戏作为文化的地位都不是可以协商或辩论的。它们毫无疑问是文化的。作为一名游戏设计师，你有责任承认这一事实，并在设计过程中加以利用。认识到你是在文化背景下进行设计的，可以成为一项强大的游戏设计资产。它可以为你的游戏带来新的受众、新的游戏内容、新的恶作剧和颠覆形式，以及人们玩游戏的新方式。如果你的目标是为玩家设计真正有意义的游戏，那么你的游戏应该在每一个可能的层面上都有效。创造具有文化意义的游戏，即要遵循的四种模式的重点，在成功执行游戏设计方面与规则或游戏一样重要。
Regardless of your approach, the status of games as culture is not something to be negotiated or debated. They are indisputably cultural. As a game designer, it is your responsibility to acknowledge this fact and make use of it in your design process. The recognition that you are designing in the context of culture can become a powerful game design asset. It can lead to new audiences for your games, new kinds of game content, new forms of mischief and subversion, and new ways for people to play. If your aim is to design truly meaningful play for your players, your games should be effective on every possible level. Creating culturally meaningful play, the focus of the four schemas to follow, is as important as rules or play in the successful execution of game design.
笔记
Notes
1. John H. Bodley，《文化人类学：部落、国家和全球体系》（纽约：麦格劳-希尔高等教育出版社，1994 年），第 171-72 页。
1. John H. Bodley, Cultural Anthropology: Tribes, States, and the Global System (New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 1994), p. 171–72.
2.同上，第172页。
2. Ibid., p. 172.
3. Stefan Fatsis，《文字狂：拼字游戏竞技玩家世界中的伤心、胜利、天才和痴迷》（波士顿：霍顿·米夫林，2001 年），第 4 页。
3. Stefan Fatsis, Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), p. 4.
4.克利福德·格尔茨，《强调解释》。《文化的解释》 （纽约：Basic Books，1977 年），第 4-5 页。
4. Clifford Geertz, “Emphasizing Interpretation.” In The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1977), p. 4–5.
5.同上，第5页。
5. Ibid., p. 5.
6. E.M. Avedon 和 Brian Sutton Smith，《游戏研究》（纽约：Wiley，1971 年），第 240 页。
6. E. M. Avedon and Brian Sutton Smith, The Study of Games (New York: Wiley, 1971), p. 240.
7. Richard Buchanan，《布兰齐的困境：当代文化中的设计》。《设计：快乐还是责任？》P. Takhokallio 和 S. Vihma 编（赫尔辛基：赫尔辛基艺术设计大学，1995 年），第 10 页。
7. Richard Buchanan, “Branzi’s Dilemma: Design in Contemporary Culture.” In Design: Pleasure or Responsibility? eds. P. Takhokallio and S. Vihma (Helsinki: University of Art and Design Helsinki, 1995), p. 10.
8.同上，第10页。
8. Ibid., p. 10.
定义文化
概括
• 将游戏视为文化需要超越魔法圈的边界，考虑游戏如何与游戏本身的实际规则和玩法之外的环境进行互动。
• Considering games as culture entails moving beyond the borders of the magic circle to consider how games interact with contexts that lie outside the actual rules and play of the game itself.
• 与形式或经验模式不同，基于文化的语境模式并不直接与游戏的内部、内在品质相关。游戏可以通过多种方式被视为文化。
• Unlike formal or experiential schemas, culture-based contextual schemas are not directly tied to the internal, intrinsic qualities of games. There are any number of ways that games can be regarded as culture.
• 所有游戏都反映文化，再现其文化背景的各个方面。有些游戏还会改变文化，根据其文化背景产生真正的变化。
• All games reflect culture, reproducing aspects of their cultural contexts. Some games also transform culture, acting on their cultural contexts to affect genuine change.
• 一款改变其文化背景的游戏是变革性游戏的一个文化实例。在这种情况下，游戏的文化“自由游戏”正在改变游戏发生的更为严格的文化背景。
• A game transforming its cultural context is a cultural instance of transformative play. In this case, the cultural “free play” of the game is altering the more rigid cultural contexts in which the game is taking place.
• 文化有很多种定义。大多数定义都直接或间接地涉及人们的想法、行为和生产的物质产品。就我们的目的而言，文化是魔法圈之外的东西，是游戏发生的环境。
• There are many definitions of culture. Most of them directly or indirectly involve what people think, what they do, and the material products they produce. For our purposes, culture is what exists outside the magic circle, the context within which game play occurs.
• 除了理解游戏可以代表并且游戏就是代表之外，我们还可以将游戏定义为文化代表，反映游戏制作和游戏环境的意义。
• In addition to understanding that games can represent and that games are representations, we can frame games as cultural representations, reflecting the meanings of the contexts where they are produced and played.
• 理解游戏环境的含义对于设计有意义的游戏至关重要。
• Understanding the meanings that make up the context in which your game is played is critical to designing meaningful play.
• 当我们将游戏视为一种文化表征时，我们将游戏视为一种文化文本。这意味着对游戏进行解释性解读，类似于文化人类学或文化研究中进行的分析。
• When we consider a game as a cultural representation, we are considering the game as a cultural text. This means making an interpretative reading of a game, similar to analyses performed in cultural anthropology or cultural studies.
三十
30
游戏作为文化修辞
GAMES AS CULTURAL RHETORIC
思想
ideology
文化修辞
cultural rhetorics
文化学习的社会背景
social contexts for cultural learning
游戏修辞法
rhetorics of play
变革性文化游戏
transformative cultural play
新游戏运动
the New Games Movement
世界杯将于周五在日本和韩国开幕，届时将有数十亿人收看比赛。卫星天线的普及让世界顶级球队得以前往最遥远的地方。沈阳或喀土穆的人们不知道曼彻斯特是英格兰的一个小镇，现在却支持曼联。球队明星大卫·贝克汉姆的雕像装饰着曼谷的一座佛教寺庙。如果奥萨马·本·拉登还活着，他想必也会是坐在电视机前的数十亿人之一，除了大多数美国人之外，所有人都会欣赏到足球比赛经常发生的政治动荡。——西蒙·库珀，《世界比赛不仅仅是一场比赛》
The World Cup, which begins on Friday in Japan and in South Korea, will be watched by billions. The spread of satellite dishes has taken the world’s best teams to the farthest-flung places. People in Shenyang or Khartoum, who have no idea that Manchester is a town in England, now support Manchester United. A statue of the team’s star, David Beckham, adorns a Buddhist temple in Bangkok. Osama bin Laden, if he is alive, will presumably be among those billions sitting in front of the television, and all of them, with the exception of most Americans, will appreciate the roiling political context in which the game is so often played.—Simon Kuper, “The World’s Game Is Not Just a Game”
引入文化修辞
Introducing Cultural Rhetoric
足球迷们确实热爱足球。尽管世界各地的足球爱好者都对足球运动本身充满热情，但毫无疑问，足球这项有意义的运动还具有多种象征功能。从国家队和社区队文化到场上（和场下）球员的声誉，足球融入了超越魔力圈边缘的价值观。有时，这些价值观超越了休闲球迷的爱好，获得了真正的政治共鸣。正如体育专栏作家西蒙·库珀所说：“足球以其政治可塑性而著称……它决定总统的当选或下台，它决定了人们对国家的看法，无论是好是坏。”1在其他时候，足球的价值观在社会层面上引起共鸣。例如，在美国，足球被视为一项女性和儿童友好的运动：美国是唯一一个女子国家足球队比男子国家足球队更出名的国家。在美国，足球更多地被视为家庭消遣，而不是一项职业运动：无处不在的“足球妈妈”一词证明了足球已融入美国郊区生活。
Soccer fans do love their game. Although Soccer enthusiasts around the world have a passion for the game itself, there is no doubt that the meaningful play of Soccer also includes a diversity of symbolic functions. From the national and neighborhood team cultures to the reputations of players on (and off!) the field, Soccer is infused with values brought into the frame of the game from beyond the edges of the magic circle. Sometimes these values go beyond leisure fandom to acquire genuine political resonance. As sports columnist Simon Kuper notes, “Soccer is distinguished by its political malleability . . . . It gets presidents elected or thrown out, and it defines the way people think, for good or ill, about their countries.”1 At other times, the game’s values resonate on a social level. In the U. S., for example, Soccer is seen as a sport that is female and child-friendly: the U. S. is the only country in which the women’s national Soccer team is better known than the men’s. Soccer in the U. S. is seen less as a professional sport and more as a family pastime: the ubiquitous term “Soccer mom” testifies to the integration of Soccer into suburban American life.
足球和所有运动一样，都体现了文化意义。在上一章中，我们介绍了一种观点，即运动的结构反映了运动所处的文化。正如运动学者 Brian Sutton-Smith 所写：“我们可以问两位奥运会运动员，他们在比赛时，有多少心思放在了比赛中的动作上，有多少心思放在了比赛结束后可能获得的金牌上，有多少心思放在了他们所代表的国家的荣耀上……所有这些都表明，运动和比赛部分是为了运动本身，部分是为了他们所处的意识形态所赋予的价值观。”2作为在文化中生产和玩耍的对象，所有游戏都在一定程度上反映了其文化背景。在本章中，我们将更深入地探讨这一前提，特别关注游戏如何反映文化价值观。我们探讨游戏的内部结构（规则、互动形式、物质形式）如何反映外部意识形态背景。
Soccer, like all games, embodies cultural meaning. In the last chapter, we introduced the idea that the structures of a game are reflections of the culture in which it is played. As play scholar Brian Sutton-Smith writes, “One might ask two Olympic runners how much of their thought while racing is given to the moves within the race, how much to the gold medals that might follow it, and how much to the glory of the country they represent . . . . All of which is to say that the play and the game are played partly for their own sake and partly for the values attributed to them within the ideologies that are their context.”2 As objects produced and played within culture at large, all games reflect their cultural contexts to some degree. In this chapter, we dig more deeply into this premise, focusing specifically on the way that games reflect cultural values. We explore how the internal structures of a game—rules, forms of interaction, material forms—mirror external ideological contexts.
另一种说法是，游戏反映了文化价值观，即游戏是文化学习的社会背景。这意味着游戏是体现和传承社会价值观的地方之一。尽管游戏确实反映了文化价值观和意识形态，但它们并非仅仅扮演被动角色。游戏还有助于灌输或强化文化的价值体系。将游戏视为文化学习的社会背景，承认了游戏如何复制、再现，有时甚至改变文化信仰和原则。这种将游戏视为意识形态体系的方式构成了第一个情境游戏设计模式《游戏作为文化修辞》的基础。
Another way of saying games reflect cultural values is that games are social contexts for cultural learning. This means that games are one place where the values of a society are embodied and passed on. Although games clearly do reflect cultural values and ideologies, they do not merely play a passive role. Games also help to instill or fortify a culture’s value system. Seeing games as social contexts for cultural learning acknowledges how games replicate, reproduce, and sometimes transform cultural beliefs and principles. This way of looking at games—as ideological systems—forms the basis of this first contextual game design schema, Games as Cultural Rhetoric.
游戏反映了社会和文化的价值观，因为它们是社会结构的一部分。例如，资本主义的美国梦言论渗透到许多美国游戏中。州彩票的宣传口号是“任何人都可以成为百万富翁”。电视游戏节目《谁想成为百万富翁？》（改编自英国版）在其标题的反问句中巧妙地赞美了对财富的追求。问题不在于你是否想致富，或者后果是什么，而在于谁将获得机会。这些游戏体现了美国身份的悖论及其伴随的财富意识形态。它们讲述了坚韧不拔、开拓进取的个人主义与对成功捷径和屈从命运的迫切渴望之间的冲突。
Games reflect the values of the society and culture in which they are played because they are part of the fabric of that society itself. For example, the capitalist rhetoric of the American Dream infuses many American games. State lotteries are marketed with tag lines like, “Anyone can be a millionaire.” The TV game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (adapted from the British version) glibly celebrates the pursuit of wealth in the rhetorical question that makes up its title. The question is not if you want to become rich, or what the ramifications might be, but merely who will be given the chance. These games encapsulate the paradox of American identity and its accompanying ideologies of wealth. They speak to the clash between a rugged, pioneering individualism and a desperate desire for shortcuts to success and submission to fate.
无论是在历史游戏中，还是在当代游戏中，文化意识形态都渗透到魔法圈中，影响着规则和游戏。象棋的古老前身恰图兰加游戏的运动和互动规则反映了 5 世纪印度军队的价值观和社会等级制度。根据历史资料，这款游戏的无名发明者以印度军队为设计模型。恰图兰加棋的棋子包括国王、大臣、大象（后来成为欧洲的主教）、马（骑士）、战车（车）和步兵（兵）。3随着时间的推移，随着随着游戏从一个国家传播到另一个国家，游戏棋子的设计也发生了变化，以反映国家军队的特殊优势。这些新棋子（如后和主教）的引入不仅仅是表面的变化，还影响了游戏的形式结构和玩家体验。
In historical games, as much as in contemporary ones, cultural ideologies permeate the magic circle to impact rules and play. The rules governing movement and interaction in the game of Chaturanga, an ancient forbearer of Chess, reflect the values and social hierarchies of the Indian military of the fifth century. According to historical sources, the unknown inventor of the game used the armies of India as his design model. The pieces of Chaturanga include the king, the minister, the elephant (which later became the bishop in Europe), the horse (knight), the chariot (rook) and the foot soldier (pawn). 3 Over time, as the game spread from country to country, modifications were made to the design of the game pieces to reflect the particular strengths of national armies. The introduction of these new pieces (such as the queen and the bishop) were not merely superficial changes, but impacted the formal structure of the game and the player experience as well.
什么是修辞？
What is Rhetoric?
我们正在分析文化价值观和意识形态，但该图式被称为“游戏作为文化修辞”。这个术语是什么意思？我们从布赖恩·萨顿-史密斯的杰出论文《游戏的模糊性》中借用了“修辞”一词，这是一项广泛的跨学科研究，研究了围绕游戏的文化意识形态。萨顿-史密斯写道：“修辞这个词在这里是以其现代意义使用的，是一种有说服力的话语或一种隐含的叙述，由特定组织的成员有意或无意地采用，以说服他人相信他们信仰的真实性或价值。”4换句话说，修辞是一种包含潜在价值观或信仰的讨论或表达方法，一种试图说服他人相信其正确性的方法。修辞可以是粗暴而明显的，也可以是微妙而几乎无形的，并且可以采取多种形式。修辞可以体现在哲学的词语和论述中（天主教或马克思主义的“语言”），体现在团体成员所穿的衣服和徽章中（识别 60 年代反主流文化运动成员的时尚），或体现在更普遍的行为中（随地吐痰和无礼是朋克的一部分）。在每个例子中，文化修辞都是一种体现和传播特定价值观和信仰的表达语言。
We are analyzing cultural values and ideologies, but the schema is called Games as Cultural Rhetoric. What does that term mean? We take the word “rhetoric” from Brian Sutton-Smith’s remarkable treatise The Ambiguity of Play, a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary investigation of the cultural ideologies surrounding play. Sutton-Smith writes, “The word rhetoric is used here in its modern sense, as being a persuasive discourse, or an implicit narrative, wittingly or unwittingly adopted by members of a particular affiliation to persuade others of the veracity or worth-whileness of their beliefs.”4 Rhetoric, in other words, is a method of discussion or expression that contains underlying values or beliefs, a method that attempts to persuade others that it is correct. Rhetoric can be heavy-handed and obvious or can be subtle and nearly invisible, and can take a multitude of forms. Rhetoric can manifest in the words and discourse of a philosophy (the “language” of Catholicism or Marxism), in clothes and insignia worn by members of a group (the fashion that identified members of the ‘60s counterculture movement), or in more general behavior (the spitting and gratuitous rudeness that were part of Punk). In each example, cultural rhetoric is a language of expression embodying and propagating particular values and beliefs.
文化修辞的组织原则应用于游戏，揭示了游戏如何代表广泛的意识形态价值模式。换句话说，游戏的设计是特定时间和地点的思想和价值观的代表。例如，对非裔美国奴隶儿童游戏的历史研究表明，战斗活动和玩家淘汰现象明显缺失。游戏规则和游戏互动反映了被压迫文化对团结和合作的需求。以色列基布兹儿童的游戏也表现出“强烈的合作和平等主义表达，偏向尽可能少的特权或弱势参与者”，反映了基布兹生活方式的公共哲学。5在每个例子中，游戏的形式和体验结构都呼应并强化了外部的文化修辞。
Applied to games, the organizing principle of cultural rhetoric reveals how games represent broad patterns of ideological value. The design of a game, in other words, is a representation of ideas and values of a particular time and place. For example, historical research on the children’s games of African-American slaves has revealed that combative activities and player elimination were strikingly absent. The rules and play interactions of the games were a reflection of an oppressed culture’s need for solidarity and collaboration. The games of Israeli Kibbutz children also demonstrate “a strong expression of cooperation and egalitarianism, with a preference for as few overprivileged or underprivileged participants as possible,” reflecting the communal philosophies of the Kibbutz lifestyle. 5 In each of these examples, the formal and experiential structures of games echo and reinforce external cultural rhetorics.
文化修辞与游戏设计有何关联？创造游戏也是创造文化，因此文化中存在的信仰、意识形态和价值观将始终是游戏的一部分，无论有意还是无意。例如，你的游戏的获胜条件是什么？积累最多的资源？摧毁敌人的单位？达到力量平衡？这些胜利条件中的每一个都暗示着一套特定的价值观，通过游戏规则、材料和游戏体验来充实。
What is the relevance of cultural rhetoric to game design? Creating games is also creating culture, and therefore beliefs, ideologies, and values present within culture will always be a part of a game, intended or not. For example, what are the winning conditions of your game? Amass the most resources? Destroy the enemy’s units? Arrive at a balance of powers? Each of these victory conditions implies a particular set of values, fleshed out through the game rules, materials, and experiences of play.
尽管文化修辞总是会内在地存在于游戏中，但它也可以积极地融入游戏设计中。例如，《疯狂杂志游戏》采用了典型的棋盘游戏获胜条件（积累最多的钱），并将其颠倒过来：赢得《疯狂杂志游戏》的真正方法是输掉所有的钱。这种简单的形式逆转对游戏的文化修辞产生了强烈的影响。《疯狂杂志游戏》模仿了大富翁式的赢家通吃游戏，呼吁人们关注贪婪和经济权力的传统意识形态。就像《疯狂杂志》本身一样，这款游戏嘲讽了美国的制度和价值观。
Although cultural rhetoric will always be intrinsically present in a game, it also can be actively incorporated into a game design. For example, the Mad Magazine Game takes a typical board game winning condition (accumulating the most money) and turns it on its head: the actual way to win the Mad Magazine Game is to lose all of your money. This simple formal reversal has a strong impact on the cultural rhetoric of the game. Parodying a Monopoly-style winner-take-all game, the Mad Magazine Game calls attention to conventional ideologies of greed and economic power. Just like Mad Magazine itself, the game pokes fun at American institutions and values.
无论游戏的文化修辞是无意识的隐含（《大富翁》的资本主义意识形态）还是有意识的嬉戏（《疯狂杂志游戏》的讽刺逆转），它都涉及文化价值观的发挥。正如我们在《定义文化》中所讨论的那样，我们将游戏视为在更严格的结构中自由移动的概念可以发生在文化层面上。游戏让文化“发挥作用”，而不仅仅是反映文化，但在现有文化结构之间转换——有时甚至会因此改变它们。目前尚不清楚《疯狂杂志游戏》最终是破坏还是强化了它所模仿的资本主义言论。但它玩弄这些想法这一事实揭示了涉及经济、竞争冲突甚至游戏设计的更僵化结构的假设。通过强调它“发挥作用”的僵化结构，游戏可以揭示整个文化的运作。
Whether a game’s cultural rhetoric is unconsciously implicit (Monopoly’s capitalistic ideology) or consciously playful (The Mad Magazine Game’s satiric reversal), it involves the play of cultural values. As we discussed in Defining Culture, our concept of play as free movement within a more rigid structure can occur on a cultural level. Games put culture “at play,” not just reflecting culture, but shifting between and among existing cultural structures—sometimes transforming them as a result. It is not entirely clear whether The Mad Magazine Game ultimately undermines or reinforces the capitalistic rhetoric it parodies. But the fact that it plays with such ideas at all reveals the presumptions of more rigid structures involving economics, competitive conflict, and even game design. By highlighting the rigid structures it puts “at play,” a game can shed light on the operations of culture as a whole.
游戏的七种修辞法
Seven Rhetorics of Play
游戏体现了文化修辞。但是它们代表了什么具体的意识形态？在《游戏的模糊性》中，布莱恩·萨顿史密斯所做的不仅仅是介绍文化修辞的一般概念。萨顿史密斯确定了七种不同的“游戏修辞”，即历史上塑造和定义游戏概念的大规模价值体系。这些修辞——进步、命运、权力、身份、想象、自我和轻浮——是广泛象征系统（政治、宗教、社会和教育）的一部分，有助于建构文化意义。它们是游戏概念传统上由文化中介的七种方式。作为修辞，这七个类别是有说服力的论述，无形地嵌入我们的日常生活和游戏观念中，被视为理所当然，直到它们受到竞争修辞的挑战。6
Games embody cultural rhetorics. But what specific ideologies do they represent? In The Ambiguity of Play, Brian Sutton-Smith does more than simply introduce the general idea of cultural rhetoric. Sutton-Smith identifies seven different “rhetorics of play,” large-scale value-systems that have historically informed and defined the concept of play. These rhetorics—progress, fate, power, identity, the imaginary, the self, and the frivolous—are part of broad symbolic systems (political, religious, social, and educational) that help construct cultural meanings. They are seven ways that the concept of play has traditionally been brokered by culture. As rhetorics, these seven categories are persuasive discourses, invisibly embedded in our day-to-day lives and conceptions of play, taken for granted until they are challenged by a competing rhetoric.6
虽然我们无法总结并公正地阐述萨顿-史密斯的复杂思想，但我们可以概述他的七种修辞学的关键概念。在右侧的图表中，我们描述了每种修辞学使用、解释和证明“游戏”概念的方式。此外，该图表还列出了修辞学通常与之相关的游戏和游戏类型，以及萨顿-史密斯是否将修辞学的起源定位在古代或当代。
Although we can’t summarize Sutton-Smith’s complex ideas and do them justice, we can outline the key concepts of his seven rhetorics. In the chart to the right we describe the way each rhetoric uses, interprets, and justifies the concept of “play.” In addition, the chart also lists the types of games and play with which the rhetoric is usually associated, as well as whether or not Sutton-Smith locates the origin of the rhetoric in ancient or contemporary times.
萨顿-史密斯的作品研究的是一般的游戏，因此包括了游戏以外的娱乐活动。然而，他的想法对游戏设计师来说仍然非常有价值。游戏可以体现这七种修辞中的任何一种，而萨顿-史密斯的框架可以帮助你识别游戏中的意识形态假设，或者帮助你为游戏想要表达的文化修辞规划新的路线。
Sutton-Smith’s work investigates play in general and therefore includes ludic activities that are not games. However, his ideas are still quite valuable to game designers. Games can embody any of the seven rhetorics, and Sutton-Smith’s framework can help identify ideological presumptions in your games or help you chart new courses for the cultural rhetoric you want your game to express.
例如，根据 Sutton-Smith 的说法，我们文化中占主导地位的言论是游戏是一种进步。总的来说，游戏被视为儿童的活动，游戏体验很有价值，因为它可以帮助儿童在认知、社会、道德或其他方面成长为更好的成年人。目前关于电脑和视频游戏的一些争议直接源于它们与游戏是一种进步的理念不相符。例如，我们有可能将视频游戏视为权力意识形态的一部分，在这种意识形态中，冲突的价值观通过游戏来赞美，就像职业体育一样；但将视频游戏等同于体育运动（成人消遣）会威胁到游戏是儿童的“游戏是一种进步”的理念。同样，视频游戏可以看作是一种想象中的游戏形式，其中视频游戏是一种创造性文化生产的形式；然而，这种联系将游戏与艺术联系在一起，威胁到高雅艺术和流行文化之间的传统区别。
For example, according to Sutton-Smith, the dominant rhetoric in our culture is play as progress. By and large, play is seen as an activity for children, and a play experience is valuable because it helps children evolve into better adults cognitively, socially, ethically, or otherwise. Some of the current controversies about computer and video games stem directly from the fact that they do not fit neatly into the idea of play as progress. It is possible, for example, to see video games as part of an ideology of power, in which values of conflict are celebrated through play, as with professional sports; but equating video game play with sports (an adult pastime) would threaten the play as progress idea that games are for children. Similarly, video games could be seen as a form of play as the imaginary, in which video game play is a form of creative cultural production; however, this connection ties games to art, threatening conventional distinctions between high art and popular culture.
萨顿-史密斯的游戏修辞学并不是描述性术语，无法确定游戏到底是什么。相反，他的分类确定了游戏和游戏如何体现意识形态价值观，以及游戏的具体形式和用途如何延续和证明这些价值观。修辞在文化生态系统中相互冲突和竞争。包括电子游戏在内的博物馆展览可能会引发修辞冲突：也许策展人使用游戏作为想象来证明电子游戏的创造性价值，冒犯了那些认为游戏是进步的愤怒追随者，他们认为游戏仅仅是娱乐，没有任何文化价值。
Sutton-Smith’s rhetorics of play are not descriptive terms that identify what play actually is. Instead, his categories identify how games and play embody ideological values and how specific forms and uses of play perpetuate and justify these values. Rhetorics conflict and compete within the ecosystem of culture. A museum exhibit that included video games might spark a clash of rhetorics: perhaps the curator uses play as the imaginary to justify the creative value of video games, offending outraged adherents of play as progress that see no cultural value in games that merely entertain.
正如一种修辞可以包含多种游戏一样，一个游戏也可以体现多种修辞。作为复杂的对象，游戏在设计和使用中可以包含许多不同的、有时甚至相互矛盾的文化修辞。彩票是一种古老的游戏形式，体现了游戏的命运；同时，在当代文化中，它可以成为玩家分享游戏意识的一种方式（办公室职员在欢乐时光聚在一起玩“Pick Five”，分享赢得大奖并最终斥责老板的共同愿望。）《疯狂杂志游戏》的戏仿反转以游戏是轻浮的理念为前提，尽管它对大富翁式游戏的引用唤起了游戏即力量的言论。
Just as one rhetoric can include many games, a single game can embody more than one rhetoric. As complex objects, games can contain many different, and sometimes contradictory, cultural rhetorics in their design and use. The lottery is based on an ancient game form that embodies play as fate; at the same time, in contemporary culture it can be a way for players to share a sense of play as identity (the office workers gather during happy hour to Pick Five, sharing a communal desire to win big and finally tell off the boss.) The parodic inversion of the Mad Magazine Game is premised on the idea of play as frivolous, even while its very reference to Monopoly-style games invokes the rhetoric of play as power.
布莱恩·萨顿·史密斯的七种游戏修辞法
Brian-Sutton Smith’s Seven Rhetorics of Play
两个例子
Two Examples
识别文化修辞的挑战在于，意识形态经常在我们的行为和举止中被忽视。幸运的是，由于游戏本质上具有游戏性和人为性，因此它们提供了特别成熟的背景来强调文化修辞的作用。以下是两个详细的例子，可帮助我们更好地理解游戏如何通过设计体现修辞。
The challenge of recognizing cultural rhetoric is that ideologies often pass unnoticed in our own actions and behaviors. Luckily, because of their intrinsically playful and artificial nature, games present particularly ripe contexts for highlighting the operation of cultural rhetoric at work. Following are two detailed examples to help us better understand how games can embody rhetoric through design.
地主的游戏
The Landlord’s Game
1904 年，莉齐·玛姬 (Lizzie Magie) 设计的《地主游戏》是当时流行的棋盘游戏《大富翁》的前身，其设计理念非常明确。《地主游戏》的设计初衷是让玩家通过游戏充满乐趣，了解土地垄断的弊端。玛姬是一位住在弗吉尼亚州的年轻贵格会女性，也是经济学家亨利·乔治 (Henry George) 的忠实追随者。乔治是单一税运动的发起人，该运动认为，土地的经济租金和土地价值的不劳而获只惠及少数人，而不是大多数人，而大多数人的存在创造了土地价值。因此，他主张只对土地征收单一税，以支付政府的所有费用，这一政策将削弱垄断企业压制竞争的权力，从而实现机会均等。7玛吉设计《地主游戏》是为了进行教育：用普通公民能够理解的方式解释乔治的政治理论。
The Landlord’s Game, designed by Lizzie Magie in 1904, is the precursor to the popular contemporary board game Monopoly, and was designed with very clear rhetorical intentions in mind. The Landlord’s Game was created as a fun-filled vehicle for teaching the evils of land monopoly. Magie was a young Quaker woman living in Virginia, and an ardent follower of economist Henry George. George was the originator of the single tax movement, which held that the economic rent of land and the unearned increase in land values profited a few individuals rather than the majority of the people, whose very existence produced the land values. He therefore advocated a single tax on land alone to meet all the costs of government, a policy that would erode the power of monopolies to suppress competition, and therefore equalize opportunity.7 Magie designed The Landlord’s Game for educational play: as a way to explain George’s political theories in terms that the average citizen could understand.
在《地主游戏》发行后的几十年里，帕克兄弟发行了一系列明显是衍生作品的游戏，包括《Easy Money》和《大富翁》。这些游戏的形式结构惊人地相似。玛吉的游戏板包括出租物业，如“贫民窟”（地租 50 美元）、“轻松街道”（地租 100 美元）和“蓝血勋爵的庄园”（“禁止非法侵入：入狱”）；有银行、救济院、铁路和公用设施，如“索库姆照明系统”（罚款 50 美元）和“PDQ 铁路”（票价 100 美元）；当然还有众所周知的“监狱”空间。然而，与大富翁不同，《地主游戏》中的物业仅供出租，不能购买和释放。
In the decades that followed the release of The Landlord’s Game, Parker Brothers released a series of titles that were clearly derivative, including Easy Money and, of course, Monopoly. The formal structures of the games bear a striking resemblance. Magie’s game board included rental properties such as “Poverty Place” (land rent $50), “Easy Street” (land rent $100) and “Lord Blueblood’s Estate” (“no trespassing: go to jail”); there are banks, a poorhouse, and railroads and utilities such as the “Soakum Lighting System” ($50 fine) and the “PDQ Railroad” (fare $100);there is also, of course, the well-known “Jail” space. Unlike Monopoly, however, properties in The Landlord’s Game were for rent only, and could not be purchased and released.
尽管《地主游戏》和《大富翁》之间有着很大的相似性，但两者所唤起的修辞却存在着明显的（而且非常不协调的）差异。虽然这两款游戏都适用于进步和权力的修辞，但《地主游戏》在概念上明显是反资本主义的。游戏的冲突不是以财产获取和垄断的积累为前提，而是以现行土地制度的瓦解为前提。由于游戏中的房产只能出租，贪婪的土地大亨或开发商没有机会进行统治。另一方面，《大富翁》则支持土地大亨的崛起和投机的艺术。鼓励玩家利用其他玩家的财务弱点成为最富有的垄断者，这种权力观念与 Magie 的原始设计中所探索的权力观念截然相反。
Despite the strong similarity between The Landlord’s Game and Monopoly, there are distinct (and wonderfully incongruous) differences in the rhetorics each evokes. While the play rhetorics of progress and power apply to both games, The Landlord’s Game was distinctly anti-capitalist in its conception. The game’s conflict was not premised on property acquisition and the accumulation of monopolies, but instead on an unraveling of the prevailing land system. Because properties in the game could only be rented, there was no opportunity for domination by a greedy land baron or developer. Monopoly, on the other hand, championed the rise of the land baron and the art of speculation. Players were encouraged to exploit the financial weaknesses of other players to become the wealthiest monopolist, a conception of power in direct opposition to that explored within Magie’s original design.
这种意识形态上的差异在每款游戏的自我描述方式中都显而易见。Lizzie Magie 的游戏规则如下：
This difference in ideology is clearly evident in the way each game describes itself. The rules for Lizzie Magie’s game read:
这个游戏的目的不仅是为玩家提供娱乐，也是为了向他们说明在目前或现行的土地保有权制度下，地主比其他企业家更具优势，以及单一税如何抑制投机。
The object of this game is not only to afford amusement to players, but to illustrate to them how, under the present or prevailing system to land tenure, the landlord has an advantage over other enterprisers, and also how the single tax would discourage speculation.
帕克兄弟大富翁游戏的简介是这样的：
The introduction to Parker Brothers’ Monopoly reads:
游戏的目的是通过购买、租赁或出售财产获得丰厚的利润，从而成为最富有的玩家并最终成为垄断者……这是一个精明、有趣且刺激的游戏。
The idea of the game is to buy and rent or sell property so profitably that one becomes the wealthiest player and eventually monopolist . . . . The game is one of shrewd and amusing trading and excitement.
作为大富翁的直接鼻祖，具有讽刺意味的是，玛吉的游戏成为了它想要批判的东西的模仿品。帕克兄弟将它最初作为教育大众土地垄断弊病的一次认真尝试，后来将其转变为资本主义本身的修辞工具。因此，尽管这两款游戏有许多共同的形式元素，但它们的设计体现了截然不同的意识形态。这些文化修辞通过书面规则的语言、游戏属性的命名惯例以及规则和胜利条件来表达。通过他们的游戏体验和游戏在文化中的分布，他们的对立修辞在相互竞争中传播。（不管怎样，我们知道谁赢了那场比赛！）
As the direct progenitor of Monopoly, it is ironic that Magie’s game became a parody of exactly what it intended to critique. What began as an earnest attempt to educate the masses about the ills of land monopoly was transformed by Parker Brothers into a rhetorical tool for capitalism itself. Thus, although the two games share many formal elements, their designs embody radically different ideologies. These cultural rhetorics are expressed through the language of the written rules, naming conventions of game properties, and the rules and victory conditions. Through the experience of their play and the distribution of the games in culture, their opposing rhetorics were propagated in competition with each other. (For better or worse, we know who won that game!)
吸血鬼：化装舞会
Vampire: The Masquerade
《吸血鬼：化装舞会》是游戏设计和文化修辞的另一个例子。与《地主游戏》不同，《吸血鬼：化装舞会》的设计没有政治或教育意图。然而，文化修辞是游戏背后思想的重要组成部分。
Vampire: The Masquerade illustrates another instance of game design and cultural rhetoric. Unlike The Landlord’s Game, Vampire: The Masquerade was not designed with political, pedagogical intentions. Nevertheless, cultural rhetoric was an important part of the thinking behind the game.
《吸血鬼：化装舞会》的设计直接借鉴了现有的亚文化，以创造有意义的游戏体验。与大多数流行的角色扮演游戏的剑与魔法或科幻故事不同，《吸血鬼：化装舞会》旨在迎合哥特风情。其吸血鬼政治故事情节类似于安·赖斯的小说，游戏玩法强调氛围和情绪，而不是战斗。与典型的角色扮演游戏相比，它的规则非常简单。由于这些特点，当游戏首次推出时，它不仅吸引了现有玩家，还吸引了从未玩过角色扮演游戏的玩家。8游戏玩家在很多情况下已经沉浸在哥特亚文化中，他们在进入游戏空间时将自己的意义系统带入游戏。同时，游戏本身也成为传播哥特亚文化的一种方式，并将其扩展到游戏玩家群体，这些玩家群体通常可能不喜欢黑色服装、浓重的眼线和神秘学。文化修辞从外到内进入游戏，即使游戏本身成为哥特/游戏玩家文化的堡垒，从内到外地扩展其混合修辞。
The design of Vampire: The Masquerade draws directly on existing subcultures to create meaningful play. As opposed to the swords-and-sorcery or science fiction narratives of most popular role-playing games, Vampire: The Masquerade is designed to appeal to a Goth sensibility. Its vampiric political storylines resemble Ann Rice novels, and game play emphasizes atmosphere and mood rather than combat. Compared to the typical role-playing game, its rules are approachably minimal. As a result of these features, when the game was first introduced it found an audience not merely among existing gamers, but among people who had never role-played before. 8 Players of the game, in many cases already immersed in the Goth subculture, brought their own systems of meaning to the game as they entered the space of play. At the same time, the game itself became a way to propagate Goth subculture and extend it to an audience of game players that might not normally have an affinity for black clothing, heavy eyeliner, and the occult. Cultural rhetorics entered into the game from the outside > in, even as the game itself became a bastion of Goth/gamer culture, extending its hybrid rhetorics from the inside > out.
《吸血鬼：化装舞会》展现了游戏作为身份的文化修辞：游戏将玩家与社会其他人区分开来，创造了一个催化他们独特的社区身份感的空间。游戏还体现了其他文化修辞，例如，角色扮演游戏隐含地提倡将游戏视为虚构的，甚至是轻浮的，因为哥特的地下亚文化地位表明了对更主流的文化和风格的明显反对。尽管《吸血鬼：化装舞会》在某种程度上是现有意识形态和文化的产物，但值得注意的是游戏设计师认识到尚未开发的哥特游戏受众，因此将游戏设计为直接融入亚文化。简单正式的系统让游戏对新手玩家很有吸引力，而整体设计鼓励角色扮演、讲故事和吸血鬼传说知识，而不是策略性地部署规则。这种设计方法有效地让玩家已有的态度和意识形态得以彰显，并为游戏的玩法和文化做出贡献。
Vampire: The Masquerade exhibits the cultural rhetoric of play as identity: the play of the game separates its players from the rest of society, creating a space that catalyzes their unique sense of community identity. The game embodies other cultural rhetorics as well, such as the alter-ego role-playing that implicitly advocates play as the imaginary—or even play as frivolous, since the underground, subcultural status of Goth celebrates a visible opposition to more dominant cultures and styles. Although Vampire: The Masquerade was in part a product of an existing ideology and culture, it is important to note that the designers of the game recognized the untapped Goth gaming audience by designing the game to directly incorporate the subculture. The simplicity of the formal system made the game inviting to novice gamers, while the overall design encouraged role-playing, storytelling, and knowledge of vampire lore over strategic deployment of rules. This design approach effectively allowed the already existing attitudes and ideologies of players to shine through and contribute to the play and culture of the game.
《吸血鬼：化装舞会》的成功改变了游戏文化。不可否认，角色扮演亚文化和哥特亚文化之间已经存在一些重叠，但《吸血鬼：化装舞会》成功地在实际游戏环境中将这两个受众融合在一起。这款游戏让角色扮演变得“很酷”（至少在某些圈子里），凸显了文化修辞本身通常是整个文化的一种货币形式。从极客到哥特的转变将角色扮演的框架扩展到了时尚和酷的空间，扩大了游戏类型的范围，并建立了一种新的角色扮演游戏设计方法。
The success of Vampire: The Masquerade has changed the culture of gaming. Admittedly, there was already some overlap between role-playing subcultures and Goth subcultures, but Vampire: The Masquerade managed to mix these two audiences in the context of actual game play. The game made role-playing “cool” (at least in some circles), highlighting the fact that cultural rhetorics themselves are often a form of currency in culture at large. The transition from geek to Goth stretched the frame of role-playing across the space of the hip and cool, broadening the game genre’s reach and establishing a new approach to role-playing game design.
在《地主游戏》和《吸血鬼：化装舞会》这两个例子中，游戏都充当了社会背景，允许探索某些价值观和态度。此外，在这两个例子中，游戏的文化修辞都是设计师有意识地融入的。数字游戏设计师长期以来一直抱怨公众不认为游戏是媒体文化的重要形式。对这一抱怨的一个回答是，游戏设计师需要更严格地看待他们的游戏文化。认识到所有游戏都包含并认可特定的文化修辞是一个很好的开端。但如果我们想将人们对游戏的理解扩展到游戏亚文化以外的领域，扩展到艺术、文学和电影——或政治、朋克摇滚和学术——那么设计师需要更聪明地将文化修辞融入到游戏的实际设计中。
In each of the two examples—The Landlord’s Game and Vampire: The Masquerade—games act as social contexts that allow exploration of certain values and attitudes. Furthermore, in both cases the cultural rhetoric of the game was something consciously incorporated by the designers. There is a longstanding lament among digital game designers that the general public does not consider games an important form of media culture. One answer to this complaint is that game designers need to be more rigorous in how they conceive of their games as culture. Recognizing that all games contain and endorse particular cultural rhetorics is a good first step. But if we want to stretch people’s conceptions of games into spaces beyond gaming subcultures, into spaces occupied by art, literature and film—or politics, punk rock, and the academy—then designers need to be much smarter in how they incorporate cultural rhetorics in the actual design of their games.
性别修辞学
Rhetorics of Gender
现在应该清楚了：当游戏被定义为文化修辞时，它就是一种充满文化信仰和价值观的表达系统。设计师必须认识到文化修辞在游戏中是如何运作的，并据此进行设计。你在游戏中反映、复制和推广了哪些意识形态？你想让你的游戏忠实地描绘一套特定的信仰吗？还是你更愿意质疑、扭转或破坏它们？你能将文化修辞融入到游戏体验中，鼓励玩家真正地使用文化代码玩游戏吗？
By now it should be clear: when framed as cultural rhetoric, games are systems of representation imbued with cultural beliefs and values. Designers must recognize how cultural rhetorics operate within their games and design accordingly. What ideologies are you reflecting, replicating, and promoting in your game? Do you want your game to faithfully depict a particular set of beliefs? Or would you rather question, reverse, or undermine them? Can you incorporate cultural rhetoric into the very experience of your game, encouraging your players to actually play with cultural codes?
在设计时考虑文化修辞的挑战在于文化运作的复杂性。我们可以人为地将文化修辞从游戏中分离出来，例如《吸血鬼：化装舞会》反映和塑造了哥特亚文化，但亚文化本身及其与游戏的互动非常微妙。为了强调在游戏中使用修辞的挑战，我们将在接下来的几页中重点讨论一场涉及性别文化修辞的重要辩论。我们的目标不是对游戏中性别如何运作得出明确的结论，而是展示当我们将游戏定义为文化修辞的表达时所引发问题的复杂性。
The challenge of designing with cultural rhetorics in mind is the sheer complexity by which culture operates. We can artificially isolate cultural rhetoric in a game, such as the way that Vampire: The Masquerade reflects and informs Goth subculture, but the subculture itself and its interaction with the game are tremendously subtle. To highlight the challenges of using rhetorics within games, we focus for the next few pages on an important debate involving the cultural rhetoric of gender. Our goal is not to draw definitive conclusions about how gender operates in games, but instead to demonstrate the complexity of the issues raised when we frame games as expressions of cultural rhetoric.
研究性别的文化修辞意味着研究游戏如何反映、强化、质疑或颠覆关于男性和女性、男性和女性、变性人以及其他与性别认同有关的概念的文化观念。说游戏可以与性别意识形态互动，就意味着整个社会都存在性别文化规范。事实确实如此。从弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫到朱迪斯·巴特勒，许多思想家都对性别在文化中的社会建构和表现方式进行了评论，包括媒体表现在这种建构中所起的作用。最近，布伦达·劳雷尔、贾斯汀·卡塞尔、亨利·詹金斯等作家和其他学者研究了数字游戏中的性别表现。对游戏和性别的关注也延伸到了游戏设计师身上。游戏设计运动（大致称为Girl性别游戏（Gender Games）这一概念诞生于 20 世纪 90 年代初期，由一些对质疑和重塑有关性别和游戏的假设感兴趣的设计师和学者发起。
Investigating the cultural rhetorics of gender means examining the ways that games reflect, reinforce, question, or subvert cultural ideas about the categories of masculine and feminine, male and female, transgender and other concepts related to gendered identity. Saying that games can interact with ideologies of gender presupposes that gendered cultural codes exist within society at large. This is indeed the case. There is a long history of thinkers, from Virginia Woolf to Judith Butler, who have commented on the ways gender is socially constructed and performed in culture, including the role that media representations play in this construction. More recently, writers like Brenda Laurel, Justine Cassell, Henry Jenkins, and other scholars have examined the representation of gender within digital games. A concern for games and gender extends to game designers as well. A game design movement (loosely called Girl Games) was spawned in the early 1990s by designers and scholars interested in questioning and reinventing assumptions about gender and games.
我们不总结这些理论和人种学调查，因为其他地方已经详细介绍了这些材料（参见进一步阅读），而是探索游戏设计与性别文化修辞学相交的几种方式。我们的目的是展示任何特定的文化修辞学在游戏中运作的复杂性。我们之所以选择性别修辞学，是因为游戏界存在争论的历史。当然，我们还可以选择无数其他文化修辞学，从种族和民族的表现到殖民主义和帝国主义的叙述。
Rather than summarize these theoretical and ethnographic investigations, material that is well covered elsewhere (see Further Reading), we instead explore a few ways that game design intersects with cultural rhetorics of gender. Our intention is to demonstrate the complexities by which any particular cultural rhetoric operates in games. We selected the rhetoric of gender because of the history of the debate within gaming. There are certainly innumerable other cultural rhetorics we could have chosen as well, from the representation of race and ethnicity to narratives of colonialism and imperialism.
男孩游戏
Boy Games
媒体学者亨利·詹金斯 (Henry Jenkins) 是一位对游戏中的性别问题进行过广泛评论的作家。在《完全自由的行动：视频游戏作为性别游戏空间》一文中，詹金斯探讨了儿童文学中描述的男孩游戏空间的意识形态，以此来描述数字游戏中的当代表现形式。他认为，十九世纪和二十世纪早期男孩冒险故事的惯例影响了我们在当前视频游戏中看到的表现形式。詹金斯认为，诸如 Capcom 的《洛克人》和任天堂的《超级马里奥兄弟》等平台滚动游戏利用了冒险故事的图像。这些游戏允许玩家克服障碍、探索奇幻的土地、与凶猛的敌人战斗，甚至死亡（只能在关卡开始时重生）。最重要的是，这些游戏展现了惊心动魄、永无休止的动作。
One writer that has commented extensively on gender in games is media scholar Henry Jenkins. In his essay “Complete Freedom of Movement: Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces,” Jenkins explores the ideology of boy’s play spaces described in children’s literature, as a way of characterizing contemporary forms of representation in digital games. He argues that the conventions of the nineteenth and early twentieth century boy’s adventure story have affected the kinds of representation we see in current video games. Platform scrolling games such as Capcom’s Mega Man and Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers, according to Jenkins, utilize the iconography of adventure stories. These games allow players to struggle against obstacles, explore fantastic lands, fight menacing enemies, and even die (only to be reborn at the beginning of the level). Above all else these games exhibit thrilling, non-stop action.
在詹金斯看来，游戏的关卡和世界遵循冒险故事的固定结构，其中所有元素都被精简到其基本特征。情节和角色被简化为熟悉的类型原型，主要通过他们的行动能力来定义。同样，游戏设置遵循“冒险岛”的低俗模型，这是男孩书籍和游戏中的主要内容。这个岛屿代表着“一个远离家庭空间或成人监督的孤立世界，一个为那些拒绝屈服于文明进程压力的人准备的未驯服的世界，一个你寻求财富的梦幻岛。”9许多电子游戏明显体现了詹金斯所描述的冒险岛叙事的特征，因此反映了“男孩文化”的既定言论。
In Jenkins’ account, the games’ levels and worlds follow the set-piece structure of adventure stories, in which all elements are streamlined down to their essential features. The plots and characters are reduced to familiar genre archetypes, defined primarily through their capacity for action. Similarly, the game settings follow the pulp model of the “adventure island,” a staple of boy’s books and games. The island represents “an isolated world far removed from domestic space or adult supervision, an untamed world for people who refuse to bow before the pressures of the civilizing process, a never-never-land where you seek your fortune.”9 Many video games clearly embody features of the adventure island narrative as described by Jenkins, and therefore reflect established rhetorics of “boy culture.”
值得注意的是，性别的文化修辞并不局限于詹金斯引用的游戏的视觉设计。虽然这些游戏确实具有漫画书、卡通片和其他传统男孩文化的图形特征，但这些游戏的性别修辞也嵌入在它们的系统和互动维度中。正如詹金斯所写，“每个屏幕都充满了危险；每个场景都布满了陷阱和诡雷。一个屏幕可能需要你从一个悬崖跳到另一个悬崖，差点掉进下面的深渊。另一个可能需要你沿着树梢上的藤蔓荡来荡去，或者在地下通道中探险，同时还要与外星人大军战斗。”10游戏以动作为导向、以刺激为基础的互动性是男孩冒险原型的文化修辞的一部分。无论设计师是否有意，他们都在游戏本身的设计中重现了既定的性别修辞。
Significantly, the cultural rhetoric of gender is not restricted to the visual design of the games Jenkins cites. Although it is true that the games share the graphic trappings of comic books, cartoons, and other forms of traditional boy’s culture, the gendered rhetoric of these games is embedded in their systemic and interactive dimensions as well. As Jenkins writes, “Each screen overflows with dangers; each landscape is riddled with pitfalls and booby traps. One screen may require you to leap from precipice to precipice, barely missing falling into the deep chasms below. Another may require you to swing by vines across the treetops, or spelunk through an underground passageway, all the while fighting it out with the alien hordes.”10 The action-oriented, stimulus-based interactivity of the game is part of the cultural rhetoric of the boy’s adventure archetype. Whether the designers intended to or not, they were reproducing an established rhetoric of gender in the design of the game itself.
詹金斯的作品很好地展示了文化修辞如何影响游戏设计。男孩们发现自己喜欢的想象空间不仅仅是中立的游戏场所：它们是专门的性别空间，邀请男孩进入而将女孩拒之门外。詹金斯提到的游戏类型反映了性别的休闲偏好（刺激的不间断动作；家庭空间之外的场景），即使它们延续了这些偏好，也呼应了早期以类似方式运作的男孩文化类型。虽然这些游戏可能是新的，但它们所体现的修辞是从早期时代传承下来的。
Jenkins’ work offers a great example of how cultural rhetorics can impact game design. The imaginary spaces to which boys find themselves attracted are not just neutral places of play: they are specifically gendered spaces that invite boys in and keep girls out. The kinds of games Jenkins mentions reflect gendered leisure preferences (thrilling non-stop action; settings outside domestic spaces) even as they perpetuate them, echoing earlier genres of boy’s culture that operated in similar ways. Although the games may be new, the rhetoric they embody has been passed down from an earlier era.
翻转性别
Flipping the Gender Bit
詹金斯在文章中提到的游戏主要是 20 世纪 80 年代末和 90 年代初的主机或 PC 游戏。从那时起，数字游戏的图形分辨率变得越来越复杂，游戏性别表现的修辞也随之发生变化。一个重要的例子是《古墓丽影》系列中的主角劳拉·克劳馥。虽然《古墓丽影》游戏是 3D 的，而不是詹金斯研究的 2D 游戏，但它们和其他过肩动作冒险游戏都是“男孩游戏”平台滚动游戏的直接后代，例如《洛克人》和《超级马里奥兄弟》。尽管图形上有所不同，但避障、夺取能量、战斗和探索一系列关卡的游戏玩法非常相似。
The games Jenkins wrote about in his essay are primarily console or PC games from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Since that time, graphics resolution in digital games has become more complex—and along with it, the rhetoric of game gender representation. An important case in point is Lara Croft, the star of the popular Tomb Raider series. Although the Tomb Raider games are 3D rather than 2D like the games Jenkins studied, they and other over-the-shoulder action-adventure games are direct descendents of “boy’s game” platform scrollers like Mega Man and Super Mario Bros. The obstacle-avoiding, power-up-snatching, fight-and-explore-a-series-of-levels game play is remarkably similar, despite graphical differences.
因为这类游戏通常以男性角色为主，所以劳拉·克劳馥作为女性主角，在某种程度上是对性别文化修辞的干预。或者说，她真的是这样吗？“在我们创作《古墓丽影》的时候，我认为还没有一款以女主角为主角的好游戏，”劳拉的创造者、游戏设计师托比·加德评论道。“在劳拉之前，游戏中的大多数女性都穿着过膝长靴和人字拖。”11劳拉最初被设想为暴动女同性恋偶像坦克女郎和英国流行歌星妮妮·切里之间的结合体，后来发展成为印第安纳·琼斯的丰满女性版。根据加德的说法，最终的结果是“一个充满力量的女人……不是一个淫秽的性对象，而是一个难以接近的持枪婊子。”12
Because games of this type typically feature male characters, as a female lead Lara Croft is in some ways an intervention into the cultural rhetoric of gender. Or is she? “At the time we created Tomb Raider, I don’t think there had ever been a good game with a heroine,” remarks Toby Gard, the game designer credited as Lara’s creator. “Most women in games before Lara wore thigh-high boots and thongs.”11 Originally conceived as a cross between riot grrrl icon Tank Girl and British pop star Neneh Cherry, Lara developed into a buxom female version of Indiana Jones. The end result, according to Gard, was “an empowered woman . . . . Not a smutty sex object, but an inaccessible, gun-toting bitch.”12
从某种意义上说，加德是对的。在《古墓丽影》之前，很少有女性角色在游戏中扮演主动角色。之前的角色，如《蓝精灵救援》中的蓝妹妹和《超级马里奥》中的碧琪公主，都只是陷入困境的少女，是等待在最后一关被拯救的无助女性。这些角色是游戏结局的代名词，充当着欲望的被动对象，是引诱玩家完成游戏的诱饵。这种遥远而无能为力的女性是一个原型，与传统上年轻男孩世界的性别空间完美契合。女性在结构上被认为是欲望的源泉，但她在游戏中通常并不出现，而且肯定不会做任何有威胁性的事情，比如从男主角手中夺取主导地位。
Gard is correct in one sense. Prior to Tomb Raider, there were few female characters that played active roles in a game. Previous characters such as Smurfette in Smurf Rescue and Princess Toadstool in Super Mario were merely damsels in distress, helpless females waiting to be rescued at the end of the final level. These characters are synonymous with the end of the game, acting as passive objects of desire, the carrot held out to entice the player to finish. This remote and powerless female is an archetype that fits neatly into the traditionally gendered space of a young boy’s world. The female is structurally acknowledged as a source of desire, but she is not generally present during play, and certainly does nothing so threatening as usurp the leading role from the male protagonist.
《古墓丽影》为玩家提供了另一种游戏角色。劳拉·克劳馥是一位手持枪支的动作英雄，她是一个强大的角色，可以像任何男性角色一样踢人。但是劳拉·克劳馥是否达到了加德所描述的“女强人”的水平？女性角色的形象化方式有很多种，而劳拉这个角色代表了一些非常特殊的设计选择。她不切实际的短裤和紧身背心突出了她的细腰和巨大的胸部。劳拉确实不像许多其他女性游戏角色那样衣着暴露（例如《坏家伙》中挥舞着鞭子的女施虐者），但她很难成为“女强人”的典范。劳拉是一种动作荡妇，是青春期男孩心目中的女人，是数字海报女郎。自第一部《古墓丽影》游戏发布以来，游戏媒体上刊登的许多整页劳拉挑逗性图片都真实地展现了这一角色。劳拉本人就是一位潮流引领者：众多类似的游戏女性主角纷纷追随她的脚步。
Tomb Raider offers an alternative game role for players. Lara Croft is a gun-toting action hero, a powerful character that can kick ass as well as any male avatar. But does Lara Croft rise to the level of the “empowered woman” Gard describes? There were any number of ways that a female character might have been visualized, and the character of Lara represents some very specific design choices. Her impractical cut-off shorts and skintight tank top emphasize her waspy waist and enormous breasts. It is true that Lara is not as scantily clad as many other female game characters (such as the whip-wielding dominatrixes of Bad Dudes), but she is hardly the model for an “empowered woman.” Lara is a kind of action slut, an adolescent boy’s idea of a woman, a digital pin-up girl. This role is literally played out in the many provocative full-page images of Lara published throughout the gaming press since the first Tomb Raider game was released. Lara herself was a trend setter: scores of similar female game protagonists have followed in her wake.
劳拉如何体现出文化中普遍存在的性别意识形态？她强化了哪些价值观，又质疑了哪些价值观？作为一个强大而可玩的角色，劳拉挑战了女性游戏角色通常扮演的被动角色。事实上，《古墓丽影》游戏的女性消费者数量异常高。但作为一个过于性感的代表，她复制并夸大了其他媒体中女性的形象，而这些形象通常被视为物化和无权无势。
How does Lara play into ideologies of gender present within culture at large? Which values does she reinforce and which values does she call into question? As a powerful and playable avatar, Lara challenges the passive role usually accorded female game characters. In fact, a disproportionately high number of women have been consumers of the Tomb Raider games. But as an overtly sexualized representation, she replicates and exaggerates images of women found in other media, images often seen as objectifying and disempowering.
当我们考虑到劳拉的形象既是视觉的又是互动的，性别修辞就变得更加复杂了。除了她的“外表”，玩家与劳拉的互动如何强化性别修辞？我们从《游戏即 模拟游戏》中对沉浸式谬误的讨论中知道，玩家与游戏角色的关系从来都不是简单的。当玩家玩游戏时，他或她绝不会仅仅“沉浸”在一种表现中；通过元沟通过程，玩家意识到角色在游戏更大系统中的构造性质。游戏角色同时是主体和客体：一方面是要戴的面具，另一方面是观察和操纵的工具。劳拉·克劳馥将这个双重角色演绎到了自相矛盾的结局。从某种意义上说，《古墓丽影》玩家是一个极度性别歧视的女性形象的观众，即使同一个玩家在互动中扮演了一个赋予女性权力的角色。
The rhetoric of gender is complicated even further when we consider that the representation of Lara is composed both visually and interactively. Beyond her “looks,” how does a player’s interaction with Lara reinforce a rhetoric of gender? We know from our discussion of the immersive fallacy in Games as the Play of Simulation that players’ relationships to game characters are never simple. When a player plays a game, he or she is never merely “immersed” within a representation; through the process of metacommunication, the player is aware of the constructed nature of the character within the larger system of the game. A game avatar is simultaneously both subject and object: on one hand a mask to be worn, and on the other a tool to view and manipulate. Lara Croft plays out this double role to its paradoxical conclusion. In one sense, a Tomb Raider player is the spectator of a grossly sexist female image, even as the same player interactively takes on an empowering female role.
解开《古墓丽影》中复杂的性别文化修辞，仍然存在一些根本性的模糊之处。劳拉是女权主义的象征还是性别歧视的对象？她是挑战了性别刻板印象还是强化了这种刻板印象？也许我们永远无法最终解决这些问题。当我们考虑其他游戏中女性角色的表现时，就会出现类似的双重含义：
Unpacking the complex cultural rhetorics of gender in Tomb Raider, fundamental ambiguities remain. Is Lara a feminist icon or a sexist object? Does she challenge gender stereotypes or reinforce them? Perhaps we can never ultimately resolve these questions. When we consider representations of female characters in other games, similar double-meanings appear:
• Ms. Pac-Man可以说是第一个性别为女性的游戏角色。虽然她很可爱，但她肯定没有被赋予丰满的“女性”身材。相反，她只不过是 Pac-Man 的女性化版本，设计得好像口红和蝴蝶结就等同于女性。Pac-Man，男性动名词，是假定的中性身份。Ms. Pac-Man 是一个明显的特殊情况。
• Ms. Pac-Man is arguably the first game avatar gendered female. Although she is cute, she certainly wasn’t given a curvaceous “womanly” figure. Rather, she is nothing more than a feminized version of Pac-Man, designed as if lipstick and a bow were equivalent to being female. Pac-Man, the male gerund, is the presumed neutral identity. Ms. Pac-Man is the marked, special case.
•女性格斗游戏角色也为玩家提供了活跃的女性角色。但总的来说，这些角色与劳拉·克劳馥一样，都遭受了过度女性化的影响，甚至在游戏杂志的海报和海报中也出现了她的身影。当代格斗游戏的营销（吹捧“摇胸”等功能）强调了这些角色所体现的性别歧视刻板印象。
• Female Fighting Game Characters also offer active female roles for players to take on. But by and large, these characters suffer from the same hyperfeminization as Lara Croft, even joining her in game magazine pin-ups and posters. The marketing of contemporary fighting games (touting features such as a “breast jiggle” option) emphasize the sexist stereotypes these characters embody.
•热门游戏《银河战士》系列的女主角萨姆斯·阿兰是一名女性角色，在原版《银河战士》游戏中，她的性别直到游戏结束时才被揭开，当时她摘下了高科技头盔。这一巧妙的设计决定揭示了玩家对游戏角色性别的修辞假设——许多玩家都津津有味地回忆起《银河战士》男主角被揭开女主角的面纱时所感到的震惊。但为什么萨姆斯·阿兰只有在游戏结束时才能“出柜”成为女性？如果主角是男性，游戏的玩法或玩家的兴趣会有所不同吗？
• Samus Aran, the heroine of the popular Metroid series, is a female character that in the original Metroid game doesn’t reveal her gender until the end, when she removes her high-tech helmet. This clever design decision reveals the rhetorical presumptions players make about game character gender—many gamers recall with relish their shock when the hero of Metroid was unmasked as a heroine. But why is it only at the end of the game that Samus Aran can “come out” as a woman? Would the play of the game, or the interest of the players, be any different if the protagonist were male?
• SiSSYFiGHT 2000 中的女性角色既不是被动的 Toadstools 公主，也不是性别歧视的荡妇。她们是任性的女学生，可爱又丑陋，有意设计成对现有性别游戏表现文化修辞的俏皮干预。尽管有这些女权主义意图，但游戏中任性的女孩被批评为描绘了女性的负面形象，延续了女性行为刻板、爱说闲话的刻板印象。
• SiSSYFiGHT 2000 features unusual female characters that are neither passive Princess Toadstools nor sexist action sluts. They are bratty schoolgirls, equal parts cute and ugly, designed consciously as a playful intervention into existing cultural rhetorics of gendered game representation. Despite these feminist intentions, the bratty girls of the game have been criticized as portraying negative images of women, perpetuating stereotypes of catty, gossipy female behavior.
学术界、媒体界和整个文化界一直在无休止地争论媒体中的性别表现政治。最近游戏中女性主角的出现更是加剧了这些讨论。问题是，你的立场是什么？你对游戏中性别表现所做的任何设计决定都将与一种或另一种修辞形式有关。你的游戏应该体现的修辞形式没有单一的“正确”。但是，请注意你的游戏所反映和延续的修辞形式。游戏的文化维度极其复杂；你的游戏应该认识到这种复杂性，并在设计中公正对待它。
The politics of gender representation in media has been endlessly debated within the academy, the press, and culture at large. The recent visibility of female protagonists in games has only fueled these discussions. The question is, where do you stand? Any design decision you make regarding the representation of gender in your game will be connected to one form of rhetoric or another. There is no single “correct” rhetoric that your game should embody. However, be aware of the rhetorics that your game reflects and perpetuates. The cultural dimensions of games are exceedingly complex; your game should recognize this complexity and do it justice within its design.
改变空间
Transforming Spaces
不要绝望！文化修辞确实很复杂，但这并不意味着它们无法成功地融入游戏设计中。事实上，游戏有可能充分利用文化修辞的概念，不仅代表和挑战意识形态，而且改变它们。到目前为止，我们在本章中举的大多数例子都集中在魔法圈内部的意义空间如何反映游戏外部的文化修辞。《地主游戏》和《大富翁》都反映了现有的权力和经济观念，并旨在表达这些观念。但游戏不仅能够反映文化价值观，还能改变文化价值观。当这种情况发生时，外部环境就会受到游戏内部意识形态的影响。我们已经提到，游戏的文化游戏是在更僵化的文化结构中自由移动的。但当游戏改变和转变这些文化结构时，游戏就真正具有变革性：游戏产生的僵化结构本身会通过游戏行为进行重塑。
Do not despair! It’s true that cultural rhetorics are complicated, but that does not mean they cannot be successfully incorporated into a game design. In fact, it is possible for games to take the concept of cultural rhetoric by the horns, not only representing and challenging ideologies, but also changing them. Most of our examples so far in this chapter have focused on the way that the space of meaning internal to the magic circle reflects cultural rhetorics external to the game. Both The Landlord’s Game and Monopoly reflect existing ideas about power and economics and were designed to express these ideas. But games have the ability not only to reflect but to transform cultural values. When this happens, external contexts are shaped by ideologies internal to a game. We have already mentioned that the cultural play of a game is free movement within more rigid cultural structures. But when game play alters and shifts those cultural structures, the play becomes truly transformative: the rigid structures out of which play emerges are themselves reshaped through the very act of play.
新游戏运动是变革性游戏作为一种游戏设计实践的绝佳例子，它利用游戏来评论和试验新的文化和社区概念。新游戏运动是 20 世纪 60 年代旧金山反主流文化的产物，它认为人们玩的游戏类型和玩游戏的方式对社会具有重要意义。乔治·伦纳德在《新游戏书》中写道：“体育运动是任何社会的关键环节，我们如何玩游戏可能比我们想象的更重要，因为它代表了我们在这个世界的生存方式。”13新游戏运动并不只关注单个游戏的设计，而更关注一种旨在改变人们相互交流方式的精神的发展。它的目标是通过为人们创造合作游戏的机会来改变文化。
A wonderful example of transformative play as a game design practice is the New Games Movement, which utilized play to comment on and experiment with new conceptions of culture and community. An outgrowth of 1960s San Francisco counterculture, the New Games Movement believed that the kinds of games people play and the ways they play them are of major significance to society. “Sports represent a key joint in any society,” George Leonard writes in The New Games Book, “How we play the game may turn out to be more important than we imagine, for it signifies nothing less than our way of being in the world.”13 The New Games Movement was less about the design of individual games and more about the development of an ethos intended to alter the way people interacted with one another. Its goal was to transform culture by creating opportunities for people to play collaboratively.
尽情游戏、公平游戏、无人受伤。这三个核心原则指导着任何新游戏的设计（和游戏）。该运动组织了节日般的“锦标赛”，让人们聚在一起合作游戏，消除了（即使只是短暂的）种族、年龄、性别、体型、能力、社会经济背景和信仰的障碍。自由价值观和通过游戏创造社区被编织成一种乌托邦式的言论，提倡新形式的玩家赋权。正如伯纳德·德科文在《玩得好的游戏》中指出的那样，“无论我们创造什么游戏，无论我们玩得多好，它都是我们的游戏，我们可以在需要的时候改变它……这是一种令人难以置信的自由，一种比任何游戏都能做的更多的自由，一种我们培育游戏社区的自由。对玩得好的游戏的追求是将社区凝聚在一起的原因。但改变游戏的自由才是社区的力量所在。”14这种强有力且富有诗意的修辞将改变个人游戏的行为与改变更大的社会“游戏”融合在一起——这是新游戏运动的核心前提。
Play hard. Play fair. Nobody hurt. These three core principles order the design (and play) of any New Games game. The movement organized festival-like “Tournaments” that brought people together to play cooperatively, erasing (if only for a brief time) barriers of race, age, sex, size, ability, socioeconomic background, and creed. Values of freedom and the creation of community through game play were woven into a utopian rhetoric that advocated new forms of player empowerment. As Bernard DeKoven notes in The Well-Played Game, “No matter what game we create, no matter how well we are able to play it, it is our game, and we can change it when we need to . . . . This is an incredible freedom, a freedom that does more than any game can, a freedom with which we nurture the play community. The search for the well-played game is what holds the community together. But the freedom to change the game is what gives the community its power.”14 This powerful, poetic rhetoric conflates the act of changing an individual game with changing the larger “game” of society—a premise at the heart of the New Games Movement.
地球球是新游戏的经典设计，它清楚地体现了该运动的言论。地球球是斯图尔特·布兰德于 1966 年为旧金山州立大学反战者联盟赞助的一场公共活动而设计的，球体是一个巨大的充气球，上面画着大陆、海洋和旋转的云朵，由对立的队伍引导。这项运动只有一条规则，布兰德是这样解释的：“世界上有两种人：一种人想把地球推过球场一端的一排旗帜，另一种人想把它推过另一端的围栏。加油吧。”15这些简单的规则旨在使玩家互动和胜利条件正式化，当游戏首次开始时，它们创造了一个可能性空间，并产生了令人惊讶的意识形态结果：
Earthball, a classic New Games design, clearly embodies the movement’s rhetoric. Created in 1966 by Stewart Brand for a public event sponsored by the War Resisters League at San Francisco State College, Earthball involved a huge inflatable ball painted with continents, oceans, and swirling clouds, guided by opposing teams. The game had a single rule, which Brand explained in the following way: “There are two kinds of people in the world: those who want to push the Earth over a row of flags at that end of the field, and those that want to push it over the fence at the other end. Go to it.”15 Intended as a way of formalizing player interaction and victory conditions, when the game was first played these simple rules created a space of possibility with a surprising ideological outcome:
人们从两边冲向球，推搡着，欢呼着。球慢慢开始移动，先是向一端移动，然后又回到另一端。比赛越来越激烈。竞争非常激烈，但更有趣的事情正在发生。每当球接近球门时，获胜方的球员就会倒戈，帮助失败方……第一场地球球比赛持续了一个小时，没有得分。球员们一直在竞争，但并不是为了赢。他们心照不宣的、公认的协议是尽可能长时间、尽可能努力地比赛。16
People charged the ball from both sides, pushing and cheering. Slowly it began to move, first toward one end, then back to the other. The game got hotter. There was plenty of competition, but something more interesting was happening. Whenever the ball approached a goal, players from the winning side would defect to lend a hand to the losers . . . . That first Earthball game went on for an hour without a score. The players had been competing, but not to win. Their unspoken and accepted agreement had been to play, as long and hard as possible. 16
尽管该游戏的前提是两队之间的竞争，但出现的游戏方式却是完全合作的（在《游戏作为冲突系统》中定义的玩家合作意义上）。从旨在支持竞争互动的正式结构中出现合作游戏，证明了新游戏运动修辞的力量。游戏表面上可能看起来具有竞争性（两支球队面对相反的球门线），但玩家们实施了重视合作和游戏本身的文化修辞。这些哲学从游戏内部出现，改变了游戏，将传统的竞争性游戏变成了完全不同的东西。
Although the game was premised as a competition between two teams, the play that emerged was radically cooperative (in the sense of player cooperation defined in Games as Systems of Conflict). The emergence of collaborative play from a formal structure designed to support competitive interaction demonstrates the power of the New Games Movement rhetoric. The game may have looked competitive on the surface (two teams facing opposite goal lines), but the players enacted cultural rhetorics that valued collaboration and play-for-play’s sake. These philosophies emerged from within the game to transform the game, turning traditional competitive play into something else entirely.
后来的新游戏探索了更明确体现运动文化修辞的游戏结构。例如，游戏“捉龙尾”（在“游戏作为冲突系统”中首次提及）具有明确的获胜条件和目标，但某些玩家（在龙的中间）并不明确属于哪一队。名为“吸血鬼的新游戏”（在“游戏作为模拟游戏”中分析，不要与 LARP 游戏“吸血鬼：化装舞会”混淆）也涉及竞争、合作和胜利条件。游戏的结局可能是玩家全部变成吸血鬼或全部治愈吸血鬼状态；在这两种情况下，最初异质的群体都会转变为同质平等的状态。
Later New Games games explored game structures that more explicitly embodied the cultural rhetorics of the movement. For example, the game of Catch the Dragon’s Tail (first mentioned in Games as Systems of Conflict), has a definite winning condition and goal, but certain players (in the dragon’s middle) are not clearly on one team or the other. The New Game titled Vampire (analyzed in Games as the Play of Simulation, not to be confused with the LARP game Vampire: The Masquerade) also plays with competition, collaboration, and victory conditions. The game can end with the players either all turned into vampires or all cured of their vampirism; in both cases the initially heterogeneous group resolves to a state of homogenous equality.
新游戏运动成功了吗？它是否成功地按照其创始人的意图改变了社会？是的，也不是。尽管新游戏运动在近几十年中逐渐衰落，但它对美国的体育教育产生了巨大的影响。如果你在小学体育课上玩过巨大的橡胶地球球或降落伞，那么你应该感谢新游戏运动，它帮助将传统的以运动为基础的体育课程转变为一种更以游戏为中心、合作学习的体验。
Was the New Games Movement a success? Did it manage to transform society in the way that its founders intended? Yes and no. Although the New Games Movement has waned in recent decades, it asserted tremendous influence on physical education in the United States. If you played with a giant rubber Earthball or a parachute in your elementary school gym class, you can thank the New Games Movement, which helped transform the traditionally sports-based curriculum of phys ed into a more play-centric, cooperative learning experience.
新游戏运动的成功很大程度上得益于它与其他形式的反主流文化的关系。例如，新游戏“锦标赛”将和平抗议的共同性与艺术盛会的文化虚无主义融合在一起。毫无疑问，在许多方面，新游戏运动及其游戏设计都源自特定的文化环境。但该运动独特的变革议程确实鼓舞人心。新游戏运动利用游戏和社交互动的规则和惯例，寻求通过游戏创造积极的社会变革。它不是通过创造具有明确政治内容的游戏来实现这一点，而是通过设计本质上体现其乌托邦理想的游戏体验来实现这一点。在当今的游戏设计中，还有类似运动的空间吗？新游戏运动是其历史时刻的产物，今天不可能以完全相同的形式复活。但游戏设计师可以采用变革性修辞，将它们作为一场强大的游戏革命在文化中释放出来，这一想法绝非不切实际。它确实发生过；它可以再次发生。
Much of the success of the New Games Movement emerged because of its relationships with other forms of counterculture. New Games “Tournaments,” for example, mixed the communality of a peace protest with the cultural nihilism of an art happening. There is no doubt that in many ways the New Games Movement and its game designs emerged out of a particular cultural milieu. But the uniquely transformative agenda of the movement is truly inspiring. Playing with the codes and conventions of gaming and social interaction, the New Games Movement sought to create positive social change through play. It did so not by creating games with explicit political content, but by designing play experiences that intrinsically embodied its utopian ideals. Is there room for a similar movement in present-day game design? The New Games Movement was a function of its historical moment, and could not be revived in precisely the same form today. But the notion that game designers could take on transformative rhetorics, unleashing them in culture as a mighty revolution of play, is by no means unrealistic. It did happen; it can happen again.
战斗玩具
Battling Toys
现在应该很清楚，我们可以用无数种方式将游戏的人造意义空间与整个世界的价值观和意识形态联系起来。我们在本章中探讨的每个例子都有一个共同的前提：游戏是文化的一部分。无论游戏反映或改变了经济阶层、亚文化风格、性别认同或乌托邦社区的概念，它们都体现了事物现状的想法，甚至是我们希望它们成为的样子。
By now it should be clear that we can connect games’ artificial spaces of meaning to the values and ideologies of the world at large in countless ways. Each of the examples we explored within this chapter shares a common premise: games are part of culture. Whether they reflect or transform notions of economic class, subcultural style, gender identity, or utopian community, games exemplify ideas about the ways things are, or even the way we would like them to be.
本章最后探讨了文化修辞在特定游戏设计背景下的反映和转变。《玩具》是 Eric 在 2000 年西雅图贝尔维尤艺术博物馆驻留期间与学童合作创作的一款双人游戏。该设计模仿了《神奇宝贝》等游戏的战斗角色结构，以儿童为玩具创造的丰富社会准则为食——玩家通过居住、解释和争论这些准则来玩游戏。
This chapter concludes by exploring the reflection and transformation of cultural rhetoric in the context of a particular game design. Toys is a game for two players Eric created in collaboration with school children during a residency at the Bellevue Museum of Art in Seattle in 2000. The design mimics the battling character structure of a game like Pokémon, feeding on the rich social codes created by children for their toys—one plays the game by inhabiting, interpreting, and disputing these codes.
游戏开始时，每个玩家从西雅图跳蚤市场淘来的大量玩偶中挑选三个角色玩具；然后这些玩偶一个接一个地互相“战斗”。玩具之间的战斗通过模块化句子进行，这些句子由一组 44 张卡片随机构成。这些语句，例如“女性玩具打败了不想要的玩具”或“美国玩具打败了昂贵的玩具”，决定了冲突的结果。一旦发出句子，就由玩家通过解释语句并就哪个玩具被认定为胜利者达成一致来解决这对玩具之间的战斗。
To begin the game, each player selects three character toys from a large collection of action figures scavenged from Seattle flea markets; the figures then “fight” with each other one by one. The battles between toys are waged via modular sentences, randomly constructed from a set of 44 cards. These statements, such as “The female toy beats the unwanted toy,” or “The American toy beats the expensive toy,” determine the outcome of conflict. Once the sentence has been dealt, it is up to the players to resolve the battle between the pair of toys by interpreting the statement and coming to an agreement on which toy it identifies as the victor.
玩具：一款适合两人玩的社交游戏。
Toys: A social game for two players.
设置：
Setup:
• 每位玩家选择 3 个玩具来创建自己的玩具收藏。
• Each player selects 3 toys to create his or her toy collection.
• 洗牌并给每位玩家发 2 张游戏卡。将这些卡隐藏起来。
• Shuffle the game cards and deal 2 to each player. Keep these cards hidden.
• 将剩余的卡片面朝下放在一堆。
• Place the rest of the cards face-down in a pile.
目的：
Object:
游戏的目标是击败对手的玩具收藏。
The goal of the game is to defeat your opponent’s toy collection.
游戏玩法：
Game play:
首先，每个玩家选择一个玩具进行战斗。从牌堆中发出两张牌，正面朝上，放在游戏板上印有虚线的矩形上。结果将是这样的陈述：“裸体玩具打败了暴力玩具。”
First, each player selects one toy to fight. Deal two cards from the deck face-up and place onto the dotted line rectangles printed on the gameboard. The result will be a statement like, “The naked toy beats the violent toy.”
然后，两位玩家必须根据语句对两个玩具的最佳应用来决定比赛的结果。如果玩家无法达成一致，则发两张新牌来创建新语句。在游戏的任何时候，玩家都可以使用发给他们的两张牌来更改棋盘上的语句。
Both players must then decide the result of the match based on the best application of the statement to the two toys. If the players cannot agree, deal two new cards to create a new statement. At any point in the game, players can use the two cards they were dealt to change the statement on the board.
比赛结束后，失败者从自己的收藏中挑选一个新玩具来对抗获胜的玩具。如果你击败了对手的所有三个玩具，你就赢了。
After a match the loser selects a new toy from his or her collection to face the winning toy. If you defeat all three of your opponent’s toys, you win.
冲突是每个游戏的内在组成部分。正如我们在《游戏即模拟游戏》中概述的那样，游戏冲突通常是领土军事冲突、数字经济冲突或固定知识单元冲突。然而，玩具的设计提出了另一种模式。虽然它表面上类似于格斗游戏，但实际上，它是一种文化冲突游戏。玩具之间的战斗将文化特征与文化特征（昂贵、流行、美国、女性）对立起来，并通过在共享的意义系统中对这些特征进行明确的排名来解决。每场比赛的结局取决于玩具象征价值的协商。例如，为了得出变形金刚玩具比大鸟玩具更具男性气概的结论，玩家必须同意一个玩具在相对男性化方面的价值超过另一个玩具。玩具的合作元素如此引人注目的原因在于，玩家不仅要共同努力满足一组胜利条件（这个玩具打败那个玩具），还要驾驭丰富的文化符号。游戏通过使用不只一个比较词而是两个比较词（美国玩具打败了昂贵的玩具）使这种谈判变得复杂，并且允许玩家在游戏过程中进行两次干预，以策略性地改变语言方程。
Conflict is an intrinsic part of every game. As we outlined in Games as the Play of Simulation, game conflict is typically a territorial military conflict, a numerical economic conflict, or a conflict over fixed units of knowledge. The design of Toys, however, presents an alternative model. Although it superficially resembles a fighting game, in actuality, it is a game of cultural conflict. Battles between toys pit cultural feature against cultural feature (expensive, popular, American, female) and are resolved through an explicit ranking of these features within a shared system of meaning. The resolution of each match rests in the negotiation of the toys’ symbolic value. In order to reach the conclusion that a Transformer toy is more masculine than a Big Bird figure, for example, players must agree that the value of one toy exceeds that of the other when it comes to relative maleness. What makes the collaborative element of Toys so compelling is that players work together not only to meet a set of victory conditions (this toy beats that toy) but also to navigate a rich playground of cultural signs. The game complexifies this negotiation by using not just one comparative term but two (the American toy beats the expensive toy) and by allowing players to intervene twice during a game to strategically change the linguistic equation.
Toys 中生成的语句包含高度的战略和文化模糊性；解决这种模糊性是游戏的重点。虽然有许多游戏会奖励玩家的文化知识（例如 Trivial Pursuit），但这些游戏通常会为游戏问题提供正确答案。Toys 不会提供比赛结果的正确或错误答案；游戏依靠玩家的权威来确定答案。在大多数游戏中，玩家应该为自己的利益行事。但 Toys 颠覆了游戏的传统权威结构：相反，它玩家不再依靠游戏规则来解决每轮冲突，而是必须通过可能激烈的谈判来解决战斗。
The statements generated in Toys contain a high degree of strategic and cultural ambiguity; resolving this ambiguity is the point of the play. Although there are many games that reward players for cultural knowledge (such as Trivial Pursuit), these games generally provide correct answers to game questions. Toys does not provide the right or wrong answer to the resolution of a match; the game instead relies on the players’ authority in determining the answer. In most games, players are expected to act in their own self-interest. But Toys turns the conventional authority structure of a game inside-out: instead of relying on the rules of the game to resolve the conflict each turn, players must resolve the battles through a potentially heated negotiation.
在开发和测试这款游戏时，埃里克惊讶地发现，两名玩家几乎从来不会毫无理由地宣称自己获胜，但几乎总是能迅速达成一致，确定哪个玩具赢得了冲突。实际上，这款游戏揭示了儿童游戏文化中流传的各种意义是共享的，通过它们共同的价值，它们获得了事实的地位——这一事实甚至压倒了玩家的获胜欲望。《玩具》是一款关于复杂社会和文化体系协商的游戏，它说明了种族、阶级、性别和美学的象征性代码如何在整个文化中传播。在整个游戏中，玩具的文化地位的标志被用作冲突和解决的基础。知道哪个玩具比另一个“更强大”、“更快”或“更受欢迎”，不仅使游戏成为可能，而且也很有趣。沼泽怪物对战我的小马驹：荒谬的玩具打败了裸体玩具。谁赢了？
In developing and testing the game with school children, Eric found to his surprise that two players would virtually never both gratuitously claim victory, but almost always reached rapid mutual agreement on which toy won a conflict. In effect, the game revealed that the kinds of meanings circulated in children’s play culture are shared, and through their shared value, they acquire the status of fact—a fact that overrides even a player’s desire to win. A game about the negotiation of complex social and cultural systems, Toys illustrates how symbolic codes of race, class, gender, and aesthetics circulate within culture at large. Throughout the game, the signifiers of a toy’s cultural status are used as the basis for both conflict and resolution. Knowing which toy is “stronger,” “faster,” or more “popular” than the other not only makes the game possible but fun as well. The Swamp Thing versus My Little Pony: The ridiculous toy beats the naked toy. Who wins?
正如 Toys 以幽默的方式展示的那样，游戏是文化学习的社会背景。游戏总是反映出其设计或游戏空间的文化修辞；有些游戏甚至可以改变其背景的意识形态。游戏设计的真正挑战是不仅仅从表面层面参与文化修辞。与其仅仅将政治内容或文化叙事的外表应用到游戏中，你如何将对文化修辞的质疑或重塑嵌入到实际游戏中？这些都是真正困难的设计问题。但对于寻求在形式或体验层面之外创造有意义的游戏的游戏设计师来说，对于想要探索文化本身的游戏和创新的游戏设计师来说，游戏作为文化修辞是一种不可或缺的设计工具。
As Toys playfully demonstrates, games are social contexts for cultural learning. Games always reflect the cultural rhetorics of the spaces in which they were designed or played; some games can even transform the ideologies of their contexts. The real game design challenge is to engage with cultural rhetoric on more than just a superficial level. Rather than merely applying a veneer of political content or cultural narrative to your game, how can you embed your questioning or refashioning of cultural rhetoric into the actual play itself? These are truly difficult design problems. But for game designers seeking to create meaningful play on not just a formal or experiential level, for game designers that want to explore play and innovation in culture itself, Games as Cultural Rhetoric is an indispensable design tool.
玩具：样品扑克牌
Toys: sample playing cards
玩具：游戏板
Toys: gameboard
进一步阅读
Further Reading
空气吉他，作者：Dave Hickey
Air Guitar, by Dave Hickey
文章“区域防守的异端”是文化评论家戴夫·希基写给篮球比赛的一封情书，是一篇关于规则民主的批评文章。这是一篇关于打破规则的乐趣和 J 博士的艺术性的有趣而动人的文章，文章明确了游戏、文化和游戏规则表达和利用的经常隐藏的意识形态之间的联系。
The essay “The Heresy of Zone Defense” is cultural critic Dave Hickey’s love letter to the game of Basketball, couched as a critical essay on the democracy of rules. A funny and moving piece on the joys of rule-breaking and the artistry of Dr. J, the text makes clear the connection between games, culture, and the often hidden ideologies that the rules of a game express and exploit.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
“区域防守的异端”
“The Heresy of Zone Defense”
《游戏的模糊性》，作者：布莱恩·萨顿·史密斯
The Ambiguity of Play, by Brian Sutton-Smith
布莱恩·萨顿-史密斯 (Brian Sutton-Smith) 对游戏研究做出了巨大贡献。从某种程度上说，这项工作是他数十年研究的总结，是他对文化中的游戏和游戏进行跨学科研究的关键。在书中，萨顿-史密斯概述了构成游戏的七种主要“修辞”或意识形态，并探讨了每种修辞如何提供对我们游戏的方式和原因的不同理解。
Brian Sutton-Smith has made monumental contributions to the study of play. This work is in some ways a summation of his decades of study, a skeleton key to his interdisciplinary investigations of play and games in culture. In the book, Sutton-Smith outlines seven primary “rhetorics” or ideologies framing play and explores how each rhetoric offers a different understanding of how and why we play.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第一章：游戏与模糊性
Chapter 1: Play and Ambiguity
第 2-11 章重点讨论游戏的七种修辞
Chapters 2–11 focus on the seven rhetorics of play
从芭比娃娃到真人快打：性别与电脑游戏，贾斯汀·卡塞尔 (Justine Cassell) 和亨利·詹金斯 (Henry Jenkins) 编辑。
From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games, Justine Cassell and Henry Jenkins, eds.
本书收录了一系列文章，重点探讨了女孩与电脑游戏之间的联系，以及这种联系所引发的各种文化和性别认同。大部分讨论都基于“女孩游戏”运动的早期研究，该运动认为女孩的游戏模式和兴趣与男孩不同。该运动的意识形态本身也受到了攻击，本书最后一篇文章就是一个典型例子，推荐如下。
A collection of essays focusing on connections between girls and computer games and the kinds of cultural and gender identities evoked by such connections. Much of the discussion is based on the early research of the Girl Games movement, which argued that girls have play patterns and interests different from those of boys. The ideology of this movement has itself come under attack, represented by the book’s final essay, recommended below.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第 1 章：女孩子玩国际象棋？女权主义和电脑游戏
Chapter 1: Chess for Girls? Feminism and Computer Games
第 12 章：“完全的行动自由”：电子游戏作为性别游戏空间
Chapter 12: “Complete Freedom of Movement”: Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces
第14章战区的声音：游戏女孩的回应
Chapter 14: Voices from the Combat Zone: Game Grrlz Talk Back
文化的解释，克利福德·格尔茨
The Interpretation of Cultures, by Clifford Geertz
在经典文章《深度游戏：巴厘岛斗鸡笔记》中，人类学家克利福德·格尔茨认为，游戏等仪式的功能是解释性的。游戏是一种文化对自身经验的解读，是人们自己讲述的关于自己的故事。在理解游戏如何作为文化修辞形式发挥作用时，从游戏讲述的关于游戏所在文化的故事类型来思考游戏是很有帮助的。
In the classic essay “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight,” anthropologist Clifford Geertz argues that the function of rituals such as games is interpretive. Games are a culture’s reading of its own experience, a story that people tell themselves about themselves. In understanding how games can operate as forms of cultural rhetoric it is useful to think about them in regard to the kinds of stories games tell about the cultures in which they are played.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
《深度游戏：巴厘岛斗鸡笔记》
“Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight”
1999 年 5 月 4 日，亨利·詹金斯在美国参议院商务委员会作证
Testimony Before the U. S. Senate Commerce Committee, May 4, 1999, by Henry Jenkins
< http://brownback.senate.gov/FinishedDocs/MediaViolence/990504jen.pdf >
<http://brownback.senate.gov/FinishedDocs/MediaViolence/990504jen.pdf>
詹金斯是麻省理工学院比较媒体研究项目主任。1999 年 5 月，他应邀在美国参议院委员会就电子游戏和暴力的影响发表演讲。詹金斯对媒体和行为之间的联系提出了令人信服的论据，揭穿了媒体中普遍宣扬的许多神话。詹金斯认为，媒体和暴力之间存在复杂的关系，不能归结为单一的论点。
Jenkins is the Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT. In May 1999, he was invited to speak in front of the U. S. Senate committee on the effects of video games and violence. Jenkins makes a compelling argument against links between medium and behavior, debunking many of the myths commonly touted in the media. According to Jenkins, media and violence have a complex relationship that cannot be reduced to singular arguments.
笔记
Notes
1. Simon Kuper，《世界游戏不仅仅是游戏》，《纽约时报》周日杂志，2002 年 5 月 26 日。
1. Simon Kuper, “The World’s Game Is Not Just A Game,” The New York Times Sunday Magazine, May 26, 2002.
2. Brian Sutton-Smith，《游戏的模糊性》（波士顿：哈佛大学出版社，2001 年），第 77 页。
2. Brian Sutton-Smith, The Ambiguity of Play (Boston: Harvard University Press, 2001), p. 77.
3. E.M. Avedon 和 Brian Sutton Smith 编辑，《游戏研究》（纽约：Wiley，1971 年），第 274 页。
3. E. M. Avedon and Brian Sutton Smith, editors, The Study of Games (New York: Wiley, 1971), p. 274.
4 . Sutton-Smith，《游戏的模糊性》，第 8 页。
4. Sutton-Smith, The Ambiguity of Play, p. 8.
5. Nwokah 和 Ikekeonwu，《尼日利亚和美国儿童游戏》，《游戏研究》第 1 卷。游戏领域的消遣和分歧。Margaret C. Duncan、Garry Chick 和 Alan Aycock 编辑。（纽约：Ablex/Greenwood 出版公司，1998 年），第 61 页。
5. Nwokah and Ikekeonwu, “Nigerian and American Children’s Games,” in The Study of Play, Vol 1. Diversions and Divergences in Fields of Play. Margaret C. Duncan, Garry Chick, and Alan Aycock, eds. (New York: Ablex/Greenwood Publishing Company, 1998), p. 61.
6 . Sutton-Smith，《游戏的模糊性》，第 7-17 页。
6. Sutton-Smith, The Ambiguity of Play, p. 7–17.
7. Burton H. Wolfe，《垄断的垄断：莉齐·玛吉的故事》，《旧金山湾区卫报》，1976 年。
7. Burton H. Wolfe, “The Monopolization of Monopoly: The Story of Lizzie Magie,” The San Francisco Bay Guardian, 1976.
8. Greg Costikyan，《RE: PLAY：游戏设计 + 游戏文化》。在线会议，2000 年。< www.eyebeam.org/replay >。
8. Greg Costikyan, RE: PLAY: Game Design + Game Culture. Online conference, 2000. <www.eyebeam.org/replay>.
9. Henry Jenkins，《完全的行动自由：电子游戏作为性别游戏空间》。《从芭比娃娃到真人快打：性别与电脑游戏》 ，由 Justine Cassell 和 Henry Jenkins 编辑（剑桥：麻省理工学院出版社，1998 年），第 279 页。
9. Henry Jenkins, “Complete Freedom of Movement: Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces.” In From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games, edited by Justine Cassell and Henry Jenkins (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998), p. 279.
10.同上，第280页。
10. Ibid., p. 280.
11 . Katie Salen，《锁、枪托和枪管：数字警报的性诱惑》。《性吸引力：平面和广告设计中的诱惑艺术》，由 Steven Heller 编辑（纽约：Allworth Press，2000 年），第 148 页。
11. Katie Salen, “Lock, Stock, and Barrel: Sexing the Digital Siren. In Sex Appeal: The Art of Allure in Graphic and Advertising Design, edited by Steven Heller (New York: Allworth Press, 2000), p. 148.
12.同上，第149页。
12. Ibid., p. 149.
13. Andrew Fluegelman 和 Shoshana Tembeck合著《新游戏书》（纽约：Doubleday，1976 年），第 10 页。
13. Andrew Fluegelman and Shoshana Tembeck The New Games Book (New York: Doubleday, 1976), p. 10.
14. Bernard DeKoven，《玩得好的游戏》（纽约：Doubleday，1978 年），第 68 页。
14. Bernard DeKoven, The Well-Played Game (New York: Doubleday, 1978), p. 68.
15 . Fluegelman 和 Tembeck，《新游戏书》，第 9 页。
15. Fluegelman and Tembeck, The New Games Book, p. 9.
16.同上。
16. Ibid.
游戏作为文化修辞
概括
• 游戏是文化学习的社会背景。这意味着游戏具有意识形态的维度：游戏是社会传递价值观的一种背景。
• Games are social contexts for cultural learning. This means that games have an ideological dimension: they are one context through which society passes on its values.
•修辞是一种具有说服力的话语或隐含的文化叙事。它是一组相互关联的思想，用于说服他人相信自己信念的真实性。
• Rhetoric is a persuasive discourse or implicit cultural narrative. It is a set of connected ideas used to convince others of the truthfulness of one’s own beliefs.
• 所有游戏都反映了其设计或游戏的文化背景的修辞。历史游戏和当代游戏都是如此。
• All games reflect the rhetoric of the cultural context in which they are designed or played. This is true of both historical and contemporary games.
• 文化修辞可以是游戏意识形态的无意识方面，也可以是有意识地设计到游戏中的。当游戏设计师允许文化修辞进入游戏玩法时，他们正在更严格的文化结构中创造一种自由游戏的实例。
• Cultural rhetorics can be an unconscious aspect of a game’s ideology or they can be consciously designed into a game. When game designers allow cultural rhetorics to enter into the play of a game, they are creating an instance of free play within more rigid cultural structures.
• Brian Sutton-Smith 确定了七种游戏修辞法。四种修辞法源自古代意识形态——命运、权力、身份和轻浮。三种修辞法起源于更现代的思想：进步、想象和自我。当代西方文化的流行修辞法是游戏即进步：游戏是为儿童而设的，游戏的价值在于它能帮助他们正常地成长为成年人。
• Brian Sutton-Smith identifies seven rhetorics of play. Four rhetorics stem from ancient ideologies—fate, power, identity, and the frivolous. Three rhetorics have more contemporary origins: progress, the imaginary, and the self. The prevalent rhetoric of contemporary Western culture is play as progress: the notion that play is for children and that it is valuable because it helps them properly evolve into adults.
• 文化修辞，例如游戏中的性别表现，极其复杂。此类修辞并不总是归结为单一的意识形态解释。例如，尽管游戏角色劳拉·克劳馥在某些方面挑战了以男孩为基础的游戏修辞，但在其他方面，该角色遵循了严格的性别刻板印象。
• Cultural rhetorics, such as the representation of gender in games, are exceedingly complex. Such rhetorics do not always resolve into a single ideological interpretation. For example, although the game character of Lara Croft challenges rhetorics of boy-based play in some respects, in other respects the character follows rigid gender stereotypes.
• 有时游戏的文化修辞可以改变其所处的文化结构。这就是变革性文化游戏现象。
• Sometimes the cultural rhetorics of a game can change the cultural structures in which they exist. This is the phenomenon of transformative cultural play.
• 新游戏运动是游戏设计意识形态的一个例子，它有意识地寻求通过特定形式的社区和游戏设计来改变文化修辞。
• The New Games Movement is an example of a game design ideology that consciously sought to transform cultural rhetorics through specific forms of community and play design.
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游戏作为开放文化
GAMES AS OPEN CULTURE
变革性文化游戏
transformative cultural play
玩家兼制作人
player-as-producer
开源
open source
元游戏
metagaming
非等级制
non-hierarchical
无障碍
accessible
非引导式
non-guided
新兴
emergent
游戏系统
game systems
机械电影
machinima
我认为，我们对事物如何产生、如何制造以及如何运作的认识发生了变化……从工程范式（即设计范式）转变为生物范式（即文化和进化范式）。现在，在很多领域，人们都在问，你如何在底层创造条件，让你想要发生的事情得以发展？ ——布莱恩·伊诺
I think one of the changes of our consciousness of how things come into being, of how things are made and how they work . . . is the change from an engineering paradigm, which is to say a design paradigm, to a biological paradigm, which is a cultural and evolutionary one. In lots and lots of areas now, people say, How do you create the conditions at the bottom to allow the growth of the things you want to happen?—Brian Eno
引入开放文化
Introducing Open Culture
2001 年，音乐家布莱恩·伊诺在伦敦当代艺术学院做了一个讲座，将他的创作过程与约翰·康威的《生命游戏》联系起来。生命“游戏”是我们第一次在《游戏作为新兴系统》中遇到的，它从一组非常简单的规则中创造出意想不到的事件模式。伊诺沿着类似的思路，从简单算法的相互作用中创作出意想不到的音乐作品。在评论中，伊诺将生成音乐的设计挑战归结为为他的系统编写规则的难度：“你如何在底层创造条件，让你想要发生的事情得以发展？”新兴系统的设计者从不直接设计实际的行为或结果。相反，他或她只能设计形式结构，然后继续产生事件模式。游戏设计师面临着类似的挑战，直接设计规则，但只能间接地创造游戏。由于游戏是新兴的，因此不可能完全预测给定的规则集将如何在特定的游戏体验中发挥作用。
In 2001 at the Institute for Contemporary Art in London, musician Brian Eno gave a lecture linking his compositional process to John Conway’s Game of Life. The “game” of Life, something we first encountered in Games as Emergent Systems, creates unexpected patterns of events out of a very simple set of rules. Working along similar lines, Eno generates unexpected musical compositions from the interactions of simple algorithms. In his comments, Eno identified the design challenge of generative music as the difficulty of writing the rules for his system: “How do you create the conditions at the bottom to allow the growth of the things you want to happen?” The designer of an emergent system is never directly designing actual behavior or outcomes. Instead, he or she can only design the formal structures that then go on to produce patterns of events. A game designer faces a similar challenge, designing rules directly but only indirectly creating play. Because games are emergent, it is not possible to fully anticipate how a given set of rules will play out in a particular play experience.
现在你应该已经熟悉这些概念了。在《游戏作为新兴系统》中，我们看到了游戏耦合且依赖于情境的形式操作如何产生意想不到的复杂性。在我们的游戏模式中，我们进一步研究了这一现象：探索游戏中新兴的相同但不同的品质如何诱使玩家重复玩游戏；或者像黑手党这样的简单社交游戏如何产生新兴的社交游戏；或者新兴（而不是嵌入式）叙事游戏结构如何产生意想不到的故事结果。但文化呢？将游戏定义为文化新兴系统意味着什么？游戏产生的复杂游戏不仅发生在形式或体验层面，也发生在文化层面。我们从“系统”一章中知道，游戏可以被视为开放或封闭系统。封闭系统不允许游戏与其环境之间的交换；开放系统允许。当游戏被视为开放文化系统时，可能性空间就会扩大到包括魔法圈之外的背景。游戏与其周围文化背景之间的意义交换可以改变和转变游戏及其环境。
These concepts should be familiar by now. In Games as Emergent Systems, we saw how the coupled and context-dependent formal operations of a game give rise to unexpected complexity. In our PLAY schemas, we investigated this phenomenon further: exploring how the emergent same-but-different quality of a game seduces players into repeat play; or how a simple social game like Mafia can produce emergent social play; or how emergent (as opposed to embedded) narrative game structures produce unexpected story outcomes. But what about CULTURE? What would it mean to frame games as culturally emergent systems, where the complex play produced by the game occurs not just on a formal or experiential level, but on a cultural level as well? We know from our chapter on Systems that games can be considered either open or closed systems. Closed systems do not permit exchange between the game and its environment; open systems do. When a game is considered as an open culture system, the space of possibility is expanded to include contexts outside the magic circle. The exchange of meaning between a game and its surrounding cultural context can change and transform both the game and its environment.
这一架构，即“游戏作为开放文化”，源自两个主张：游戏的新兴、开放式玩法可以在文化层面上发生；游戏作为一个开放系统，可以与周围的环境交换意义。游戏作为开放文化建立在我们之前“文化”章节的见解之上，同时对其进行了相当大的扩展。这一架构还更具体地将我们带回了设计领域。将游戏定义为开放文化提醒我们，即使作为一种文化，游戏也是由设计元素组成的系统，这些元素相互作用以产生新兴的文化效应。设计为开放文化的游戏允许玩家以某种方式访问游戏结构并直接改变其意义。但这种变化的程度如何？游戏与其环境之间的意义交换有多深？游戏系统是否会在审美层面受到影响，例如当玩家定制游戏角色的皮肤时？游戏系统是否会在体验层面受到影响，例如自定义模组增加了新的交互可能性？还是游戏规则本身在代码层面发生了变化？这些变革性影响如何改变游戏的文化意义？
This schema, Games as Open Culture, stems from two propositions: that the emergent, open-ended play of a game can occur on a cultural level; and that as an open system, games exchange meaning with their surrounding contexts. Games as Open Culture builds on the insights of our previous CULTURE chapters, while expanding them considerably. This schema also brings us back more concretely into the realm of design. Framing games as open culture reminds us that even as culture, games are systems composed of designed elements that interact to produce emergent cultural effects. A game designed as open culture allows players in some way to access the game structure and directly change its meanings. But what is the extent of this change? How deep is the exchange of meanings between the game and its context? Is the game system affected on an aesthetic level, as when the skins of game avatars are customized by players? Is the game system affected on the level of experience, as in a custom mod that adds new interactive possibilities? Or are the game rules themselves changed, at the level of code? How does each of these transformative effects change the cultural meaning of the game?
发明珍妮
Inventing Jenny
什么是开放文化游戏？让我们从一个例子开始。大型多人在线角色扮演游戏《网络创世纪》推出后，游戏的开放性立即催生了丰富的游戏风格生态系统。《网络创世纪》的技能系统支持一系列令人印象深刻的预设玩家职业，从射箭到锻造再到野生动物驯服。然而，游戏刚开始运行，一位特别有进取心的玩家就引入了一条新职业，利用了游戏的新兴特性。玩家绕过游戏中设计的玩家职业系统，开始操作两个角色，一个叫珍妮，另一个叫皮条客老爹。通过这些角色，古老的卖淫职业作为 UO 宇宙的新收入来源被引入。这些角色一起招揽嫖客、安排会面并收取服务费。虽然玩家的角色在游戏结构中不能真正发生性关系，但这种互动的隐含叙述足以为珍妮和她的创业老板带来稳定的客户流。
What is an open culture game? Let’s start with an example. After the launch of massively multiplayer online role-playing game Ultima Online, the open-ended nature of the game play immediately gave rise to a rich ecosystem of play styles. Ultima Online’s skill systems support an impressive array of preset player professions, ranging from Archery to Blacksmithing to Wild Animal Taming. Yet no sooner was the game up and running than one particularly enterprising player introduced a new line of work, which took advantage of the game’s emergent properties. Side-stepping the designed system of player professions in the game, the player began operating two characters, one named Jenny and the other Pimp Daddy. Through these characters, the age-old profession of prostitution was introduced as a new revenue stream into the UO universe. Together the characters solicited johns, arranged meetings, and collected payment for services rendered. Although players’ avatars could not actually engage in sex within the game structure, the implied narrative of the interaction was enough to generate a steady flow of customers for Jenny and her entrepreneurial boss.
这种玩家行为确实是自然而然的。它不是直接设计在游戏中的，而是由设计好的正式结构实现的，允许玩家命名和自定义角色、在游戏空间中移动、给钱和收钱、聊天和互动。Jenny 和 Pimp Daddy 促成的这种新游戏具有深刻的文化性，因为角色将 Ultima Online 的中世纪幻想世界与当代低俗幻想相结合（请注意黑人剥削风格的名字“Pimp Daddy”）。这种好玩的行为重新定义了游戏世界中“职业”的概念，并为金钱的交换和使用赋予了新的含义。它还通过添加更有意义的叙事和互动结构（安排会议、寻找僻静的空间、交换资本），将性互动从色情的文字聊天中解放出来。这些自然而然的文化效应是由游戏设计实现的，该游戏设计通过一组非常简单的互动为玩家提供了模块化的社交表达。
This player behavior was truly emergent. It was not designed directly into the game, but was made possible by the designed formal structures allowing players to name and customize characters, move about the game space, give and receive money, and chat and interact with each other. The new kind of play facilitated by Jenny and Pimp Daddy was deeply cultural, as the characters mixed the medieval fantasy world of Ultima Online with contemporary pulp fantasy (note the black-sploitation-style name “Pimp Daddy”). The playful act reinvented the idea of a “profession” in the game world and gave new meanings to the exchange and use of money. It also took sexual interaction beyond racy text chatting by adding a more meaningful structure of narrative and interaction (arranging a meeting, finding a secluded space, exchanging capital). These emergent cultural effects were made possible by a game design that offered players modular social expression through a set of very simple interactions.
当游戏设计师将游戏设计为开放系统并考虑到新兴文化效应的潜力时，游戏可以经过精心设计，以产生意想不到的游戏形式。但新兴游戏也可以超越游戏本身的界限。为开放文化游戏而设计可以提高魔法圈的渗透性，从而在多个层面上实现变革性的意义交流。游戏作为开放文化意味着一种游戏设计模型，其中游戏的结构为玩家提供了明确的创造能力。
When game designers frame games as open systems and take into account the potential for emergent cultural effects, games can be specifically crafted to produce unexpected forms of play. But the emergent play can also extend beyond the borders of the game itself. Designing for open cultural play can increase the permeability of the magic circle, so that a transformative exchange of meaning occurs at multiple levels. Games as Open Culture implies a game design model in which the structure of a game offers players explicit creative agency.
我们鼓励玩家通过操纵游戏系统来增加、删除或彻底改变游戏体验。我们称之为“玩家即制作人”模式，这是一种与创造文化变革性游戏相关的设计策略。
Players are encouraged to add to, delete from, or altogether alter the experience of play through manipulation of the game’s system. We call this the player-as-producer paradigm, a design strategy linked to the creation of culturally transformative play.
玩家即制作人
Player-as-Producer
设计游戏意味着创建一组非常具体的条件。这些条件规定了游戏空间的内部和外部关系，不仅决定了游戏系统是什么，还暗示了游戏的潜力。开放系统游戏的设计包括让玩家作为新游戏世界、故事和角色的制作者影响游戏的条件。换句话说，开放系统游戏旨在由购买和玩游戏的人操纵和修改。例如，《模拟人生》的设计包括允许玩家下载房屋物品、创建自己的皮肤和消费品或下载提供游戏玩法变化的游戏补丁的功能。玩家设计师甚至走得更远，创建了图形和声音补丁，使角色能够以新的方式说话。每个切入点都允许玩家选择他们将在多大程度上干预《模拟人生》的系统。
Designing a game means creating a set of very specific conditions. These conditions prescribe relationships both internal and external to the game space, and determine not only what the game system is, but also by implication what the game has the potential to become. Designs for open system games include conditions that let players affect the games as producers—of new game worlds, stories, and characters. Open system games, in other words, are designed to be manipulated and modified by the people who purchase and play them. The design of The Sims, for example, includes features that allow players to download objects for their houses, create their own skins and consumable goods, or download game patches that offer variations on game play. Player-designers have gone even further, creating graphics and sound patches that give characters the ability to talk in new ways. Each of these points of entry allows players to make choices about how deeply they will intervene into the system of The Sims.
以玩家为导向的设计工具可以催生出一整套粉丝文化生态。《模拟人生》的首席设计师威尔·赖特将这一社会系统描述为一个金字塔。金字塔顶端（参与者人数最少）是制作游戏创作工具的玩家，例如让玩家塑造新角色身体的 3D 图形工具。下一层是使用设计工具制作游戏对象的玩家，例如具有动物解剖学特征的新角色身体。这些对象由下一层的玩家传播，即托管《模拟人生》网站的网站管理员。金字塔底部（参与者人数最多）是在他们的游戏中使用这些对象的玩家。
Player-oriented design tools can give rise to a whole ecology of fan culture. Will Wright, lead designer of The Sims, has described this social system as a pyramid. At the top (with the fewest number of participants) are players that make game creation tools, like a 3D graphics tool that lets players model new character bodies. The next tier contains players that use the design tools to make game objects, such as new character bodies with animal-inspired anatomy. These objects are disseminated by players in the next tier, webmasters that host Sims websites. At the bottom of the pyramid (highest in number of participants) are the players that make use of these objects in their game.
《模拟人生》的设计促进了这些团体在各个层面的发展。《模拟人生》并非一个封闭、密不透风的系统，而是采用模块化代码结构，旨在让玩家进行扩展和操作。然而，灵活的代码还不够：您需要向受众传达玩家作为制作人进行干预的可能性，并精心培育适合您游戏的玩家社区。在《模拟人生》发布的几个月前，Maxis 发布了一套初始设计工具。这些工具很快就被玩家社区采用，并在游戏上架之前得到了广泛使用。作家 JC Herz 指出：“目前，《模拟人生》90% 以上的内容都是由玩家群体制作的……这是一个完全自下而上的分布式自组织过程。”1尽管《模拟人生》社区的增长确实是由现有的 Maxis 游戏粉丝群体所推动的，但《模拟人生》庞大的玩家-制作人社区却是通过精心的社区设计才得以形成的。
The design of The Sims facilitates the development of these groups at every level. Rather than a closed, airtight system, The Sims is structured as modular code, designed for expansion and manipulation by players. However, flexible code is not enough: you need to communicate to your audience the possibility of player-as-producer intervention and carefully foster the kind of player community that is appropriate to your game. Several months before The Sims launched, Maxis released an initial set of design tools. These tools were quickly taken up, shared across the community of players, and prodigiously utilized—before the game ever hit stores. Writer J. C. Herz notes, “At this point, more than 90 percent of The Sims’ content is produced by the player population . . . . This is a completely bottom-up, distributed, self-organizing process.”1 Although it is certainly true that the growth of The Sims community was fostered by an existing base of Maxis game fans, the immense player-producer community of The Sims only came about through careful community design.
当玩家成为制作人时，他们作为玩家的活动就脱离了魔法圈，主要发生在游戏之外的空间。这些活动是一种元游戏形式，一种在《游戏即社交游戏》中描述的游戏现象。在元游戏中，玩家通过明确游戏玩法范围之外的活动和互动与游戏和彼此互动。玩家作为制作人的范式夸大了这些元游戏倾向，以创造更激进的开放式游戏形式。当玩家成为制作人时，元游戏元素便具有了自己的生命力，超越了仅仅评论游戏玩法的活动，成为真正改变游戏结构的追求。
When players become producers, their activities as players fall outside the magic circle and largely take place in spaces external to the game. These activities are a form of metagaming, a play phenomenon described in Games as Social Play. In metagaming, players engage with the game and each other through activities and interactions outside the confines of explicit game play. The player-as-producer paradigm exaggerates these metagaming tendencies to create more radical forms of open play. When the player becomes a producer, metagaming elements take on a life of their own, expanding beyond activities that merely comment on the play of the game to become pursuits that literally transform the structure of the game.
将玩家作为生产者范式融入游戏设计中，没有单一的最佳方法。游戏形式千差万别，游戏设计师鼓励玩家成为生产者的方式也多种多样。创建新游戏资产的游戏工具可能会随游戏一起提供，例如角色扮演游戏《无冬之夜》。关卡设计工具可以在经过设计的在线社区中免费提供，例如益智游戏《BLiX》。玩家可以填写的额外空白卡可以作为游戏卡组的一部分，例如叙事卡牌游戏《Once Upon a Time》。数字游戏的代码可以向公众开放，例如《DOOM》。或者游戏的前提可以基于主动的玩家创造，例如桌面角色扮演游戏，需要一名玩家（“游戏大师”）来设计游戏冒险。
There is no single best method for integrating the player-as-producer paradigm into a game design. Game forms are radically varied and so are the ways that game designers can encourage players to become producers. Game tools to create new game assets might ship with the game, as with the role-playing game Neverwinter Nights. Level design tools can be made freely available within a designed online community, as with the puzzle game BLiX. Extra blank cards for players to fill out can be part of a game deck, as in the narrative card game Once Upon a Time. Code for a digital game can be made available to the public, as with DOOM. Or the very premise of the game can be based on active player creation, as with tabletop role-playing games that require one player (the “Game Master”) to invent the adventures for play.
当游戏玩家成为游戏制作人时，涌现性就会成倍增加：除了游戏中出现的意想不到的游戏形式外，玩家制作人还会创造全新的游戏环境，进而产生全新的游戏体验。正如我们在《游戏作为涌现系统》中提到的那样，作为一名游戏设计师，最美妙的乐趣之一就是看到你的游戏以你意想不到的方式进行。让玩家扮演制作人的角色可以让这种乐趣成倍增加；看到你的玩家构建全新的世界并在玩家社区中分享，这令人兴奋不已。创造一款允许玩家以设计师身份参与的游戏，会让人感到非常满足。
When game players become game producers, emergence is multiplied: in addition to the unexpected forms of play that occur inside a game, player-producers create entirely new contexts for play, which in turn generate whole new play experiences. As we noted in Games as Emergent Systems, one of the sweetest pleasures as a game designer is seeing your game played in ways that you did not anticipate. Casting the player in the role of a producer can multiply this pleasure many times over; seeing your players constructing brand new worlds to share across a community of players is incredibly exciting. There is something deeply satisfying about creating a game that allows players to participate as designers in their own right.
有意义的生产
Meaningful Production
创造新兴玩家作为制作人游戏的关键与游戏的其他方面相同。设计成功的游戏就是设计有意义的游戏，游戏系统通过让玩家能够辨别这些选择并将其整合到更大的游戏系统中来支持玩家所做的选择。在游戏作为开放文化的情况下，有意义的游戏的范围扩大到包括游戏魔法圈之外的文化背景。
The key to creating emergent player-as-producer play is the same as in other aspects of games. Designing successful play is designing meaningful play, where the game system supports the choices players take by making them discernable to the player and integrating them into the larger system of the game. In the case of games as open culture, the scope of meaningful play extends to include the cultural contexts outside the magic circle of the game.
成功的开放式游戏的一个示例源自《模拟人生》的一项特殊设计功能——家庭相册。根据游戏的创造者的说法，家庭相册旨在让玩家拍摄模拟人生生活中的特定时刻，并将照片添加到他们可以设计和策划的家庭相册中。有趣的是，家庭相册最终成为创作虚构故事的工具，而这些故事通常与实际游戏事件无关。按照最初的设想，玩家可以在游戏过程中截取屏幕截图，记录游戏正在进行的当前状态。通过这种方式，家庭相册可以记录玩家模拟人生的日常活动。然而，许多玩家将这一基本功能转化为另一种游戏形式，利用该功能创作出各种形式的故事。有时这些故事借鉴了流行文化（例如，模拟人生出现在电视节目《老大哥》中的故事）。其他叙述则来自玩家的真实生活经历（一个苦苦挣扎的酗酒母亲的故事）。还有一些故事通过元模拟人生叙事来戏仿游戏世界本身（例如“KTS”家族与开发模拟人生的公司 Maxis 的战争故事）。模拟人生家庭相册功能是玩家作为制作人范例的一个绝佳例子，它产生的游戏既反映了游戏世界，又改变了游戏世界。
One example of successful open play stems from a particular designed feature of The Sims—the Family Album. According to the game’s creators, the Family Album was intended to let players take snapshots of particular moments in their Sims’ lives and add the photos to a family album, which they could design and curate. Interestingly enough, the Family Album ended up becoming a tool for the creation of fictive stories that often had nothing to do with actual game events. As originally envisioned, players could take screenshots during play that would record the current state of a game in progress. In this way, the Family Album could document the day-to-day activity of a player’s Sims. Yet many players took this basic functionality and transformed it into an alternate form of play, using the feature to craft stories that took on a variety of forms. Sometimes these stories borrow from popular culture (such as the story of a Sim appearing on the television show Big Brother). Other narratives are informed by players’ real-life experiences (the story of a struggling alcoholic mother). Still other stories parody the game world itself through meta-Sims narratives (such as the tale of the “KTS” family’s war with Maxis, the company that developed The Sims.). The Sims Family Album feature is a wonderful instance of the player-as-producer paradigm, generating play that both reflects and transforms the game world.
家庭相册功能在多个层面上促进了有意义的游戏。作为游戏记录设备，它为游戏的标准玩法增加了一层含义。与其他形式的复述游戏（我们在“游戏作为叙事游戏”中首次引入的概念）一样，游戏本身被复述和重塑，因为游戏选择被赋予了新的欣赏背景。随着模拟人生玩家创造性地探索家庭相册功能的可能性，它从一种记录工具转变为一种创造性工具。玩家很快开始调整他们玩游戏的方式，以便为他们的故事板式叙事创作出他们想要的精确“镜头”。成功的游戏策略，例如让游戏角色开心，被在场景中定位物体和角色的策略所取代。由于模拟人生角色会自行移动，因此创作多角色镜头可能非常具有挑战性。
The Family Album feature facilitates meaningful play on many levels. As a game play recording device, it adds a layer of meaning to the standard play of the game. As in other forms of retelling play (a concept we first introduced in Games as Narrative Play), the play itself is retold and recast for the player, as game choices are given a new context for appreciation. As Sims players creatively explored the possibilities of the Family Album feature, it shifted from a documentary tool to a creative tool. Players quickly began to make adjustments to the way they played the game, in order to compose the exact “shots” they wanted for their storyboard-like narratives. Strategies for successful game play, such as keeping game characters happy, were superceded by strategies for positioning objects and characters in a scene. Because Sims characters move about on their own, it can be quite challenging to compose a multi-character shot.
《梅塔莫拉家族》摘录：用户 ID：dnknt98
Excerpts from The Metamora Family: User ID: dnknt98
玛格莉亚不确定埃拉诺拉说的话，开始为即将发生的事件做准备。
Magoria, unsure of the words Elanora spoke, began to prepare for the events that were to come.
夜幕降临，亡灵四处游荡，玛格丽亚说出了她准备实施的邪恶行为。玛格丽亚走近家人，说道：“万圣节前夜，月亮会很圆，是时候完成亡灵之旅了。”
As darkness arose, and spirits wandered Magoria spoke of the evil deeds that she was ready to carry out. Magoria approched her family and spoke: “This All Hallows Eve, the moon wiil be full and the time has come to complete The Passage of the Dead.”
查理不确定对方在说什么，问道：“你说的玛格丽亚的邪恶之处是什么？”
Charlie, unsure of what was being spoken, asked, “What is this evil you speak of Magoria?”
“我知道，我知道我们要召唤古顿的恶魔，”温蒂西亚尖叫道。
“I know, I know we are going to summon the demon of Guton,” Wenticia screamed.
“是的，没错，我们将开始牺牲青春，换来永生。”玛格丽亚转身，将一只手放在埃拉诺拉的坟墓上，说道：“这是我们家族的命运；我们将胜利。”
“Yes that is correct, we shall begin to sacrifice the youth and in return be granted Eternal life.” Magoria turned and placed a hand on the grave of Elanora, saying, “This is our family’s destiny; we will prevail.”
摘自《Gingerbread》：用户 ID：GoodHumor
Excerpts from Gingerbread: User ID: GoodHumor
欢迎来到乔治和金妮姜饼的家！这对夫妇一生都在奔波，最近他们刚刚买了一栋似乎是为他们量身打造的房子。
Welcome to the home of George and Ginny Gingerbread! After being on the run most of their lives, this couple has just purchased a home that seems to have been made just for them.
十二月的这天天气寒冷，大地上覆盖着一层柔软的雪。乔治和金妮曾是大学田径明星，他们梦想着在西姆维尔开一家全新的美食面包店。但现在，他们期待着在新家庆祝圣诞节……如果他们能坚持那么久的话。
A soft blanket of snow covers the ground on this cold day in the month of December. George and Ginny, former college track stars, dream of opening a brand new Gourmet Bakery in Simville. But for now, are looking forward to celebrating Christmas in their new home . . . that is, if they last that long.
Gingerbread（此处显示）和Metamora Family（上一页）是玩家创建的 Sims 家庭相册，并在 Sims Exchange（ www.thesims.ea.com）上发布以供查看
Gingerbread (shown here) and The Metamora Family (previous page) are Sims Family Albums created by players and posted for review at the Sims Exchange, www.thesims.ea.com
像大多数逃亡的食物一样，乔治和金妮担心自己可能会成为别人的下一顿饭。金妮渴望生活中恢复正常，希望结识新朋友，最终在一个她和丈夫可以放松的社区定居下来。另一方面，乔治担心自己最终会成为别人节日自助餐的一部分。金妮有些忐忑地宣布，
Like most fleeing edibles, George and Ginny are tormented by the possibility of becoming someone’s next meal. Ginny, longing for some normalcy in her life, is hoping to meet new friends and finally settle down in a neighborhood where she and her husband can relax. George, on the other hand, is consumed with the danger of winding up as part of somebody’s holiday buffet. It is with some trepidation that Ginny announces,
“乔治，我决定举办一个乔迁派对来认识我们的新邻居。”
“George, I have decided to throw a house warming party to get to know our new neighbors.”
乔治不太喜欢这个想法，直到他意识到这将是一个绝佳的机会来侦查潜在的敌人，你知道，那些可能会觉得他的卷发有点太诱人的人。事实上，他更担心金妮。她往往过于信任别人。不幸的是，她的善良天性让这对情侣陷入了不少混乱……呃……混乱。这样做的好处是，所有这些“逃避”都让他们两人的身体状况保持最佳状态。
George is not too keen on this idea until he realizes this would be a golden opportunity to scope out potential enemies, you know, those that might find his curly que hairdo just a little too appetizing. Actually, he worries more for Ginny. She tends to be too trusting. Her kind nature has unfortunately gotten the couple in more than a few mixes . . . er . . . fixes. The upside to this is that all this “escaping” has kept the two in prime physical condition.
……乔治坚持要他和金妮睡在一楼的客房里。这样他就能随时应对可能发生的任何情况……入室盗窃、火灾、偷窃……无论什么。他很担心金妮，因为他太爱她了。乔治对这个新手角色有一种不好的感觉，打算密切关注他。
. . . George insists that he and Ginny sleep in the guest room on the first floor. This way he will be ready for anything that might pop up . . . a burglary, a fire, a gingernapping . . . whatever. He worries about Ginny because he loves her so. George has a bad feeling about this Newbie character and plans to keep one frosted eye on him.
……熊熊燃烧的火焰似乎让乔治平静下来，让他回到了自己的根源。他希望自己和金妮能生活在一个没有姜饼迷的世界里，哪怕只有一次。
. . . A roaring fire seems to calm George, taking him back to his roots. He wishes that just once, he and Ginny could exist in a world free of gingerbread groupies.
金妮在楼上睡着了，乔治喝了一杯又一杯浓咖啡，努力尽可能长时间保持清醒……以防万一。
With Ginny asleep upstairs, George consumes cup after cup of Expresso in an effort to stay awake as long as possible . . . just in case.
他知道 Joy Holiday 潜伏在窗外，当然是和 Bob 合谋。George 已经告诉 Joy，他和 Ginny 不想成为她那家愚蠢的面包店的店面道具。这些人类！！！
He is aware that Joy Holiday is lurking outside the window, in cahoots with Bob, of course. George already informed Joy that he and Ginny have no desire to be storefront props for her stupid Bakery. These humans!!!
但乔治却表现得很冷静。他不想让乔伊知道他已经发现了她。但他并不担心。乔伊也会得到她的报应。
But George is playing it cool. He does not want Joy to know he is on to her. He’s not worried, though. She’ll get hers too.
乔治的疑虑越来越严重，他用新望远镜瞄准了新人的家。正如他所料，鲍勃正在与西姆维尔的一位老人乔伊·霍利迪 (Joy Holiday) 在厨房餐桌上开会。
With escalating paranoia, George aims his new telescope in the direction of the Newbie home. And just as he suspected, Bob is having some sort of kitchen table meeting with one of Simville’s senior citizens, Joy Holiday.
“好吧，”乔治叹了口气，“那乔伊就是第四个嫌疑人了。天哪，现在谁都不能相信。”
“OK, “sighs George, “That makes Joy suspect#4. Geez, you can’t trust anyone these days.”
乔治注意到鲍勃·纽比和金妮在家里待了太长时间。就在前几天，他注意到鲍勃递给金妮一张纸条。那是怎么回事？更糟糕的是，乔治没有想到弗兰基仍然想把姜饼屋占为己有，最好不包括现在的居民。乔治决定，单靠监控摄像头、警报器和望远镜是不够的。还需要额外的预防措施。他走到后面的棚子边……
George notices Bob Newbie spending way too much time at the house with Ginny. And just the other day, he noticed Bob hand Ginny a slip of paper. What was THAT all about? And, to make matters worse, George is not imagining that Frankie still wants to claim the gingerbread home as his own, preferably not including its present inhabitants. George decides surveillance cameras, alarms, and telescopes alone won’t due. Extra precautions are needed. He heads over to the shed out back . . .
家庭相册功能还在游戏之外创造了一种新的环境，玩家可以在此在线创建和分享意义。家庭相册照片成为交换游戏策略、游戏体验以及（最常见的）创作原创故事的方式。游戏外的网络环境支持这些意义的创造，玩家社区成为丰富的社交环境，玩家可以在此欣赏和分享故事相册。
The Family Album feature also generated a new context, just outside the game, where players could create and share meaning online. Family Album photos became ways to trade play strategies, game experiences, and (most commonly) to create original stories. The out-of-game web context supported the creation of these meanings, and the community of players became a rich social context where the story albums could be appreciated and shared.
家庭相册功能是《模拟人生》创作者精心设计的结果。它的简单功能随后被玩家采用，并以令人惊喜的方式使用。此外，《模拟人生》中玩家作为制作人的其他方面，例如玩家创建新角色模型的能力，与家庭相册协同工作，增加了有意义的游戏体验。例如，玩家艺术家创造了看起来像星球大战角色的模拟人生。这些角色由社区经理在线发布，可用于玩星球大战主题版的《模拟人生》。但这些角色也可以由玩家讲故事者与家庭相册功能结合使用，讲述星球大战宇宙中的故事。所有这些开放的游戏都是可能的，因为游戏被设计为一个开放操纵的系统，鼓励玩家在游戏过程中创造新的文化形式。
The Family Album feature was the result of deliberate design decisions on the part of The Sims’creators. Its simple functionality was then taken up by players and used in delightfully unexpected ways. Moreover, other player-as-producer aspects of The Sims, such as players’ ability to create new character models, worked in concert with the Family Album to multiply meaningful play. For example, player-artists created Sims that looked like Star Wars characters. These characters were distributed online by community managers and could be used to play a Star Wars themed version of The Sims. But the characters could also be used by player-storytellers in conjunction with the Family Album feature to tell stories set in the Star Wars universe. All of this open play was possible because the game was designed as a system open to manipulation, encouraging players to produce new forms of culture as part of their play.
游戏，尤其是数字游戏，为何能成为玩家参与的沃土？答案之一是游戏本质上是系统性的，系统可以设计成开放的。正如我们在前面章节中了解到的那样，系统由具有特定属性和关系的相互关联的元素组成，位于环境中。在系统中，玩家有多种干预机会。在像《模拟人生》这样的开放游戏系统中，玩家可以更改系统中对象的属性，为角色设计皮肤，或者通过设计新对象并将其添加到游戏世界来更改系统元素之一，例如将玩家创建的烤面包机放在模拟人生的厨房中。然后，这个新元素可能会改变系统中元素之间的关系：烤面包机改变了模拟人生角色在厨房中可以做的事情。玩家还可以在游戏环境层面进行干预，比如创建一个分发游戏对象的粉丝网站或创建《模拟人生》家庭相册。在每种情况下，游戏系统都会通过吸收变化并相应地进行自我转变来适应变化。
What is it about games, particularly digital games that make them such fertile ground for player participation? One answer is that games are intrinsically systemic, and systems can be designed to be open. As we know from earlier chapters, systems are composed of interrelated elements with specific attributes and relationships, situated within an environment. Within a system, there are multiple opportunities for intervention on the part of the player. In an open game system like The Sims, a player might change the attributes of an object in the system, designing a skin for a character, or change one of the system’s elements by designing a new object and adding it to the game world, such as putting a player-created toaster in a Sim’s kitchen. This new element might then change the relationship between elements in the system: the toaster transforms what Sim characters can do in the kitchen. A player might also intervene on the level of the game’s environment, by making a fan site that distributes game objects or by creating a Sims Family Album. In every case, the system of the game accommodates the changes by absorbing them and transforming itself accordingly.
玩家作为生产者的产品不仅反映了它们所源自的游戏的意义和价值，而且还有助于游戏所处的文化背景的意义和价值。某些形式的玩家生产从游戏内部向外（由内而外）进行，例如当使用家庭相册从游戏玩法中提取复述故事时。其他形式可以从游戏外部向内（由外而内）进行，例如当下载玩家生成的角色模型以供在游戏中使用时。在这两种情况下，魔法圈的渗透性都促进了创新，从而产生了丰富的文化生产系统和新的创造性表达形式。
Player-as-producer artifacts not only reflect the meanings and values of the games from which they arise, but also contribute to the meaning and value of the cultural contexts in which the games exist. Some forms of player production move from inside the game outward (inside > out), such as when the Family Album is used to extract a retelling story out of game play. Other forms can move from outside the game inward (outside > in), such as when a player-generated character model is downloaded for use in the game. In both cases, the permeability of the magic circle feeds innovation, resulting in rich systems of cultural production and new forms of creative expression.
开源游戏
Open Source Games
开放系统的游戏不仅仅涉及玩家体验：还涉及意识形态层面。为了探索开放文化背后的一些价值观，我们将简要回顾一下开源软件现象。开源有两个重要特点：首先，代码是作为一个开放系统编写的，可以由设计师社区而不是单个开发团队进行改进和修改；其次，开源软件在用户之间自由共享，其源代码可供使用。开源软件开发模式是玩家作为制作人范式的一个非游戏实例，是许多当代数字游戏开放游戏的前身。
The play of open systems concerns more than player experience: there are ideological dimensions as well. To explore some of the values underlying open culture, we will take a brief detour through the phenomenon of open source software. Open source has two important features: first, code is written as an open system that can be improved and modified by a community of designers rather than by a single development team; and second, open source software is freely shared among users and its source code made available. The model of open source software development is a non-game instance of the player-as-producer paradigm, a precursor to the open play of many contemporary digital games.
开源软件起源于 20 世纪 60 年代，当时 IBM 和其他制造商出售了第一批大型计算机。这些计算机附带“免费”软件，允许用户共享和修改源代码。这种开源模式很快就被专有软件取代，成为行业标准；直到 20 世纪 90 年代初，它才再次受到关注。正如 Jesus M. Gonzalez 在谈到开源软件的历史时所说：“20 世纪 60 年代末，IBM 软件‘拆分’后，情况发生了变化，20 世纪 70 年代中期，专有软件随处可见，用户不得重新分发软件，源代码不可用，用户无法修改程序。”2
Open source software had its beginnings in the 1960s with the sale of the first large-scale computers by IBM and other manufacturers. These computers came with “free” software that let users share and modify the source code. This open source model was soon replaced by proprietary software as an industry standard; it would not find a voice again until the early 1990s. As Jesus M. Gonzalez notes regarding the history of open source software, “In the late 1960s, the situation changed after the ‘unbundling’ of IBM software, and in the mid-1970s it was usual to find proprietary software, in the sense that users were not allowed to redistribute it, that source code was not available, and that users could not modify the programs.”2
尽管开源软件在 20 世纪 70 年代和 80 年代在相对较小的孤立社区中继续发展，但直到 20 世纪 90 年代初，编程社区才经历了更大的变化。根据 Gonzalez 的说法，最重要的事件之一是芬兰计算机科学系学生 Linus Torvalds 公开发布了 Linux 内核（Linux 操作系统的核心代码元素）的第一个版本。Torvalds 将 Linux 内核的代码提供给世界各地的程序员，鼓励他们合作完善和扩展其代码。Torvalds 认为，采用开放系统方法进行软件设计，让用户程序员参与进来，是开发内核的最有效方式。他知道，接受他的提议来玩和修改代码的人可以推动软件的发展，超越他一个人所能完成的。许多人同时处理源代码这一事实允许某种形式的创造性冗余：当几个程序员发现相同的错误或做出相同的修改时，整个软件的优点和缺点就会变得更加清晰。
Although open source software continued its development during the 1970s and 1980s within relatively small, isolated communities, it wasn’t until the early 1990s that the programming community underwent larger changes. According to Gonzalez, one of the most important events was the public release of the first versions of the Linux kernel (the core code elements of the Linux operating system) by Linus Torvalds, a Finnish computer science student. Torvalds made the code for the Linux kernel available to programmers around the world, encouraging them to collaborate on refining and expanding its code. Torvalds believed that an open system approach to software design involving the participation of user-programmers was the most effective way to develop the kernel. He knew that the people who took up his offer to play with and modify the code could push the software beyond what he could accomplish on his own. The fact that many people were working with the source code simultaneously allowed for a form of creative redundancy: when several programmers would find the same bug, or make the same modification, the strengths and weaknesses of the software as a whole became much clearer.
Torvalds 的模型与新兴的游戏开放文化之间存在着密切的联系。开放游戏系统与开源软件一样，旨在不断演进，而不是静态的，并以多种形式表达。玩家以开发者社区的形式进行操作，改造游戏系统的元素，进行游戏测试，与其他玩家分享，并提交进一步修改。当然，这种自由游戏并不是强制性的：“开源”游戏的玩家可以根据自己的意愿进行修改，但不会被迫这样做。开源精神适用于多种层次的参与，从喜欢游戏的玩家到想要彻底改造游戏的玩家。
There is a strong connection between Torvalds’s model and the emergent play of games as open culture. Open game systems, like open source software, are designed to be evolutionary, not static, and to be expressed in multiple forms. Players operate as a community of developers, transforming elements of the game system, playtesting them, sharing them with other players, and submitting them for further modification. This free play is not obligatory, of course: players of an “open source” game can modify it if they wish, but are not forced to do so. The spirit of open source accommodates many levels of participation, from players who like the game as it is to those who want to transform it completely.
当用户或玩家操纵结构并将修改分发给其他相关方时，他们就参与到了一个对所有人开放的交换经济中。这种开源方法具有非层次化、开放可访问、非指导性和突发性的特点。这四个原则是开源软件的基石，但也恰好描述了开放文化游戏。根据开源模型，开源用户可以自由地：
When users or players manipulate a structure and distribute modifications to other interested parties, they participate in an economy of exchange open to all. This open source approach has the characteristics of being non-hierarchical, openly accessible, non-guided, and emergent. These four principles are the cornerstone of open source software, but also happen to describe open culture games as well. According to the open source model, open source users have the freedom to:
• 在任何技术上合适的情况下，在任意数量的计算机上按照自己的意愿使用该软件。
• Use the software as they wish, for whatever they wish, on as many computers as they wish, in any technically appropriate situation.
• 让软件满足他们的需求。当然，这包括改进软件、修复软件漏洞、增强软件功能以及研究软件操作。
• Have the software at their disposal to fit it to their needs. Of course, this includes improving it, fixing its bugs, augmenting its functionality, and studying its operation.
• 将软件重新分发给其他用户，其他用户可以根据自己的需要使用该软件。
• Redistribute the software to other users, who could themselves use it according to their own needs.
• 软件的用户必须能够访问其源代码。3
• Users of a piece of software must have access to its source code. 3
现在重新阅读这些原则，将“软件”替换为“游戏”，将“用户”替换为“玩家”。开源软件的概念如此顺利地转移到游戏作为开放文化，这令人惊讶。在接下来的案例研究中，我们将在两个游戏的背景下探讨这些原则，一个是非数字游戏（Icehouse），另一个是数字游戏（Elemental）。尽管开源源自计算机科学，但其理念可以应用于计算机内外的游戏。所需要的只是设计一个开放系统和一个有意参与的玩家社区。
Now reread these principles, replacing “software” with “game” and “user” with “player.” It is striking how smoothly the concepts of open source software transfer to games as open culture. In the case studies that follow, we explore these principles in the context of two games, one non-digital (Icehouse), and one digital (Elemental). Even though open source emerged from computer science, its ideas can be applied to games both on and off the computer. All that is required is the design of an open system and a community of players intent on participating.
游戏系统
Game Systems
在非数字游戏领域，有一种特殊的游戏被称为游戏系统。游戏系统是一组在多个游戏中共同发挥作用的组件。最常用的游戏系统是一副标准的扑克牌。它有 52 个组件（扑克牌），可以一起玩数千种游戏，从 Go Fish 到 Strip Poker。麻将牌组成一个游戏系统，可用于多种不同的游戏，球拍和球也是如此。游戏系统类似于计算机的操作系统。单个操作系统可以运行许多不同类型的软件，就像游戏系统可以“运行”许多不同的规则集一样。游戏系统的开放性和可变性使其成为游戏设计中真正令人着迷的例子。
Within the domain of non-digital games, a special class of games is known as game systems. A game system is a set of components that function together across multiple games. The most commonly used game system is a standard deck of playing cards. It has 52 components (the cards) that can be used together to play thousands of games, from Go Fish to Strip Poker. The tiles of a Mah Jongg set comprise a game system used in several different games, as do a bat and a ball. A game system is akin to a computer’s operating system. A single OS can run many different kinds of software, just a like a game system can “run” many different sets of rules. The open-ended and variable qualities of game systems make them truly fascinating instances of game design.
游戏系统有意设计为“开放”，与缺乏玩家修改机会的“封闭”游戏形成对比。封闭游戏包含一套规则，并依赖于只能用于该游戏的组件。高尔夫等游戏的专用设备使其成为一种非常封闭的游戏。高尔夫很少有流行的变体，原因很简单，因为球、球杆和高尔夫球场之间的关系非常具体；相对而言，重新发明的空间很小。
Game systems, intentionally designed to be “open,” stand in contrast to “closed” games that lack the opportunity for modification by players. Closed games contain a single set of rules and rely on components that can only be used for that game. The specialized equipment of a game such as Golf makes it a very closed game. There are few popular variations on Golf for the simple reason that the relationship between ball, club, and golf course are quite specific; there is relatively little room for reinvention.
与封闭式游戏不同，游戏系统体现了开源软件的所有四个特质。游戏系统是非层级化的、开放可访问的、非指导性的和自发的。与开源代码一样，游戏系统为玩家提供“源代码”（游戏组件以及一两个示例规则集），并鼓励玩家以他们希望的任何方式、以他们希望的任意方式修改它们（通常是通过发明新游戏来与系统一起玩）。然后，玩家可以将规则重新分发给其他人，他们可以根据自己的需求和兴趣玩或修改新游戏。
Unlike a closed game, a game system exemplifies all four qualities of open source software. A game system is non-hierarchical, openly accessible, non-guided, and emergent. Like open source code, game systems provide players with the “source code” (the game’s components and perhaps a sample ruleset or two) and encourage players to modify them in whatever way they wish, in as many ways as they wish (usually by inventing new games to be played with the system). Players can then redistribute the rules to others, who play or modify the new games according to their needs and interests.
一个非常具有表现力的非数字游戏系统示例是安迪·鲁尼和约翰·库珀设计的《冰屋套装》。冰屋套装的组件是可堆叠的彩色塑料金字塔，有三种尺寸（小、中、大）。每种尺寸有五个金字塔，因此四人冰屋套装包含 60 个金字塔，每个玩家 15 个。冰屋套装的原始游戏（称为“冰屋”）是一种不寻常的策略游戏，实时进行，没有回合。玩家同时将他们的彩色金字塔一个接一个地放置在中心区域，堆叠并指向金字塔进行攻击和防御。冰屋游戏节奏快，战略性强，非常独特。5
One highly expressive example of a non-digital game system is the Icehouse Set, designed by Andy Looney and John Cooper. The components of an Icehouse Set are stackable, colored plastic pyramids, in three sizes (small, medium, and large). There are five pyramids of each size, and a four-player set of Icehouse therefore contains 60 pyramids, fifteen for each player. The original game for the Icehouse Set (called “Icehouse”) is an unusual strategy game played in real-time without turns. Players simultaneously position their colored pyramids in a central area one by one, stacking and pointing their pyramids to attack and defend. Icehouse play is fast-paced, highly strategic, and quite unique.5
Icehouse Set 催生出了许多令人愉悦且独树一帜的游戏，包括 Zarcana 和 Gnostica，这两款游戏都是在塔罗牌棋盘上进行的；类似国际象棋的变体，如火星国际象棋和 Pikeman；一款名为 RAMbots 的计算机模拟游戏；一款名为 Thin Ice 的建筑游戏；以及一款名为 Homeworlds 的关于善恶的深空史诗。为了了解为 Icehouse Set 设计的令人难以置信的游戏范围，我们更详细地总结了其中几款游戏：
The Icehouse Set has led to the invention of a great many delightful and unconventional games, including Zarcana and Gnostica, both played on a board made of Tarot cards; Chesslike variants such as Martian Chess and Pikeman; a computer sim called RAMbots; a building game known as Thin Ice; and a deep-space epic about good and evil called Homeworlds. To get a sense of the incredible range of games designed for the Icehouse Set, we summarize a few of the games in a bit more detail:
火山是一款巧妙的益智类游戏，玩家在火山顶部移动“盖子”，引发火山喷发，导致彩色熔岩流流遍整个游戏场地。游戏的目标是捕获尽可能多的棋子，特殊组合可获得奖励积分。每位玩家都试图积累最高分，然后在获胜之前结束游戏另一位玩家有机会夺走领先优势。多人 Volcano 支持任意数量的玩家，但最好是 2 到 6 人。单人也可以玩，作为单人挑战。
Volcano is a clever, puzzle-like game in which players move “caps” around the tops of volcanoes, triggering eruptions that cause colored streams of lava to flow out across the playing field. The object of the game is to capture as many pieces as possible, with bonus points awarded for special combinations. Each player attempts to accumulate the highest score and then bring the game to a close before another player has a chance to steal the lead away. Multi-player Volcano supports any number of players, though between two and six is best. It can also be played by a single player as a solitaire challenge.
Zarcana是一款关于战争、旅行、成长、生命和死亡的游戏。冰屋棋子是您的仆从，遍布塔罗牌组成的世界。您将仆从移动到棋盘上，试图占领有价值的牌。棋盘可以改变、扩大和缩小，因此玩家必须准备好保卫自己的财产、入侵敌方领土和殖民新土地。每个玩家还有一手牌，是从塔罗牌中抽出的。每张牌都有独特的力量，除了手中的牌之外，您还可以使用棋盘上占领的牌。目标是在游戏结束时占领棋盘上最有价值的一组牌。
Zarcana is a game of war, journeys, growth, life, and death. Icehouse pieces are your minions, spreading out across a world composed of tarot cards. You move your minions across the board, trying to occupy valuable cards. The board can change, grow and shrink, so players must be prepared to defend their holdings, invade enemy territory, and colonize new lands. Each player also has a hand of cards, drawn from the tarot deck. Every card has a unique power, and you can make use of the cards you occupy on the board in addition to the cards in your hand. The goal is to occupy the most valuable set of cards on the board at the end of the game.
Zendo 是一种归纳逻辑游戏，其中一名玩家（大师）制定一条规则，其余玩家（学生）则通过搭建和研究 Icehouse 部件的配置来尝试找出规则。第一个正确猜出规则的学生获胜。隐藏的规则是什么？它与相对颜色、大小、数字、图案有关吗？或者它基于魔法圈之外的某种东西……Zendo 简单而迷人，它奖励学生和大师的聪明才智和创造力。6
Zendo is a game of inductive logic, in which one player, the Master, creates a rule that the rest of the players, as Students, try and figure out by building and studying configurations of Icehouse pieces. The first student to correctly guess the rule wins. What is the hidden rule? Does it have to do with relative color? Size? Number? Pattern? Or maybe it is based on something outside the magic circle . . . . Beguilingly simple, Zendo rewards cleverness and creativity on the part of both Students and Masters. 6
设计游戏系统的挑战在于找到特异性和灵活性之间的平衡。游戏系统组件的形式和材料属性适合特定类型的游戏规则和游戏体验。游戏系统必须具有非常具体的特性——将一副扑克牌的花色和等级特异性与一组空白的白色索引卡进行比较。同时，如果组件过于具体，就像高尔夫一样，游戏系统将缺乏产生新游戏的灵活性。灵活性通常归结为物理形式的细节：扑克牌可以洗牌、发牌、隐藏、展示、堆叠、摊开，甚至可以扔到房间各处。高尔夫球杆的设计功能要有限得多。
The challenge of designing a game system is finding a balance between specificity and flexibility. The formal and material attributes of the game system components lend themselves to particular kinds of game rules and play experiences. The game system must have a very specific identity—compare the specificity of suit and rank of a deck of playing cards to a set of blank white index cards. At the same time, if the components are too specific, as with Golf, the game system will lack the flexibility to produce novel games. Flexibility often comes down to the details of physical form: playing cards can be shuffled, dealt, hidden, displayed, stacked, spread, and even tossed across a room. A Golf club is designed for a much more limited function.
禅堂
Zendo
Icehouse Set 的金字塔是精心设计的游戏系统的典范。它们可以以多种方式进行物理配置：堆叠在一起、像箭一样互相瞄准、组织成图案或随机分布——不同的 Icehouse 游戏利用这些材料的不同优势。零件数量和三种尺寸和四种颜色之间的分布也决定了零件组织可以表达的形式关系和逻辑分组。Icehouse Set 组件优雅地体现了一组灵活而富有表现力的潜在形式和体验关系。
The pyramids of the Icehouse Set are a great example of a well-designed game system. They can be physically configured in any number of ways: stacked on top of each other, aimed at each other like arrows, organized into patterns, or distributed randomly—different Icehouse games take different advantage of these material affordances. The number of pieces and distribution among the three sizes and four colors also determines the formal relationships and logical groupings that can be expressed by the organization of pieces. The Icehouse Set components elegantly embody a flexible yet expressive set of potential formal and experiential relationships.
游戏系统设计是一种元游戏设计。游戏系统设计师设计其他游戏设计师创建游戏的结构。系统的“规则”是游戏系统组件的物理特性；发生的“游戏”是游戏设计本身，从而产生利用游戏系统的规则集。这种过程要求游戏系统设计师放弃很大程度的控制权，因为其他玩家设计师决定如何在实际游戏中使用游戏系统。但这种失去控制权最终是游戏系统设计如此令人满意的原因：作为玩家驱动创造力的平台，游戏系统是真正变革性和新兴游戏的催化剂。
Game system design is a kind of metagame design. A game system designer designs the structure within which other game designers will create games. The “rules” of the system are the physical qualities of the game system components; the “play” that takes place is game design itself, resulting in sets of rules that make use of the game system. This kind of process requires that the game system designer give up a significant degree of control, as other player-designers decide how the game system will be used in actual games. But this loss of control is ultimately what is so satisfying about designing game systems: as a platform for player-driven creativity, a game system is a catalyst for truly transformative and emergent play.
逃出地牢
Escape from the Dungeon
正如我们提到的，游戏系统就像开源“操作系统”。玩家设计者与数据交互并编写自己的软件，创建程序（规则集）来操纵或转换游戏系统数据的组织。新游戏由此产生，然后可以再次操纵和转换。Icehouse Set 的操作系统只不过是 60 个彩色金字塔的集合以及构成其可能性空间的数学和物理规则。Icehouse Set 是一个简单而优雅的操作系统内核，但却能够实现各种各样的表达。
As we have mentioned, game systems are like open source “operating systems.” Player-designers interact with data and write their own software, creating programs (rulesets) that manipulate or transform the organization of game system data. New games result, which can then be manipulated and transformed again. The operating system of the Icehouse Set is nothing more than the collection of 60 colored pyramids and the mathematical and physical rules structuring their space of possibility. A simple and elegant OS kernel, the Icehouse Set is nonetheless capable of a huge variety of expression.
当我们将注意力转向数字游戏时，游戏系统自然而然地找到了归宿，这也许并不令人意外。星际争霸、吃豆人、无尽的任务、乒乓球：它们都是游戏，都是软件（字面意思）。数字游戏一直与开源软件模型有着天然的亲和力：第一款电脑游戏《太空大战！》就是一款开源游戏，其代码从构思之日起就由玩家进行修改和分发。如果没有开源思维，《太空大战！》可能永远不会出现。数字游戏一直是开源范式的现成候选者；事实上，正是在数字游戏中，玩家作为制作人的模型找到了迄今为止最具意义和变革性的声音。
Perhaps not surprisingly, game systems find a natural home when we turn our attention to digital games. Starcraft, Pac-Man, EverQuest, Pong: each is a game, and each is a piece of software (literally). Digital games have always had a naturally affinity with an open source software model: the very first computer game, Spacewar!, was an open source game whose code underwent modification and distribution by players from the moment of its conception. Without open source thinking, Spacewar! might never have come into being. Digital games have always been ready candidates for an open source paradigm; it is within digital games, in fact, that the model of player-as-producer has found the most significant and transformative voices to date.
Elemental 就是这样一种声音，它是玩家为幻想角色扮演游戏《地牢围攻》制作的模组，由 Gas Powered Games 制作。Elemental 被称为“完全转换”模组：该模组不是简单地发明新的角色皮肤、游戏级别或游戏内对象，而是将《地牢围攻》变成了一款完全不同的游戏。结果是，这款游戏在完全改变的表达环境中利用了《地牢围攻》核心游戏系统的元素。就像 Zendo 到 Icehouse 一样，Elemental 在完全不同的游戏空间中重塑了《地牢围攻》。
One such voice is Elemental, a player-produced mod for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeon Siege, created by Gas Powered Games. Elemental is what is known as a “total conversion” mod: rather than simply inventing a new character skin, game level, or in-game object, the mod transforms Dungeon Siege into a completely different game. The result is a game that utilizes elements of Dungeon Siege’s core game system within a radically altered context of expression. As Zendo to Icehouse, Elemental recasts Dungeon Siege within an altogether different space of play.
像 Elemental 这样的模组之所以能够存在，是因为软件开发人员采用了开源模式。Gas Powered Games 认为开源是一种能够有效增强和延长游戏寿命的理念。因此，他们发布了 Dungeon Siege，其中包含一套强大的编辑和游戏开发工具，玩家可以使用这些工具以无限多种方式修改游戏。例如，专有的 Siege Editor 让玩家可以自由地重新设计游戏的几乎每个方面，这使得 Dungeon Siege 不仅是一款游戏，而且还是一个角色扮演平台，供那些想要创建自己的角色、法术和地牢（甚至整个世界）的人使用。玩家可以将这些用户创建的文件发布到网络上，让任何人都可以下载和探索它们，或者作为多人游戏来玩。7
The possibility for a mod such as Elemental only exists because of software developers that work from an open source model. Gas Powered Games recognized open source as an ideology that could effectively enhance and extend the life of their games. As a result, they released Dungeon Siege with a robust suite of editing and game development tools that players could use to modify the game in an infinite variety of ways. The proprietary Siege Editor, for example, gives players the freedom to rework nearly every aspect of the game, making Dungeon Siege not only a game, but also a role-playing platform for those who want to create their own characters, spells, and dungeons—or even entire worlds. Players can publish these user-created files to the web, making them available for anyone to download and explore or play as a multiplayer game. 7
Team Elemental 是一个由程序员、艺术家、游戏设计师、关卡设计师、GUI 和概念艺术家（大部分都是业余爱好者）组成的开发团队，他们生活和工作在全球各个国家，他们利用这些工具开始进行修改。Dungeon Siege 强大的引擎给他们留下了深刻印象，他们很快意识到，这款游戏所能实现的功能只存在于他们的想象力中。他们决定脱离原版游戏中的托尔金式世界，创造一个具有完全不同背景、故事情节和游戏机制的游戏。由此产生的游戏体验将与原版游戏大不相同。这款游戏被亲切地称为“圣经朋克”（玩家是前奴隶，在古城耶利哥寻求报复），Dungeon Siege 社区是否会通过修改游戏来拥抱这个新世界，还有待观察。
Team Elemental, the development team of (mostly amateur) programmers, artists, game designers, level designers, GUI and concept artists living and working in various countries across the globe, took these tools and began to mod. Impressed by the robust Dungeon Siege engine, they quickly realized that the limits of what could be done with the game lay only in their imaginations. They decided to depart from the Tolkienesque world of the original game to invent something with a radically different setting, storyline, and game play mechanic. The resulting experience of play would be very different than what the original game offered. Affectionately described as “biblepunk” (players are former slaves seeking retribution in the ancient city of Jericho), it remains to be seen if the Dungeon Siege community will embrace the new world by modding it in turn.
Elemental 创作的独特之处之一就是 Dungeon Siege 开发人员所培育的协作环境。尽管许多开源游戏都允许玩家修改代码，并且经常提供工具集来帮助他们修改代码，但 Gas Powered Games 积极协助 Elemental 团队。编写模组的程序员与原版游戏的工程师直接联系，后者为处理代码的复杂性提供了提示和建议。显然，Gas Powered Games 在构建和培育活跃的玩家社区时采用了玩家即制作人的模式。正如 Gas Powered Games 总裁兼游戏设计师 Chris Taylor 在一次采访中指出的那样，支持模组社区的动力来自他们之前的游戏经验：
One of the unique features of Elemental’s creation was the collaborative environment nurtured by Dungeon Siege’s developers. Although many open source games make their code available for modification by players, and often provide toolsets to help them do so, Gas Powered Games assumed an active role in assisting Team Elemental. Programmers coding the mod worked in direct contact with engineers from the original game, who offered hints and advice for working with the intricacies of the code. Clearly, Gas Powered Games embraced the player-as-producer paradigm in constructing and nurturing an active player community. As Chris Taylor, president and game designer of Gas Powered Games, noted in an interview, the drive to support the mod community came out of their experience with a previous game:
地下城围攻编辑器
Dungeon Seige editor
这种动力主要来自于我们在《横扫千军》的开发经验。我们了解到，一个伟大的社区可以推动游戏达到新的乐趣水平，并使其变得比任何人想象的都要好。我们发现这个想法非常令人兴奋，而且在很多方面，我们觉得这是未来的发展方向。想象一下，世界各地的人们一起组队创造奇妙的新冒险、故事和角色。可能性是无穷无尽的，而这仅仅是个开始！8
Most of this drive comes from our experience working on Total Annihilation. We learned that a great community could propel a game to new levels of fun and turn it into more than anyone thought it could be. We found this idea to be very exciting, and in many ways, feel it is the way of the future. Imagine, people all over the world working together on teams to create fantastic new adventures, stories, characters. The possibilities are endless, and this is just the beginning!8
泰勒对支持玩家社区和创造力的投入显然得到了回报。Elemental 只是一个例子，说明当游戏设计让玩家渴望通过遵守游戏规则来扩展和重塑游戏时，玩家会走多远。玩家生产中产生的文化变革性游戏反馈到游戏开发的开源模型中，成倍地增加了社区游戏空间的可能性。
Taylor’s investment in supporting player community and creativity has clearly paid off. Elemental is just one example how far players will go when a game’s design invests in them a desire to extend and reinvent play by playing with the rules of the game. The culturally transformative play that emerges from player production feeds back into the open source model out of which the game developed, growing the possibilities of the community’s space of play exponentially.
Icehouse 和 Dungeon Siege 都体现了开源游戏的三个基本特质：游戏是开放系统，可以由玩家社区（而不是单个开发者）进行修改；游戏在玩家和开发者之间自由共享；源代码是公开的。就 Dungeon Siege 而言，不仅向玩家公开了源代码，还公开了开发工具，增加了修改的便利性和深度。
Both Icehouse and Dungeon Siege exhibit three essential qualities of open source games: the games are open systems that can be modified by a community of players, rather than a single developer; the games are freely shared among players and developers; and the source code is made available. In the case of Dungeon Siege, not just the source code, but also development tools were made available to players, increasing the ease and depth of possible modifications.
怪物电影
Telefragging Monster Movies
有时，玩家作为制作人的范式会对游戏进行过度修改，以至于所发明的活动不再与游戏玩法相似。 Machinima 就是这种情况，它是我们在《游戏作为叙事游戏》中首次提到的玩家作为制作人的开放文化现象，它从第一人称射击游戏中演变而来。Quake 和 DOOM 等 FPS 游戏是第一批为玩家提供开源编辑器的游戏，玩家可以设计和编写自己的地图（环境）、皮肤（角色头像）、武器和游戏工具。这种开创性的方法直接源于开源软件文化，它为玩家提供了前所未有的能力，通过改变互动形式和空间来修改游戏玩法。
Sometimes, the player-as-producer paradigm takes the modification of a game so far that the invented activity no longer resembles the play of the game at all. Such is the case with machinima, a player-as-producer open culture phenomenon we first mentioned in Games as Narrative Play that evolved out of first-person shooter games. FPS games such as Quake and DOOM were some of the first to offer an open source editor to players, which allowed them to design and program their own maps (environments), skins (character avatars), weapons, and tools for game play. This pioneering approach, a direct outgrowth of open source software culture, offered players unprecedented power to modify game play by altering the forms and spaces of interaction.
DOOM 为开放文化数字游戏树立了标准，但其高分辨率神作 Quake 则将一切提升到了更高的水平。玩家（或称为氏族的玩家团体）编写了 Quake 代码修改版，并将它们发布到网上，供其他爱好者下载和使用。几乎立刻，Quake 文化生产经济就诞生了。这种经济推动了技术创新的前沿，而推动它的动力来自铁杆玩家对探索技术绝对极限的渴望。在系统发生转变之前，代码可以推进到什么程度？见证 Quake 电影的诞生吧。
DOOM set the standard for open culture digital gaming, but its high-resolution prodigy, Quake, took everything to a higher level. Players (or groups of players known as clans) wrote Quake code modifications and posted them online for other enthusiasts to download and use. Almost instantly, an economy of Quake cultural production was born. This economy pushed the edge of technical innovation, fueled as it was by hardcore gamers’ desire to explore the absolute limits of the technology. How far could the code be pushed before the system was transformed? Witness the birth of the Quake movie.
1996 年《雷神之锤》刚一发布，玩家们就开始尝试以最快的速度通关，并与其他玩家分享自己的壮举录像，互相竞争，看谁能打破对方的记录。这种比赛被称为速通，是在《毁灭战士》的早期建立起来的。《毁灭战士》和《雷神之锤》一样，也允许玩家录制和保存自己的游戏过程。虽然这些演示显然是一种复述游戏过程的形式，但它们很快就扮演了截然不同的角色。就像《模拟人生》的家庭相册功能一样，玩家开始使用录制功能来讲述故事。与《模拟人生》一样，FPS 玩家并没有以图画小说的形式创作故事，而是利用了强大的 3D 游戏引擎的实时编辑功能来制作游戏。有人将游戏拍成电影只是时间问题。
Almost as soon as Quake was released in 1996, gamers began to try and play through its levels as fast as possible and to share recordings of their feats with others, competing to beat each others’ times. This type of competition, known as speedrunning, was established in the early days of DOOM, a game that like Quake gave players the ability to record and save their game play. Although these demos were clearly a form of retelling play, they soon took on a very different role. Like The Sims Family Album feature, players began to use the recording function to tell stories. Rather than creating narratives in a graphic novel form, as with The Sims, FPS players embraced the real-time editing capabilities of the robust 3D game engines upon which their games were based. It was only a matter of time before someone made the leap to film.
根据 Quake 的传说，1996 年 8 月，一个名为 The Rangers 的家族想出了一个主意，录制一个演示，以利用游戏软件内置的电影制作功能。The Rangers 不会将他们的演示录制限制在游戏中播放，而是将 Quake 用作电影制作工具。这一决定将游戏空间变成了一个虚拟电影场景，配有灯光、摄像机和动作——大量动作。Rangers 使用他们的角色作为虚拟演员，并在死亡竞赛地图上记录他们的动作；输入的文本消息代表语音。虽然他们的第一部作品今天看起来简短而简单，但“露营者日记”开创了电影流派 machinima，迄今为止已催生了数百部电影。Quake 玩家创造性地响应游戏系统的功能，不仅改变了游戏玩法，还采用了开源模型并将其应用于新文化形式的生产。
According to Quake lore, in August 1996, a clan known as The Rangers conceived the idea to record a demo that would exploit the built-in moviemaking capabilities of the game’s software. Rather than restrict their demo recording to play within the game, The Rangers would use Quake as a filmmaking tool. This decision transformed the game space into a virtual movie set, complete with lights, camera, and action—lots of action. The Rangers used their characters as virtual actors and recorded their movements on a deathmatch map; typed text messages represented speech. As short and simple as their first effort appears to us today, “Diary of a Camper” established the filmic genre machinima, which has spawned hundreds of movies to date. Creatively responding to the affordances of the game system, Quake players not only transformed the play of the game, but took an open source model and applied it to the production of new forms of culture.
Machinima 既是戏剧，又是电影，还是电脑游戏，它代表着彻底变革性游戏所带来的那种疯狂交流。Machinima 的文化游戏跨越了形式、体验和语境层面，玩家可以以游戏的方式重新利用游戏的原始结构。游戏代码的形式结构塑造了一种新的故事叙述形式，这种形式源于第一人称射击游戏的文化。
Part theater, part film, part computer game, machinima represents the kind of wild exchanges that result from thoroughly transformative play. The cultural play of machinima crosses formal, experiential, and contextual levels, as players playfully repurpose the original structures of the game. The formal structure of the game code gave shape to a new form of storytelling, born from the culture of the first-person shooter.
《Scourge Done Slick》，1998 年|《Quake Done Quick》
Scourge Done Slick, 1998 |Quake Done Quick
Father Frags Best，1999 | Phil Rice 又名 Overman
Father Frags Best, 1999 | Phil Rice aka Overman
Quake 电影是公共和私人表达的程式化形式，体现了创意输出的另类轨迹。 Machinima 文化中的玩家可以扮演各种角色：地图制作者、程序员、皮肤师、演员、模型制作者——或者可能是已完成电影的经销商。machinima.com、Quake Movie Library、Planetquake's Cineplex 和 Zarathustra Studios 等网站通过提供工具、教程、电影评论以及最重要的电影本身的免费下载来支持电影制作。
Stylized forms of both public and private expression, Quake movies embody alternative trajectories for creative output. Players in the culture of machinima may assume a range of roles: map builders, coders, skinners, actors, model makers—or perhaps a distributor for the completed films. Web sites such as machinima.com, the Quake Movie Library, Planetquake’s Cineplex, and Zarathustra Studios support movie production by offering tools, tutorials, movie reviews, and most important of all, free downloads of the movies themselves.
魔鬼的契约，1998 年| 幻影氏族
Devil’s Covenant, 1998 | Clan Phantasm
《时空错乱》，2001 年 |杰克·休斯，导演
Anachronox, 2001 | Jake Hughes, Director
《雷神之锤》电影和其他形式的 Machinima 为文化变革游戏提供了一个独特的空间：Machinima 制作人解构游戏以便玩游戏。他们不接受规则，而是挑战和修改规则。这种创造性实践是一种打破规则的形式，发生在代码的深层。通过扭曲和修改游戏的形式结构，玩家将游戏玩法重塑为几乎与游戏原貌相似的游戏，从而影响他们的游戏体验。
Quake movies and other forms of machinima offer a unique space of culturally transformative play: machinima producers deconstruct the game in order to play with it. Instead of accepting the rules, they challenge and modify them. This creative practice is a form of rule-breaking, one occurring at the deep level of code. By bending and modifying the game’s formal structure, players affect their experience with the game by remolding its play into something that only barely resembles its former shape.
回到过去
Circle Back
游戏作为开放文化的模式为玩家提供了参与更大规模文化生产系统的丰富机会。这种生产留下的设计产物——从开放游戏系统到家庭相册故事再到机器电影——从两个方向渗透到魔法圈。首先，这些产物从外部向内为游戏提供养料：
The model of games as open culture offers players rich opportunities to participate in larger systems of cultural production. The design artifacts left in the wake of such production—from open game systems to Family Album stories to machinima—permeate the magic circle from two directions. First, the artifacts feed the game from the outside in:
换句话说，玩家生产的许多实例都发生在游戏本身的框架内。无论是玩家为 LARP 设计的新服装，还是为 Half-Life 或 Quake 设计的新皮肤，这些元素都被吸收到魔法圈中，并通过游戏的进行而变得有意义。
in other words, many instances of player production occur within the frame of the game itself. Whether new costumes designed by players for a LARP or new skins designed for Half-Life or Quake, the elements are absorbed into the magic circle, where they are made meaningful through the play of the game.
与此同时，玩家创造的物品也能由内而外地滋养游戏，通过其在文化中的流通为游戏带来意义。
At the same time, player-created artifacts can also feed the game from the inside out, bringing meaning to the game through their circulation within culture.
例如，《模拟人生》的家庭相册故事通过社区背景下的个人启示影响了游戏的流行价值。玩家创作的故事讲述了文化的转变，并让人们一窥社会环境的心理。在获得超越其诞生的游戏空间边界的生活时，家庭相册故事等物品会创建自己的反馈循环，形成新的文化领域供探索，并最终反过来进行转变。从反思到转变的运动是文化变革游戏的另一个例子。
The Family Album stories of The Sims, for example, affect the popular value of the game through personal revelation within a community context. The stories crafted by players speak of cultures in transition and offer a glimpse into the psyche of a social milieu. In gaining a life beyond the borders of the game space from which they were born, artifacts like Family Album stories create feedback loops of their own, formulating new cultural territories to be explored and eventually, transformed in turn. This movement from reflection to transformation is another case of culturally transformative play.
将游戏定义为开放文化只是看待游戏作为开放系统潜力的一种方式。大多数游戏都以非常开放的方式融入文化背景。游戏植根于生活方式、媒体、意识形态、历史和一系列社会背景。作为设计师，我们必须确定和发明鼓励玩家、游戏和文化之间交流形式的设计策略。游戏设计为玩家提供了在开放游戏系统中充当创意制作人的工具，这就是一种策略，是设计师与社区、游戏与玩家之间协作设计实践的丰富模型。
Framing games as open culture is just one way of looking at the potential of games to act as open systems. Most games engage cultural contexts in a very open way. Games are embedded in lifestyles, media, ideologies, histories, and a range of social contexts. As designers, we must identify and invent design strategies that encourage forms of exchange between players, their games, and culture. Game designs that give players the tools to act as creative producers within open game systems is one such strategy, a rich model for a collaborative design practice between designer and community, between game and player.
我们从对涌现的研究得知，游戏的玩法会产生意想不到的结果。看到你的游戏创造出你无法预料的游戏体验、玩家物品和涌现的文化效应，这是游戏设计师的特别乐趣。因此，请确保你的游戏具有让你感到惊讶的潜力，为你的观众创造开放的游戏时刻。这并不意味着你每次都必须创造一个以玩家为中心的游戏：请记住，开放文化的设计是不断变化的，从完全内部的活动（例如寻找新的游戏策略）到制作新的游戏元素，再到游戏影响更广泛文化的变革潜力。迎接这一设计挑战意味着决定你想在你的游戏中促进什么形式的开放文化，以及你希望看到哪些有意义的游戏出现。最重要的是，信任你的玩家。赋予他们的社区权力并让他们参与进来。并为开放文化而设计。谁知道呢——你最终可能会激发出美妙的新游戏方式。
As we know from our studies of emergence, the play of games produces unexpected results. Seeing your game create play experiences, player artifacts, and emergent cultural effects you could not have anticipated is a special pleasure reserved for game designers. So make sure your games have the potential to surprise you, by creating moments of open play for your audience. This doesn’t mean you have to create a radically player-centric game every time: remember that the design of open culture exists along a sliding scale, from wholly internal activities such as finding new game strategies to the production of new game elements to the transformative potential of games to affect a larger culture. Rising to this design challenge means deciding what forms of open culture you want to facilitate in your game and what kinds of meaningful play you would like to see emerge. Above all, trust your players. Empower and engage their communities. And design for open culture. Who knows—you just might end up inspiring beautiful new ways to play.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
《游戏开始：电子游戏的历史和文化》，Lucien King 编辑（见第 426 页）
Game On: The History and Culture of Videogames, Lucien King, ed. (see page 426)
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
“游戏系统：多人在线世界”，JC Herz，“神奇宝贝是日本文化吗？”Masuyama
“Gaming the System: Multi-player Worlds Online,” J. C. Herz “Pokémon as Japanese Culture?” Masuyama
“游戏系统：第一、二、三部分”， 作者：Ron Hale-Evans < www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/GameSystemsl.shtml >
“Game Systems: Part I, II, III,” by Ron Hale-Evans <www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/GameSystemsl.shtml>
在这个由三部分组成的系列文章中，游戏设计师 Ron Hale-Evans 探讨了游戏系统的概念：一组组件（如一副牌），它们共同作用形成各种不同的游戏。他的研究包括一系列鲜为人知且引人入胜的游戏系统。尽管 Hale-Evans 专注于纸牌游戏，但他的讨论与探索数字游戏的模组文化有关。
In this three-part series, game designer Ron Hale-Evans explores the concept of a game system: a set of components (like a deck of cards) that function together to form a variety of different games. His investigation includes a range of lesser-known and fascinating game systems. Although Hale-Evans focuses on paper-based games, his discussion has relevance for an exploration of the mod culture of digital games.
文本盗猎者：电视迷和参与文化，亨利·詹金斯著
Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, by Henry Jenkins
在詹金斯对媒体粉丝文化的研究中，詹金斯将媒体粉丝视为“玩家即制作人”的典范：积极地从借来的材料中构建自己的物品和意义。詹金斯的研究与开源游戏中出现的黑客、模组和作弊文化特别相关。
In his study of media fan culture, Jenkins represents media fans within a player-as-producer paradigm: actively constructing their own objects and meanings from borrowed materials. Jenkins’ study is of particular relevance to the culture of hacks, mods, and cheats emerging from open source games.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第 1 章：“好好生活吧！”：粉丝、偷猎者和游牧民
Chapter 1: “Get a Life!”: Fans, Poachers, and Nomads
第 5 章：在页边处涂鸦
Chapter 5: Scribbling in the Margins
第 7 章：“意义的层次”：粉丝音乐视频和偷猎诗学
Chapter 7: “Layers of Meaning”: Fan Music Videos and the Poetics of Poaching
笔记
Notes
1. JC Herz，《游戏系统：在线多人游戏世界》。《游戏开始：电子游戏的历史和文化》，Lucien King 编辑（伦敦：Laurence Ling Publishing，2002 年），第 91 页。
1. J. C. Herz, “Gaming the System: Multi-player Worlds Online.” In Game On: The History and Culture of Video Games, edited by Lucien King (London: Laurence Ling Publishing, 2002), p. 91.
2. Jesus M. Gonzalez，“开源软件简史”。< http://eu.conecta.it/paper/brief_history_open_source.html >。
2. Jesus M. Gonzalez, “A Brief History of Open Source Software.” <http://eu.conecta.it/paper/brief_history_open_source.html>.
3.同上。
3. Ibid.
4. Ron Hale-Evans，《游戏系统：第 1 部分》。< www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/GameSystems1.shtml >
4. Ron Hale-Evans, “Game Systems: Part 1.” <www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/GameSystems1.shtml>
5.同上。
5. Ibid.
6 . 官方 Icehouse 主页，< www.wunderland.com/ice-house/Default.html >
6. The Official Icehouse Homepage, <www.wunderland.com/ice-house/Default.html>
7 . < http://dungeonseige.com >
8. Tricia “Kazi Wren” Harris，《Mod World：第 12 部分》。Gamespy.com。2002年 8 月 22 日。 < www.gamespy.com/modworld/august02/modworld12/ >。
8. Tricia “Kazi Wren” Harris, “Mod World: Part 12.” Gamespy.com. August 22, 2002. <www.gamespy.com/modworld/august02/modworld12/>.
游戏作为开放文化
概括
• “游戏作为开放文化”这一模式基于两个前提：首先，作为开放系统，游戏发生在文化层面；其次，游戏与周围的环境交换意义。
• The schema Games as Open Culture is based on two premises: first, as open systems, play occurs on the level of culture; second, games exchange meaning with their surrounding contexts.
•当游戏的开放系统特性导致游戏意义与整个文化之间发生交流，从而改变游戏背景时，就会发生变革性文化游戏。
• Transformative cultural play occurs when the open system quality of a game leads to an exchange between the meanings of a game and culture at large, changing the context of the game.
•玩家作为生产者范式是一种设计方法和社会现象，其中玩家有机会在游戏系统内充当创意生产者，在形式、体验或文化层面对其进行修改。
• The player-as-producer paradigm is a design approach and social phenomenon in which players are given the opportunity to act as creative producers within the system of the game, modifying it on formal, experiential, or cultural levels.
• 当玩家成为生产者时，他们的活动就是一种元游戏的形式，因为他们在魔法圈的范围之外与游戏进行互动。
• When players become producers, their activities are a form of metagaming, as they interact with the game outside the bounds of the magic circle.
• 玩家制作者有潜力创造全新的游戏环境，这是游戏作为开放文化的新兴特性。这些新环境本身可以鼓励新的游戏体验，创造变革性游戏的实例。
• Player-producers have the potential to create entirely new contexts for play, an emergent property of games as open culture. These new contexts themselves can encourage new play experiences, creating instances of transformative play.
•开源是一种软件开发模式，具有两个支持以用户为中心的生产的重要特征：首先，代码以开放系统的形式编写，可供设计人员社区修改和交换；其次，源代码始终可用且可自由共享。
• Open source is a software development model with two important features that support user-centered production: first, code is written as an open system available for modification and exchange by a community of designers; second, the source code is always available and freely shared.
• 开放文化游戏的特质与开源软件的基本特征相似。它们是：非层次化、开放可访问、非引导性和突发性。
• The qualities of open culture games are similar to the fundamental features of open source software. They are: non-hierarchical, openly accessible, non-guided, and emergent.
• 玩家产生的修改可以通过以下两种方式之一发生：在魔法圈内发生的向外移动的产生（内部 > 外部），或者在文化内部发生的向内移动以影响游戏的产生（外部 > 内部）。
• Player-produced modifications can occur in one of two ways: production occurring within the magic circle moving outward (inside > out), or production taking place within culture that moves inward to affect the game (outside > in).
•游戏系统是一组可用于玩不同游戏的组件。游戏系统可以是数字化的（开源游戏引擎）或非数字化的（一组物理游戏材料）。
• Game systems are sets of components that can be used to play different games. Game systems can be digital (an open source game engine) or non-digital (a set of physical game materials).
• Machinima是利用游戏引擎技术制作的动画电影。
• Machinima are animated movies created with game engine technology.
三十二
32
游戏作为文化抵抗
GAMES AS CULTURAL RESISTANCE
文化转型游戏
culturally transformative play
摩擦力
friction as resistance
游戏修改
game modifications
DIY 游戏
DIY gaming
改造
alteration
并置
juxtaposition
重塑
reinvention
所以，你刚在教室里侦察完一场开放的游戏后就跳上了操场。房间里还有另外五个女孩，其中两个明显很安静。游戏开始了。毫无预兆地，这两个女孩的调侃突然让你失去了一半的分数！下一轮，她们的一次告密几乎让你一败涂地！这两个沉默的女孩毫发无损——真的。在这场非常短暂的游戏结束时，这两个完全沉默的女孩战胜了房间里其他人的残缺身体——她们俩之间没有说一句话！她们是怎么做到的？
So, you’ve just hopped onto the playground after scouting the homeroom for an open game. There are five other girls in the room, two of whom are noticeably silent. The game begins. Without warning, a tease from the two girls suddenly takes out half your points! The next round, one of their tattles nearly wipes you out! The two silent girls remain without a scratch—literally. By the end of the very short game, the two completely silent girls stand victorious over the broken bodies of everyone else in the room—and not a word was spoken between the two of them! How’d they do it?
您可能是一对骗子的受害者……
You might be the victim of a pair of cheaters . . .
无论输赢，你都有义务让 SiSSYFiGHT 社区的其他成员了解作弊者。— www.sissyfightnews.com
Regardless of whether you win or lose, you have an obligation to let the rest of the SiSSYFiGHT community know about the cheaters.—www.sissyfightnews.com
引入文化抵抗
Introducing Cultural Resistance
在《游戏作为开放文化》中，我们研究了游戏中可以发生哪些形式的玩家生产，以及这些生产形式相对于魔法圈的位置。但我们仍有问题需要回答：玩家生产形式是如何设计的，为什么会出现？例如，在 SiSSYFiGHT 2000 在线社区中，作弊者和义务警员社区是如何产生的？他们为什么会出现，他们对游戏玩法有何意义？
In Games as Open Culture, we looked at what forms of player-production can occur in games and where those forms of production are situated relative to the magic circle. But we still have questions to answer: How are forms of player-production designed and why do they occur? How, for example, do communities of cheaters and vigilantes arise within the SiSSYFiGHT 2000 online community? Why do they appear at all and what is their significance for the play of the game?
在这个框架中，游戏作为文化抵抗，我们延续了上一章中的许多主题和概念，包括玩家生产、变革性文化游戏以及游戏与其背景之间的意义交换。然而，在这样做时，我们的关注点会大大缩小。游戏作为文化抵抗强调设计干预，通过创造性抵抗行为引起人们对魔法圈边界的特别关注。
In this schema, Games as Cultural Resistance, we carry forward many of the themes and concepts from the previous chapter, including player-production, transformative cultural play, and the exchange of meaning between a game and its context. In doing so, however, our focus narrows considerably. Games as Cultural Resistance highlights design interventions that call specific attention to the borders of the magic circle through acts of creative resistance.
我们所说的“抵抗”到底是什么意思？我们通过广泛的摩擦来理解抵抗的概念，这个概念比通常将“抵抗”理解为政治反对更为笼统。抵抗有时可能是政治性的，但也可以采取其他形式。当两种现象相互冲突时，就会产生摩擦或抵抗。在本章中，我们将研究游戏与其文化背景之间可能出现的摩擦，即当一方采取行动抵抗另一方时。“摩擦”一词可能让这个过程听起来很负面，但由此产生的抵抗会以深刻而有意义的方式影响游戏。例如，我们可以使用摩擦的概念来重新构建规则和游戏之间的关系。在《定义游戏》中，我们将游戏定义为在更为严格的结构内的自由运动。将游戏视为阻力或摩擦，自由发挥的游戏会与严格的规则结构发生摩擦，产生紧张。这种紧张的确切性质决定了游戏的具体游戏体验。
What exactly do we mean by “resistance?” We see the concept of resistance through a broad rubric of friction, a more general notion than the usual understanding of “resistance” as political opposition. Resistance can sometimes be political, but it can take other forms as well. When two phenomena come into conflictual contact with one another, friction, or resistance, results. In this chapter, we look at the friction that can occur between games and their cultural contexts, when one acts to resist the other. The term “friction” may make this process sound negative, but the resistance that results can affect play in deeply meaningful ways. For example, we can use the concept of friction to reframe the relationship between rules and play. In Defining Play, we identified play as free movement within a more rigid structure. Considering a game as resistance or friction, free-wheeling play rubs up against rigid structures of rules, producing tension. The exact quality of this tension determines the specific play experience of a game.
以这种抵抗为框架，“自由游戏”始终具有变革性。游戏绝不仅仅存在于规则体系中，而是通过持续的摩擦过程影响系统的变化。随着时间的推移，水流与岩石和泥土的摩擦将改变河床更坚硬的结构。同样，当我们将游戏定义为抵抗系统时，游戏本身就具有变革性。这种转变不仅发生在规则层面，也发生在文化层面，因为抵抗在魔法圈和游戏周围的环境之间造成了紧张关系。
Framed as this kind of resistance, “free play” is always already transformative. Play never merely resides in a system of rules, but through an ongoing process of friction, affects change in the system. The friction of water flowing against rock and earth over time will alter the more rigid structure of a riverbed. Similarly, when we frame a game as a system of resistance, the very play of the game is intrinsically transformative. This transformation not only takes place on the level of rules but on cultural levels as well, as the resistance creates tensions between the magic circle and the contexts surrounding the game.
在上一章中，我们介绍了珍妮和皮条客老爹这两个角色，他们都是变形游戏行为中出现的角色。从文化抵抗的角度来看，这对角色不仅在《网络创世纪》游戏世界的正式结构中获得了共鸣，而且也是一种抵抗策略，以抵制关于游戏中什么是“适当”职业的既定文化假设。实际上，通过增加“未经批准”的职业而产生的摩擦引起了人们对游戏中看不见的道德偏见的关注。这种偏见可能带有一种“游戏即进步”的文化修辞色彩，旨在压制各种越轨的性游戏形式。然而，人们不得不怀疑，珍妮和皮条客老爹这两个角色的出现是否产生了更多的摩擦。例如，游戏中可能出现了对珍妮作为女性性对象地位的女权主义批评，从而引发了反卖淫抗议，或者可能是全男性的舞男服务。游戏中的抵抗往往会导致更多的抵抗，从而形成多层次的文化游戏系统。
In the previous chapter, we introduced Jenny and Pimp Daddy as characters who emerged out of an act of transformative play. From the perspective of cultural resistance, the pair gain resonance not only within the formal constructs of the Ultima Online game world, but also as a strategy of resistance against received cultural assumptions about what constitutes a “proper” profession in the game. In effect, the friction created through the addition of an “unsanctioned” profession called attention to invisible moral biases in the game. The bias was tinged, perhaps, with a play as progress cultural rhetoric that sought to repress forms of transgressive sexual play. Yet one has to wonder whether the emergent play of Jenny and Pimp Daddy itself produced further instances of friction. For example, a feminist critique against Jenny’s status as a female sexual object might have sprung up in the game, leading to anti-prostitution protests, or perhaps an all-male gigolo service. Resistance in a game often leads to more resistance, creating multi-layered systems of cultural play.
这一例子的关键在于，《网络创世纪》中的卖淫“职业”是作为玩家互动的一种属性而出现的。珍妮和她的皮条客被创造为游戏角色；由此产生的变革性游戏源于对这些角色在现实世界中扮演的角色的理解。《网络创世纪》中的卖淫源于游戏的形式和叙事结构，因为它们与现实世界的叙事期望发生了冲突。整个结果，就像所有复杂系统一样，不仅仅是各部分的总和，它是一种改变游戏的游戏实例，即使它改变了游戏社区的态度和假设。
Key to this example is the fact that the “profession” of prostitution in Ultima Online emerged as a property of player interaction. Jenny and her pimp were created as in-game characters; the resulting transformative play grew from an understanding of the roles such characters would play in the real world. Prostitution in Ultima Online emerged from the formal and narrative structures of the game as they came into conflict with real-world narrative expectations. The whole result, as with all complex systems, was more than the sum of the parts, an instance of play that modified the game, even as it transformed the attitudes and assumptions of the game community.
DIY 游戏
DIY Gaming
对于朋克音乐，摇滚评论家格雷尔·马库斯 (Greil Marcus) 写道：“性手枪乐队在流行音乐环境中闯入了一个缺口，打破了人们期望听到什么以及如何回应的既定文化假设。”1几十年后，同样的文化情感在一款名为 DOOM 的游戏中再次浮现。作为一款向世界介绍游戏开源以及模组艺术的游戏，DOOM 对流行文化的渗透是一种真正新兴的现象。正如我们在上一章讨论 DOOM 的直系后代 Quake 时了解到的那样，DOOM 引入的开放系统方法和 Quake 所采用的方法对后来的游戏设计和文化产生了巨大影响。
Of punk music, rock critic Greil Marcus writes, “The Sex Pistols made a breach in the pop milieu, in the screen of received cultural assumptions governing what one expected to hear and how one expected to respond.”1 Decades later, the same cultural sensibility would resurface in a game called DOOM. As the game that introduced the world to the open sourcing of games and consequently, the art of the mod, DOOM’S infiltration of popular culture was a truly emergent phenomenon. As we learned last chapter in a discussion of DOOM’S direct descendent Quake, the open system methodology DOOM introduced and Quake embraced had a tremendous impact on both the design and culture of games to follow.
我们所建立的朋克摇滚与 DOOM 之间的联系并不是美学上的；DOOM 的恐怖电影式低俗媚俗与朋克喧闹的反美学风格截然不同。相反，两者之间的相似之处在于积极拥抱 DIY 心态。在朋克中，DIY 体现在这样一种信念中：可以从主流文化中夺取对生产工具的控制权，并用它来创造另一种现实。在朋克乐队中演奏意味着拿起吉他制造噪音；制作杂志只需要剪刀、墨水和复印机。多年后，这种精神被带入了 DOOM 的设计中，DIY 态度体现在玩家可以使用游戏开发工具的方式上。DOOM 与朋克一样，希望消除玩家和制作人之间的区别，消除历史上按照参与界限划分的僵化类别。因此，《DOOM》源代码的“自由游戏”至今（发布十多年后）仍被玩家操纵，这打破了人们长期以来关于人们可以并且应该如何与游戏互动的假设。
The link we’re making between punk rock and DOOM is not an aesthetic one; DOOM’S horror-movie pulp kitsch is quite different than punk’s noisy anti-aesthetic style. Instead, the similarity between the two is an aggressive embrace of a do-it-yourself (or “DIY”) mentality. In punk, DIY was manifest in a belief that control of the tools of production could be wrested from the dominant culture and used to create an alternate version of reality. Playing in a punk band meant picking up a guitar and making noise; making a ‘zine simply required access to scissors, ink, and a photocopy machine. Years later this spirit was carried forward into the design of DOOM, where the DIY attitude was embodied in the way players were given access to the game’s development tools. DOOM shared punk’s desire to remove distinctions between player and producer, between historically rigid categories drawn along participatory lines. Thus, the “free play” of DOOM’S source code, still undergoing manipulation by players today (more than ten years after its release), made a breach in long-held assumptions about how one could, and should, interact with a game.
此外，DOOM 所推崇的黑客文化和开源方法与朋克对经济和社会等级制度的蓄意破坏有着密切的相似之处。鼓励业余程序员对这款开创性的第一人称射击游戏进行自己的改造，产生了双重效果：大大延长了 DOOM 的寿命（人们在厌倦了原版游戏很久之后还会玩玩家设计的关卡），并大大增加了销量（人们有理由在游戏被认为不可思议的古老很久之后购买它）。2一直以来，强大的 DIY 心态都以某种形式成为数字游戏发展的重要组成部分。
Additionally, the hacker culture and open source methodologies embraced by DOOM find a close parallel in punk’s willful annihilation of economic and social hierarchies. Encouraging amateur programmers to come up with their own spin on the ground-breaking first-person shooter had the dual effect of dramatically increasing DOOM’S longevity (people played player-designed levels long after they had tired of the original set) and dramatically increasing sales (people had a reason to buy the game long after it would otherwise have been considered unthinkably ancient). 2 A strong DIY mentality has, in one form or another, been an important part of digital gaming’s development ever since.
抵抗策略
Resistant Strategies
游戏中设计好的抵抗策略，无论是由玩家还是设计师创造的，都被称为游戏修改或模组。修改可以是官方认可的，例如由开发者分发的增强游戏玩法或修复错误的修改，也可以是“非官方的”，例如未经批准的游戏关卡，由玩家设计和分发。通常，玩家制作的修改并非旨在“修复”游戏中的错误，而是专门为以某种方式改变游戏玩法而开发的。3修改通过在现有版本和替代版本之间制造摩擦，引起了人们对魔法圈边界的关注。当我们考虑到游戏修改的设计、传播和使用的更大的社会背景时，情况尤其如此。游戏修改本质上是变革性的——毕竟，它们确实改变了游戏。它们产生的摩擦将游戏与环境、玩家作为生产者与玩家作为消费者、设计师与用户、粉丝与开发者、程序员与黑客联系起来。通过模糊这些类别，游戏修改在各种背景下引发了文化阻力。
Designed strategies of resistance in a game, whether created by players or designers, are called game modifications, or mods. Modifications can be officially sanctioned, such as a developer-distributed modification that enhances game play or fixes a bug, or they can be “unofficial,” such as unsanctioned game levels, designed and distributed by players. Typically, player-produced modifications are not designed to “mend” an error in the game but are specifically developed to alter game play in some way. 3 Modifications call attention to the borders of the magic circle by creating friction between existing and alternative versions of the game. This is especially true when we consider the larger social contexts for which game modifications are designed, disseminated, and put to use. Game modifications are inherently transformative—they do, after all, literally change the game. The friction they create connects game to context, player-as-producer to player-as-consumer, designer to user, fan to developer, programmer to hacker. In blurring these categories, game modifications enact cultural resistance in a variety of contexts.
并非所有的游戏抵抗行为都具有明确的政治性。请记住，我们使用的“抵抗”一词通常是指任何与更严格的结构产生摩擦的游戏行为。抵抗对于游戏设计师来说是一个非常有用的模型，特别是如果你想让你的游戏以批判的视角来吸引文化。有许多设计干预的例子，这些干预修改了游戏，以与更大的制度力量进行对话。在对游戏补丁的研究中，Erkki Huhtamo 指出，这些策略包括由意识形态驱动的修改担忧，渴望重新确立玩家作为共同创造者的角色，或颠覆现行的种族、阶级或性别关系。4就像借来的安全别针或朋克的纳粹标志一样，游戏修改有可能变异并抵制传统的符号代码，从而从熟悉的背景中创造出批判的观点。
Not every act of game resistance is explicitly political. Remember that our use of the term “resistance” refers generally to any act of play that creates friction with more rigid structures. Resistance can be a highly useful model for game designers, particularly if you want your game to engage culture along critical lines. There are many examples of design interventions that modify games to create a dialogue with larger institutional forces. In his study of game patches, Erkki Huhtamo notes that these strategies include modifications motivated by ideological concerns, an urge to re-assert the role of the player as a co-creator, or the subversion of prevailing race, class, or gender relations. 4 Like the borrowed safety pins or swastikas of punk, game modifications have the potential to mutate and resist traditional symbolic codes, creating a critical view from within familiar contexts.
无论是否出于政治目的，游戏修改都可以作为一种抵抗形式，影响游戏的意义、体验和文化特征。在接下来的几页中，我们将研究一系列不同的游戏修改，这些修改大致根据设计方法进行分组。我们将修改分为改变、并置和重塑的例子，每个类别代表在游戏中实现抵抗的不同策略：
Whether political or not, game modifications can act as forms of resistance, affecting the meaning, experience, and cultural identity of a game. In the next several pages, we look at a range of different game modifications, broadly grouped according to design method. We have divided the modifications into examples of alteration, juxtaposition, and reinvention, each category representing a different strategy for achieving resistance in a game:
•变更策略会对现有的游戏结构做出改变。
• Strategies of alteration make changes to existing game structures.
•并置策略将游戏空间内意想不到的元素结合在一起。
• Strategies of juxtaposition combine unexpected elements within a game space.
•重塑策略在更深层次上重塑整个游戏结构。
• Strategies of reinvention rework entire game structures on deeper levels.
虽然这三种方法有重叠，但作为一个整体，它们提供了一个概念模型，用于理解现有的游戏阻力形式以及规划新的游戏阻力形式。
Although these three methods overlap, as a whole they provide a conceptual model for understanding existing forms of game resistance, as well as planning new ones.
改变的策略
Strategies of Alteration
修改是对游戏的修改，重新设计现有的表现形式或互动方式。例如，《DOOM》的斗鸡补丁或《马拉松无限》的甘比娃娃补丁，通过用玩家制作的角色替换标准游戏角色来改变传统的文化表现形式。“斗鸡”和“甘比娃娃”用愚蠢或荒谬的角色取代传统的“男子汉”士兵形象，重新塑造了男性英雄理想的刻板形象。新表现形式与传统规范所支持的形象之间的这种互动所产生的摩擦挑战了人们对游戏代表什么和代表谁的假设。
Alterations are game modifications that rework existing forms of representation or interaction. Game patches such as the Fighter Chicken patch for DOOM or the Gumby Doll patch for Marathon Infinity, for example, alter traditional forms of cultural representation by substituting standard game characters with player-produced ones. Replacing traditionally “macho” soldier images with silly or absurd characters, “Fighter Chicken” and “Gumby Doll” reframe stereotyped depictions of the male heroic ideal. The friction that results from this play between the new representations and those supported by traditional codes challenges assumptions about what, and who, games represent.
草皮
SOD
以 Jodi 为人熟知的艺术家 Dirk Paesmans 和 Joan Heemskerk 通过形式主义的游戏代码简化来改变游戏系统。他们为 Castle Wolfenstein 制作的补丁，即名为 SOD 的修改版，将 3D 射击游戏的所有颜色和深度都剥离了。基本几何形状（如正方形、圆形和三角形）取代了游戏的原始视觉组件（城堡墙壁、守卫和武器）。Jodi 并没有用替代角色图像替换角色精灵，而是通过完全清空游戏中的形象表现来设计抵抗。由此产生的游戏空间被渲染为简单的几何块和线条，玩家被迫考虑游戏引擎如何通过深度、运动和物体行为的幻觉来创造一个有意义的空间。虽然图形代码已被更改，但配乐保持不变，导致尖叫的三角形和吠叫的旋转方块面对玩家。通过几层荒诞的并置，SOD 公开但富有表现力的神秘改变在抽象和表现、平面和深度、声音和形式之间建立了新的联系。
Dirk Paesmans and Joan Heemskerk, artists known by the joint name Jodi, transform game systems through formalist reductions of game code. Their patch for Castle Wolfenstein, a modification called SOD, strips the 3D shooter of all color and depth. Basic geometric forms such as squares, circles, and triangles replace the game’s original visual components—the castle walls, guards, and weapons. Rather than replacing character sprites with alternate character images, Jodi designs resistance by completely emptying the game of figurative representation. The resulting game space is rendered as simple geometric blocks and lines and players are forced to consider how the game engine creates a meaningful space through illusions of depth, movement, and object behavior. Although the graphics code has been altered, the soundtrack remains untouched, resulting in screaming triangles and barking, rotating squares that confront the player. Through several layers of absurdist juxtapositions, SOD’s overt but expressively enigmatic alterations create new connections between abstraction and representation, flatness and depth, sound and form.
美少女战士 Wad
Sailor Moon Wad
幽默和戏仿也能为改变策略提供参考。SOS Doom Team 为支持“拯救我们的水手”（SOS）运动而开发的《美少女战士》Wad“旨在让《美少女战士》继续在北美播出。”5直接借鉴日本动画词汇来构建女主角 Priss，wad（基于文件扩展名的 DOOM 关卡文件的昵称）改变了 DOOM 的哥特式建筑，将空间中堆满了来自美少女战士世界的物品：纸杯蛋糕、巧克力蛋糕片、爱心、玫瑰、兔子手提箱和信蜂。在这里，通过添加整个女性化物品系统，DOOM 的隐性阳刚之气受到了质疑。
Humor and parody can inform a strategy of alteration as well. The Sailor Moon Wad, developed by the SOS Doom Team in support of the Save Our Sailors (SOS) campaign, “aims at keeping Sailor Moon on the air in North America.”5 Drawing directly on the lexicon of Japanese Animé in the construction of its heroine Priss, the wad (a nickname for DOOM level files based on the filename extension) alters the gothic architecture of DOOM by littering the space with objects from the world of Sailor Moon: cupcakes, slices of chocolate cake, hearts, roses, bunny suitcases, and messenger bees. Here the implicit masculinity of DOOM is playfully called into question through the addition of an entire system of feminized artifacts.
草皮
SOD
美少女战士 Wad
Sailor Moon Wad
模拟直升机黑客
SimCopter Hack
虽然前两个例子涉及的修改都是由未设计原版游戏的抵抗者进行的，但有时游戏开发者自己也可以使用修改作为一种抵抗策略。SimCopter Hack 是艺术团体 rtmark 与一位实际从事计算机游戏 SimCopter 的程序员合作的成果。当游戏仍在开发中时，程序员（rtmark 成员）用 rtmark 后来称之为“男孩花痴”的人物代替了游戏中标志性的身穿比基尼的女性，“将游戏传统的异性恋视角染上了同性恋的意味。”6
Whereas the previous two examples involved modifications by resistors who did not design the original game, sometimes the game developers themselves can use alteration as a strategy of resistance. SimCopter Hack was was the result of a collaboration between the art collective rtmark and a programmer actually working on the computer game SimCopter. While the game was still in development, the programmer (an rtmark member) substituted what rtmark has since termed “boy bimbos” for the game’s token bikini-clad females, “infecting the game’s traditional heterosexual gaze with homoerotic undertones.”6
在《模拟直升机破解版》中，反抗的玩法发生在多个层面。与《斗士鸡》、《甘比娃娃》和《美少女战士》一样，《模拟直升机破解版》在文化表征系统方面制造了摩擦，尤其是在性别方面。此外，《模拟直升机破解版》在市场中造成了紧张局势。根据 rtmark 的消息，在修改被发现之前，这款游戏可能已经售出了多达 80,000 份。7开发这款游戏的公司 Maxis 显然将这次修改视为一种经济破坏行为，尽管这一修改的目的只是为了引起批判性辩论。
In SimCopter Hack, the play of resistance occurs across several levels. Like Fighter Chicken, Gumby Doll, and the Sailor Moon wad, SimCopter Hack created friction around systems of cultural representation, particularly along gender lines. Additionally, SimCopter Hack created tension within the marketplace. According to rtmark sources, the game may have sold as many as 80,000 copies before the modification was discovered. 7 Maxis, the company that developed the game, surely viewed the modification as an act of economic sabotage, albeit one that had only been intended to rouse critical debate.
并置策略
Strategies of Juxtaposition
第二种精心设计的文化摩擦策略是并置，它通过在同一空间中放置意想不到的元素来实现抵抗。这一策略长期以来一直被那些有意实现批判性冲突的人用作一种抵抗形式。从艺术家马塞尔·杜尚在 1917 年军械库展览中加入小便池，到设计师杰米·里德在 1977 年性手枪乐队的《天佑女王》专辑封面上将安全别针与英国皇室搭配在一起，并置是一种“反驳”文化的既定手段。在以下并置的例子中，作为一种特殊的游戏改变形式，抵抗意义通过富有表现力地配对意想不到的元素而浮现出来。
A second strategy of designed cultural friction, juxtaposition, achieves resistance by placing unexpected elements together in the same space. It is a strategy that has long been used as a form of resistance by those interested in achieving critical conflict. From the artist Marcel Duchamp’s inclusion of a urinal in the Armory Show of 1917 to designer Jamie Reid’s pairing of a safety pin and British royalty on the 1977 album cover of the Sex Pistol’s God Save the Queen, juxtaposition is an established means for “talking back” to culture. A special form of game alteration, in the examples of juxtaposition that follow, resistant meanings emerge through the expressive pairing of unlikely elements.
早期为 Quake 设计的许多女性皮肤都是由软件限制所导致的并置策略演变而来的。Quake 的原始版本仅包含男性 3D 几何图形来设计新皮肤。有兴趣扮演女性角色的玩家最终只能将女性皮肤映射到标准的男性肌肉人物上。“女性”属性（头发、衣服、面部特征）与“男性”基本人物的并置产生了后来被称为“frag queens”的形象。Quake 家族中被称为 Psycho Men Slayers 的女性皮肤师通过混合和匹配元素来创造性别模糊的 frag queens，从而克服了这一限制。这些新塑造的形象既不完全是男性，也不完全是女性，但无疑很坚强，挑战了传统的性别观念，将高度超越性的身份形式引入了游戏文化。
Many of the early female skins designed for Quake evolved out of a strategy of juxtaposition enforced by the limitations of the software. The original version of Quake included only male 3D geometry for designing new skins. Players interested in playing female characters ended up with female skins mapped onto the standard male muscular figure. The juxtaposition between “feminine” attributes (hair, clothing, facial features) and the “male” base figure resulted in what came to be known as “frag queens.” The female skinners of a Quake clan known as the Psycho Men Slayers embraced this limitation by mixing and matching elements to create frag queens of ambiguous gender. Not quite male, not quite female, but undoubtedly tough, the newly minted avatars challenged traditional notions of gender, introducing into gamer culture highly transgressive forms of identity.
黑人区
Blacklash
Blacklash 是伦敦激进组织 Mongrel 设计的一款游戏，将种族政治和街机怀旧情绪并列，是街机游戏 Tempest 的种族重制版。在游戏现有的“开枪或被枪杀”结构的基础上，Blacklash 将原版游戏中的外星人变成了漫画版的戴头巾的三K党成员和穿制服的英国警察。Mongrel 将其描述为“对受到无知和种族主义愚蠢威胁的黑人青年的警钟”，8 Blacklash 引用了街机经典游戏的复古风格，以此来引起人们对过时的种族偏见行为的关注。作为概念游戏修改，Blacklash 在游戏的形式和体验部分之间制造了阻力。使用 Tempest 的规则结构作为 Blacklash 政治评论的基础，鼓励玩家将对心爱游戏的怀旧情绪与制度化种族主义模式联系起来，玩家通过玩游戏正式体验到这些模式。
A game designed by the London-based activist group Mongrel, Blacklash juxtaposes racial politics and arcade nostalgia in a racial re-versioning of the arcade game Tempest. Building upon the game’s existing shoot-or-be-shot structure, Blacklash transforms the aliens of the original game into comic book renditions of hooded Ku Klux Klan members and uniformed British police officers. Described by Mongrel as “a wake-up call for young black youth under threat by ignorance and racist fools,”8 Blacklash references the retro styling of the arcade classic as a means of calling attention to outdated acts of racial prejudice. A conceptual game modification, Blacklash creates resistance between the formal and experiential components of the game. The use of Tempest’s rule structure as the basis for Blacklash’s political commentary encourages players to make a connection between feelings of nostalgia for a beloved game and patterns of institutional racism, patterns that players experience formally through the play of the game.
破片皇后
Frag Queens
洛杉矶迪士尼
Los Disneys
Los Disneys 是 Jason Huddy 为 Marathon Infinity 制作的游戏补丁，通过模仿迪士尼魔法王国的游戏关卡，重新阐述了第一人称射击游戏的类型。补丁将主题公园变成了一个世界末日后的游乐场，到处都是携带监控摄像头的游客和成群结队的寻欢作乐的孩子。Los Disneys 在游戏的模拟动作和这些动作所反映的外部事件之间制造了摩擦。玩家可以射击在场地上游荡的任意数量的超大迪士尼人物（包括米奇、唐老鸭和高飞），也可以自由地冲过长长的队伍，冲向等待游乐设施的孩子和他们的父母。Los Disneys 的互动性和美学颠覆了第一人称射击游戏的既定惯例，将它们改造成批判性的漫画。例如，带有监控摄像头的游客用枪代替外星人，提供了一种更柔和、更阴险的游戏攻击和冲突体验。洛杉矶迪士尼对游戏中暴力的“玩法”是一种清晰而幽默的抵抗策略。
Los Disneys, a game patch for Marathon Infinity by Jason Huddy, rearticulates the genre of the first-person shooter though the creation of a game level that mimics Disney’s Magic Kingdom. The patch transforms the theme park into a post-apocalyptic playground, replete with surveillance camera-toting tourists and clusters of pleasure-seeking children. Los Disneys creates friction between the simulated actions of the game and the external events those actions mirror. Players can shoot any number of oversized Disney characters (including Mickey, Donald, and Goofy) wandering the grounds and are also at liberty to blast their way through lengthy lines of children and their parents waiting for rides. The interactivity and aesthetics of Los Disneys subverts accepted conventions of the first-person shooter by reforming them into critical caricatures. The substitution of aliens with guns by tourists with surveillance cameras, for example, offers a softer, more insidious experience of game attack and conflict. Los Disneys’ “play” on the play of violence in games is an articulate and humorous strategy of resistance.
黑人区
Blacklash
再造策略
Strategies of Reinvention
我们的第三种抵抗策略——重塑——与改变和并置类别重叠，同时提供了一些独特的批判性可供性。与前两种策略一样，重塑通过改变游戏的表征或交互结构来影响形式和背景。但重塑策略更深入，修改游戏的核心结构，从内到外重塑它们。在我们概述的三个类别中，重塑策略可能是通过变革性游戏进行文化抵抗的最激进形式。
Our third strategy of resistance—reinvention—overlaps with the categories of alteration and juxtaposition, while offering some distinct critical affordances of its own. Like the two previous strategies, reinvention affects form and context through a change in the game’s representational or interactive structures. But strategies of reinvention go deeper, modifying the core structures of a game, reshaping them from the inside out. Of the three categories we outline, strategies of reinvention are perhaps the most radical form of cultural resistance through transformative play.
环球广场
Universal Square
在艺术家 Uri Tzaig 的“Universal Square”中，两支足球队（一支由以色列犹太人组成，另一支由以色列阿拉伯人组成）受邀参加一场电视转播的足球比赛。这场比赛于 1996 年在以色列洛德举行，比赛按照足球的标准规则进行，但做了一个简单的修改：Tzaig 重新设计了比赛，使其不再只用一个球，而是同时用两个球进行比赛。
In artist Uri Tzaig’s Universal Square, two Soccer teams (one composed of Jewish Israelis, the other Arab Israelis) were invited to take part in a televised Soccer match. Held in Lod, Israel in 1996, the game was played according to the standard rules of Soccer, except for a simple modification: Tzaig redesigned the game so that it was played with not one ball, but two at the same time.
这种优雅的设计在很多方面都造成了阻力。这款游戏无法以“正常”的方式进行：玩家必须发明新的互动形式，考虑到失去一个单一的、统一的物体，所有比赛活动都围绕着这个物体。同样，观众的行为也发生了变化。随着第二个球的加入，传统的视角也消失了（所有观众的眼睛都集中在一个球上）。人群的照片显示他们朝许多不同的方向看，而不是体育观众典型的单一焦点。9
This elegant design act created resistance in several ways. The game could not be played in a “normal” fashion: players had to invent new forms of interaction that took into account the loss of a single, unifying object around which all of the game activity was centered. Similarly, the behavior of spectators was transformed as well. With the addition of a second ball came the loss of the customary angle of vision (the eyes of all spectators focused on a single ball). Photos of the crowd show them looking in many different directions, rather than the typical, singular focus of a sports spectator audience. 9
扎伊格对足球比赛的改造之所以有效，有几个原因。他成功地分散了观众通常统一的观点，对文化观赏性的概念提出了批评。增加第二个球使得比赛变得相当困难，迫使两队球员之间的合作水平提高到一个新的水平。扎伊格的设计改造打乱了比赛中集中的权力结构，这在扎伊格的文化背景下是一个特别深刻的决定。双人足球比赛成为中东混乱、去中心化和多层次文化冲突的代表。同时，重新设计提供了一个模型，说明如何通过新的互动形式来控制和解决如此复杂的冲突。在这项强有力的工作中，优雅的形式设计选择具有文化变革意义。
Tzaig’s transformation of the game of Soccer is effective for several reasons. His successful dispersion of the crowd’s normally unified point of view creates a critical commentary around ideas of cultural spectatorship. Adding a second ball made the game quite difficult to play, forcing a new level of collaborative play among the players from both teams. Tzaig’s design reinvention dislocated the centralized power structures in the game, a particularly poignant decision in Tzaig’s cultural context. The doubled Soccer game became a representation of the chaotic, decentered, and multi-layered cultural conflicts of the Middle East. At the same time, the redesign offered a model for how such a complex conflict could be contained and resolved through new forms of interaction. In this powerful work, an elegant formal design choice takes on culturally transformative significance.
反恐精英
Counter-Strike
《反恐精英》是《半条命》的极受欢迎的修改版，是玩家作为制作人模式如何重塑游戏的绝佳例子。《反恐精英》不仅仅是一个修改版，它还在多个层面上改变了原版游戏，创造了一种完全属于自己的游戏体验。
A tremendously popular modification of Half-Life, Counter-Strike, is an excellent example of how the player-as-producer paradigm can reinvent a game. More than just a mod, Counter-Strike transformed the original game on numerous levels, creating a game experience wholly its own.
与许多只是简单地调整游戏外观和感觉的模组不同，《反恐精英》的设计完全改变了表现层面，剥离了
Unlike many mods that simply tweak the game’s look and feel, the design of Counter-Strike shifted the representational plane entirely, stripping away the sci-fi narrative of
半条命，并用引人入胜的自然主义取而代之。游戏评论家贾斯汀·霍尔在评论《反恐精英》时指出，“《反恐精英》只存在于越南战争和COPS为其准备的世界里，游戏玩家从小就看到真人拿着真枪冲进房屋、建筑物和田野的镜头。电视让这种真实感更具吸引力。Minh Le（模组设计师）让它具有互动性。”10《反恐精英》将游戏设定为恐怖分子/反恐冲突，创造了丰富的团队游戏玩法。游戏体验中强化的社会现实性，加剧了《反恐精英》中典型的梦幻第一人称射击游戏与现实世界背景之间的对抗。
Half-Life and replacing it with an engaging naturalism. In a review of Counter-Strike, game critic Justin Hall notes, “Counter-Strike exists only in the world prepared for it by the war in Vietnam and COPS, where game-players grew up seeing footage of real men with real guns storming into houses and buildings and fields. Television made that veracity attractive. Minh Le [the mod’s designer] made it interactive.”10 In casting the game as a terrorist/counter-terrorist conflict, Counter-Strike created rich, team-oriented game play. The resistance between typically fantastic first-person shooters and the real-world setting of Counter-Strike was heightened by the intensified social reality of the game experience.
《反恐精英》的抵抗策略还包括经济再造。该模组由一小群共享软件开发者合作开发，后来成为商店出售的商业产品。《反恐精英》在 2001 年游戏开发者大会上赢得了多项重要奖项，包括新秀工作室奖和游戏焦点奖，它从非商业的共享软件文化转向商业市场，为独立游戏开发提供了再造的典范。
Counter-Strike’s resistant strategies include economic reinvention as well. The mod evolved out of collaboration between small groups of shareware developers and later became a commercial product sold in stores. Winning several major awards at the 2001 Game Developers’ Conference, including the Rookie Studio Award and the Game Spotlight Award, Counter-Strike’s movement from the noncommercial culture of shareware to the commercial marketplace offers reinvention as a model for independent game development.
改变、并置和再创造提供了设计或重新设计游戏的方法，使其符合文化的理念，积极地融入游戏边界之外的象征性空间。无论所采用的方法在本质上是更为正式的（如 SOD 的情况），还是在政治驱动的（如 Blacklash 的情况），这些行为的文化维度都引起了人们对通常看不见的魔法圈的关注。当游戏表现出文化抵抗时，游戏内外空间之间的无缝过渡就会中断；玩家会意识到游戏中通常被忽视的方面。让玩家体验这种变革性游戏会增加游戏的选择：当批判意识得到丰富时，游戏也会变得更加丰富。
Alteration, juxtaposition, and reinvention offer methods to design or redesign games along cultural lines, aggressively engaging symbolic spaces beyond their borders. Whether the approaches taken are more formal in nature, as in the case of SOD, or politically driven, as in Blacklash, the cultural dimensions of these acts call attention to the typically invisible magic circle. When a game enacts cultural resistance, the seamless transition between the space inside and outside the game is interrupted; players are made aware of aspects of the game which usually pass unnoticed. Allowing players to experience this kind of transformative play increases options for play: when critical consciousness is enriched, play too becomes richer.
额外的阻力线
Additional Lines of Resistance
哲学家、历史学家约翰·赫伊津哈在其著作《游戏人》的开篇，做出了深刻的论述：“在游戏中总有某种东西在‘游戏’。”11游戏本身就是游戏，是一种探索和扩展结构、拉伸和重新形成结构的活动。从这个意义上讲，游戏特别适合玩家进行修改，用于在固定结构和移动干预之间产生摩擦。游戏作为文化抵抗的概念自然而然地源于我们对游戏的了解。
At the very beginning of his book Homo Ludens, philosopher and historian Johann Huizinga makes the profound assertion that, “In play there is always something ‘at play.’”11 Games always already play, an activity that explores and expands structures, stretching and re-forming them. In this sense, games are particularly well-suited for modification by players, for the creation of friction between fixed structures and mobile interventions. The concept of games as cultural resistance grows naturally out of what we already know about play.
因为游戏本质上为自由游戏留有空间，所以玩家总是有可能在系统中插入楔子，使其弯曲并转变为新的形状。在《游戏作为不确定性系统》和《打破规则》中，我们研究了儿童如何通过一系列微妙而狡猾的策略颠覆数数的仪式，从增加额外的“eenie-meenie-minee-moe”到在数数圈中调换位置以避免成为“它”。这种游戏“修改”当然不同于本图式中讨论的示例，但它们也有重要的相似之处。在所有情况下，玩家都在“玩”游戏本身的结构。他们通过认识到赫伊津哈的洞见来创造意义：在游戏中，总有某种东西在起作用。
Because a game by its very nature has room for the movement of free play, it is always possible for players to drive a wedge into the system, bending and transforming it into a new shape. In Games as Systems of Uncertainty and Breaking the Rules, we looked at how children subvert the ritual of counting-out through a number of subtle and devious strategies, from adding an extra “eenie-meenie-minee-moe” to switching places in the counting-out circle in order to avoid becoming “It.” This kind of game “modification” is certainly different from the examples discussed in this schema, yet there are important similarities. In all cases, players “play” with the structure of the game itself. They are creating meaning by recognizing Huizinga’s insight: in play, there is always something at play.
我们在几章中都谈到了玩家和粉丝对于游戏更广泛的文化认同的重要性。粉丝在维护游戏和保持其在文化中的活力方面发挥着重要作用，但他们也可以扮演抵抗的角色。我们的下一个示例提供了一个场景，其中两组玩家在魔法圈内和魔法圈外行动，以两种相互竞争的方式扭曲游戏系统的“形状”。
We have commented in several chapters on the importance of players and fans to a game’s larger cultural identity. Fans play an important role in maintaining the game and keeping it alive in culture, but they can also take on roles of resistance as well. Our next example offers a scenario where two groups of players, acting within and without the magic circle, bend the “shape” of the game system in two competing ways.
操场上的摩擦
Friction on the Playground
本页和下一页的侧边栏文本摘录自sissyfightnews.com，这是一个专门介绍游戏 SiSSYFiGHT 2000 的粉丝网站。该文本是一份反对作弊的宣言；它详细说明了如何识别和打击游戏中的违规行为，并旨在抵制那些通过密谋作弊而使系统变得过于扭曲的人。游戏中存在相互竞争的意识形态（通过作弊来抵制游戏；通过监管作弊者来抵制作弊），因此宣言代表了一种双重抵抗行为。一方面，作弊是对游戏权威的一种摩擦，抵制作为关键游戏元素的公共聊天。另一方面，对这种抵抗的抵制也存在，一个义务警员小组致力于提高社区的意识并消除作弊行为。这些双重运动成为游戏更大文化的一部分。
The sidebar text on this page and the next is excerpted from sissyfightnews.com, a fan site devoted to the game SiSSYFiGHT 2000. The text is a manifesto against cheating; it details how to identify and combat rule-breaking in the game, and is directed toward resisting those who would bend the system too far out of shape by conspiring to cheat. There are competing ideologies in the game (resist the game through cheating; resist cheating by policing the cheaters) and the manifesto therefore represents an act of double-resistance. On one hand, cheating exists as a form of friction against the authority of the game, resisting the public chat that is a key game play element. On the other hand, there is resistance to this resistance, a vigilante group working to raise the consciousness of the community and eliminate cheating. These double-movements become part of the larger culture of the game.
from sissyfightnews.com
当你看到骗子时，你如何识别他？让我们使用一个实际定义。你可以通过以下方式识别骗子：
How do you know a cheater when you see one? Let’s use a working definition. You can identify cheaters as:
两个或多个盟军角色连续进行高度协调的攻击，在 SiSSYFiGHT 文字泡泡内几乎没有或根本没有交流。
Two or more allied characters who perform extremely coordinated attacks in succession, with little or no communication within the SiSSYFiGHT word bubbles.
让我们逐一分析一下，以澄清问题。需要记住的是，所有这些因素必须同时存在才能识别作弊者——否则，你可能正在与一支完全合法的团队打交道。
Let’s take this apart piece by piece, to clarify. The important thing to remember is that all of these elements together must be present to identify cheaters—otherwise, you might just be dealing with a perfectly legit team.
两个或更多盟友角色：作弊者的第一个迹象是他们从不互相攻击。通常作弊者会成对行动，尽管有些人实际上会尝试进行更多协调。请记住，单独拥有盟友或团队并没有错！游戏的要点之一是建立联盟。
Two or more allied characters: The first sign of cheaters is that they never attack each other. Usually cheaters will work in pairs, although there are some who actually try to coordinate more. Please remember that there’s nothing wrong with having allies or teams alone! One of the main points of the game is to build up alliances.
执行极其协调的攻击：协调攻击是良好战略和沟通的结果。在两人团队中，这些组合动作可以这样规划：
Who perform extremely coordinated attacks: Coordinated attacks are a result of good strategy and communication. In a two-person team, these combination moves can be mapped out like this:
如果角色X执行以下操作： If Character X performs this: |
然后角色Y执行以下操作： Then Character Y performs this: |
逗 tease |
逗 tease |
抓住 grab |
刮或舔棒棒糖 scratch or lick lolly |
告密 tattle |
畏缩或舔棒棒糖 cower or lick lolly |
划痕 scratch |
划痕 scratch |
再次提醒，请记住，如果任何两个玩家执行这些操作，这并不一定意味着他们是作弊者……到目前为止，我们仍在讨论公平游戏和良好策略。
Again, please remember that if any two players perform these actions, that does not necessarily make them cheaters . . . yet. Up to this point, we’re still talking about fair gaming and good strategy.
连续性：这是我们开始区分诚实玩家和作弊者的点。如果您看到两个角色连续进行几次协同攻击，则一定有事发生。
In succession: This is the point where we start to draw the line between honest players and cheaters. If you see two characters performing several coordinated attacks in a row, something is up.
在 SiSSYFiGHT 文字气泡中几乎没有交流：这就是关键所在。作弊者成对或成组的最大漏洞在于他们从不在 SiSSYFiGHT 窗口中交流他们的行动。这为他们提供了明显且不公平的优势，因为没有其他玩家试图解读的信号（无论是直接的还是间接的）。请注意，有时作弊者实际上会在文字气泡中说些垃圾话，但他们实际上永远不会向对方透露他们的下一步行动。
With little or no communication within the SiSSYFiGHT word bubbles: This is the kicker, right here. The big giveaway to pairs or groups of cheaters is that they never communicate their moves in the SiSSYFiGHT window. This provides them with a distinct and unfair advantage over honest players, because there are no signals (either direct or indirect) for other players to attempt to read. Note, sometimes cheaters will actually talk smack in their word balloons, but they will never actually give any indication to each other as to what their next moves will be.
SiSSYFiGHT 中有两种作弊方式：外部通信和多重会话。
There are two ways to cheat in SiSSYFiGHT: external communication and multiple sessions.
使用外部通信的作弊者基本上会诉诸某种形式，通过 SiSSYFiGHT 窗口之外的任何方式向对方传送他们的行动。这通常以 AOL 即时消息或 ICQ 的形式出现，但也可能包括电话交谈或两个人在计算机实验室相邻工作站的娘娘腔打架。使用这种方法的作弊者对自己的战略无能非常不自信，他们宁愿破坏游戏的完整性也不愿使用他们仅存的几块脑细胞。如果你曾经被这些外部通信者之一打败，你可以放心，在现实生活中，他们可能是超重的流口水的白痴，仍然和父母住在一起，实际上无法交到任何真正的朋友。
Cheaters who use external communication basically resort to some form of telegraphing their moves to each other by any means outside of the SiSSYFiGHT window itself. This most often takes its form in either AOL Instant Messaging or ICQ, but may also include phone conversation or two people sissyfighting at adjacent workstations in a computer lab. Cheaters who use this method are so insecure in their strategic impotence, they would rather subvert the integrity of the game than use what few brain cells they have left. If you’re ever beaten by one of these external communicators, you can rest assured that in real life, they’re probably overweight drooling idiots who still live with their parents and can’t actually make any real friends.
使用多个会话的骗子在社会等级制度中是更可悲的生物。这种骗子是一个人，在一个工作站的两个或多个单独的浏览器中运行 SiSSYFiGHT。这些人的社交能力非常差，以至于仅仅想到要与其他人进行实际交流和合作就会让他们陷入恐慌。他们从未亲吻过任何人，却花了很多时间闯入受密码保护的色情网站。请放心，如果您曾经被一个足够协调以运行多个会话的人打败，那么他们可能还发展出了令人羡慕的单手打字的才能。（哦，现在你明白了。）
Cheaters who use multiple sessions are even sadder creatures on the social pecking order. This kind of cheater is a single person who runs SiSSYFiGHT from one workstation in two or more separate browsers. These people are so socially inept that the mere thought of actually communicating and working with someone else sends them into panicked spasms. They’ve never kissed anyone, and spend a lot of time breaking into password-protected porn sites. Rest assured that if you’re ever beaten by someone coordinated enough to run multiple sessions, they’ve probably also developed the enviable talent of typing one-handed. (Oh, NOW you get it.)
《打破规则》是一个规则图式，即一种理解游戏的正式方式。在文化背景下，特别是在文化抵抗图式中，打破规则是什么？SiSSYFiGHT 宣言中指出的违反规则是隐含的规则，违反这些规则通常代表着违反体育道德的行为。但这份宣言所凝聚的情感力量意味着，其中有更深层次的原因。事实上，由于对作弊的投诉，游戏开发商Word.com在游戏网站上发布了“道德准则”，明确定义并禁止作弊行为。结果，私聊功能被重新归类为真正的违反规则行为：私聊成为一种操作规则违规行为。所谓的作弊者违反规则导致了这种结构性转变，作弊玩家、义务警员玩家和游戏设计师都参与了这一过程。
Breaking the Rules was a RULES schema—a formal way of understanding a game. What is rule-breaking in the context of CULTURE, particularly in a schema on cultural resistance? The broken rules identified in the SiSSYFiGHT manifesto are implicit rules, the violation of which most often represents unsportsmanlike conduct. But the emotional force with which this manifesto was written implies that something deeper is at work. Indeed, because of complaints about cheating, the game’s developer Word.com, posted a “code of ethics” on the game website which explicitly defined and banned cheating. As a result, the ability to chat in private was recategorized as a true rule infraction: private chat became an operational rule breach. So-called cheaters bending the rules led to this structural transformation, a process in which cheating players, vigilante players, and game designers all took part.
在 SiSSYFiGHT 作弊宣言这一复杂案例中，游戏内外因素都引发了抵制。所谓的作弊行为代表了一种抵制形式，它试图以不良方式破坏游戏体验，从内部违反魔法圈。当这一违规行为引起少数精明而热情的玩家的注意时，他们制定了一种报复策略，这是一种来自魔法圈之外的抵抗行为。最终的解决方案既优雅又鼓舞人心：作为游戏玩家创造和传播的文化产物，宣言是玩家生产的绝佳范例；作为一种抵抗策略，它表明有意义的游戏可以从游戏可渗透边界之外的环境中引入游戏。在这种情况下，故事有一个圆满的结局：设计师进行了干预，通过游戏的官方网站接触了整个玩家社区，修改了游戏规则，提高了整个玩家社区的意识。
In the complex case of the SiSSYFiGHT cheating manifesto, factors both internal and external to the game drove resistance. The alleged cheating represents a form of resistance that seeks to undermine the experience of play in undesirable ways, transgressing the magic circle from within. When this violation came to the attention of a few astute and passionate players, a strategy of retaliation was formalized, an act of resistance that came from outside the magic circle. The resulting solution is both elegant and inspiring: as a cultural artifact created and disseminated by players of the game, the manifesto represents a wonderful example of player-production; as a strategy of resistance, it demonstrates that meaningful play can be brought into the game from contexts beyond its permeable edges. And in this instance, the story had a happy ending: the designers intervened, reaching the entire community of players through the game’s official website, revising the rules of the game and raising the consciousness of the player community as a whole.
抵抗！
Resist!
独立游戏设计师（如《反恐精英》团队）、忠实玩家（如 Sissyfightnews 团队）和游戏艺术家（如 Uri Tzaig）所采取的抵抗策略表明，可以从文化角度设计或重新设计游戏以支持变革性游戏。无论采取的方法是正式的、美学的还是受政治启发的，这些抵抗行为的文化维度都会塑造意识形态和互动。如果游戏设计师更经常地采用抵抗策略，游戏对文化产生重大影响的可能性肯定会增加。
The resistant strategies taken by independent game designers such as the Counter-Strike team, dedicated players such as the Sissyfightnews crew, and game artists such as Uri Tzaig suggest how games can be designed or redesigned from a cultural perspective to support transformative play. Whether the approaches taken are formal, aesthetic, or politically inspired, the cultural dimensions of these acts of resistance shape ideology and interaction. If game designers were to embrace strategies of resistance more often, the potential for games to affect culture in significant ways would surely increase.
请记住：游戏本质上支持并鼓励自由游戏的运动。玩家总是有可能破坏系统，使其变形。游戏设计师必须考虑如何通过玩家或游戏本身的设计来增强或中断、修改或改变这一过程。例如，Sissyfightnews 宣言将抵抗实践变成了一个警示故事，收紧了魔法圈的边界，提醒玩家游戏也会反噬。
Remember: games intrinsically support and encourage the movement of free play. It is always possible for players to throw a monkey wrench into the system, bending it into a new shape. Game designers must consider how this process can be enhanced or interrupted, modified or transformed, either by players or by the design of the game itself. The Sissyfightnews manifesto, for instance, turned the practice of resistance into a cautionary tale, tightening the borders of the magic circle just enough to remind players that the game, too, could bite back.
游戏的意义显然源自游戏环境。考虑到这些环境，游戏设计师能够看到潜在的文化参与路线。例如，公开传播《DOOM》源代码就具有前瞻性，因为它认识到了游戏玩家社区中已经存在的黑客心态。只要有合适的工具，玩家就会超越魔法圈，寻求替代的表达方式。这些超越可以塑造和重塑游戏，从而使“现实”世界的价值观在游戏的人造性中得到明确体现，这些价值观可能会通过游戏得到强化、质疑、颠覆或颠覆。
Games clearly derive meaning from the contexts within which they are played. Consideration of these contexts enables game designers to see potential lines of cultural engagement. The open dissemination of the DOOM source code, for example, was visionary in its recognition of a hacker mentality already present in communities of gamers. Given the right tools, players will transgress the magic circle in pursuit of alternate forms of expression. These transgressions can shape and reshape the game so that the values of the “real” world are made explicit within the artificiality of the game, values that might be reinforced, questioned, inverted, or subverted through play.
如果游戏设计师考虑利用玩家这种自然欲望来改变游戏格局的可能性，结果会怎样？在《无尽的任务》或《网络创世纪》等大型多人游戏中，人们投入大量资源试图根除和惩罚作弊行为。但其他情况也有可能。如果允许玩家互相监督，作为一种游戏形式，结果会怎样？或者如果鼓励玩家作弊，结果会怎样？或者给玩家源代码，让他们在游戏领域自由发挥？显然，我们将拥有一种非常不同的游戏，也许这种游戏会从根本上重塑文化变革游戏的潜力。可能性是存在的。但除非你开始抵制游戏设计的惯例，否则我们永远不会发现它们到底有多有趣。与权威作斗争！打倒旧规则！抵抗万岁！
What if game designers considered the possibility of working with this natural desire of players to bend the shape of the game? In massively multiplayer games such as EverQuest or Ultima Online, vast resources are spent trying to root out and punish cheating. But other scenarios are possible. What if players were allowed to police each other, as a form of game play? Or what if players were encouraged to cheat? Or given the source code and let loose in the field of play? Clearly we would have a very different kind of game, perhaps a game that would radically reinvent the potential for culturally transformative play. The possibilities are out there. But until you begin to resist the conventions of game design, we will never find out just how fun they are to play. Fight the establishment! Down with the old rules! Vive la resistance!
进一步阅读
Further Reading
破解迷宫：游戏插件和补丁作为黑客艺术，Anne-Marie Schleiner，策展人 < http://switch.sjsu.edu/CrackingtheMaze/ >
Cracking the Maze: Game Plug-ins and Patches as Hacker Art, Anne-Marie Schleiner, curator <http://switch.sjsu.edu/CrackingtheMaze/>
1999 年，Anne-Marie Schleiner 策划了一场游戏补丁、模组和游戏插件的在线展览。大多数游戏修改都是由艺术家制作的，其中许多都有社会政治议程。在线档案中提供了一系列艺术家制作的补丁的视觉示例、补丁下载，以及几篇关于游戏中的文化表现问题和战术媒体干预实践的优秀介绍性文章。
In 1999, Anne-Marie Schleiner curated an online exhibition of game patches, mods, and game plug-ins. Most of the game modifications were produced by artists, and many had socio-political agendas. The online archive has visual examples of a range of artist-produced patches, downloads of the patches, and several good introductory essays on issues of cultural representation in games and the practice of tactical media intervention.
Game Girl Advance，< www.gamegirladvance.com >
Game Girl Advance, <www.gamegirladvance.com>
Game Girl Advance 网站是一个新闻网站，专门讨论数字游戏文化。Game Girl Advance 抵制标准商业游戏网站的内容，刊登短文，主题包括游戏会议的性别政治或游戏如何影响玩家的生活。尽管网络上有许多草根另类游戏新闻网站，但 Game Girl Advance 以既具有文化批判性又具有行业洞察力的聪明文笔脱颖而出。
The Game Girl Advance website is a journalistic website addressing the culture of digital games. Resisting content of standard commercial game sites, Game Girl Advance features short essays on topics such as the gender politics of gaming conferences or how games personally impact the lives of players. Although there are many grassroots alternative game news sites on the web, Game Girl Advance distinguishes itself with smart writing that is both culturally critical and industry-savvy.
Subculture: The Meaning of Style, by Dick Hebdige
Hebdige 将亚文化视为意义系统，尤其是像朋克和泰迪男孩这样的亚文化，它们抵制更大的文化机构。这些系统就像游戏一样，创造了自己的界限，在这些界限内，形式、行为和动作获得了独立于现实世界但又与现实世界联系在一起的意义。他探索的风格是一种交流系统，一种由系统“规则”产生的程式化、象征性和互动性的语言。尽管 Hebdige 是从马克思主义、结构主义和符号学的角度出发的，但他的方法非常适用于游戏研究。
Hebdige investigates subcultures as systems of meaning, particularly subcultures like Punk and the Teddy Boys, that resist larger cultural institutions. These systems, like games, create their own boundaries within which forms, behaviors, and actions gain meaning separate from, but connected to the real world. He explores style as a system of communication, a stylized, symbolic, and interactive language borne from the “rules” of the system. Although Hebdige is speaking from a Marxist, structuralist, and semiotic perspective, his approach is quite applicable to the study of games.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
简介：亚文化与风格
Introduction: Subculture and Style
第一章：从文化到霸权
Chapter 1: From Culture to Hegemony
第七章：风格作为有意的沟通
Chapter 7: Style as Intentional Communication
第 8 章：风格即同源性
Chapter 8: Style as Homology
文本偷猎者：电视迷和参与文化，作者亨利·詹金斯（见第 553 页）
Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, by Henry Jenkins (see page 553)
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第 5 章：在页边处涂鸦
Chapter 5: Scribbling in the Margins
第 7 章：“意义的层次”：粉丝音乐视频和
Chapter 7: “Layers of Meaning”: Fan Music Videos and the
偷猎诗学
Poetics of Poaching
笔记
Notes
1. Greil Marcus，《口红痕迹：二十世纪秘史》（剑桥：哈佛大学出版社，1989 年），第 3 页。
1. Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), p. 3.
2. “美丽新世界：电子游戏特刊”，Feed 杂志。
2. “Brave New Worlds: A Special Issue on Video Games,” Feed Magazine.
3. Erkki Huhtamo，《Game Patch：Scratch 之子？》摘自《Cracking the Maze》，由 Anne-Marie Schleiner 策划。1999 年 7 月 16 日。< switch.sjsu.edu/CrackingtheMaze >。
3. Erkki Huhtamo, “Game Patch: the Son of Scratch?” In Cracking the Maze, curated by Anne-Marie Schleiner. July 16, 1999. <switch.sjsu.edu/CrackingtheMaze>.
4.同上。
4. Ibid.
5 . Anne-Marie Schleiner，《游戏插件和补丁作为黑客艺术》。Cracking the Maze。1999年 7 月 16 日。< switch.sjsu.edu/CrackingtheMaze >。
5. Anne-Marie Schleiner, “Game Plug-ins and Patches as Hacker Art.” Cracking the Maze. July 16, 1999. <switch.sjsu.edu/CrackingtheMaze>.
6.同上。
6. Ibid.
7.同上。
7. Ibid.
8.同上。
8. Ibid.
9. Janet Abrams，《其他胜利》。载于《如果/那么》，Janet Abrams 编辑。（阿姆斯特丹：荷兰设计学院，1999 年），第 245 页。d
9. Janet Abrams, “Other Victories.” In If/Then, edited by Janet Abrams. (Amsterdam: Netherlands Design Institute, 1999), p. 245.d
10. “美丽新世界：电子游戏特刊”，Feed杂志。
10. “Brave New Worlds: A Special Issue on Video Games,” Feed Magazine.
11. Johann Huizinga，《游戏人：文化中的游戏元素研究》（波士顿：Beacon Press，1955 年），第 1 页。
11. Johann Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture (Boston: Beacon Press, 1955), p. 1.
概括
•游戏作为文化抵抗探索游戏与其文化背景之间的紧张关系。该图式的重点完全放在文化变革游戏上。
• Games as Cultural Resistance explores the tension between games and their cultural contexts. The focus of the schema is exclusively on culturally transformative play.
• 阻力是两种现象发生冲突时产生的摩擦。自由游戏运动与试图控制它的规则系统之间存在内在摩擦，这被称为阻力。通过这种阻力过程，魔法圈通常不可见的边缘变得可见。
• Resistance is the friction that occurs when two phenomena come into conflictual contact. Framed as resistance, the free movement of play has intrinsic friction with the systems of rules that seek to contain it. Through this process of resistance, the normally invisible edges of the magic circle become visible.
• DIY或自己动手的文化抵抗方法出现在游戏中的修改、设计抵抗策略中。游戏修改或模组可以是游戏设计师制定的“官方”功利性更改，也可以是玩家创建和分发的“非官方”项目。
• A DIY or Do-lt-Yourself approach to cultural resistance appears in modifications, designed strategies of resistance in a game. Game modifications or mods can be “official” utilitarian changes enacted by game designers, or “unofficial” projects created and distributed by players.
• 游戏修改分为三个重叠的类别：改变、并置和重新发明。
• Game modifications fall into three overlapping categories: alteration, juxtaposition, and reinvention.
•修改会改变游戏的表示或交互结构。示例：SOD、Sailor Moon Wad、SimCopter Hack
• Alterations change the representational or interactive structures of a game. Examples: SOD, Sailor Moon Wad, SimCopter Hack
•并置将不太可能的元素放在同一个游戏空间中。示例：Frag Queens、Blacklash、Los Disneys
• Juxtapositions place unlikely elements together in the same game space. Examples: Frag Queens, Blacklash, Los Disneys
•重塑更彻底地重新设计游戏结构。示例：Universal Square、《反恐精英》
• Reinventions more radically redesign the structure of a game. Examples: Universal Square, Counter-Strike
• 抵抗力自然而然地源自游戏的内在特质。游戏的自由发挥已经涉及在刚性结构内运动的摩擦。因此，游戏为玩家或设计师提供了大量的可能性，可以通过抵抗策略进行干预。
• Resistance flows naturally from the intrinsic qualities of games. The free play of a game already involves the friction of movement within a rigid structure. For this reason, games are rich with possibilities for players or designers to intervene with strategies of resistance.
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游戏作为文化环境
GAMES AS CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT
界限模糊
blurring of boundaries
礼仪
etiquette
精神
ethos
习俗
convention
语境
context
人为地位
artificial status
这不是游戏—— 《AI：人工智能》 电影预告片
THIS IS NOT A GAME—A. I.: Artificial Intelligence movie trailer
举起红旗
Raise the Red Flag
游戏是一种玩家参与由规则定义的人工冲突并产生可量化结果的系统。
A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.
很多很多页之前，我们用那一句话给出了游戏的定义。从那时起，我们就一直假设这个表述确实准确地描述了游戏是什么以及游戏如何运作。然而，我们的最终框架“游戏作为文化环境”可能会迫使我们重新评估我们的定义。
With that single sentence, many, many pages ago, we offered a definiton of games. Since then, we have proceeded on the assumption that this formulation does, in fact, accurately describe what games are and how they operate. However, our final schema, Games as Cultural Environment, may force us to re-evaluate our definition.
这个定义植根于游戏的形式属性。总体而言，在我们探索游戏设计模式的多样性领域时，这个定义对我们大有裨益。但在文化背景下探索游戏的过程中，该定义的一个要素似乎无法充分反映这一现象的复杂性。这个要素并不是游戏是系统，也不是游戏有规则和结果，也不是玩家通过游戏参与冲突。该定义中越来越令人怀疑的要素是游戏是人为的，它们脱离了日常生活。
The definition is rooted in the formal properties of games. In general, during our long march across the varied territory of game design schemas, it has served us well. But in the course of exploring games within a cultural context, one element of the definition doesn’t seem to do justice to the complexities of the phenomenon. It is not the idea that games are systems, nor that they have rules and outcomes, nor that through games players engage in a conflict. The element of the definition that seems increasingly suspect is the idea that games are artificial, that they are removed from ordinary life.
游戏如何成为人造的？尽管我们将游戏定义为开放的文化系统，但它们仍然是具有明确元素和属性的系统。游戏作为系统的运作方式意味着与其他文化之间存在某种分离。游戏产生的意义虽然与更大的文化意义交织在一起，但仍获得了游戏意义的独特身份，因为它们源自游戏本身所创造的关系系统。这种关系系统不是自然出现在世界上的东西。如果游戏在某种程度上不是人造的，它们就不会被设计出来。相反，它们将是某种在文化以太中跳动的“自然”现象。
How are games artificial? Even though we frame games as open culture systems, they remain systems with defined elements and attributes. The way that games operate as systems implies some kind of separation from the rest of culture. The meanings that games produce, while intertwined with larger cultural meanings, still acquire their distinct identity as game meanings because they emerge out of the system of relations made possible by the game itself. This system of relations is not something that naturally occurs out in the world. If games weren’t artificial in some way, they wouldn’t be designed. Instead, they would be some kind of “natural” phenomena bopping about the cultural ether.
但是，我们的文化框架越宽泛地将游戏定义为文化，其人为性就越开始瓦解。作为文化，游戏是开放的系统。它们并不与环境隔绝，而是本质上是环境的一部分，参与构成更大文化背景的思想和价值观的兴衰。从语境的角度来看，魔法圈不是一道坚不可摧的帷幕，而是一条可以跨越的边界。魔法圈外的文化元素进入游戏并对游戏产生影响；同时，文化意义从游戏中向外扩散，与众多文化背景互动。考虑到所有这些在边界上和边界外的游戏，考虑到游戏并非独立于文化而是文化的一部分，如果我们质疑游戏的人为性，会发生什么？如果一个模式专门试图将游戏构建为与周围环境完全同步的系统，会发生什么？
But the wider our cultural frame grows in defining games as culture, the more their artificiality begins to unravel. As culture, games are open systems. They are not isolated from their environment, but are intrinsically part of it, participating in the ebb and flow of ideas and values that make up a larger cultural setting. Framed contextually, the magic circle is not an impermeable curtain but is instead a border that can be crossed. Cultural elements from outside the circle enter in and have an impact on the game; simultaneously, cultural meanings ripple outward from the game to interact with numerous cultural contexts. Given all of this play at and across the border, given the fact that games are not separate from but are part of culture, what would happen if we questioned the artificiality of games? What if a schema specifically sought to frame games as systems completely synchronous with their surroundings?
引入文化环境
Introducing Cultural Environment
这就是《游戏作为文化环境》的前提，本章探讨了游戏的“现实”问题，该图式审视了游戏的人造世界与其相交的“现实生活”环境之间的关系。与之前的文化图式不同，我们并没有将注意力集中在魔法圈的边界上，而是在这里研究了边界被完全抹去的游戏，在这些游戏中，人们很难区分游戏空间和日常生活空间。这类游戏有许多奇怪的特点。它们在游戏的人造空间与玩家的物理空间和生活方式之间建立了高度重叠。它们模糊了玩家和非玩家之间的界限，有时会不由自主地将毫无戒心的参与者卷入其中。或许最重要的是，这类游戏提出了关于游戏的人造性及其与现实生活的关系的基本问题。
This is the premise of Games as Cultural Environment, a chapter engaged with the question of the “reality” of games, a schema that interrogates the relationship between the artificial world of games and the “real life” contexts that they intersect. Rather than calling attention to the borders of the magic circle, as we did in earlier CULTURE schemas, here we look at games in which the boundary is so completely erased that it is difficult to distinguish the space of play from ordinary life. These kinds of games have a number of curious characteristics. They create a heightened overlap between the artificial space of the game and the physical spaces and lifestyles of their players. They blur the distinction between players and non-players, sometimes involuntarily roping in unsuspecting participants. Perhaps most importantly, these sorts of games raise fundamental questions about the artificiality of games and their relationship to real life.
最熟悉的游戏渗透到其文化环境中的例子是《刺客》（又称杀手）等设计，该游戏在 20 世纪 70 年代和 80 年代在大学校园中流行起来，玩家在游戏中用飞镖枪跟踪、追捕和躲避对方，持续数天或数周。游戏玩法不是在一个特殊的、孤立的游戏空间中进行，而是在日常生活活动之中进行。最近的数字游戏也采用了类似的设计策略，例如由 Electronic Arts 开发的大型实验游戏《Majestic》，游戏发生在通过虚构的网站、传真和电话语音信箱。当玩家的电话在半夜响起时，可能是披萨外卖服务打来的，也可能是游戏角色在低声说着秘密代码。其他游戏，如手机游戏 Botfighters，会随时跟踪玩家的物理位置，并让他们相互挑战，进行意想不到的决斗。本章将重点介绍这类游戏：游戏活动明显成为其文化环境的一部分。游戏可以与其环境如此广泛地融合，以至于模糊了促进其自身人为性的边界，这种想法是一种很少被采用但非常有效的游戏设计方法。正如我们将看到的，它对所有游戏的设计都有重要意义。
The most familiar examples of games that bleed over into their cultural environment are designs such as Assassin (also known as Killer), made popular on college campuses in the 1970s and 1980s, a game in which players stalked, hunted, and evaded each other with dart guns over days or weeks of real time. Game play took place not in a special, isolated game space, but in and among the activities of daily life. Recent digital games have adopted similar design strategies, such as Majestic, a large-scale experimental game by Electronic Arts that took place through fictitious web sites, faxes, and telephone voicemail. When a player’s phone rang in the middle of the night it might be a call from the pizza delivery service—or from a character in the game whispering a secret code. Other games, such as the cell phone game Botfighters, tracks the physical location of players at all times and lets them challenge one another to unexpected duels. This chapter will focus on these kinds of games: play activities that overtly become part of their cultural environment. The idea that a game can become so co-extensive with its context that it blurs the borders that facilitate its own artificiality is a rarely taken but powerful approach to game design. And as we will see, it has important implications for the design of all games.
将游戏视为文化环境会引发许多问题。当游戏的“内部”和“外部”之间的区别模糊时，游戏的玩法会如何变化？现实世界和游戏的虚拟世界之间的界限有多模糊？只有某些游戏能够模糊这些界限，还是所有游戏都会在某种程度上发生这种情况？为了回答这些问题，我们重新审视了游戏的许多基本要素。与其他任何架构相比，我们更多地使用了前几章中介绍的术语和概念。这样做的部分原因是这些概念确实为将游戏作为文化环境进行分析提供了信息。然而，我们的隐藏议程是将这些游戏分析用作对之前涵盖的材料的非正式回顾。回顾并非旨在全面，但它确实表明，通过有意义的游戏概念将相关思想的框架联系起来，对于真正复杂和综合地理解游戏设计是必要的。
Considering games as cultural environments raises a number of questions. How does the play of a game change when the difference between the “inside” and the “outside” of the game is ambiguous? How permeable is the boundary between the real world and the artificial world of the game? Are only certain games capable of blurring these boundaries, or does it happen to some extent in all games? To answer these questions, we revisit many of the fundamental elements of games. More so than in any other schema, we make generous use of terms and concepts introduced in chapters leading up to this one. Part of the reason for doing so is that these concepts genuinely inform an analysis of games as cultural environments. However, our hidden agenda is to use these game analyses as an informal review of material covered previously. The review is not meant to be comprehensive, but it does demonstrate how a framework of related ideas, connected through the concept of meaningful play, is necessary for a truly sophisticated and integrated understanding of game design.
回归本源
Back to Basics
游戏创造了一个特殊的游戏场所。根据赫伊津哈的说法，这些空间定义了游戏的魔法圈，即“普通世界中的临时世界，专门用于表演一个独特的行为。”1规则的权威在魔法圈内占主导地位。如果你正在逛赌场设备商店，你可能会试转一下轮盘赌轮，看看它是否正常运转，但你不会因为这次旋转而赚钱或赔钱。另一方面，如果你正在玩轮盘赌，并且你的筹码在桌子上，旋转的结果将对你下注筹码的数量产生真正的影响。只有当玩家进入游戏的魔法圈时，游戏规则才会赋予游戏行为意义和后果。
A game creates a special place of play. Following Huizinga, these spaces define the game’s magic circle, a “temporary world within the ordinary world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart.”1 It is within the magic circle that the authority of the rules hold sway. If you are visiting a casino equipment store, you might give a Roulette wheel a test spin to see if it is in working order, but you would neither gain nor lose money as a result of the spin. On the other hand, if you are playing a game of Roulette and your chips are on the table, the outcome of the spin will have a real impact on the quantity of your betting chips. Only when a player has entered into the magic circle of a game do game rules imbue game actions with meaning and consequence.
游戏规则决定了游戏的形式本质。每个游戏都由三种规则组成：构成规则、操作规则和隐含规则。构成规则是构成游戏形式系统的逻辑和数学结构。操作规则是指导玩家行动的实际“游戏规则”。隐含规则是玩家带到每个游戏中的“不成文游戏规则”，这些规则通常未在官方“游戏规则”中说明，因此隐含规则是玩家必须推断或直觉的东西。
The rules of a game define its formal essence. Each game is composed of three kinds of rules: constituative, operational, and implicit. Constituative rules are the logical, mathematical structures that gird the formal system of a game. Operational rules are the practical “rules of play” that direct player action. Implicit rules are the “unwritten rules” of play that players bring to every game, rules that are usually unstated in the official “rules of play,” making implicit rules something that players have to infer or intuit.
隐性规则源自文化习俗、传统和玩家体验。它们直接将游戏的形式和文化方面联系起来，在游戏空间内外的权威形式之间架起桥梁。隐性规则的运作通常是无形的，而且非常微妙。斯蒂芬·斯奈德曼在他的文章《不成文的规则》中仔细研究了玩家在玩最简单的游戏时必须知道和做的事情。除其他要求外，他们必须：
Implicit rules arise via cultural custom, tradition, and player experience. They directly link the formal and cultural aspects of a game, creating a bridge between the forms of authority that exist inside and outside of a game’s space of play. The operation of implicit rules is usually invisible and incredibly subtle. Stephen Sniderman, in his essay “Unwritten Rules,” looks closely at what players must know and do in order to play even the simplest game. Among other requirements, they must:
自觉理解并遵守游戏礼仪——即与游戏相关的不成文但有时会明示的传统，这些传统不一定会影响游戏本身（例如，说话、幸灾乐祸、嘲讽、庆祝、拖延、重复某一点、向对手或队友提供建议、让玩家收回动作等的适当性）。
Consciously understand and follow the etiquette of the game—i.e., the unwritten but sometimes stated traditions associated with the game that do not necessarily affect the play itself (e.g., appropriateness of talking, gloating, taunting, celebrating, stalling, replaying a point, giving advice to your opponent or teammates, letting players take back moves, etc.).
直观地理解和遵循特定游戏的精神，即关于如何解释和执行“书面”规则的非书面和很少表达的假设（例如，手掌篮球中的好球带；美国联赛和国家联赛中的好球带；网球中的脚误）。
Intuitively understand and follow the ethos of that particular game—i.e., the unwritten and rarely expressed assumptions about how to interpret and enforce the “written” rules (e.g., palming in basketball; the strike zone in American and National leagues; the footfault in tennis).
直观地理解并遵循根据参与者的文化进行任何游戏的惯例- 即与游戏、竞争、胜利/失败等相关的不成文的和通常无法表述的习俗（例如，以适当的认真态度对待游戏，知道什么比胜利和游戏更重要，不假装受伤或个人义务以避免失败；无论比分如何都“努力”游戏；不声称之前的分数“不重要”）。
Intuitively understand and follow the conventions of playing any game according to the culture of the participants—i.e., the unwritten and generally unstatable customs related to playing, competing, winning/losing, etc. (e.g. taking the game with the appropriate seriousness, knowing what takes priority over winning and over playing, not faking injury or personal obligation to avoid losing; playing “hard” regardless of the score; not claiming that previous points didn’t “count”).
直观地理解和响应游戏正在进行的“现实生活”背景- 即结果的社会，文化，经济，政治和道德后果（例如，某人的生计或自尊是否取决于结果）。2
Intuitively understand and respond to the “real-life” context in which the game is being played—i.e. the social, cultural, economic, political, and moral consequences of the result (e.g., whether someone’s livelihood or self-esteem depends on the outcome). 2
玩家对隐含规则的直觉理解非常复杂。游戏的构成规则和操作规则可能决定了游戏的形式本质，但礼仪、精神、惯例和背景对于促进游戏的进行也同样重要。这四个类别是文化知识的形式，使魔法圈得以形成。没有它们，玩家可能能够理解甚至遵守规则，但允许游戏中人为冲突发生的社会框架将会崩溃。如果你被邀请加入游戏，但担心对手可能会过于认真而伤害你，或者利用对规则的了解，或者在输掉游戏时中途放弃，那么你很可能根本不会选择玩。指导隐含规则运作的机制是任何游戏玩法的关键部分。隐含规则同时在规则层面和文化层面发生，以明显强大的方式将游戏的这两个不同维度联系起来。
A player’s intuitive understanding of implicit rules is strikingly sophisticated. The constituative and operational rules of a game might define its formal essence, but etiquette, ethos, convention, and context are equally important in facilitating a game’s play. These four categories are forms of cultural knowledge that permit the magic circle to come into being. Without them, players might be able to understand and even follow rules, but the social frameworks allowing the artificial conflict of a game to take place would break down. If you were invited to join in a game but were concerned that your opponent might take the game too seriously and injure you, or take advantage of superior knowledge of the rules, or just give up in the middle if he or she was losing, it is highly unlikely that you would choose to play at all. The mechanisms that guide the operation of implicit rules are a crucial part of any game’s play. Implicit rules take place simultaneously on the level of rules and on the level of culture, linking these two disparate dimensions of games in a distinctly powerful way.
从玩家的角度来看，只有通过游戏态度，玩家才能接受游戏的隐性规则（以及操作规则）。游戏态度是借用哲学家伯纳德·苏茨（Bernard Suits）的概念，是游戏玩家有意识地接受游戏挑战和障碍以体验游戏本身的心态。接受魔法圈的人为权威，让行为服从规则的约束以体验游戏的自由流动，是一种矛盾的心态。这种心态体现在游戏态度中。
From a player’s point of view, acceptance of the implicit rules (as well as the operational rules) of a game is only made possible by the lusory attitude. A concept borrowed from philosopher Bernard Suits, the lusory attitude is the state of mind whereby game players consciously take on the challenges and obstacles of a game in order to experience the play of the game itself. Accepting the artificial authority of the magic circle, submitting behavior to the constraints of rules in order to experience the free movement of play, is a paradoxical state of mind. This state of mind is manifest in the lusory attitude.
在前面的章节中，我们主要从游戏正式规则的角度来考虑游戏态度。但是，采取游戏态度并不仅仅意味着接受操作规则的限制。它还意味着遵守隐含规则。玩游戏意味着服从魔法圈的权威，其中包括通过隐含规则表达的文化惯例。从这个意义上讲，游戏的魔法圈超越了任何单个游戏，包括整个文化。玩游戏，任何游戏，不仅仅是在特定游戏的规则范围内玩，而是在更大的文化背景规则范围内玩，这些规则定义了游戏的意义。
In previous chapters, we considered the lusory attitude primarily in relationship to the formal rules of a game. But taking on the lusory attitude doesn’t just mean accepting the limitations of the operational rules. It also entails following implicit rules. Playing a game means submitting to the authority of the magic circle, which includes the cultural conventions expressed through implicit rules. In this sense, the magic circle of a game extends beyond any individual game to include culture as a whole. To play a game, any game, is not just to play within the rules of that particular game, but within the rules of a larger cultural context that define what it means to play at all.
以日本相扑为例。作为日本的国球，相扑不仅仅是一项运动，它被视为日本荣誉和精神的缩影。这项运动与日本宗教神道教有着精神上的联系，也与政治有关。据 Brian Sutton-Smith 称，几个世纪以来，日本天皇有时会通过相扑比赛来选出统治者。3参加相扑比赛不仅仅需要遵守正式的游戏规则。只有当选手也接受游戏的礼仪、精神、背景和惯例时，才能真正参与相扑比赛。
Consider the case of Japanese Sumo wrestling. As the national sport of Japan, Sumo wrestling is more than mere sport; it is seen as the epitome of Japanese honor and ethos. The sport has spiritual ties to Shinto, the Japanese religion, and is linked to politics as well. According to Brian Sutton-Smith, Japanese emperors over the centuries have sometimes been selected to rule through a Sumo contest. 3 To take part in a Sumo competition requires much more than simply adhering to the formal rules of the game. Engaging with the play of Sumo wrestling only truly occurs when a player takes on the etiquette, ethos, context, and conventions of the game as well.
我们玩个游戏好吗？
Shall We Play a Game?
乍一看，似乎只有像 Assassin、Majestic 和 Botfighters 这样的非常不寻常的游戏才能真正模糊魔法圈的界限。然而，隐含规则、诱惑态度和魔法圈的运作方式我们可以将任何游戏至少部分地视为一种文化环境。在本图式的最后，我们将回到这个重要的命题。然而，在此之前，我们将通过特定示例探索这些概念，通过查看旨在明确模糊魔法圈边界的游戏。
Upon first glance it might seem that only highly unconventional games like Assassin, Majestic, and Botfighters genuinely blur the boundaries of the magic circle. However, implicit rules, the lusory attitude, and the magic circle operate in such a way that we can consider any game, at least in part, as a cultural environment. By the end of this schema we will return to this important proposition. Before doing so, however, we will explore these concepts through particular examples, by looking at games designed to explicitly blur the boundaries of the magic circle.
我们的第一个例子是微软为电影《人工智能》设计和运营的一款游戏，该游戏是病毒式营销活动。这款网络游戏被玩家非正式地称为“野兽”、“人工智能游戏”或简称为“人工智能”，来自世界各地的参与者通过各种媒体合作破译神秘的谜题和线索。游戏以电影预告片结尾的神秘字幕开始。精明的观众注意到了“珍妮·萨拉，有感知的机器治疗师”的神秘列表和一组神秘符号。当观众（现在是玩家）在互联网搜索引擎中输入“珍妮·萨拉”这个名字时，他们开始了通过一系列链接网站进行的仙境式旅程。这些网站融合了现实世界的信息和来自人工智能背景故事的虚构世界的信息，该故事涉及人类与具有人类情感的机器人之间的激烈斗争。
Our first example focuses on a game reportedly designed and operated by Microsoft as a viral marketing campaign for the film A. I.: Artificial Intelligence. The web-based game, known by its players informally as “The Beast,” “The A. I. Game,” or just “A. I.,” had participants from all over the world collaboratively deciphering cryptic puzzles and clues across a range of media. The game began with an enigmatic credit at the end of the preview trailer for the film. Savvy viewers picked up on a mysterious listing for “Jeanine Salla, Sentient Machine Therapist” and a set of mysterious symbols. When viewers (now players) entered the name “Jeanine Salla” into an Internet search engine, they began a Wonderland-style journey through a series of linked websites. The sites blended real-world information and information from the fictive world of A. I.’s backstory, which concerned a dramatic struggle between humans and robots capable of human emotion.
在电影首映前的几个月里，数千名玩家参与了游戏。许多人对游戏、电影、生活和现实之间界限的扭曲表达了深刻的反应。正如一位玩家在cloudmakers.org（该游戏玩家开发的最活跃的社区网站）上的一篇文章中所写，“我们在这里，每个人都为模糊故事和现实之间的界限而兴奋。游戏承诺不仅会成为娱乐，还会成为我们的生活。但是故事中哪里有空间容纳我们必须关注的现实生活中那些太平凡的事情呢？”4虽然玩家对这款游戏很感兴趣，甚至经常沉迷其中，但他们对游戏的真实情况显然感到不安。游戏状态的模糊性（它是游戏、谜题、故事还是邪恶的营销策略？）让游戏体验变得异常引人注目。另一位玩家指出，
Over the course of several months leading up to the film’s premiere, thousands of players took part in the game. Many expressed profound reactions to the distortion of the boundaries between game, film, life, and reality. As one player wrote in an essay on cloudmakers.org, the most active community site developed by players of the game, “Here we are, every one of us excited at blurring the lines between story and reality. The game promises to become not just entertainment, but our lives. But where in the story is there room for the too-mundane matters of our actual lives that must be attended?”4 While players were intrigued by and often obsessed with the game, there was a clear sense of uneasiness about the truth of what was actually going on. The ambiguity surrounding the game’s status (was it a game, a puzzle, a story, an evil marketing ploy?) made the experience of play oddly compelling. Another player noted,
在首映的早晨，我们就会知道剧情、次要情节、冲突、高潮和对话，直到最后一个令人心酸的停顿。PM（Puppet Masters，游戏开发者）肯定知道这一点；他们也知道我们大多数人无论如何都会去，亲自体验它。所以仍有一些未被发现的东西——这件事的核心（以及它所暗示的一切）。5
On the morning of the premiere, we’ll know the plot, subplot, conflict, climax and dialogue down to the last poignant pause. Surely the PMs [Puppet Masters, the game’s developers] know this; they also know that most of us will go anyway, to experience it for ourselves. So something undiscovered still remains—the heart of this (and whatever that implies). 5
游戏中的谜题要求玩家阅读哥德尔、埃舍尔、巴赫的作品，翻译德语、日语和一种名为卡纳达语的晦涩语言，解密摩尔斯电码和恩尼格玛密码，并对玩家之间下载和交换的声音和图像文件执行一系列操作。6有时，玩家会接到匿名人士打来的电话，邀请他们参加现实世界的活动。例如，在一次“反机器人”集会上，与会者解决了难题，并打电话给其他城市同时举行的集会上的玩家，告诉他们答案。人工智能无时无刻不在玩弄游戏魔法圈和其外部文化空间之间的界限。大多数游戏的游戏体验可以被框定为一个封闭的系统，其中游戏的玩法在某些方面受到魔法圈的限制。但由于人工智能的游戏空间是模糊的，它作为一个开放系统运行，无视关于可能性空间范围的隐含假设。因此，人工智能可以在非常深的层次上自由地与其环境混合。玩家显然受到了这种方法所带来的影响。
Puzzles in the game had players reading Göedel, Escher, Bach, translating from German, Japanese, and an obscure language called Kannada, decrypting Morse and Enigma code, and performing a range of operations on sound and image files downloaded and swapped between players. 6 Sometimes players received actual phone calls from unnamed parties to attend real-world events. At one “anti-robot” rally, for example, attendees solved puzzles and phoned the answers to players at rallies being held simultaneously in other cities. At every moment, A. I. played with the boundaries between the game’s magic circle and the cultural spaces outside of it. The play experience of most games can be framed as a closed system, in which the play of the game is in some respects bounded by the magic circle. But because the space of play in A. I. was ambiguous, it operated as an open system, defying implicit assumptions about the scope of the space of possibility. As a result, A. I. mixed freely with its environment at a very deep level. Players were clearly affected by the play such an approach afforded.
虽然从营销角度来看，这款游戏有很多值得一提的地方，但我们的兴趣在于其他方面——即使它抹去了并重新定义了区分事实与虚构的传统界限，这款游戏如何变得有意义。从游戏设计的角度来看，这款游戏的哪些元素促成了它成为现实世界的闯入者？接下来列出了 AI 的一些突出的设计特点，并结合了玩家 Daragh Sankey 对游戏的在线分析评论。7
Although there is much to be said about this game from a marketing perspective, our interest lies elsewhere—in how its play became meaningful, even as it erased and redefined traditional boundaries separating fact from fiction. From a game design perspective, what elements of the game contributed to its status as real-world interloper? Listed next are some of A. I.’s salient design features, incorporating commentary from player Daragh Sankey’s online analysis of the game. 7
尽管网页游戏的形式并不新鲜，但 AI 却巧妙地利用了网络的独特属性。故事由分布式网站的融合构建而成。游戏的核心机制涉及搜索和浏览网页，这使得互联网成为游戏结构的基础。
Although the format of web-based games is not new, A. I. made wonderful use of the web’s unique properties. The story was built from an amalgamation of distributed sites. A core mechanic of the game play involved searching and surfing the web, making the Internet fundamental to the game’s structure.
虚构的游戏内容伪装成现实
Fictional game content disguised as reality
为该游戏创建的众多网站中包含的所有信息都是虚构的。但是，没有任何页面宣称“这是一部虚构作品”。事实上，许多网站很容易被误解为真实网站，例如www.rational-hatter.com。这种表述策略有助于强化游戏是现实世界的一部分而不是人造游戏世界的一部分的幻觉。
All of the information contained in the numerous sites created for the game was fabricated. There were not, however, any pages that announced, “This is a work of fiction.” In fact, many of the websites could easily have been misconstrued as real, such as www.rational-hatter.com. This representational strategy helped reinforce the illusion that the game was part of the real world, rather than part of an artificial game world.
去中心化内容
Decentralized content
与大多数网页游戏不同，AI 没有单一的门户或主页。内容分布在许多网站上，允许有多个入口点。然而，游戏的分布式复杂性要求需要一个中央信息中心。作为玩家行为的新兴效应，网站www.cloudmakers.org很快被用作游戏的主要玩家创建门户。
Unlike most web-based games, A. I. had no single gateway or homepage. Content was spread across many websites, allowing for numerous points of entry. However, the distributed complexity of the game demanded a need for a central information hub. As an emergent effect of player behavior, the website www.cloudmakers.org was quickly adopted as the game’s primary player-created portal.
游戏事件发生在网络之外
Game events occurred outside the web
虽然游戏的大部分内容都在网上，但最引人注目的事件似乎都发生在线下。电子邮件、传真和电话都在游戏中发挥了作用。例如，AI预告片中包含一个编码电话号码，当拨打该号码时，会播放来自“母亲”的神秘语音消息。玩家可以将角色的密码输入虚构的语音邮件帐户并发现新信息。游戏相关 AI 甚至会给家里的玩家打电话。然而，最引人注目的是“反机器人民兵” ( www.unite-and-resist.org ) 在纽约、芝加哥和洛杉矶举行的三次真实“集会”。玩家获得了日期和地址，并参加了后来成为巧妙的戏剧表演。集会包括需要活动现场玩家和在家中坐在电脑前的玩家实时协作的谜题。
Although the bulk of the game was located on the web, the most dramatic events seemed to occur offline. Email, faxes, and phones all played a part in the game. For example, the A. I. trailer included an encoded phone number, which when called, played a mysterious voice message from “mother.” Players were able to enter characters’ passwords into fictional voicemail accounts and uncover new information. Game associated A.I.s even called players at home. Most dramatic, however, were three real-life “rallies” held by the “Anti-Robot Militia” (www.unite-and-resist.org) in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Players were given a date and address, and attended what turned out to be clever theatre pieces. The rallies included puzzles that required real-time collaboration between players at the events and those at home in front of their computers.
剧集内容
Episodic content
游戏内容每周更新一次，添加、修改和删除元素。玩家会收到电子邮件；游戏附带的网站越来越多地被猖獗的人工智能“入侵”。由于人工智能的叙事复杂且持续，分集发布的缺点是后来加入游戏的玩家很难跟上。优点是紧迫感增强，因为游戏永远不会暂停。作为一种叙事结构，分集发布与网页游戏相得益彰，因为大多数真实网站都会随着时间的推移而发生变化。此外，由于游戏在时间上与电影上映同步，因此它只建立单一的高潮是合情合理的。
Game content was updated weekly, as elements were added, modified, and taken away. Emails were sent out to players; increasingly, sites attached to the game were “hacked” by rampant A. I. s. With its complex, ongoing narrative, the disadvantage of A. I.’s episodic release was that players who joined the game later had a hard time catching up. The advantage was a heightened sense of urgency, because the game couldn’t ever be put on pause. As a narrative structure, the episodic release was a natural fit for a web-based game, because most real sites do change over time. Additionally, because the game led chronologically to the launch of the film, it made sense that it built to a single climax.
分布式问题解决
Distributed problem-solving
游戏中的许多谜题都极难解决（其中一些至今仍未解决）。例如，信息隐藏在某些网页的 HTML 源代码中。任何人都可以发现这些信息，但由于游戏中有如此多的网站，单独的玩家不可能获得所有信息。可以肯定地说，一个孤立的人永远不可能从头到尾玩完整个游戏。因此，粉丝网站成为游戏玩家的聚会场所，他们通过分享新的发展和谜题答案、组织和分享解决问题的任务来合作。这是一个大胆的设计决定，因为在设计游戏时，通常最好是选择简单易用而不是复杂。然而，有了人工智能，风险得到了回报——设计鼓励玩家进行社交互动，而协作游戏提高了每次解开谜题时的满足感。
Many of the puzzles in the game were extremely difficult to solve (some of them remain unsolved today). For example, messages were hidden in the html source code of certain web pages. Anyone could uncover this information, but since the game had so many websites, solitary players could not possibly get it all. It is safe to say that an isolated individual could never have played the entire game from start to finish. Thus, fan sites served as a meeting ground for game players, who collaborated by sharing new developments and puzzle answers, organizing and sharing problem-solving tasks. This was a bold design decision, because in designing a game it is generally better to err on the side of simplicity and ease rather than complexity. However, with A. I. the risk paid off—the design encouraged players to interact socially, and the collaborative play heightened the satisfaction each time a puzzle was solved.
Interaction between authors and players
从游戏开始的那一刻起，玩家就推测游戏有一个固定的故事情节，故事情节将在电影上映时结束。每周更新的内容通常包括谜题，玩家必须先解决谜题，然后才能获得新的故事内容。许多玩家推测，由于解决谜题的团队规模和效率是一个不可预测的变量，游戏作者设计新谜题是基于过去玩家的表现。例如，如果一个谜题对玩家来说太难了，作者就不得不寻找另一种方式来提供未解谜题的解决方案所能提供的故事更新。如果作者不寻找其他传播方式，故事就有永远无法完成的风险。
Players presumed from the moment the game began that there was a set story arc to the game, which would end in the release of the film. The weekly updates generally involved puzzles that players had to solve before they could access new story content. Many players speculated that because the size and effectiveness of the groups solving the puzzles was an unpredictable variable, the design of new puzzles by the authors of the game was based on past player performance. For example, if a puzzle turned out to be much too hard for the players, the authors were forced to find an alternative means to provide the story update that the solution to the unsolved puzzle would have granted. If the authors did not seek out alternate forms of dissemination, there was a risk of the story never being completed.
玩家与游戏设计师之间的界限变得模糊
Line blurred between players and game designers
值得注意的是，游戏创作者故意模糊了他们和玩家之间的界限。在少数情况下，游戏页面链接到粉丝页面，但并未打破这种伪装。Jeanine Salla 的文章“多人社交问题解决阵列被视为‘人工智能’的一种形式”链接到 cloudmakers 页面 ( www.cloudmakers.org )；机器人自由中心 ( www.inourimage.org ) 敦促玩家通过访问另一个粉丝网站 spherewatch 页面 ( www.spherewatch.net )来帮助争取 AI 权利。事实上，一位玩家指出，游戏作者控制故事传递的最简单方法就是偷偷加入粉丝行列，当他们看到真正的玩家遇到困难时，发布谜题的解决方案。
It is worth noting that the game’s creators deliberately blurred the lines between themselves and the players. In a few cases, game pages linked to fan pages without breaking the dissimulation. Jeanine Salla’s essay on “Multi-person Social Problem-Solving Arrays Considered as a Form of ‘Artificial Intelligence’” linked to the cloudmakers page (www.cloudmakers.org); the Center for Robotic Freedom (www.inourimage.org) urged players to help fight for A. I. rights by visiting the spherewatch page (www.spherewatch.net), another fan site. In fact, one player noted that the easiest way for game authors to control the story delivery would have been for them to surreptitiously join the ranks of the fans, posting solutions to puzzles when they saw that the real players were having trouble.
这些设计决策中的每一个都以不同的方式模糊了游戏空间与日常生活之间的界限。我们列出的所有元素都有一个共同点：精心关注有意义的游戏体验的创造。例如，游戏的网络方面充分利用了这一媒介。玩家通过仔细的网络搜索和源代码侦查获得有意义的结果。同样，游戏的社交游戏，从合作解谜到现实世界的聚会，也是由特定游戏设计选择产生的有意义的游戏形式。即使是事实与虚构之间的细微界限——这条界限因游戏的分布式、即兴格式而变得更加模糊——也只有通过成功的设计才有可能实现。这些游戏元素中的每一个——使用网络、合作社交游戏、伪装成事实的虚构——都利用游戏作为一种文化环境，有意模糊魔法圈的界限。人工智能的许多游戏维度，从愉悦游戏到社交和叙事游戏，都是有意“玩弄”游戏与其渗透、侵扰和栖息的周围世界之间的边界。
Each of these design decisions contributed in distinct ways to blur the boundaries between the space of the game and everyday life. All of the elements we listed share one thing in common: careful attention to the creation of meaningful play. The web-based aspect of the game, for example, took good advantage of the medium. Players were rewarded for careful web searches and source code sleuthing with meaningful outcomes. Similarly, the social play of the game, from the collaborative puzzles to the real-world gatherings, were also forms of meaningful play engendered by specific game design choices. Even the fine line separating fact from fiction—a line made all the more porous by the game’s distributed, improvisational format—was only possible through successful design. Each of these game elements—use of the web, collaborative social play, fiction disguised as fact—take advantage of the game as a cultural environment, intentionally blurring the boundaries of the magic circle. The many play dimensions of A. I., from its play with pleasure to its social and narrative play, all intentionally “play” with the border between the game and the surrounding world that it infiltrates, infests, and inhabits.
AI 将游戏作为文化环境的理念发挥到了极致。但从某种意义上说，所有游戏体验都涉及在游戏世界和世界其他地方之间进行区分。格雷戈里·贝特森（Gregory Bateson）在《游戏作为意义的游戏》中首次提出了元沟通的概念，它提醒我们，玩游戏不是一种天真的沉浸行为，而是一种关于游戏行为本身的不断交流行为。咬另一只狗的狗通过其行为表示咬伤，但也传达了咬伤不是真正咬伤的想法；狗实际上并不是在攻击，而只是在玩耍。
A. I. takes the idea of game as cultural environment to extremes. But in one sense, all game experiences involve playing with the distinction between the game world and the rest of the world. Gregory Bateson’s concept of metacommunication, first introduced in Games as the Play of Meaning, reminds us that to play a game is not an act of naïve immersion, but an act of constant communication about the act of play itself. A dog that nips another dog signifies a bite through its action, but also communicates the idea that the bite is not a real bite; the dog is not actually attacking, but is instead just playing.
所有游戏都会产生这种双重意识，但人工智能将其提升到了新的高度。游戏设计的一部分精彩之处在于它将元通信本身融入了一种游戏形式。通过模糊魔法圈的边界作为一项关键的设计选择，它使跨界的新形式成为可能，增强了元通信的乐趣。随着玩家在游戏设计的结构中前进，信仰与怀疑之间、玩游戏与玩现实生活之间的紧张关系时时刻刻推动着游戏向前发展，并创造了引人入胜的游戏形式。
All games engender this quality of double-consciousness, but A. I. took it to new heights. Part of the brilliance of the game’s design is that it incorporated metacommunication itself as a form of play. By blurring the boundaries of the magic circle as a key design choice, it made new forms of boundary-crossing possible, intensifying the pleasure of metacommunication. As players moved through the designed structures of the game, at every moment tensions between belief and skepticism, between playing a game and playing real life, moved the game forward and created compelling forms of play.
隐形游乐场
The Invisible Playground
从人工智能的电子媒介空间，我们转向另一种强调其文化环境的游戏：LARP，即真人角色扮演游戏。LARP 也模糊了游戏内部和外部的界限，但通过非常不同的方式实现。真人角色扮演游戏是《龙与地下城》等桌面角色扮演游戏的直接后代。与桌面角色扮演游戏一样，LARP 玩家扮演虚构角色，通过正式的游戏统计数据以及叙事背景和虚构的个性来定义。
From the electronically mediated spaces of A. I. we turn to another game that emphasizes the play of its cultural environment: the LARP, or live-action role-playing game. LARPs also blur the boundaries between the inside and outside of a game, but do so through very different means. Live-Action Role-Playing Games are direct descendents of tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. As in tabletop RPGs, LARP players take on the persona of fictional characters, defined through formal game statistics as well as through narrative backstory and an invented personality.
然而，真人角色扮演游戏并不围坐在桌子旁进行。相反，LARP 发生在真实的物理空间中，玩家四处走动并相互互动，实时戏剧性地演绎角色的动作。虽然 LARP 确实有游戏管理员来计划和裁判游戏，以及处理战斗和其他复杂玩家动作的规则，但大多数 LARP 活动都包含社交互动，因为玩家“以角色”交谈以制定计划、追寻叙事线索并相互密谋。真人角色扮演游戏可以在室外或室内、私人或公共空间进行。LARP 发生的地点以及玩家的着装和互动在很大程度上取决于 LARP 的叙事背景。中世纪主题的 LARP 可能发生在荒野环境或文艺复兴博览会中。未来主义的 LARP 可能发生在一系列会议厅房间中或其中一位玩家的家中。
Live-Action Role-Playing Games, however, do not take place around a table. Instead, LARPs occur in real physical spaces, as players walk about and interact with each other, dramatically acting out their characters’ actions in real-time. Although LARPs do have Game Masters that plan and referee the sessions, as well as rules that handle combat and other complex player actions, most LARP activity consists of social interaction, as players converse “in character” to make plans, pursue narrative threads, and scheme against each other. Live-Action Role-Playing Games can take place in outdoor or indoor settings, in private or public spaces. The location in which the LARP takes place, as well as the dress and interaction of the players, depends largely on the narrative setting of the LARP. A Medieval-themed LARP might occur in a wilderness environment or a Renaissance Fair. Afuturistic LARP might take place in a series of convention hall rooms or in the house of one of the players.
游戏设计师兼 LARP 游戏大师尼克·福图诺 (Nick Fortugno) 多年来一直在纽约市经营一款基于《吸血鬼：化装舞会》的 LARP 游戏。他的游戏以现在的纽约市为背景，经常在从华盛顿广场公园到中央车站等公共场所举行。玩家都扮演吸血鬼，一种秘密生活在人类之中的古老而强大的生物。在典型的《吸血鬼：化装舞会》游戏中，重点并不在于身体对抗，也不在于玩家猎杀人类以获取鲜血。相反，游戏的趣味性来自于贵族吸血鬼氏族之间巴洛克式的权力斗争。福图诺的 LARP 游戏《黑暗季节》就是按照这样的思路设计的，是一款具有密集的社会政治和错综复杂的故事情节的游戏。《黑暗季节》成功地以多种方式与其文化环境互动。
Nick Fortugno, a game designer and LARP Game Master, ran a LARP for many years in New York City based on Vampire: The Masquerade. His game, set in present day NYC, met regularly in public spaces that ranged from Washington Square Park to Grand Central Station. The players all took the role of vampires, ancient and powerful creatures that live secretly among humans. In typical Vampire: The Masquerade games, emphasis is not on physical confrontation or on players hunting humans for blood. Instead, the interest of the game comes from baroque power struggles waged between the aristocratic vampire clans. Fortugno’s LARP, titled Seasons of Darkness, was designed along these lines, and was a game of dense social politics and intricate storytelling. Seasons of Darkness successfully engaged with its cultural environment in a variety of ways.
公共空间
Public Spaces
尽管许多 LARP 游戏都只在孤立的环境中进行，但大多数 Seasons of Darkness 会议都是在公共城市空间举行的。通过这一设计决策，Fortugno（以及游戏管理员 Tami Meyers）创造了一款从本质上模糊了魔法圈边界的游戏。在大多数游戏中，甚至是现实世界的实体游戏中，游戏都在田野、球场或专门为游戏留出的某个地方进行。Seasons of Darkness 没有使用人工设计的空间，而是利用了现有的空间。玩家以多种方式将他们“发现的”环境融入到游戏中。例如，俯瞰世界贸易中心冬季花园的阳台可用于增强玩家向下方其他玩家发表演讲的戏剧效果；同一个阳台也可能被战略性地用作监视的有利位置。
Although many LARPs take place exclusively in isolated settings, most Seasons of Darkness sessions were held in public urban spaces. Through this design decision, Fortugno (and Tami Meyers, the game’s administrator) created a game that intrinsically blurred the boundaries of the magic circle. In most games, even real-world physical games, the play takes place in a field, on a court, or someplace set aside specifically for the game. Seasons of Darkness did not use an artificially designed space, but instead appropriated existing ones. The players integrated their “found” context into the game play in many ways. A balcony overlooking the World Trade Center’s Winter Garden, for example, might be used to heighten dramatic effect for a player delivering a speech to other players below; the same balcony might also be used strategically, as a vantage point for spying.
Seasons of Darkness 的游戏空间不仅与物质设定相一致，而且与纽约市的文化环境也相一致。媒体、标牌和不知情的路人都是游戏的素材。一个逃亡的角色可能会躲进一群通勤者中，在过往的人群中伪装自己，试图躲避追捕者。或者两个玩家可能会受到服装店橱窗展示的启发，开始谈论“人类”文化中的当前时尚。将公共空间用作游戏空间极大地增加了叙事游戏的选择。正如我们在互动性中首次介绍的那样，游戏的可能性空间是游戏过程中可能发生的所有游戏动作的事件空间。即使在封闭的魔法圈中，可能性空间也可能非常大。但偶然事件和在《黑暗季节》中，人们和文化不断流动，让游戏的可能性空间变得真正无限。游戏随时随地都在进行，玩家不断即兴发挥，发明新方法来与周围环境互动。
The game-space of Seasons of Darkness was congruent not just with the material setting but also with the cultural environment of New York City. Media, signage, and unknowing passersby were all fodder for the game. A character on the run might duck into a throng of commuters, camouflaging herself among the passing crowds in an attempt to evade her pursuers. Or two players might be inspired by a clothing store window display to have a conversation about current fads in “human” culture. This use of public space as the space of the game greatly increased options for narrative play. As we first introduced in Interactivity, a game’s space of possibility is the event-space of all possible game actions that might occur in the course of play. The space of possibility even in a closed magic circle can be quite large. But chance events and a constant flow of people and culture through a session of Seasons of Darkness made the game’s space of possibility truly infinite. The game was played nowhere and everywhere at once, as players continually improvised and invented new ways to engage with their environment.
真实世界互动
Real-World Interaction
与大多数 LARP 一样，Seasons of Darkness 的玩家通过“扮演角色”移动、说话和做手势来玩游戏。与大多数游戏不同，大多数游戏中的游戏动作都是程式化的、人为的手势（轮到你时将塑料标记移动到棋盘上的新空间；以特定方式将球传给某些玩家）。Seasons of Darkness 的玩家使用了自然化的行为。在 Freeze Tag 中，触摸另一个玩家的手臂对游戏有正式的影响。但在 LARP 中，触摸另一个玩家的手臂通常具有与日常生活中相同的交流意义：也许这是一种同理心的手势，或者是无声地要求接受者停止说话。这与更典型的游戏有很大不同。魔法圈的模糊和擦除不仅发生在游戏设置方面，也发生在玩家互动的层面上。游戏的核心机制是玩家在玩游戏时一遍又一遍重复的基本游戏动作或动作集。在《黑暗季节》中，游戏的核心机制与日常生活中的行为重叠。手势、言语、戏剧技巧：这些社交互动工具是每个玩家带入游戏的文化环境的一部分。虽然社交交流在大多数游戏中都会发生，但在《黑暗季节》中，这些活动本身就是游戏的核心动作。
As with most LARPs, Seasons of Darkness players played their game by moving, speaking, and gesturing “in character.” In contrast to most games, in which game actions are stylized, artificial gestures (move a plastic token to a new space on the board when it is your turn; pass the ball to certain players in certain ways). Seasons of Darkness players made use of naturalized behaviors. In Freeze Tag, touching another player on the arm has formal ramifications for play. But in a LARP, touching another player on the arm usually has the same communicative meaning it does in everyday life: perhaps it is a gesture of empathy, or a silent request for the recipient to stop speaking. This is a significant departure from more typical games. The blurring and erasure of the magic circle takes place not only in terms of the game’s setting, but also on the level of the player’s interactions. The core mechanics of a game are basic game actions or set of actions that players repeat over and over as they play. In the case of Seasons of Darkness, the game’s core mechanics overlapped with the behaviors of everyday life. Gestures, speech, dramatic skills: these tools for social interaction were part of the cultural environment each player brought to the game. Although social communication occurs in most games, in Seasons of Darkness these activities were themselves core game actions.
这并不是说游戏没有一套自己的程式化游戏动作；它当然有。战斗和使用超自然力量需要程式化的行为，Fortungno 将其设计为游戏的一部分。例如，轻拍手臂可能并不表示无辜的交流言语手势，而是表示使用魔法动作。在《黑暗季节》中，使用特殊力量隐身的玩家会交叉双臂。这个手势表示隐身，其他玩家必须表现得好像隐身玩家不存在一样。
This is not to say that the game didn’t have its own set of stylized play actions; it certainly did. Combat and the use of supernatural powers required stylized behavior, which Fortungno designed as part of the game. It might be the case, for example, that a tap on the arm did not denote an innocent communicative speech-gesture, but instead signaled the use of a magical action. In Seasons of Darkness, a player that had used a special power to turn invisible crossed his or her arms. This gesture signified invisibility, and other players had to act as if the invisible player was not present.
这里有一个重要的区别。虽然 LARP 确实模糊了魔法圈的边界，但这个边界还远没有被完全消除。尽管游戏与日常生活中的行为和事件密不可分，但它仍然能够产生自己的意义。交叉双臂的手势的意义是人为的，不是我们日常互动词汇的一部分。然而，这与我们已经了解的游戏完全一致。正如我们在《游戏作为模拟游戏》中所讨论的那样，玩家意识的元沟通方面创造了民俗学家加里·艾伦·费恩 (Gary Allen Fine) 所说的“意义层”，其中游戏角色、游戏玩家和现实世界环境共同存在于一个相互关联的认知框架网络中。
There is an important distinction to make here. Although it is true that a LARP blurs the border of the magic circle, the boundary is nowhere close to being completely eradicated. Despite its lamination with the actions and events of daily life, the game remains capable of generating its own meanings. The meaning of the crossed-arm gesture is artificial, not a part of our everyday lexicon of interaction. Yet this is entirely consistent with what we already know about games. As we discussed in Games as the Play of Simulation, the metacommunicative aspect of player consciousness creates what folklorist Gary Allen Fine calls “layers of meaning” in which game character, game player, and real-world context exist together within a web of interconnected cognitive frameworks.
新兴故事讲述
Emergent Storytelling
虽然有些 LARP 依赖于预先生成的故事情节和严格编写的事件，但《黑暗季节》的叙事在很大程度上是一种自发系统。Fortugno鼓励自下而上而非自上而下的叙事：许多最重要的故事事件都是由玩家制作的：角色之间相互策划和密谋的结果。每个环节都是一个复杂的系统，角色之间会像叙事粒子一样相互碰撞。角色之间的每一次互动都建立在之前的互动之上，从而形成更大的叙事行为模式。在管理这些模式的过程中，Fortugno 必须在自发和嵌入的叙事元素之间取得平衡。游戏出人意料的自发性使其朝着生动、不可预测的方向发展。但在游戏进行多年的过程中，Fortugno 还开发了精心嵌入的情节，这些情节只有在游戏的最后高潮时才得以充分实现。出现发生在一个背景中，即系统环境中。在《黑暗季节》中，叙事背景是从游戏复杂的背景故事中建立起来的，这些背景故事来自许多来源：吸血鬼传说和传奇；已发布的游戏规则中的神话；Fortugno 撰写的纽约吸血鬼虚构历史；之前游戏环节的既定事件；一致的人物性格及其忠诚和敌意；以及公共环境和文化环境的其他元素。角色之间的任何对话或互动都发生在充满故事潜力的丰富叙事背景中。
Whereas some LARPs rely on pregenerated storylines and tightly scripted events, the narrative of Seasons of Darkness was a largely emergent system. Fortugno encouraged bottom-up instead of top-down narratives: many of the most significant story events were player-produced: the result of characters scheming and plotting against one another. Each session was a complex system, with the characters bumping into each other like narrative particles. Every interaction between characters built on previous ones, adding up to larger patterns of narrative behavior. In managing these patterns from session to session, Fortugno had to balance emergent with embedded narrative elements. The unexpected, emergent qualities of the game kept it moving in lively, unpredictable directions. But over the course of the years that the game was played, Fortugno also developed elaborately embedded plots that were only fully realized during the game’s final climax. Emergence takes place within a context, the environment of the system. In Seasons of Darkness, narrative contexts were established out of the complex backstory of the game, which was derived from a host of sources: vampire lore and legend; the mythos of the published game rules; a fictional history of NYC vampires that Fortugno had written; established events of previous game sessions; consistent character personalities and their allegiances and enmities; and the public setting and other elements of the cultural environment. Any conversation or interaction between characters took place within a rich narrative context brimming with story potential.
元叙事
Meta-Narratives
在公共场所玩游戏有其挑战性，尤其是当玩家扮演吸血鬼时。大批玩家在深夜徘徊数小时，可能会引起警察和保安不必要的注意。游戏的一部分玩法包括协调现实世界设置与玩家在其中居住的不同寻常的方式之间的摩擦。但值得注意的是，这种协调本身就是一个有意义的游戏场所。
Playing a game in a public space has its challenges, especially when the players are pretending to be vampires. Large groups of players, milling about for hours late at night, could attract unwanted attention from police and security guards. Part of the play of the game included negotiating the friction between the real-world settings and the unusual way that players inhabited them. But remarkably enough, this very negotiation was a site of meaningful play.
在游戏的叙事世界中，吸血鬼隐居，假装成人类（因此《吸血鬼：化装舞会》中就有“化装舞会”）。吸血鬼所能犯下的最严重罪行就是向人类社会泄露有关吸血鬼存在的信息。因此，当非玩家走近时，玩家谈论吸血鬼氏族政治或超自然神秘力量时会降低声音。玩家通过假装路人需要对险恶的真相保持沉默来体现游戏中的保密叙事。同时，玩家还保留了另一种形式的秘密信息：他们正在玩游戏。游戏的秘密含义，例如交叉双臂的玩家是“隐形的”，对公众来说仍然是未知的。
In the narrative universe of the game, vampires live in secret, pretending to be human (thus the “masquerade” of Vampire: The Masquerade). The most severe crime a vampire can commit is to leak information to human society about the existence of vampires. For this reason, players speaking about matters of vampire clan politics or supernatural occult powers lower their voices when non-players walk nearby. Players manifest the in-game narrative of secrecy by pretending that passersby need to be kept in the dark about the sinister truth. At the same time, players maintain another form of secret information: the fact that they are playing a game. The secret meanings of the game, like the fact that a player with crossed arms is “invisible,” remain unknown to the general public.
这些游戏元素的发挥方式有着美妙的双重逻辑。就像虚构游戏世界中的吸血鬼将自己的存在隐藏起来一样，游戏玩家也对魔法圈的存在秘而不宣。《游戏作为信息系统》探索了游戏如何操纵公共和私人信息以推动有意义的游戏。在《黑暗季节》中，游戏本身是一种私人信息，对公众隐藏。这种方法与大多数游戏形成鲜明对比，在大多数游戏中，玩家和观众都承认魔法圈的存在，玩家和非玩家之间的区别一目了然。《黑暗季节》玩家对游戏存在的特殊信息不仅仅是关于游戏规则的正式信息：它是文化信息，是定义游戏社区并将其联系在一起的信息。
There is a beautiful double logic to the way these game elements play out. Just as vampires in the fictional game-world keep their existence to themselves, players of the game secret away the very presence of the magic circle. Games as Systems of Information explored the ways that games manipulate public and private information in order to drive meaningful play. In Seasons of Darkness, the game itself was a kind of private information, kept hidden from the public. This approach is in contrast to most games, where both players and spectators acknowledge the presence of the magic circle, and the distinction between players and non-players is immediately evident. The special information that Seasons of Darkness players have about the existence of the game is more than the formal information about its rules: it is cultural information, information that defines the play community and binds it together.
玩家对游戏的私人知识可以作为叙事本身的例证。玩家在游戏发生的公共文化环境中所拥有的秘密地位增强了他们作为非人类吸血鬼的想象存在。对游戏的私人知识充当着一种程序表征的形式，这是我们在《游戏即模拟游戏》中引入的一个概念，其中意义来自一个动态过程。一群倒霉的游客散开，露出一个敌方吸血鬼的黑衣威胁性身影，他自信地向你走来：这是程序叙事的一个强有力的时刻，只有在 LARP 中才会发生。但与大多数程序表征形式不同，在大多数程序表征形式中，封闭的规则和游戏交互会产生描述，而这里的表征是通过将游戏分层到现实世界中而产生的。游戏与其文化环境的模糊本身就是一种表征行为。
The private knowledge that players have about the game acts to exemplify the narrative itself. Players’ imaginative existence as non-human vampires is heightened by the secret status they hold within the public cultural environment where the game takes place. Private knowledge about the game functions as a form of procedural representation, a concept we introduced in Games as the Play of Simulation, in which signification arises from a dynamic process. A crowd of hapless tourists parts to reveal the menacing black-clad figure of an enemy vampire striding confidently toward you: this is a powerful moment of procedural narrative that could only happen in a LARP. But unlike most forms of procedural representation, where the closed set of rules and game interactions generate a depiction, here representation arises by layering the game onto the real world. The blurring of the game with its cultural environment is itself an act of representation.
《黑暗季节》游戏设定在现实世界，即当今时代。因此，本地、国内和全球发生的政治事件可以融入游戏叙事中。例如，在游戏叙事中，纽约市市长鲁道夫·朱利安尼是游戏期间被一名更强大的玩家控制的傀儡。作为游戏大师，Fortugno 可以自由地将现实世界事件与游戏叙事联系起来；他也自由地鼓励玩家这样做。当时装设计师詹尼·范思哲被谋杀时，影响和引导人类艺术和文化的吸血鬼家族在新闻发布后的整个游戏过程中扮演他们的角色，全神贯注地哀悼。基于这一富有创意的游戏动作，Fortugno 决定将死亡变成具有更大政治影响的吸血鬼暗杀。
The Seasons of Darkness game was set in the real world, in the present day. As a result, political events occurring locally, nationally, and globally could be incorporated into the game narrative. For example, in the game narrative, Rudolph Giuliani, the mayor of New York City for the duration of the game, was a mind-controlled stooge of one of the more powerful players. As the Game Master, Fortugno had free reign to tie real-world events to the narrative play of the game; he freely encouraged players to do so as well. When fashion designer Gianni Versace was murdered, the clan of vampires that influence and guide human art and culture played their characters in full mourning for the entire game session following the news. Building on this creative game action, Fortugno decided to make the death a vampiric assassination with larger political implications.
从这个意义上讲，《黑暗季节》是一个开放文化的系统，它与其文化背景交换意义，并将这种意义转化为游戏特定的叙事，其综合结果会影响未来的游戏。Fortugno 鼓励玩家作为生产者的范式，鼓励玩家通过独立的创造行为来修改和改变游戏的意义。尽管 Fortugno 总是对玩家对现实世界事件的挪用拥有最终批准权，但游戏和故事情节的共同背景意味着他很少需要行使审查权。《黑暗季节》中玩家生产的重要性在于，玩家并不是简单地发明一个孤立的游戏对象，比如雷神之锤皮肤或同人小说作品。他们的创造行为包括在现实世界中定位一个事件，并扩展游戏叙事以适应它。在《黑暗季节》中，当前事件的文化环境是玩家生产的原材料。
In this way, Seasons of Darkness was a system of open culture, exchanging meaning with its cultural context and transforming that meaning into game-specific narratives with integrated outcomes affecting future play. Fortugno encouraged a player-as-producer paradigm, encouraging players to modify and transform the game’s meaning through independent acts of creation. Although Fortugno always had final approval of a player’s appropriation of a real-world event, the shared context of the game and its storyline meant that he very rarely had to exercise censuring authority. The significance of player-production in Seasons of Darkness lies in the fact that players were not simply inventing an isolated game object such as a Quake skin or a work of fan fiction. Their act of creation consisted of locating an event in the real world and stretching the game narrative to accommodate it. In Seasons of Darkness, the cultural environment of current events was the raw material for player-production.
这些设计元素协同作用，创造了一种非常有意义的体验，支持了数十名玩家的游戏社区超过五年。每个游戏元素都是精心设计游戏的结果。设计一款像《黑暗季节》这样完全融入其文化环境的游戏的危险和困难在于，游戏可能会失控。由于它有意玩弄魔法圈的界限，游戏有可能与其环境融合得太好。如果它变得太模糊，让游戏社区得以持续存在的共同安全和信任可能会消失。
Each of these design elements, acting in concert, created an extremely meaningful experience, supporting a play community of several dozen players for more than five years. Each game element was the result of careful game design choices. The danger and difficulty of designing a game as fully integrated into its cultural environment as Seasons of Darkness is that the game can run away with itself. Because of its intentional play with the boundaries of the magic circle, the game has the potential to blend too well into its environment. If it becomes too ambiguous, the shared safety and trust that allows a play community to persist can disappear.
意识到这种危险后，Fortugno 在许多方面严格限制了游戏设计。他将已发布的游戏视为一个开放系统，重新编写了规则，简化了正式的游戏机制，以便玩家可以专注于角色扮演和讲故事。尽管游戏存在于公共空间，但玩家在游戏中可以去哪里以及可以做什么总是受到限制。游戏环节的时间也有明确的标记：每个环节都以彼得潘启发的仪式开始和结束，Fortugno 向玩家吹出想象中的小精灵粉尘和粉红色烟雾。即使在边界如此透明的游戏中，魔法圈的时间和空间仍然清晰地划分。
Acknowledging this danger, Fortugno kept the game design tightly constrained in many respects. Treating the published game as an open system, he re-wrote the rules, streamlining the formal game mechanics so players could focus on role-playing and storytelling. Although the game existed in public spaces, there were always constraints on where players could travel and what they could do during a game. The time of a game session was also clearly marked: every session began and ended with a Peter Pan-inspired ritual in which Fortugno blew imaginary pixie dust and pink smoke over the players. Even in a game with such permeable borders, the time and space of the magic circle remained unambiguously demarcated.
正如我们多次指出的那样，游戏设计是一个二阶设计过程。游戏设计师通过创建规则和结构来创造游戏体验，但这只是间接的，然后引发游戏。作为一名游戏设计师，Fortugno 巧妙地操纵了游戏的形式结构及其与文化背景的关系，在严格的约束与游戏文化环境的开放式融合之间取得平衡。结果就是《Seasons of Darkness》充满激情和精致的游戏体验。
As we have noted many times, game design is a second-order design process. Game designers create play experiences, but only indirectly, by creating rules and structures which then give rise to play. As a game designer, Fortugno skillfully manipulated the game’s formal structures and their relationships to cultural contexts, balancing tight constraint with an open-ended integration into the game’s cultural environment. The result was the passionate and refined play of Seasons of Darkness.
意识形态环境
Ideological Environment
第三个也是最后一个案例研究是 Suspicion，这是一款未发布的纸牌游戏，专为办公室环境设计，游戏时间长达一周。Eric 在开发 Suspicion 时20 世纪 90 年代中期，在纽约市的一家游戏开发公司工作，并组织了两次完整的游戏测试。与《AI》和《黑暗季节》一样，这款游戏的设计明确利用了周围的文化环境。但它也表现出一种在其他两个案例研究中没有发现的文化抵抗形式。
For a third and final case study, we look at Suspicion, an unpublished card game designed for an office environment, to be played over a week of real time. Eric created Suspicion while working at a game development company in New York City in the mid-1990s and organized two full playtests of the game. As with A. I. and Seasons of Darkness, the game’s design makes explicit use of its surrounding cultural environment. But it also engages in a form of cultural resistance not found in the other two case studies.
每次《深闺疑云》游戏都是以邀请开始的。公司里的每个人都会收到一封电子邮件，说明下周将举行一场游戏；如果他们想玩，就需要发送回复。玩家被指示不要向其他员工透露他们是否决定玩。在一个大约有 100 名员工的公司里，每场游戏大约有 20 名玩家参与。下一周，当游戏开始时，玩家会收到游戏规则和一小套卡片。
Each game of Suspicion began with an invitation. Everyone in the company received an email explaining that a game would take place the following week; if they wanted to play, they needed to send a reply. Players were instructed not to disclose to other employees whether or not they had decided to play. In a company of about a hundred, each game involved approximately 20 players. The following week, when the game began, players were given the game rules and a small collection of cards.
其中一张卡片上写着玩家的身份。这款以阴谋为主题的游戏中的每个玩家都属于两个团体，一个教派和一个机构。例如，一个玩家可能属于绿松石装备教派和国家机构。每个玩家的团体从属关系都是独一无二的，因此没有两个玩家属于完全相同的团体。每个玩家在游戏开始时还会有六张藏匿卡。每张藏匿卡都有游戏中其中一个团体的颜色和徽章。游戏的目标是找到您团体中的其他玩家，并与他们合作获取与您共享的团体颜色和徽章相同的藏匿卡。第一个带着所有成员和一定数量的与团体相对应的藏匿卡来到裁判 (Eric) 面前的教派和机构将赢得游戏。为了帮助玩家找到彼此，每个团体都会得到一个暗号或暗号手势来帮助识别该团体中的其他玩家。
One of these cards contained the player’s identity. Each player in the conspiracy-themed game belonged to two groups, a sect and an institution. A player might, for example, belong to the Sect of the Turquoise Gear and the Institution of the State. Every player’s pair of group affiliations was unique, so no two players belonged to the exact same pair of groups. Each player also began the game with six Stash Cards. Each Stash Card had the color and insignia of one of the groups in the game. The goal of the game was to locate other players in your groups and work with them to acquire Stash Cards with the color and insignia of the group you shared. The first Sect and the first Institution that came to the referee (Eric) with all of their members and a certain number of Stash Cards corresponding to the group won the game. To help players find each other, each group was given a code word or code gesture to help identify other players in that group.
为了获得藏匿卡，玩家必须使用指控卡正式指控另一名玩家加入团伙。如果你的指控正确，你可以使用任何藏匿卡来“攻击”被告，这种攻击就像一场简单的决斗卡牌游戏。如果你的指控不正确，目标可以从你那里拿走一张藏匿卡。玩家还可以自由地互相交换卡牌，但通常只与自己团伙的其他成员交换。游戏的一般发展轨迹始于玩家弄清楚谁在玩，谁不在玩，接下来使用暗语和手势来识别团伙中的其他人，最终在团伙内分享知识和藏匿卡，以便有策略地攻击其他玩家。《深闺疑云》的玩法以多种方式与其文化环境互动。
In order to acquire Stash Cards, a player had to use Accusation Cards to formally accuse another player of being in a group. If your accusation was correct, you could use any of your Stash Cards to “attack” the accused, an attack that played out as a simple dueling card game. If your accusation was incorrect, the target could take a Stash Card from you. Players could also freely trade cards with each other, but usually did so only with other members of their groups. The general trajectory of the game started with players figuring out who was and was not playing, next using code words and gestures to identify others in their groups, and eventually sharing knowledge and Stash Cards within a group in order to strategically attack other players. The play of Suspicion engaged with its cultural environment in a variety of ways.
生活冲突
Lived Conflict
与《黑暗季节》一样，《深闺疑云》发生在一个并非为游戏人为玩法而设计的物理空间：办公室环境。与 LARP 不同的是，游戏空间不是玩家在有限时间内访问的公共空间。它是他们工作的地方，包括办公室、餐厅和会议室。游戏的文化环境是玩家已经非常熟悉的空间。因此，游戏真正殖民了其环境。工作空间成为魔法圈的代名词；工作日的时间和地点成为游戏的时间和地点。对于可以在哪里玩游戏有一些正式限制（与外部客户的预定会议是禁止的），但除此之外，当玩家到达工作地点时，他或她必须准备好攻击或被攻击。所有游戏都体现了冲突，当玩家努力解决冲突时，游戏中就会产生紧张局势。魔法圈扮演的角色之一是遏制游戏冲突，而不是让它蔓延到日常生活中。与《刺客》一样，在《深闺疑云》中，游戏冲突是无法逃避的；游戏的玩法必须融入到人的生活的其他部分。
As with Seasons of Darkness, Suspicion took place in a physical space not designed for the artificial play of a game: an office environment. Unlike the LARP, the game space was not a public space that players visited for a limited time. It was the place where they worked, including their offices, lunchrooms, and conference rooms. The game’s cultural environment was a space players already knew intimately. For this reason, the game truly colonized its environment. The workspace became synonymous with the magic circle; the time and place of the workday became the time and place of the game. There were a few formal restrictions on where the game could be played (a scheduled meeting with an outside client was out of bounds), but otherwise, when a player arrived at work, he or she had to be ready to attack or be attacked. All games embody a conflict, and tension arises in a game as players struggle to resolve the conflict. One of the roles that the magic circle plays is to contain game conflict rather than allowing it to spill out into ordinary life. As with Assassin, in Suspicion there was no escape from the game conflict; the play of the game had to be integrated into the rest of one’s life.
由于《Suspicion》在日常工作活动中运行，游戏玩法接管并改变了工作场所。例如，在《Suspicion》中，每个小组都有一个暗号或暗号手势，可用于识别同一小组的其他成员。这种交流游戏机制导致奇怪的战略对话。每个玩家都试图透露自己的暗号或手势来寻找盟友，但这样做的方式非常隐秘，以便另一个小组不会注意到并获取信息。
Because Suspicion operated in and among ordinary work activities, the play of the game took over and transformed the workplace. For example, in Suspicion each group has a code word or code gesture that it can use to identify other members of the same group. This communicative game mechanic leads to strangely strategic conversations. Each player attempts to reveal his own code word or gesture to find allies, but does so in a very surreptitious manner, so that another group won’t notice and acquire the information.
由于这种机制，玩家变得非常在意彼此之间的互动方式。游戏为办公室里的每一个言语行为增加了一层新的含义，将其变成了一种复杂的动作，可以用来识别盟友或挫败对手。正如我们在《游戏即意义的游戏》中所探讨的那样，任何游戏玩法的一部分都是理解其含义和表现形式。通过侵入和挪用普通交流，《怀疑》将游戏的这种意义构建方面带到了中心位置。你正在和他谈论工作任务的人是在玩游戏吗？他们想告诉你什么吗？你无意中说出了暗号吗？意识改变的感觉如此普遍，甚至没有玩游戏的员工也加入进来，假装他们也有秘密身份。从每次游戏测试后的玩家报告来看，很明显，这些额外的意义层让人有些不舒服，但作为游戏来说，仍然非常令人愉快。
As a result of this mechanic, players became very self-conscious about how they interacted with one another. The game added a new layer of meaning to every in-office speech-act, turning it into a complex action that could be used to identify allies or to foil rivals. As we explored in Games as the Play of Meaning, part of the play of any game is making sense of its meanings and representations. By invading and appropriating ordinary communication, Suspicion brings this sense-making aspect of games center stage. Is the person you’re talking to about a work task playing the game? Are they trying to tell you something? Have you unintentionally let your code word slip? The sense of altered consciousness was so pervasive that even workers not playing the game joined in, pretending that they too, had a secret identity. From the player reports that followed each playtest, it was clear that these extra layers of meaning were somewhat uncomfortable to inhabit, but nevertheless intensely pleasurable as play.
在《游戏的定义》中，我们确定游戏是在更严格的结构内自由移动。当严格的结构本身由于游戏的移动而发生变化时，结果就是变革性游戏。通过《怀疑》游戏，工作的社会空间发生了改变。即使玩家没有谈论游戏，《怀疑》中的不信任和自我意识也会影响他们的互动。
In Defining Play, we established that play is free movement within a more rigid structure. When the rigid structures themselves change as a result of play’s movement, the result is transformative play. Through the play of Suspicion, the social spaces of work were altered. Even when players were not talking about the game, the distrust and self-consciousness of Suspicion inflected their interactions.
振作起来
Shaking It Up
Suspicion 旨在削弱现有的工作权力关系。在任何公司中，制度结构都定义了控制和权威：谁做决定，谁的薪水更高，谁是谁的老板。当 Suspicion 玩家在游戏开始时被随机分配到派别和机构时，这些群体的构成与玩家之间现有的部门、空间、经济或权威关系无关。Suspicion 重新洗牌并从而改变了这些权力关系，在某种程度上改变了每个玩家与其他参与者的关系。
Suspicion was designed to undercut the existing power relationships at work. In any company, an institutional structure defines control and authority: who makes the decisions, who is paid more, who is the boss of whom. When Suspicion players are randomly assigned to sects and institutions at the start of the game, the makeup of these groups has nothing to do with the existing departmental, spatial, economic, or authoritative relationships among players. Suspicion reshuffled and thereby transformed these power relations, changing in some way each player’s relationships to the other participants.
Suspicion 中的玩家身份结构（每个玩家都被分配了独特的团体忠诚组合）确保你无法完全信任任何其他人。你可能已经找到了你的教派成员，但他们每个人都属于与你对立的不同机构。你的一个教派成员可能会建议你将你的藏匿卡与他的藏匿卡合并，以便更妥善地保护你教派的宝贵卡牌——但他可能只是计划自私地将这些卡牌用于他的机构。这种持续的不确定性和不信任感营造出紧张的游戏氛围。游戏奖励欺骗，而游戏则涉及许多诡计和背叛。不仅现有的权力关系被破坏，而且他们从未有机会形成稳定的等级制度。Suspicion 揭示了一些有助于构成工作场所的文化修辞或意识形态。但由于游戏改变了权力关系，它也成为文化抵抗的场所。通过破坏公司现有的权威模式，它凸显了权力通常以通常看不见的方式运作。
The structure of player identity in Suspicion (each player is assigned a unique combination of group allegiances), ensures that you cannot completely trust anyone else. You might have found the members of your Sect, but each of them belongs to a different Institution that is opposed to your own. One of your Sect members might suggest that you pool your Stash Cards with his, so that your Sect’s valuable cards are more properly protected—but he might simply be planning to selfishly use the cards for his Institution. This sense of constant uncertainty and distrust created a tense game atmosphere. The game rewarded deception and play involved much trickery and backstabbing. Not only were existing power relationships undermined, but they were never given the chance to settle into a stable hierarchy. Suspicion revealed some of the cultural rhetorics, or ideologies, that help constitute the workplace. But because the game transformed power relationships, it also served as a site of cultural resistance. By undermining the company’s existing patterns of authority, it highlighted the typically invisible ways that power usually operated.
游戏中有时会出现禁忌玩法，即日常生活中不允许的非游戏互动形式。在《深闺疑云》中，一名工人可能会拜访他的老板，指责她是敌人，并用他的藏物无情地攻击她纸牌。通过将公司权力重塑为错综复杂的欺骗之网，公司员工之间的关系发生了根本性转变。《深闺疑云》通过其表演，起到了文化批判的作用。它之所以成功，只是因为它模糊了魔法圈的边缘。公司野餐会上的垒球比赛可能会暂时重塑公司权力，但它并没有在参与者的实际工作场所进行。《深闺疑云》中颠覆文化抵抗的潜力直接源于其对文化环境的字面挪用。
Games sometimes exhibit forbidden play, forms of non-game interaction not permitted in ordinary life. In Suspicion, a worker might drop in on his boss, accuse her of being an enemy, and attack her mercilessly with his Stash Cards. By recasting company authority as a tangled web of deception, relationships among company workers were radically transformed. Through its play, Suspicion operated as a cultural critique. It succeeded only because of the way it blurred the edges of the magic circle. A soft-ball game at a company picnic might act temporarily to reframe company authority, but it is not taking place in the participants’ actual workplace. The subversive potential for cultural resistance in Suspicion emerges directly from its literal appropriation of the cultural environment.
与我们的其他示例一样，《深闺疑云》通过特定的设计决策实现了其独特的玩法。在这三款游戏中，《深闺疑云》在某种程度上最彻底地融入了其文化背景。《黑暗季节》作为一款角色扮演游戏，并不涉及玩家之间的明确竞争。人工智能是一个巨大的项目，但它的谜题结构（游戏设计师在其中掌握解决方案）保持了权威结构的清晰。通过它所创造的语境模糊性，《深闺疑云》真正具有文化超越性。
As with our other examples, Suspicion achieves its distinctive play through specific design decisions. Of the three games, Suspicion in some ways plays most radically with its cultural context. Seasons of Darkness, as a role-playing game, did not involve explicit competition between players. A. I. was a huge project, but its puzzle structure, in which the game designers held the solutions, kept the structures of authority clear. Through the contextual ambiguities that it created, Suspicion was truly culturally transgressive.
在典型的游戏中，魔法圈的作用是遏制玩家之间的冲突。猜疑不仅是为了制造不信任和欺骗，还让玩家在他们通常的工作场所互相对抗。魔法圈将办公室包围起来；如果事情出了问题，游戏结束后其他玩家也无法逃脱。在第二场游戏的高潮中，一名玩家提出用现金支付另一名玩家的藏匿卡。金钱交易从未发生，但仅仅是这种可能性就引发了强烈的情绪爆发。游戏濒临崩溃，导致设计师实施了一项规则，禁止在游戏中使用现实世界的货币。
In a typical game, the magic circle acts to contain inter-player conflict. Suspicion was not only designed to create mistrust and deception, but had players acting against each other in their usual place of work. The magic circle enframed the office; there was no escape from other players after the game if things went wrong. During the climax of the second game, one player made an offer to pay another cash for her Stash Cards. The exchange of money never took place, but its mere possibility caused intense emotions to erupt. The game was in danger of imploding, leading the designer to implement a rule outlawing the use of real-world money in the game.
这则轶事指出了将游戏设计为文化环境的力量和挑战。作为对企业工作场所权力的变革性政治声明，《深闺疑云》取得了成功，它以真正令人愉悦的游戏玩法吸引了玩家，尽管游戏本身对玩家的工作环境进行了文化批判。与此同时，游戏的顽皮抵抗与对玩家的责任感需求相平衡。文化环境总是有人的家园，即使是体现激进批判的游戏也需要对受影响的人保持公平竞争的精神。
This anecdote points out the power and challenge of designing games as cultural environments. As a transformative political statement about the power of the corporate workplace, Suspicion was a success, seducing players with its genuinely pleasurable game play even while the game play itself engaged in a cultural critique of the players’ work context. At the same time, the mischievous resistance of the game was balanced by the need for a sense of responsibility toward the players. Cultural environments are always home to someone and even a game that embodies a radical critique needs to maintain a spirit of fair play to those it impacts.
游戏设计基础
Game Design Fundamentals
《游戏作为文化环境》是《游戏规则》的最后一个框架从某种程度上来说，这一章已经为我们带来了完整的内容。在分析《人工智能》、《黑暗季节》和《疑云重重》的过程中，我们重新审视了构成整本书概念基础的许多概念。以下是本框架中提到的游戏设计概念的部分列表，按它们出现的顺序和首次介绍它们的章节排列：
Games as Cultural Environment is the final schema in Rules of Play. In some ways, this chapter has brought us full circle. In the course of analyzing A. I., Seasons of Darkness, and Suspicion, we revisited many of the concepts that form the conceptual basis of the book as a whole. Below is a partial list of the game design concepts mentioned in this schema, in the order that they appear and the chapters where they were first introduced:
游戏的定义 definition of games |
定义游戏 Defining Games |
魔法阵 magic circle |
魔法圈 The Magic Circle |
三种规则 three kinds of rules |
三层规则 Rules on Three Levels |
幻想态度 lusory attitude |
魔法圈 The Magic Circle |
开放和封闭系统 open and closed systems |
系统 Systems |
元沟通 metacommunication |
游戏即意义的游戏 Games as the Play of Meaning |
可能性空间 space of possibility |
交互性 Interactivity |
核心机制 core mechanics |
游戏即体验游戏 Games as the Play of Experience |
突发系统 emergent system |
游戏作为新兴系统 Games as Emergent Systems |
嵌入叙事 embedded narratives |
叙事游戏 Games as Narrative Play |
新兴叙事 emergent narratives |
叙事游戏 Games as Narrative Play |
系统环境 system environment |
系统 Systems |
游戏社区 the play community |
游戏作为社交游戏 Games as Social Play |
公共和私人信息 public and private information |
游戏作为信息系统 Games as Systems of Information |
程序性陈述 procedural representation |
游戏是一种模拟游戏 Games as the Play of Simulation |
开放文化 open culture |
游戏作为开放文化 Games as Open Culture |
玩家即制作人模式 player-as-producer paradigm |
游戏作为开放文化 Games as Open Culture |
安全与信任 safety and trust |
游戏作为社交游戏 Games as Social Play |
二阶设计 second-order design |
游戏即体验游戏 Games as the Play of Experience |
冲突 conflict |
游戏作为冲突系统 Games as Systems of Conflict |
理解意义 making sense of meaning |
游戏即意义的游戏 Games as the Play of Meaning |
自由玩耍 | 变形玩耍 free play | transformative play |
定义游戏 Defining Play |
文化修辞 cultural rhetorics |
游戏作为文化修辞 Games as Cultural Rhetoric |
文化抵抗 cultural resistance |
游戏作为文化抵抗 Games as Cultural Resistance |
禁止玩耍 forbidden play |
游戏作为社交游戏 Games as Social Play |
在这些分析过程中，我们没有提到许多概念。但是，全面概述并不是我们评论的目的。我们的目的是展示一套基本的游戏设计概念如何协同工作，以全面理解复杂游戏的运作。理解游戏需要的不仅仅是选择一个模式并将其单独应用于游戏设计问题。只有当你采取多方面的方法，结合多种观点，战略性地构建你的分析以解决手头的问题时，才能充分理解游戏的复杂操作。在本章中，我们特别将游戏视为文化环境。但为了做到这一点，有必要充分利用游戏规则、玩法和文化中的想法。
There are many concepts we didn’t mention in the course of these analyses. But a comprehensive overview was not the intention of our review. Our purpose was to demonstrate how a suite of fundamental game design concepts work together to build a full understanding of the operation of a complex game. Comprehending a game requires more than simply selecting a schema and applying it in isolation to a game design problem. The intricate operation of a game can only be fully appreciated when you take a multifaceted approach, combining many points of view, strategically constructing your analysis in order to solve the problem at hand. In this chapter, we were specifically looking at games as cultural environments. But in order to do so, it was necessary to make extensive use of ideas from the RULES, PLAY, and CULTURE of games.
人造问题
The Artificial Question
现在我们回到本章开头提出的问题。该模式的前提断言，游戏可以被框定为文化环境，即与现实世界共存的现象。如果将这种框架推向逻辑极端，魔法圈就会完全消失，游戏就会成为其周围环境的代名词。如果情况确实如此，即使对于某些游戏而言，该模式也会迫使我们重新评估关于游戏是什么以及游戏如何运作的基本假设。
We now return to the question posed at the beginning of this chapter. The premise of the schema asserts that games can be framed as cultural environments, as phenomena that co-exist with real-world contexts. If this framing is carried to its logical extreme, the magic circle disappears altogether, and the game becomes synonymous with its surroundings. If this is the case, even for some games, this schema would force a fundamental reevaluation of our basic assumptions about what games are and how they function.
在本章中，我们详细研究了三款明确模糊魔法圈边界的游戏。《人工智能》、《黑暗季节》和《深闺疑云》以非常不同的方式玩弄了它们的文化环境，将魔法圈的边界抹去到了比更传统的游戏更极端的程度。然而，在每一种情况下，尽管魔法圈模糊、移动并与环境融为一体，但它仍然在某种程度上保持了完整。在《人工智能》中，玩家永远不会忘记游戏实际上是好莱坞电影的宣传。在《黑暗季节》中，游戏环节在严格划定的物理和时间边界内进行。而在《深闺疑云》中，游戏边界（例如对使用金钱的限制）将游戏推向了封闭而非更开放的系统。在这三款游戏中，魔法圈从未完全消失。如果魔法圈消失了，我们可能就不能称它们为游戏了。
In the course of this chapter, we took a detailed look at three games that explicitly blurred the boundaries of the magic circle. In very different ways, A. I., Seasons of Darkness, and Suspicion played with their cultural environments, effacing the boundaries of the magic circle to a more extreme degree than more conventional games. Yet in each case, although the magic circle blurred, shifted, and blended in with its environment, it still in some way remained intact. In A. I., the players never forgot that the game was really a promotion for a Hollywood film. In Seasons of Darkness, the game sessions took place within strictly delimited physical and temporal boundaries. And in Suspicion, play boundaries, such as the restriction on using money, nudged the game in the direction of being a closed, rather than a more open system. In these three games, the magic circle never entirely vanished. If it had, we probably would not be able to call them games.
所以魔法圈最终并没有消失。但每个游戏都以自己的方式应对其消失的可能性。游戏进行时所处的严格结构实际上是游戏本身的惯例。以文化环境为框架的游戏正在玩弄游戏的定义。但即使通过游戏进行转变，定义游戏结构的一些部分仍保持完整。玩弄自身存在可能性的游戏为游戏设计师提供了潜在的丰富方法。作为一种设计策略，将游戏理解为一种文化环境可以创造全新形式的游戏体验。
So the magic circle did not disappear after all. But each game, in its own way, played with its possible disappearance. The rigid structure among which the play of the games took place was in fact the conventions of games themselves. A game framed as a cultural environment plays with the very definition of what a game is. But some part of that defining game structure remains intact, even as it is transformed through play. A game that plays with the possibility of its own existence offers game designers potentially rich approaches. As a design strategy, understanding a game as a cultural environment can create entirely new forms of game experiences.
将游戏设计为一种文化环境也是进行有力文化批判的有效方式。在二十世纪，大多数艺术和娱乐形式都批判性地融入了其文化背景，从马塞尔·杜尚的现成品到嘻哈音乐的采样曲目。随着新世纪的到来，游戏是时候认识到它们在更大的文化环境中的作用，以庆祝它们与其他文化的复杂关系。
Designing a game as a cultural environment is also an effective way to mount a powerful cultural critique. During the twentieth century, most forms of art and entertainment have engaged critically with their cultural contexts, from Marcel Duchamp’s readymades to Hip-Hop’s sampled tracks. As a new century dawns, it is time for games to recognize their role within larger cultural environments, in order to celebrate their complex relationships with the rest of culture.
然而，游戏的人工性问题仍然存在。如果我们呼吁以文化为中心来看待游戏，为什么我们仍然坚持游戏是人工的这一观点？游戏的文化框架——承认其开放系统地位的框架——难道不会质疑游戏的人工性吗？如果游戏与其他文化没有区别，那么它们真的是人工的吗？是的。称游戏为人工并不意味着它们与文化完全不同。无论游戏与文化的融合程度如何，游戏的某些操作方面总会依赖其自身的系统而不是文化的系统来为玩家创造意义。
Yet the question of the artificiality of games remains. If we are calling for a more culture-centric approach to games, why would we still maintain the idea that they are artificial? Don’t cultural framings of games—framings that acknowledge their status as open systems—call the artificiality of games into question? If games are not separate from the rest of culture, are they still really artificial? Yes. Calling games artificial does not mean that they are wholly distinct from culture. No matter how integrated into culture games might be, there will always be some aspect of a game’s operation that relies on its own system, rather than that of culture, to create meanings for players.
例如，拼字游戏 (Scrabble) 使用了从其文化环境中借用的语言、字母和单词，但这并不意味着它不能指定自己的一套含义。字母“Q”和字母“E”都出现在这一页上。但在阅读本书的背景下，Q 并不比字母 E 值更多的分。事实上，它们两个都不值任何分。只有在拼字游戏的高度专业化环境中，我们才会为字母分配拼字游戏分值。拼字游戏当然不是一个完全人造的系统。但它也不会完全消失在其文化环境中。无论我们如何构建它，拼字游戏在某种程度上总会保持其人造地位。这只是使其成为游戏的一部分。
For example, Scrabble makes use of language, letters, and words borrowed from its cultural environment, but that does not mean it can’t also designate its own set of meanings as well. The letter “Q” and the letter “E” both appear on this page. But in the context of reading this book, the Q is not worth more points than the letter E. In fact, neither one of them is worth any points. Only in the highly specialized context of a Scrabble game do we assign Scrabble points to letters. Scrabble is certainly not a wholly artificial system. But neither does it disappear entirely into its cultural environment. However we frame it, Scrabble will always maintain its artificial status in some measure. That is simply part of what makes it a game.
最终框架
Final Framings
最后再说一下游戏设计基础的重要性。游戏研究者普遍有一种冲动，想要跳过基础，立即打破所有规则，打破魔法圈，把玩家变成设计师，彻底改造游戏现象。这并不是游戏设计师或游戏学者天生就有的坏本能。正如本图式中研究的游戏所表明的那样，模糊魔法圈来质疑游戏的基本属性可以带来新的游戏体验。然而，只有关注适用于所有游戏的基本设计原则，才能实现彻底的创新和有意义的游戏设计。即使你剖析或设计突破性的游戏，改变、打破和改造传统的游戏结构，游戏设计的基本原理仍然存在。对于每一个人工智能、《黑暗季节》或《疑云重重》，都有数百或数千个不成功的游戏设计：从未找到观众的在线/现实世界寻宝游戏、在起步之前就失败的实况角色扮演游戏，以及玩起来一点也不好玩的游戏实验。
One last note about the importance of game design fundamentals. There is a widespread impulse among those who study games to want to leapfrog over the basics, immediately break all of the rules, violate the magic circle, turn players into designers, and radically reinvent the phenomenon of games. This is not an inherently bad instinct for game designers or game scholars to possess. As the games studied in this schema demonstrate, blurring the magic circle to question the fundamental properties of games can lead to new kinds of play experiences. However, radical innovation and the design of meaningful play can only be accomplished by paying attention to the fundamental design principles that apply to all games. Even when you dissect or design breakthrough games that bend, break, and transform traditional gaming structures, the fundamentals of game design remain. For every A. I., Seasons of Darkness, or Suspicion, there are hundreds or thousands of unsuccessful game designs: online/real-world scavenger hunts that never found an audience, LARPs that fizzled out before they got off the ground, and game experiments that were just no fun at all to play.
《游戏作为文化环境》将我们带到了虚空的边缘：它让我们思考一款通过创造消灭手段来破坏自身存在的游戏。具有讽刺意味的是，这种现象的抽象性和复杂性最好通过回归游戏设计的基本原理、有意义的游戏的核心语言和构成游戏规则的概念来解读。
Games as Cultural Environments takes us to the edge of the void: it lets us consider a game that undermines its own existence by creating the means for its erasure. It is ironic perhaps that the abstraction and complexity of this phenomenon was best deciphered by a return to the game design fundamentals, to the core language of meaningful play, to the concepts that constitute the Rules of Play.
进一步阅读
Further Reading
《奇幻角色扮演游戏：一种新的表演艺术》，作者：丹尼尔·麦凯
The Fantasy Role-Playing Game: A New Performing Art, by Daniel Mackay
本书是关于角色扮演作为一种表演艺术的。游戏设计师特别感兴趣的是角色扮演游戏的表演美学和协作叙事创作的讨论，包括游戏中玩家与社会和文化结构的关系。
This book is about role-playing as a performance art. Of particular interest to game designers is the discussion of the performance aesthetics and collaborative narrative creation of role-playing games, including relationship of players in the game to social and cultural structures.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
简介：角色扮演游戏：定义、描述和系统化
Introduction: The Role-Playing Game: Defined, Described, and Systematized
摘自第一部分：一种新的流行娱乐类型和一种新的沙盒：在虚拟的娱乐环境中玩游戏
From Part One: A New Category of Popular Entertainments and a New Kind of Sandbox: Playing in Imaginary Entertainment Environments
摘自第四部分：事件剧场：叙事作为审美对象
From Part Four: The Theater of Events: Narrative as Aesthetic Object
Cloudmakers.org成立的目的是讨论以电影《人工智能：人工智能》为主题的网页游戏。该网站收藏了该游戏的档案，包括 2001 年 7 月 23 日（即该游戏正式“破解”的前一天）的游戏近似再现，以及玩家撰写的文章和社论、媒体报道链接和有主持人的讨论板。它是一份从玩家社区的角度对游戏玩法进行出色记录的优秀文件。
Cloudmakers.org was founded as a discussion group for the web game centered around the film A. I.: Artificial Intelligence. The site houses an archive of the game, including an approximate reproduction of the game from July 23, 2001, the day before the game was officially “solved,” as well as essays and editorials written by players, links to media coverage, and a moderated discussion board. It is an excellent document of the play of a game from the perspective of a community of its players.
笔记
Notes
1. Johann Huizinga，《游戏人：文化中的游戏元素研究》（波士顿：Beacon Press，1955 年），第 10 页。
1. Johann Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture (Boston: Beacon Press, 1955), p. 10.
2. Stephen Sniderman，《不成文的规则》。6. Daniel Sieberg，《现实模糊，网络‘AI’游戏炒作不断》。5 月 < www.gamepuzzles.com/tlog/tlog2.htm >。2001 年。CNN.com
2. Stephen Sniderman, “Unwritten Rules.” 6. Daniel Sieberg, “Reality Blurs, Hype Builds with Web ‘A. I.’ Game.” May <www.gamepuzzles.com/tlog/tlog2.htm>. 2001. CNN.com
3. Brian Sutton Smith，《游戏的模糊性》（伦敦：哈佛大学 7. Daragh Sankey，“AI 游戏”。Joystick101.org Press，1997），第 77 页。
3. Brian Sutton Smith, The Ambiguity of Play (London: Harvard University 7. Daragh Sankey, “A. I. Game.” Joystick101.org Press, 1997), p. 77.
4. Andrea Phillips，《深水》。2001 年 7 月 26 日。Cloudmakers.org
4. Andrea Phillips, “Deep Water.” 26th July 2001. Cloudmakers.org
5. Maria Bonasia，《MetaMystery》。2001 年 5 月 30 日。Cloudmakers.org
5. Maria Bonasia, “MetaMystery.” 30th May 2001. Cloudmakers.org
6. Daniel Sieberg，“现实模糊，网络‘AI’游戏炒作不断。”2001 年 5 月。CNN.com
6. Daniel Sieberg, “Reality Blurs, Hype Builds with Web ‘A. I.’ Game.” May 2001. CNN.com
7 . Daragh Sankey，“人工智能游戏”。操纵杆101.org
7. Daragh Sankey, “A. I. Game.” Joystick101.org
游戏作为文化环境
概括
• “游戏作为文化环境”模式探讨了游戏的以下方面：
• The schema Games as Cultural Environment explores the following aspects of games:
• 模糊魔法阵内外的空间
• Blurring the spaces inside and outside the magic circle
• 玩家和非玩家之间的模糊性
• Ambiguity between players and non-players
• 游戏与现实生活的重叠
• Overlap between game and real life
• 只有在魔法圈内，正式规则的权威才占据主导地位；同时，游戏的隐性规则并不基于魔法圈，而是基于整个文化。
• It is only within the magic circle that the authority of formal rules holds sway; at the same time, the implicit rules of games are based not in the magic circle, but within culture at large.
•礼仪、精神、惯例和背景是隐性规则的形式之一。作为文化权威的体现，它们将游戏的人工性与其所处的现实世界背景联系起来。
• Etiquette, ethos, convention, and context are among the forms that implicit rules can take. As manifestations of cultural authority, they link the artificiality of games to the real-world contexts they inhabit.
• 诱惑态度不仅适用于游戏的正式规则，也适用于隐含规则。当玩家服从游戏的权威时，他或她就是在接受游戏的正式权威和文化权威。从这个意义上说，游戏的魔力圈延伸到更大的文化领域。
• The lusory attitude applies not just to the formal rules of a game, but to the implicit rules as well. When a player submits to the authority of a game, he or she is accepting its formal as well as its cultural authority. In this sense, the magic circle of a game extends to embrace larger cultural domains.
• AI、Seasons of Darkness 和 Suspicion 都是明确以文化环境为导向的游戏。在每种情况下，有意义的游戏都是因为精心的游戏设计以某种方式维持了魔法圈。
• A. I., Seasons of Darkness, and Suspicion are all games that explicitly operate as cultural environments. In each case, meaningful play arises because careful game design maintains the magic circle in some way.
• 作为一种文化环境，游戏涉及魔法阵被抹去的可能性，因此也涉及其自身存在的可能性。然而，魔法阵的一些相似之处总是会保留下来。
• Considered as a cultural environment, a game plays with the possible erasure of the magic circle and therefore plays with the possibility of its own existence. However, some semblance of the magic circle always remains.
• 魔法圈的边界可以模糊或抹去，这一前提让人怀疑游戏是否可以被视为人造的。游戏总是在某种程度上是人造的，能够产生游戏的内在意义，即使它们被框定为文化；游戏是人造的，因为它们是经过设计的。
• The premise that the boundaries of the magic circle can be blurred or erased calls into question whether or not games can be considered artificial. Games are always in some way artificial and capable of producing internal game meanings, even when they are framed as culture; games are artificial because they are designed.
委托游戏 4
COMMISSIONED GAME 4
詹姆斯·欧内斯特
James Ernest
加勒比之星
Caribbean Star
适合 2 人玩的游戏
A game for 2 players
概述
Overview
欢迎登上加勒比之星号，加勒比邮轮公司最豪华的邮轮。船上挤满了新婚夫妇和濒死者，他们冒险来到加勒比海，漂流到巴拿马运河，在牙买加稻草市场购买小饰品，喝着来自源头的冰镇果汁朗姆酒。而你被带到这里来取悦他们。你和你的对手都是魔术师，表演的或多或少是相同的。加勒比邮轮公司的迈阿密办事处意外地把你们俩安排在同一艘船上，现在你们只有一周的时间来证明谁是更好的魔术师。
Welcome aboard the Caribbean Star, Caribe Cruise Lines’ most luxurious cruise ship. It’s chock to the gills with newlyweds and nearlydeads who have ventured to the Caribbean to float into the Panama Canal, buy knickknacks in Jamaican straw markets, and drink Piňa Coladas from the source. And you have been brought here to entertain them. You and your opponent are magicians with, more or less, the same act. The Caribe Line’s Miami office accidentally booked both of you on the same ship, and now you’ve got exactly one week to prove who’s the better magician.
规则
Rules
设备
Equipment
你需要一副扑克牌、一个记分簿和一支铅笔。
You need a deck of playing cards, a score pad, and a pencil.
如何开始
How to Begin
首先，确定哪个玩家是红方，哪个玩家是黑方。每个玩家“拥有”一种颜色的牌。两种颜色没有区别。接下来，洗牌，给每个玩家发五张牌。轮流是同时进行的，所以不需要确定谁先出牌。
First, determine which player will be Red, and which will be Black. Each player “owns” one color of cards. There is no difference between the two colors. Next, shuffle the deck and deal a hand of five cards to each player. Turns will be simultaneous, so there is no need to determine who goes first.
每次转弯
On Each Turn
两位玩家从手中选一张牌，牌面朝下打出。两张牌打出后，翻开牌面，显示每位玩家本回合的行动。所有行动都解决后，两位玩家抽一张牌。
Both players choose one card from their hand and play it face down. After both cards are played, turn them over to reveal each player’s action for the turn. After all actions have been resolved, both players draw a card.
卡功能
Card Functions
每张牌都有独特的功能，如下所述。虽然它们同时打出，但牌总是从最低到最高生效。2 点最低，K 点最高。（A 的打法不同，稍后解释）。如果两张牌的点数相同，则花色决定顺序。梅花在最前面，然后是方块、红心和黑桃（按字母顺序）。
Each card has a unique function, described below. Although they are played at the same time, cards always take effect from lowest to highest. Deuces are low, and Kings are high. (Aces are played differently, as explained later). If both cards are the same rank, then suit determines the order. Clubs are first, followed by Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades (alphabetical order).
魔术，10−K
Magic Tricks, 10−K
十点牌和人头牌是魔术技巧。当您玩魔术技巧时，这意味着您正在为下一次表演练习。如果您玩对手的颜色，他会练习该技巧。当您玩自己颜色的魔术技巧时，将其放入“练习”堆，这是一组面朝上的牌，放在您面前的桌子上，摊开，以便堆中的每张牌都可见。如果您玩对手颜色的魔术技巧，则将该牌放入对手的练习堆。
Tens and face cards are Magic Tricks. When you play a Magic Trick, it means you are practicing it for your next performance. If you play your opponent’s color, he practices that trick. When you play a Magic Trick in your color, put it in your “Practice” pile, which is a set of cards face up on the table in front of you, spread out so that every card in the pile is visible. If you play a Magic Trick in your opponent’s color, you put that card in your opponent’s Practice pile.
一场完美的表演持续 15 分钟。人头牌可为您的表演增加 5 分钟。杰克牌值 2 分，皇后牌值 4 分，国王牌值 6 分。十牌可为您的表演增加 10 分钟，值 10 分。
A perfect show is 15 minutes long. Face cards add 5 minutes to your show. Jacks are worth 2 points, Queens are worth 4 points, and Kings are worth 6 points. Tens add 10 minutes to your show, and are worth 10 points.
演出时间：晚上 7:00 和晚上 9:00
Showtimes, 7:00pm and 9:00pm
七和九是表演时间。当您用自己的颜色打出表演时间时，您将执行您的表演，这意味着您将丢弃练习牌堆并将其转换为点数。如果您用对手的颜色打出表演时间，他们将执行他们的表演。显然，您希望在自己的练习牌堆值最高点时转换它，而在对手的牌堆毫无价值时转换它。练习牌堆的确切得分将在后面描述。表演结束后，您练习牌堆中的所有牌和表演时间牌都会进入丢弃牌堆。
Sevens and Nines are Showtimes. When you play a Showtime in your own color, you will perform your act, which means you discard your Practice pile and convert it into points. If you play a Showtime in your opponent’s color, they perform their act. Obviously, you want to convert your own Practice pile when it is worth maximum points, and convert your opponent’s pile when it is worthless. The exact scoring of the Practice pile is described later. After you perform, all the cards from your Practice pile and the Showtime card go into the discard pile.
晚餐自助餐，晚上 8:00
Dinner Buffet, 8:00pm
八是晚餐自助餐牌。当您打出一张您颜色的八时，您可以执行（即丢弃）练习牌堆中的一个魔术技巧，其价值为练习牌堆的一半。例如，如果您使用八来转换国王，您将获得 3 分。您不必使用晚餐自助餐。您可以打出一张八，然后看到对手打出的牌，决定忽略自助餐。无论您是否使用它，八都会被丢弃。如果您打出对手的八，他可以转换他的一个魔术技巧，也可以忽略它。您不能强迫对手在晚餐自助餐上表演。
Eights are Dinner Buffet cards. When you play an Eight in your color, you may perform (i. e., discard) one of the Magic Tricks in your Practice pile for half its value. For example, if you use an Eight to convert a King, you would score 3 points. You don’t have to use your Dinner Buffet. You might play an Eight and then, seeing what your opponent has played, decide to ignore the buffet. Whether you use it or not, the Eight is discarded. If you play an opponent’s Eight, he may convert one of his Magic Tricks or he may ignore it. You can’t force your opponent to perform at the Dinner Buffet.
排练，下午 6:00
Rehearsal, 6:00pm
六号牌是排练牌。您可以在表演之前“排练”您的表演，并将其最终值翻倍。当您打出一张您颜色的六号牌时，您会将其添加到您的练习牌堆中。如果您打出一张您对手颜色的六号牌，它会被放入他的练习牌堆中。如果您的练习牌堆中有两张六号牌，您的表演将值四倍积分！
Sixes are Rehearsal cards. You can “rehearse” your act before performing it and double its final value. When you play a Six in your color, you add it to your Practice pile. If you play a Six in your opponent’s color, it goes into his Practice pile. If you have two Sixes in your Practice pile, your show will be worth quadruple points!
午睡，下午 5:00
Afternoon Nap, 5:00pm
五是“午睡”牌。当您打出任意颜色的五时，您将与对手交换手牌。交换手牌后丢弃五。
Fives are “Afternoon Nap” cards. When you play a Five of any color, you will swap hands with your opponent. Discard the Five after you swap hands.
错误 2 至 4
Mistakes, 2 through 4
2 到 4 是错误。这有点像魔术，但它们会扣分。如果您打出自己颜色的错误，它将进入您的练习堆。如果您打出对手颜色的错误，它将进入他的练习堆。错误并不总是会伤害您：如果您表演的节目完全由错误组成，它被称为“喜剧表演”，一文不值——这比扣分要好！
Twos through Fours are Mistakes. These are a little like Magic Tricks but they are worth negative points. If you play a Mistake of your own color it will go into your Practice pile. If you play a Mistake of your opponent’s color, it will go into his Practice pile. Mistakes don’t always hurt you: if you perform a show composed entirely of Mistakes, it’s called a “Comedy Act” and is worth nothing—which is better than negative points!
现在我们已经描述了练习堆的所有可能内容（魔术技巧、排练和错误），下面是如何对表演进行评分。
Now that we’ve described all the possible contents of a Practice pile (Magic Tricks, Rehearsals, and Mistakes) here is how to score the show.
首先，根据表演长度来评估魔术。完美的表演长度为 15 分钟。每张人头牌加 5 分钟，十张牌加 10 分钟。如果您的表演长度完美，您将获得所有魔术的全部分数。如果表演时间长或短 5 分钟，您必须将最大魔术（或其中一个最大魔术，如果您有两个相同长度的大魔术）的分数减半。如果表演时间短或长 10 分钟，您必须将所有魔术的分数减半。如果表演时间 30 分钟或更长时间，您的魔术将一分未得。但是，如果您表演时间为 0 分钟（您根本没有魔术），那么您表演的是喜剧表演，其分数将有所不同。
First, evaluate the Magic Tricks by the length of the show. The perfect show is 15 minutes long. Face Cards add 5 minutes each and Tens add 10 minutes. If your show is the perfect length, you will score full value for all your Magic Tricks. If you run long or short by 5 minutes, you must cut the value of your biggest Trick (or one of your biggest Tricks, if you have two big Tricks of the same size) by half. If you run short or long by 10 minutes, you must cut all your Tricks by half. If you run 30 minutes or longer, you get no points at all for your Magic Tricks. However, if you run 0 minutes (you have no Magic Tricks at all) you are doing a Comedy Show, which is scored differently.
其次，减去你的错误值。2 值 -2，3 值 -3，4 值 -4。错误不会增加你的表演时间，除非你正在表演喜剧节目，否则你总是会为这些卡片获得满分。错误很容易导致你的表演产生负值。
Second, subtract the values of your Mistakes. Twos are worth −2, Threes are worth −3, and Fours are worth −4. Mistakes do not add time to your act, and you always score full value for these cards unless you are doing a Comedy Show. Mistakes can easily result in a negative value for your show.
最后，使用练习卡。如果你的练习牌堆中有一张六，则将值翻倍。如果你有两个六，则将其翻倍两次。
Last, apply the Rehearsal cards. If you have a Six in your Practice pile, double the value. If you have two Sixes, you double it twice.
喜剧表演
Comedy Show
如果你的表演中没有魔术技巧，那么它总是值 0 分。无论你的错误和排练次数有多少，都是如此。
If your act has no Magic Tricks in it, it is always worth exactly 0 points. This is true regardless of the number of Mistakes and Rehearsals in your pile.
节目评分示例
An Example of Scoring a Show
练习牌堆中有以下牌：国王、国王、十、六、四、三、二。表演时间太长了 5 分钟（5 + 5 + 10 = 20），所以最高魔术技巧十只值一半。因此表演的基数是 6 + 6 + 5，即 17 分。错误值是 4 + 3 + 2，即 9 分。这些从 17 分中扣除，剩下 8 分。最后，表演加倍，最终值为 16 分。
A Practice Pile has the following cards in it: King, King, Ten, Six, Four, Three, Two. The Show is 5 minutes too long (5 + 5 + 10 = 20), so the highest Magic Trick, the Ten, will be worth only half value. The base value of the show is therefore 6 + 6 + 5, or 17 points. The Mistakes are worth 4 + 3 + 2, or 9. These are deducted from 17, leaving 8 points. Finally, the show is doubled, making for a final value of 16 points.
停止牌，王牌
Stop Cards, the Aces
A 牌的打法与其他牌不同。它们不限颜色，并且始终对使用它们的玩家有效。你可以打出手中的 A 牌来取消任何其他牌的效果，但效果尚未解决。换句话说，一旦牌被揭开，并且在执行某张牌之前，任何玩家都可以使用 A 牌来阻止该牌的执行。当你打出 A 牌时，你可以拿起你取消的牌并将其放在手中。你也可以丢弃 A 牌。你不能用一张 A 牌来取消另一张。
Aces are not played like other cards. They are not color-specific and they always work for the player who uses them. You can play an Ace from your hand to cancel the effect of any other card immediately before it is resolved. In other words, once the cards are revealed, and just before executing a particular card, either player may use an Ace to stop that card from happening. When you play the Ace, you pick up the card you canceled and put it in your hand. You also discard the Ace. You cannot use one Ace to cancel another.
红方打出了红 5，黑方打出了红 10。黑方手中有一张 A。在红 5 交换双方手牌之前，黑方有机会打出 A，但他选择不打。红方弃牌，双方交换手牌。现在红方手中有 A，他可以打出 A 来取消红 10。他弃牌 A，将红 10 放入手中。（红方取消了 10，因为这会使他的行动时间过长。他计划在下一行动中使用 10。）
Red has played a Red Five, and Black has played a Red Ten. Black holds an Ace. Before the Five swaps both players’ hands, Black has the opportunity to play his Ace, but he chooses not to. The Five is discarded, and the players swap hands. Now Red holds the Ace, and he can play it to cancel the Red Ten. He discards the Ace, and puts the Red Ten into his hand. (Red has canceled the Ten because it would have made his act too long. He plans to use the Ten in his next act.)
结束回合
Ending the Turn
回合结束时，每位玩家抓一张牌。一旦没有牌可抓，玩家仍继续出牌，直到手牌空了，或者直到某位玩家手中只有 A，无法再出牌。
At the end of the turn, each player draws one card. Once there are no more cards to draw, players still continue to play cards until their hands are empty, or until one player can no longer play cards because he holds nothing but Aces.
结束游戏
Ending the Game
当两位玩家的手牌都空了，或者其中一位玩家只剩 A 牌时，游戏结束。此时，每位玩家都会获得一场“告别表演”，在表演中，他将对自己练习牌堆中剩余的牌进行评分。告别表演不是可选的：如果您不小心，您可能会在这场表演中失去很多分数。告别表演结束后，得分最高的玩家获胜。
The game ends when both players’ hands are empty, or when one player holds nothing but Aces. At this point, each player gets one “Farewell Show” in which he scores the cards remaining in his Practice pile. The Farewell Show is not optional: you can lose a lot of points in this show if you’re not careful. After the farewell show, the player with the most points wins.
设计说明
DESIGN NOTES
詹姆斯·欧内斯特
James Ernest
加勒比之星
Caribbean Star
第一阶段：一般约束
Stage 1: General Constraints
通常当我创建新游戏时，所有的笔记、变化和失败的尝试都会被扔进垃圾桶。本文记录了新纸牌游戏的开发过程，包括所涉及的所有决策和死胡同。
Usually when I create a new game, all the notes, variations, and failed attempts wind up in the garbage. This article chronicles the development of a new card game, including all the decisions and dead ends involved.
2001 年 6 月 18 日
June 18, 2001
我和妻子乘坐挪威天空号游轮前往阿拉斯加，这是我们在海上度过的第一天。假期似乎是创作这款新游戏的好环境。考虑到唯一可用的游戏测试员是我的妻子卡罗尔，我想我会写一款双人游戏。
My wife and I are cruising to Alaska aboard the Norwegian Sky, on our first full day at sea. A vacation seems like a good environment for creating this new game. Considering that the only available playtester is my wife Carol, I think I’ll write a two-player game.
我没有办法制作自定义组件，甚至自定义卡牌（我通常用它们来发明新游戏），所以我打算用“基本必需品”来编写这个游戏。这些材料包括：两副扑克牌、几个 6 面骰子（包括两种颜色各十个骰子）以及 4、8、10、12 和 20 面骰子各一个。我还有四个棋子、一个扑克筹码、白纸、钢笔和铅笔。这些材料当然足以开发一款新的双人游戏。
I have no means to make custom components, even custom cards (which I usually use for inventing new games) so I’m going to write this game with the “bare essentials.” Those materials include: two packs of playing cards, several 6-sided dice including ten dice in each of two colors, and one each of 4, 8, 10, 12, and 20-sided dice. I also have four Pawns, one Poker Chip, blank paper, pens, and pencils. Certainly this is enough material to develop a new two-player game.
有些游戏设计师喜欢先设计游戏机制，然后再根据合适的主题调整该机制，而我则喜欢尽可能从主题开始。这样，我在尝试发明游戏机制时就会有更多创意，而且游戏的机制看起来更适合主题。当游戏设计完成后再添加故事情节时，你真的能看出来，尤其是当故事情节中看似合理的玩法在游戏中是不允许的。当我发明一款出售的游戏时，我必须考虑主题的适销性，但在这里我不会受到太多限制，因为这是一款免费游戏。在这种情况下，我可以想出一个非常基本的前提并继续前进，而不是在故事上花费太多心思。
Whereas some game designers prefer to create a game mechanic first and then adapt that mechanic to an appropriate theme, I prefer to start with a theme wherever possible. This gives me more creative ideas when trying to invent the game mechanics, and it makes for a game whose mechanics seem better to suit the theme. When a storyline gets added after the game is designed, you can really tell, especially when a play that seems reasonable in the storyline is not allowed in the game. When I invent a game for sale I must consider the marketability of the theme, but I’m not so constrained here, because this will be a free game. In this case, I can come up with a very basic premise and move forward, rather than agonizing too much over the story.
多年来，我收集了一大堆“好点子”。在为 Cheapass Games 选择新游戏设计项目时，我通常会参考这份清单。好的游戏创意不仅要有趣，还应为良好的系统提供基础。一些好的笑话会造就糟糕的游戏。
I have an extensive list of “good ideas” that I have compiled over many years. I usually go to this list when choosing a new game design project for Cheapass Games. A good game idea should not only be entertaining, it should also provide the basis of a good system. Some good jokes make terrible games.
以下是我度假期间想到的一些可能的游戏主题的简短头脑风暴：
Here is a short brainstorm of possible themes for my game, inspired by my vacation:
•行李员试图赚取小费。
• Bellhops angling for tips.
•游轮经理为他们的船只预订表演。
• Cruise directors booking acts for their ships.
•乘客正在收集抽奖券。
• Passengers collecting raffle tickets.
•旅行社预订行程。
• Travel Agents booking trips.
让我们来看看这些故事情节的游戏可能性。你会注意到，在每个故事中我都命名了一种类型的角色（玩家）和某种竞争活动（游戏）。
Let’s examine the game possibilities of each of these storylines. You will notice that in each story I name a type of character (the players) and some sort of competitive activity (the game).
行李员争夺小费：行李员游戏中的玩家是谁？他们的目标是什么？他们是行李员吗？他们相互竞争以获得最高小费？他们是酒店客人吗？他们试图在拿到行李的同时尽可能少给小费？或者，如果这是一个双人游戏，我们能否创建一个不平衡的游戏，其中一个玩家是行李员，另一个是客人，每个人都有自己的目标？
Bellhops Angling for Tips: Who are the players in the Bellhop game, and what is their goal? Are they the bellhops, competing with one another for the best tip? Are they the hotel guests, trying to tip as little as possible while still getting their bags? Or, if this is a two-player game, can we create an imbalanced game in which one player is the Bellhop, the other is the Guest, and each has his own objective?
这些并不是唯一的选择。在涉及行李员和行李的游戏中，没有什么规定说玩家不能成为行李。也许行李员的游戏目标与行李员和顾客的目标几乎完全无关。例如，也许行李员从四处走动中获得满足感。或者尽可能长时间地打包行李。甚至坐在黑暗中。也许玩家管理酒店。也许他们管理连锁酒店。这可能会永远持续下去。但让我们继续讨论下一个场景。
These aren’t the only options. In a game involving bellhops and bags, there’s nothing that says the players can’t be the bags. Maybe the Bags have a game objective that’s almost completely unrelated to the goals of the Bellhops and the Customers. For instance, maybe they get satisfaction from being moved around. Or from staying packed as long as possible. Or even from sitting in the dark. Perhaps the players manage the hotel. Perhaps they manage hotel chains. This could go on forever. But let’s move on to our next scenario.
邮轮总监预订行为：这场游戏中的玩家是谁？他们是在多艘邮轮上工作的邮轮总监吗？他们是在一艘船上工作的多个角色吗？他们是想获得一份工作，还是想保住现有的工作？
Cruise Directors Booking Acts: Who are the players in this game? Are they cruise directors working on multiple ships? Are they multiple acts working on a single ship? Are they trying to get a job, or keep the job they have?
如果我们想使用游轮导演的场景，但又想得更远一些，我们会怎么做？玩家可能是乘客，他们试图在为期一周的游轮上获得最多的娱乐；他们可能是陆地上的人才经纪人，他们试图通过在最长的游轮上预订最好的表演来赚最多的钱。他们可能是试图通过游轮喜剧演员的表演来传播的笑话，而他们的表演实际上基本上都是一样的。
If we wanted to use the Cruise Director scenario, but think further outside the box, where would we go? The players might be passengers trying to get the most entertainment on a one-week cruise; they might be land-based talent agents trying to make the most money booking the best acts on the longest cruises. They might be jokes trying to propagate through the acts of Cruise Ship comedians, whose acts are really basically all the same.
乘客收集抽奖券：在我们的游轮上，各种活动都可以让您获得抽奖券。这种情况下，玩家可能是乘客，整个游戏都是收集门票，最后进行抽奖。不过，这并不是呈现这个故事的唯一方式。玩家可以代表游轮工作人员，他们的工作是发放抽奖券。故事可以围绕操纵抽奖券或从其他玩家那里偷取门票展开。或者可能会有几次抽奖，这可能是一场用一次抽奖券换另一次抽奖券的游戏。
Passengers Collecting Raffle Tickets: On our cruise ship, a variety of activities earn you a raffle ticket. The players in this scenario would probably be Passengers, and there would be a whole game of collecting tickets followed by a raffle at the end. This isn’t the only way to present this story, though. The players could represent the cruise staff whose job is to give out the raffle tickets. The story could revolve around fixing the raffle, or stealing tickets from other players. Or there could be several raffles, and this could be a game about trading tickets in one raffle for tickets in another.
旅行社预订游轮：在这个游戏中，玩家可能会尝试以最具竞争力的价格预订最佳旅行，以赚取最多的钱。如果你为旅行收取更多费用，那么你在出售时会赚得更多，但你可能不会出售一样多。如果你是这个游戏中的旅行社，你可能会试图在游戏结束时赚最多的钱。或者，你可能会试图让最多的人开心，而钱就不那么重要了。或者你可能会试图预订最多前往某个目的地的旅行，以便自己赢得一次去那里的旅行，等等。
Travel Agents Booking Cruises: In this game, players would probably try to make the most money by booking the best trips at the most competitive prices. If you charge more money for a trip, you will make more when you sell it, but you might not sell as many. If you were a travel agent in this game, you might be trying to make the most money at the end of the game. Or, you might be trying to make the most people happy, with the money being less important. Or you could be trying to book the most trips to a particular destination to win a trip there yourself, and so on.
赛车游戏与格斗游戏
Racing Games vs. Fighting Games
根据计分系统，大多数游戏可以分为两类：赛车游戏和格斗游戏。这种区分在多人游戏中最为合理，因为在双人游戏中，这两种游戏类型基本上可以互换。在赛车游戏中，玩家试图获得最高分，并且不能直接干扰其他玩家。拼字游戏就是一个很好的赛车游戏例子。每个人都会获得积分，目标是在最后获得最高分。高尔夫实际上也是这种类型的游戏。尽管目标是获得最低分，但玩家仍在收集自己的积分，而不会影响其他玩家的分数。
Most games can be sorted into two categories, based on their scoring system: racing games and fighting games. The distinction makes the most sense with multiplayer games, because in a two-player game the two types are essentially interchangeable. In a racing game, players are trying to get the most points, and can’t directly interfere with other players. Scrabble is a good example of a racing game. Everyone acquires points, and the object is to have the highest score at the end. Golf is actually this type of game also. Even though the object is to score the least, the players are still collecting their own points with no influence on the scores of the others.
在格斗游戏中，玩家的目标是夺走对方的分数，或者尽可能地伤害对方。国际象棋是一种格斗游戏，双方都想吃掉对方的棋子，尤其是国王。红心大战也是一种格斗游戏，不过得分方式是相反的。在红心大战中，分数对你不利，当一个玩家的分数超过 100 分时，分数最低的玩家获胜。这在功能上相当于每个人都从 100 分开始，然后从该分数中扣除，直到有人得分为零。红心大战和高尔夫的区别在于，在红心大战中，你的行动会影响对手的分数。
In fighting games, the object is to take away the other player’s points, or to do him as much damage as possible. Chess is a fighting game, with both players bent on capturing their opponent’s pieces, especially the King. Hearts is also a fighting game, though the scoring is inverted. In Hearts, points are bad for you, and when one player breaks 100 points, the player with the fewest points wins. This is functionally equivalent to starting everyone with 100 points, and deducting from that score until someone reaches zero. The difference between Hearts and Golf is that in Hearts your actions affect your opponents’ scores.
赛车游戏和格斗游戏之间的显著区别在于，格斗游戏非常适合双人游戏，但不适合多人游戏。当你可以决定要打谁时，游戏就变得具有政治性，而最具战略性的举动往往是伤害最接近被淘汰的玩家。该玩家可能会提前被淘汰出局，并且必须在剩余的游戏中坐在场外。
The salient difference between racing and fighting games is that fighting games make great two-player games, but aren’t always good with more than two players. When you can decide whom to hit, the game becomes political, and often the most strategic move is to hurt the player who’s closest to being eliminated. That player can be driven out of the game early, and will have to sit out the rest of the game.
最后两个场景，抽奖券和旅行社游戏，看起来像赛车游戏。第一个场景的某些版本，行李员游戏也是如此。这些可能是不错的多人游戏。但由于我对编写双人游戏感兴趣，所以我倾向于首先考虑允许我伤害对手的游戏。这似乎是场景 2，即游轮导演和演员的一个很好的论据。让我们再看看演员们试图不被赶下游轮的故事。
The last two scenarios, the Raffle Ticket and Travel Agent games, seem like racing games. So are some versions of the first scenario, the Bellhop game. These might be good multiplayer games. But because I’m interested in writing a two-player game, I’m inclined to look first at the game that allows me to do damage to my opponent. This looks like a good argument for Scenario 2, the Cruise Directors and Acts. Let’s look again at the story of acts trying not to get thrown off cruise ships.
第一个规则草案
First Rules Draft
当我有一个不成熟的游戏创意时，我通常会开始写下规则。这可以帮助我解决游戏中一些比较平凡的方面，例如抽牌机制、棋子移动、回合顺序等。如果我到这个时候还没有确定游戏机制，那么编写规则手册的练习往往会迫使我做一些事情。我可以随时更改它，但我需要更改一些东西。这是我们新纸牌游戏规则的初稿，斜体注释解释了我脑子里在想什么。
When I have a half-baked game idea, I will usually just start writing down the rules. This helps me work out some of the more mundane aspects of the game, such as the mechanics of card drawing, piece moving, turn sequence, and so on. If I haven’t settled on game mechanics by this point, the exercise of writing a rulebook tends to force me into something. I can always change it later, but I need something to change. Here is the first draft of the rules for our new card game, with notes in italic explaining what’s going on in my head.
加勒比之星
Caribbean Star
双人纸牌游戏
A Card Game for Two Players
几乎每家邮轮公司都有一颗“星星”，比如星际公主号和丽晶之星号，这两艘邮轮我都曾工作过。在成为游戏发行商之前，我曾当过大约七年的职业杂耍演员，因此在这方面我有一些经验。我喜欢将游戏命名为“加勒比之星”，因为它有双重含义，“星星”指的是表演者。
Almost every cruise line has a “Star,” such as the Star Princess and the Regent Star, which are both ships I’ve worked on. Before I became a game publisher, I was a professional juggler for about seven years, so I have a bit of experience with this subject. I like the idea of calling the game “Caribbean Star” because it has a double meaning, with “Star” referring to the performers.
在我们的故事中，想象一下一艘游轮，游轮总监不小心在船上雇佣了太多演员。玩家一是腹语者，玩家二是魔术师。这两个角色中的一个是多余的，必须在周末回家。这将取决于每个玩家表演他自己的角色以及他在船上的其他职责的表现。当然，干扰对手将是获胜的关键。
For our story, imagine a cruise ship on which the cruise director has accidentally hired too many acts. Player One is the ventriloquist, Player Two is the magician. One of these two acts is superfluous, and will have to go home at the end of the week. It will depend on how well each player performs his act, and his other shipboard duties. And of course, interfering with your opponent will be the key to winning.
我现在把它看作是一种纸牌游戏，用一副标准牌来玩。魔术师的牌是黑色的；腹语师的牌是红色的。在翻过一副牌之后，表现更出色、同时摧毁对手信誉的玩家获胜，并保住他在加勒比之星上的工作。
I’m currently thinking of this as a card game, played with a standard deck. The Magician’s cards are the black ones; the Ventriloquist’s cards are the red ones. After one pass through the deck, the player who has given more good performances while destroying his opponent’s credibility wins, and keeps his job on the Caribbean Star.
设备：你需要一副扑克牌。
Equipment: You need a deck of playing cards.
故事：欢迎登上加勒比星号，加勒比邮轮公司最豪华的邮轮。船上挤满了新婚夫妇和濒死者，他们冒险前往加勒比海参观巴拿马运河并喝源头的冰镇果汁朗姆酒。而您来这里就是为了招待他们。
Story: Welcome aboard the Caribbean Star, Caribe Cruise Lines’ most luxurious cruise ship. It’s chock to the gills with newlyweds and nearlydeads who have ventured to the Caribbean to see the Panama Canal and drink Piňa Coladas from the source. And you are here to entertain them.
你和你的对手是加勒比之星号上的表演者，两个演员一起表演。这条航线意外地在同一艘船上安排了魔术师和腹语表演者，然后……
You and your opponent are performers aboard the Caribbean Star, two acts doing the work of one. The line has accidentally booked both a Magician and a Ventriloquist on the same boat, and . . .
到现在为止，我已经在想如果只有两个魔术师，而不是一个魔术师和一个腹语者，会更有趣。像这样从头开始写简介总能让我很好地洞察游戏的主要笑话。
At this point, I’m already thinking it’s funnier if you are just two magicians, rather than a magician and a ventriloquist. Writing the intro from scratch like this always gives me good insight into the main joke of the game.
Caribe 航线意外地在同一艘船上安排了两名魔术师，而您只有一周的时间来证明自己比对方更厉害。你们俩都拥有同样的魔术，因此，您需要凭借自己的智慧和技巧，在对手对您施展魔术之前将他赶下船。祝您航行愉快！
The Caribe line has accidentally booked two magicians on the same ship, and you’ve got exactly one week to prove that you’re better than the other guy. You both have the same bag of tricks, so it’s up to your cunning and skill to get your opponent thrown off the boat before he does the same to you. Happy sailing!
你只有一周时间的想法与我让这场比赛在翻完一轮牌后结束的计划相吻合。在这场比赛中加入时间限制和紧迫感应该会让它更有趣。在规则的第一轮中，除了一个玩家“拥有”红牌，而另一个玩家拥有黑牌的想法之外，我真的没有其他机制。
The idea that you have only a week ties in with my plan to make this game end after one pass through the deck. Incorporating a time limit and a sense of urgency on this contest should make it more fun. At this point in the first pass of the rules, I really have no other mechanics in mind other than the idea that one player will “own” the red cards, while the other player owns the black cards.
划分卡牌的所有权使得同一张卡牌对每个玩家来说有不同的作用，从而增加了游戏的多样性。因为这是一款双人游戏，所以很容易公平地划分卡牌。当我看到这样的机会时，我会抓住它！
Dividing ownership of the cards makes the same cards do different things for each player, which in turn leads to more variety in the games. Because this is a two-player game, it’s easy to divide the deck fairly. When I see a chance like this, I jump at it!
如何开始：洗牌并随机确定哪位玩家将担任红魔法师，哪位玩家将担任黑魔法师。洗牌后，给每位玩家发五张牌。随机确定谁先出牌。
How to Begin: Shuffle the deck and determine randomly which player will be the Red Magician, and which player will be Black. After shuffling, deal a hand of five cards to each player. Determine randomly who will go first.
在写下“随机决定谁先走”之后，我开始考虑卡牌功能，也想知道我是否可以将这个游戏变成一个同时玩的游戏，而不是回合制游戏。根据机制的不同，这种简单的游戏有时对于先走或后走的玩家来说可能会好得多。同时玩解决了这个问题，但也带来了一些其他问题。让我们尝试同时玩吧。
After writing “determine randomly who goes first,” I’m starting to think of the card functions, and also wondering if I can make this game a simultaneous-play game rather than a turn-based game. A game this simple can sometimes be significantly better for the player who goes first, or second, depending on the mechanics. Simultaneous play solves this problem, but presents some others. Let’s try simultaneous play.
洗牌后，给每位玩家发五张牌。轮流进行。
After shuffling, deal a hand of five cards to each player. Turns will be simultaneous.
每回合：玩家从手中选择一张牌，并将其面朝下放在桌子上。这张牌将决定他们本回合的行动。
On each turn: Players choose one card from their hand and play it face down on the table. This card will determine their action for the round.
卡牌功能：每张卡牌都有独特的功能，如下所述。两位玩家都拥有相同的技巧，但使用顺序可能会产生很大的不同。此外，每位玩家都“拥有”一半的牌组。打出自己的牌与为对手打出相同的牌效果不同。
Card functions: Each card has a unique function, as described below. Both players have the same bag of tricks, but the order in which you play them can make a big difference. Also, each player “owns” half of the deck. Playing your own cards has a different effect than playing the same cards for your opponent.
这部分其实不太清楚，但它主要是为了帮助我记住我的想法。它可能会在最终规则中被删减或删除。
This section is not really very clear, but it is mostly there to help me remember what I’m thinking. It will probably be trimmed up or removed in the final rules.
牌的顺序：虽然是同时打出的，但牌总是按照从低到高的顺序生效。A 牌小，K 牌大。此外，花色从低到高的顺序为：梅花、方块、红心、黑桃（按字母顺序）。
Card precedence: Although they are played at the same time, cards always take effect in order from lowest to highest. Aces are low, and Kings are high. Furthermore, the order of suits from lowest to highest is: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades (alphabetical order).
你可以看出我还没搞清楚 Aces 的作用；在最终的草稿中，Aces 根本不出现在游戏顺序中。给每张牌赋予优先级的一般目的是让同时玩牌总是很容易。这也让我能够根据每张牌在系列中的顺序来微调每张牌的功能。
You can tell I haven’t figured out what Aces do yet; in the final draft Aces don’t figure into the play order at all. The general purpose of giving each card a priority is so that resolving the simultaneous play is always easy. It also allows me to fine-tune the functions of each card based on the order it falls in the series.
人头牌：人头牌是“排练”牌。打出人头牌时，您正在为下一次表演练习技巧。每位玩家在游戏中最多可以表演四次，这些表演的分值决定了您的得分。
Face cards: Face cards are “rehearsal” cards. When you play a face card, you are practicing tricks for your next performance. Each player will have a maximum of four performances during the game, and the point value of those performances determines your score.
当您打出人头牌时，请将其放在练习牌堆旁边，练习牌堆是一组面朝上的人头牌，表示您下一场表演的牌组。完美牌组为 30 分钟，即三张牌。如果按全值计分，J 牌值 2 分，Q 牌值 4 分，K 牌值 6 分。
When you play a face card, set it aside in your Practice pile, a set of face up face cards that denote your set for the next show. A perfect set is 30 minutes, which means three cards. If scored for full value, a Jack is worth 2 points, a Queen is worth 4, and a King is worth 6 points.
我选择了 2、4 和 6 的值，因为我打算制定规则，有时将这些值减半。这意味着为了简单起见，我希望它们是偶数。目前，我的想法是，完美的展示是三张牌，比这多或少的展示都会受到惩罚。
I have picked the values of 2, 4, and 6 because I’m planning to make rules that sometimes cut these values in half. This means that for simplicity’s sake I want them to be even numbers. At this point, I’m working with the idea that a perfect show is three cards, and running longer or shorter than that will penalize you.
如果您打出的练习牌不是您的颜色，则将其放入对手的练习牌堆，而不是您自己的。
If you play a rehearsal card that is not your color, you put it in your opponent’s Practice pile instead of your own.
这就是为什么完美的表演长度是关键机制的原因：如果你为对手打出一张排练卡，你将能够延长他的表演长度，使其超出完美长度。因此，如果他练习了三张牌的表演，但无法将其转换为积分，直到你延长它，他就会受到惩罚。这会使同一张牌在游戏的不同阶段变得更好或更差，这是一种用一组简单的牌来制作复杂游戏的好方法。
Here is why the perfect show length is the critical mechanic: If you play a Rehearsal card for your opponent, you will be able to lengthen his show beyond the perfect length. So, if he’s practiced a three-card show but can’t convert it to points until you make it longer, he’ll suffer a penalty. This makes the same cards better or worse at different points in the game, which is a great way to get a complex game out of a simple set of cards.
十：十是大技巧。在衡量表演时长时，它们算作两张牌，如果按全值计分，则价值 10 分。
Tens: Tens are Big Tricks. They count as two cards when measuring the length of a show, and are worth 10 points when scored for full value.
九和七是表演时间：如果你打出表演时间，你将丢弃练习牌堆并将其转换为点数。练习牌堆的转换如下：
Nine and Seven are Showtimes: If you play a Showtime, you discard your Practice Pile and convert it to points. Conversion of the Practice Pile works as follows:
现在，我正在正式确定我在编写排练卡时考虑的演出长度惩罚。
Now I’m formalizing the show-length penalties I was thinking about when I wrote the Rehearsal cards.
如果您有三张牌（十算两张），您将获得整个表演的全部分数。如果您的牌数多或少，您将失去分数。如果您有两张或四张牌，则根据您最大的牌获得一半分数。如果您有一张或五张牌，则根据您整个表演获得一半分数。如果您没有牌或牌数超过五张，则您在表演 Showtime 时不会获得任何分数。
If you have three cards (Tens count as two) you get full value for your entire act. If you run long or short, you lose points. If you have two or four cards, score half points for your largest card. If you have one or five cards, score half points for your entire act. If you have no cards or more than five, you score no points when you play a Showtime.
如果你为对手下达了表演时间，他必须立即表演。即使他刚刚表演过，即使他的练习牌堆中没有牌，也必须立即表演。
If you play a Showtime for your opponent, he must perform his act right now. This is true even if he just performed, and even if he has no cards in his Practice Pile.
八：晚餐自助餐。您可以在晚餐自助餐上进行额外的表演。当您打出八时，您可以以半价执行（丢弃）练习牌堆中的一张牌。但是，您不必这样做。您可以打出八，然后看到对手打出的牌，决定跳过自助餐。如果您打出对手的八，他可能会转换一张练习牌，也可能什么也不做。
Eight: Dinner Buffet. You can do an additional show at a dinner buffet. When you play an Eight, you can perform (discard) one of the cards in your Practice pile for half value. You don’t have to, however. You might play an Eight and then, seeing what your opponent has played, decide to skip the buffet. If you play an opponent’s Eight, he may convert one of his Practice cards or he may do nothing about it.
如果节目播放时间较长，则添加 8 个以便让您有机会对其进行微调。
Eights are added to give you the opportunity to fine-tune your show if it is running long.
六：排练。您可以在表演前“排练”您的表演，并将其价值翻倍。当您打出六时，将其添加到您的练习牌堆中。下次您打出表演时，您将获得双倍积分。如果您的练习牌堆中有两个六，则表演将获得四倍积分。
Six: Rehearsal. You can “rehearse” your act before you perform, and double its value. When you play a Six, add it to your Practice pile. You will score double points the next time you play a Showtime. If you have two Sixes in your Practice Pile, the show will be worth quadruple points.
这是语言问题：我无意中使用“排练”来描述人头牌和十号牌以及六号牌。这在最终稿中已修复。
This is a language problem: I’m unknowingly using “rehearsal” to describe both the Face Cards and Tens, and the Sixes. This is fixed in the final draft.
五：午睡：当你打出五时，你必须弃掉手牌并抽四张新牌。如果你打出对手的五，他也必须这么做。
Five: Afternoon Nap: When you play a Five you must discard your hand and draw four new cards. If you play your opponent’s Five, he must do the same.
五张牌将是破坏牌。我希望玩家能够弃掉手牌，以清除对他们特别不利的牌。杀死对手手牌的方面似乎不平衡，我稍后会修改五张牌的功能。
Fives will be the spoiler cards. I want people to be able to discard their hands in order to clear out cards that are especially bad for them. The aspect of killing your opponent’s hand turns out to be unbalanced, and I will later revise the function of the Fives.
四到二：这些牌是错误牌。它们就像练习牌，但分别值 4 到 2 分。如果你打出自己颜色的错误牌，它将被放入你的练习牌堆。如果你打出对手颜色的牌，它将被放入对手颜色的牌堆。六牌的负分翻倍，但长牌或短牌不会减半。它们在你的表演期间不算作牌，你不能在晚餐自助餐时表演它们来摆脱它们。
Four through Two: These cards are mistakes. They are like practice cards but they are worth negative points, 4 through 2 respectively. If you play a mistake of your own color it will go into your Practice Pile. If you play a card of your opponent’s color, it will go into his. The negative points are doubled by Sixes but are not halved by going long or short. They do not count as cards for the length of your act, and you cannot perform them to get rid of them at the dinner buffet.
这里需要做一些工作来确定解决点数、负点数和加倍的确切顺序。但这是第一步。玩这个游戏时就会发现，虽然这个数学对游戏至关重要，但需要以尽可能简单的方式呈现。一般来说，当 如果游戏中的数学太难，不仅会减慢游戏的执行速度，还会使预测或战略性玩法变得更加困难。因此，好的数学需要显而易见且透明。节目长度惩罚在这里非常重要，所以我不会放过它。但正如我所说，我会尽量让它易于理解。
The exact order of resolving points, negative points, and doublers, needs some work here. But this is a first pass. It becomes evident on playing this game that this math, while critical to the game, needs to be presented in the simplest possible manner. In general, when math gets too hard in a game it doesn’t just slow down the execution of the game. It also makes forecasting, or strategic play, much harder. So good math needs to be obvious and transparent. The show-length penalty is pretty important here, so I’m not going to let it go. But I will, as I said, try to make it easy to understand.
Ace（取消牌）： Ace 不像其他牌那样面朝下打出。它们没有特定颜色，并且始终属于打出它们的玩家。您可以从手中打出一张 Ace 来取消任何其他牌的效果，在此之前它尚未生效。当您打出一张 Ace 时，您可以抽一张牌来替换它。
Aces (Cancel Cards): Aces are not played face down like other cards. They are not color-specific and they always belong to the player who plays them. You can play an Ace from your hand to cancel the effect of any other card immediately before it goes off. When you play an Ace, you draw a card to replace it.
在您的回合结束时，抽一张牌，或抽任意多张牌，直到手牌达到五张。当没有牌可抽时，巡游结束，得分最高的玩家获胜。
At the end of your turn, draw one card, or however many it takes to get your hand up to five. When there are no cards left to draw, the cruise is over and the player with the most points wins.
好了，这是规则的第一遍。现在我要写一个备忘单并玩游戏。
There, that’s the first pass on the rules. Now I’ll write up a cheat sheet and play the game.
游戏测试笔记
Playtest Notes
我很幸运在制定规则草案时有 Carol 在场，因此我们立即玩了几轮并确定了以下内容：
I was lucky enough to have Carol on hand while working on this rules draft, so we immediately played a few rounds and determined the following:
卡牌功能：总体来说，卡牌功能很好，而且容易记住。由于许多卡牌功能都是根据一天中的时间大致确定的，而其他卡牌功能则按逻辑进行分组，因此整个卡牌组合似乎很合理。玩家应该可以轻松玩这个游戏，而无需备忘单。
Card Functions: In general the cards work well and are easy to remember. Because many of the card functions are based loosely on times of day, and others are grouped pretty logically, the whole set seems to make sense. One should easily be able to play this game without a cheat sheet.
评分：第一次评分时，评分功能的执行顺序并不十分清楚，因此我们决定更精确地定义如何为节目评分：
Scoring: The order in which scoring functions are carried out isn’t really clear in the first pass, so we decided to define more exactly how you score a show:
首先，计算人头牌和十。如果你认为一场完美的演出是 30 分钟，那么从杰克到国王的每张牌都是 10 分钟，而十是 20 分钟。根据演出的长度，通过将相应的牌减半来应用得分惩罚（如果有）。接下来，按全值添加负牌。最后，应用加倍。因此，如果一场演出包含杰克、国王和十，以及四和六，那么演出时间就会延长 10 分钟，这意味着要砍掉十。牌的总和是 13，减去 4 是 9，加倍是 18。如果你读过最终稿，不要让这让你感到困惑：我后来将所有演出时间减半，使十持续 10 分钟。
First, you count the Face Cards and Tens. If you think of a perfect show as 30 minutes, then Jacks through Kings are 10 minutes each, and Tens are 20 minutes. Based on the length of the show, you apply your scoring penalty (if any) by halving the appropriate cards. Next, add the negative cards at full value. Last, apply the doublers. So if a show contains a Jack, King, and Ten, as well as a Four and a Six, then it’s long by 10 minutes, which means chopping the Ten. The cards sum to 13, minus 4 is 9, doubled is 18. Don’t let this confuse you if you’ve read the final draft: I later cut all the showtimes in half to make Tens last 10 minutes.
分数追踪：可以通过堆叠技巧的方式来追踪分数，但使用记分板并在完成每场表演时记录下来可能更简洁。这也会让获胜者更加明显，我非常喜欢这种方式。
Score Tracking: It’s possible to track your score by the way you stack your tricks, but it’s probably much cleaner to use a score pad and write down each show as you finish it. That will also make it more obvious who is winning, of which I’m a big fan.
残局：如果在游戏结束时手上只剩下一张牌，那就有点不尽兴了，所以我想让玩家把手上的牌都打完。我不知道如果一个玩家手上还有更多的牌，比如只剩下一张 A 牌可打，该怎么办。这个问题稍后会得到解决。
Endgame: It’s a little unsatisfying to finish with cards left in your hand, so I want players to play out their hands. I’m not sure what to do in the case where one player has more cards, such as when exactly one Ace is left to play. This problem is solved later.
剧透卡：五号牌已被改为交换玩家的手牌，而不是丢弃它们。如果你打出五号牌，玩家会交换手牌。这样做的原因是，否则牌组会烧得太快。我不喜欢通过丢弃它们来避免打出非常糟糕的牌。但最重要的是，我不喜欢保存一手非常好的手牌却被五号牌烧毁的后果。
Spoiler Cards: Fives have been changed to swap the players’ hands, not discard them. If you play a Five, players swap hands. The reason for this is that otherwise the deck is burned far too quickly. I don’t like being able to avoid playing the really bad cards by discarding them. But most of all, I don’t like the effect of saving up a really good hand only to have it burned down by a Five.
喜剧表演：我们决定添加一条全新的规则，因为遇到一个全是错误的大表演会让人非常沮丧。这条规则叫做喜剧表演。如果你的练习堆里只有错误，你可以用表演时间清除它，获得 0 分。这是摆脱一堆错误的好方法。
The Comedy Show: We decided to add one completely new rule, based on the abject frustration of being hit with a big show that’s all mistakes. This rule is called the Comedy Show. If your Practice pile contains nothing but mistakes, you can clear it with a Showtime for 0 points. This is a great way to get rid of a bunch of mistakes.
在这种情况下，时间规则非常有用。如果您有 Comedy Show 并且打出 Showtime，您可以确保对手无法在其上添加技巧。这是因为 Showtime 发生在技巧之前。对手能做的最好的事情就是打出 Ace 来挫败您的 Showtime，但这对他来说要付出更大的代价。
The timing rules are very useful in this instance. If you have a Comedy Show and you play a Showtime, you can be sure that your opponent can’t add a trick to it. This is because the Showtimes happen before the tricks. The best your opponent can do is play an Ace to foil your Showtime, but this is significantly more expensive to him.
总的来说，这款游戏经过一些调整后运行得相当好。它绝对值得继续玩下去，因为玩起来很有趣，我们发现自己想再玩一次。现在我们会用这些修改再玩几次，看看是否需要进一步改进。
All in all, this game worked fairly well with a few tweaks. It’s definitely good enough to pursue, because it was fun to play and we found ourselves wanting to play again. Now we’ll play it a few more times with these revisions, and see if any more refinements are required.
最后修订：2001 年 6 月 22 日星期五
Final Revisions: Friday June 22, 2001
我们玩了更多次这个游戏，了解到积极进攻至关重要。我喜欢这一点。因为每张牌迟早都会被打出，所以决定何时打出牌是关键。我们又做了一个改变。因为 Aces 让一个玩家在同一回合中丢弃多张牌，从而搞乱了抽牌模式，所以我们决定 Aces 不会丢弃他们停止的牌，而是将该牌舀到你的手中。这意味着游戏中的回合数将始终相同，并且所有牌最终都会被打出。
We played more of this game and learned that aggressive play is critical. I like this aspect. Because every card will be played sooner or later, deciding when to play your cards is the key. We made one more change. Because Aces screwed up the card drawing pattern by causing one player to discard more than one card in the same turn, we decided that instead of discarding the card they stopped, Aces scoop that card into your hand instead. This means that there will always be the same number of rounds in the game, and that all the cards will eventually get played.
在经历了几场平淡无奇的残局之后，我正在考虑做出的一项改变是引入“告别表演”规则。游戏结束时练习牌堆中剩下的任何东西都像普通表演一样计分。这意味着每张表演牌最终也会被计分。
One change I’m considering after a rather lackluster couple of endgames is to introduce a “farewell show” rule. Whatever is left in your Practice pile at the end of the game is scored like a normal show. This means every show card eventually gets scored as well.
经过三天的游戏测试和修改，以及几周后的第二次规则编辑，我 游戏的最终版本已经制作完成。你会注意到我更改了一些术语和数字，以便于解释游戏。最明显的是，我把完美的表演时间定为 15 分钟，这样 Tens 就可以只有 10 分钟。这与现实生活有很大不同（魔术师实际上会表演 45 到 60 分钟，但在这种简单的游戏中，这种程度的逼真度并不是必需的）。我还终于注意到，我使用“排练”来表示两种不同的东西，所以我将点卡的术语改为“魔术技巧”。
After three days of playtesting and revision, and a second rules edit some weeks later, I arrived at the final version of the game. You’ll notice I changed some terminology and numbers to make the game easier to explain. Most obviously, I’ve made the perfect show 15 minutes long so that Tens can be 10 minutes long. This deviates pretty strongly from real life (A magician would actually be doing 45 to 60 minutes, but verisimilitude of that degree isn’t really necessary in this simple of a game). I also finally noticed that I was using “rehearsal” to mean two different things, so I changed the term for point cards to “Magic Tricks.”
Caribbean Star 由 James Ernest 设计，由 Carol Monahan 测试。如果您喜欢 Caribbean Star，James 鼓励您访问www.cheapass.com尝试更多他的免费在线游戏。
Caribbean Star was designed by James Ernest, playtested by Carol Monahan. If you enjoyed Caribbean Star, James encourages you to try more of his free games online at www.cheapass.com.
詹姆斯·欧内斯特
James Ernest
James Ernest 是 Cheapass Games 的总裁兼首席设计师，该公司位于华盛顿州西雅图，规模虽小，但成果颇丰。他创作的获奖作品包括 Kill Doctor Lucky、Give Me the Brain、BRAWL 和 Button Men。Ernest 以古怪的幽默感和创新的游戏机制而闻名，他每年编写大约 30 款新游戏。
James Ernest is the president and lead designer for Cheapass Games, a small but prolific game company in Seattle, Washington. His award-winning titles include Kill Doctor Lucky, Give Me the Brain, BRAWL, and Button Men. Ernest is known for his quirky humor and innovative game mechanics, and he writes about 30 new games every year.
其他阅读材料和资源
ADDITIONAL READING AND RESOURCES
虽然本书的大多数章节都附有推荐阅读材料，但我们在此列出了一些不太适合任何特定章节的更一般的参考资料。这些额外的阅读材料和资源包括学术网站和数字游戏的视觉历史。显然，我们不得不将无数的网站和书籍从这个简短的列表中剔除，但我们希望这些来源以及我们在本书中列出的其他来源可以成为您自己研究调查的起点。
Although suggested readings accompany most of this book’s chapters, here we list a number of more general references that didn’t fit neatly into any particular chapter. These additional readings and resources range from academic websites to visual histories of digital gaming. Obviously, there are innumerable websites and books that we had to leave off of this short list, but our hope is that these sources and the others we list throughout this book can be starting points for your own research investigations.
电脑游戏图形，作者：Liz Faber 和 State Design
Computer Game Graphics, by Liz Faber and State Design
《电脑游戏图形》最初在英国以《Re: Play》为名出版，展示了电脑游戏的艺术和视觉文化。这本书强大的视觉设计与主题相得益彰，许多跨页都以图片形式呈现。文字比图形呈现更重要，这本书的主要价值在于它对游戏视觉设计的记录。
Originally published under the title Re: Play in the U. K., Computer Game Graphics showcases the art and visual culture of computer games. The book’s strong visual design lends itself to the subject matter, with many of the spreads functioning as essays in picture form. The writing takes a backseat to the presentation of graphics, and the primary value of the book is in its documentation of the games’ visual design.
数字游戏研究协会（DiGRA）
Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA)
在本书出版时，这个刚刚起步的学术组织仍在起步阶段。然而，DiGRA 有望成为第一个致力于数字游戏跨学科研究的专业协会。其成员包括游戏历史学家、媒体理论家、设计教育家和游戏开发者。该协会的网站为：< www.digra.org >。
At the time of this book’s publication, this fledgling academic organization was still getting off the ground. However, DiGRA promises to be the first professional association devoted to the interdisciplinary study of digital games. Its members range from play historians and media theorists to design educators and game developers. The association’s website can be found at: <www.digra.org>.
电子塑料，作者：Jaro Gielens、Büro Destruct、Uwe Schütte
Electronic Plastic, by Jaro Gielens, Büro Destruct, Uwe Schütte
《电子塑料》是一本视觉调查书籍，涵盖了 400 多款老式电脑游戏，包括便携式掌上游戏机和鸡尾酒桌街机游戏。这本书对 20 世纪 70 年代和 80 年代游戏的视觉设计进行了精彩的概述，包括复古字体、时代品牌和包装以及色彩缤纷的铸塑盒。
Electronic Plastic is a visual survey of over 400 old-school computer games, including portable handhelds and cocktail table arcade games. The book offers a terrific overview of the visual design of games from the 1970s and 1980s, including retro-typography, period branding and packaging, and colorful cast plastic cases.
400 条规则项目位于 < http://www.theinspiracy.com/400_project.htm >，是一个由资深电脑游戏设计师 Noah Falstein 和 Hal Barwood 领导的合作游戏设计项目。受到 Barwood 在 2001 年游戏开发者大会上的一次演讲的启发，Falstein 通过游戏开发者杂志的专栏继续该项目。400条规则项目的前提是，适用于所有游戏的“规则”或设计指南数量有限，而该项目的目标是发现它们。虽然范围相当正式，但该项目代表了一项出色的合作游戏设计计划。
Located at <http://www.theinspiracy.com/400_project.htm>, The 400 Rules Project is a collaborative game design project headed by veteran computer game designers Noah Falstein and Hal Barwood. Inspired by a talk Barwood gave at the 2001 Game Developers Conference, Falstein has continued the project through a column in Game Developer Magazine. The premise of the 400 Rules Project is that there are a limited number of “rules,” or design guidelines, that apply to all games, and the goal of the project is to uncover them. While quite formal in scope, the Project represents a wonderfully collaborative game design initiative.
国际游戏开发者协会
International Game Developers Association
这个专业组织服务于数字游戏开发行业。其网站为 < www.igda.org >，为有抱负和成熟的游戏开发者提供丰富的资源，从当地 IGDA 分会列表到各种主题的定期专栏，再到广泛的教育资源。
This professional organization serves the digital game development industry. The website, located at <www.igda.org>, is rich with resources for the aspiring and established game developer, from listings of local IGDA chapters to regular columns on a variety of subjects to extensive educational resources.
《操纵杆国度：电子游戏如何吞噬我们的财富、赢得我们的心并重塑我们的思想》，作者：JC Herz
Joystick Nation: How Video Games Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds, by J. C. Herz
《操纵杆国度》写于 1997 年，是第一部全面、通俗地报道电子游戏这一文化现象的报道之一。这本书以直截了当的新闻报道形式，很好地概述了游戏的流行文化风格，并追溯了一些影响电子游戏作为一种文化形式兴起的因素。
Written in 1997, Joystick Nation was one of the first comprehensive, popular reports on the cultural phenomenon of video games. A straightforward journalistic account, the book offers a good overview of the pop culture flavor of games and traces some of the factors affecting the rise of video games as a cultural form.
该网站由游戏理论家 Gonzalo Frasca 维护，是游戏学术研究相关事件和问题的优质信息中心之一。它包含大量游戏研究博客、会议和征文列表，并支持健康的讨论社区。
This website, maintained by game theorist Gonzalo Frasca, is one of the better clearinghouses for events and issues related to the academic study of games. It includes extensive lists of game studies blogs, conferences and calls for papers, and supports a healthy discussion community.
凤凰城：电子游戏的衰落与崛起，作者：伦纳德·赫尔曼
Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Videogames, by Leonard Herman
菲尼克斯详细介绍了家用电子游戏机的历史。重点是技术，重点不是游戏，而是游戏机本身的设计。虽然阅读起来可能有些费解，但这本书对游戏机行业的历史提供了重要的概述，是一本非常有价值的参考书。
Phoenix takes a detailed look at the history of home videogame consoles. The emphasis is technological and the focus is not on games, but on the design of the consoles themselves. While the reading can be dense, the book offers an important overview of the history of the console industry and is an invaluable reference work.
www.sirlin.net是一个可爱又古怪的网站，由前数学家、游戏设计师 David Sirlin 创办。该网站包含大量关于游戏设计的短文，其中大部分都采用正式方法来理解规则设计、叙事和竞争等现象。虽然网络上有许多本土游戏设计网站，但Serlin.net包含大量深思熟虑的评论和分析，令人惊叹。
An endearingly quirky website, www.sirlin.net is the work of David Sirlin, a former mathematician and sometime game designer. The site contains a large number of short articles about game design, most of them taking a formal approach to understanding phenomena like rule design, narrative, and competition. While there are many homegrown game design sites on the web, Serlin.net contains a surprising amount of thoughtful commentary and analysis.
《Supercade：1971-1984 年电子游戏时代的视觉历史》，作者：Van Burnham
Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971–1984, by Van Burnham
Supercade既是一部视频历史，也是视频游戏开发的技术时间表，该行业是视频游戏行业最重要的时期之一。本书提供了 1971 年至 1984 年间制作的几乎所有视频游戏的详尽摘要，以及对游戏视觉设计的深入研究记录。
Supercade is both a visual history and a technological timeline of videogame development during one of the industry’s most important periods. The book offers informative summaries of almost every videogame produced between 1971–1984, along with well-researched documentation of the games’ visual design.
《扳机快乐：电子游戏与娱乐革命》，作者：史蒂文·普尔
Trigger Happy: Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution, by Steven Poole
《Trigger Happy》认为游戏是一种不容小觑的文化形式，这不仅是因为游戏在娱乐行业中日益占据着经济主导地位，还因为游戏是一种艺术形式。Poole 从多个角度审视游戏，并对游戏进行文学、哲学和符号学分析。他还追溯了游戏从早期的 8 位游戏发展到如今复杂的技术和文化系统的过程。
Trigger Happy posits that games are a cultural form to be reckoned with, not only because of their growing economic dominance within the entertainment industry, but because of their status as an art form. Poole examines games from a variety of perspectives, and applies a literary, philosophical, and semiotic analysis to them. He also traces the development of the form from early 8-bit games into the complex technological and cultural systems they are today.
受到推崇的：
Recommended:
第 3 章虚幻的城市
Chapter 3. Unreal Cities
第 8 章游戏玩家
Chapter 8. The Player of Games
结论
CONCLUSION
一旦你知道了可以去哪里以及哪里值得去，去那里就不费吹灰之力了。只需要关心和紧张。——大卫·苏德诺，《微观世界的朝圣者》
Once you know where you can go and where it’s worth going, getting there’s no sweat. Just caring and nerves.—David Sudnow, Pilgrim in the Microworld
关怀和勇气。这就是完成这本书所需要的。
Caring and nerves. That’s what it took to complete this book.
当然，我们过程中很大一部分是学习如何观察：看清我们从哪里来，要去哪里，以及如何前进。就像一个极其复杂的谜题，每一步都解决了模式的另一部分，甚至同时开辟了全新的视野供我们探索。我们发现，一切都取决于看到铰链和模式中的模式。当我们学会看清它们时，我们意识到它们一直都在那里，耐心地等待着被发现。
Certainly a big part of our process was learning how to see: seeing where we were coming from, where we were going, and how to move forward. Like a devilishly intricate puzzle, each step resolved another piece of the pattern, even while opening up whole new vistas to navigate. Everything, we found, hinged on seeing the hinges, and the patterns in the pattern. When we learned to see them we realized they had been there all along, waiting patiently to be discovered.
在建立系统、玩通系统并退出系统之后，我们发现自己发生了变化。我们在这个系统中度过了数月（甚至数年）的时间，玩弄它、抵制它，有时甚至破坏它。我们很容易忘记我们也被玩弄、抵制，有时甚至被破坏。（但这并不像听起来那么糟糕。）说实话，这种转变让我们措手不及。虽然这本书源于我们教授游戏设计、设计游戏以及——尤其是玩游戏的经验，但直到我们开始写作时，我们的努力才找到了灵魂。这个灵魂充满了游戏的乐趣：充满了在布鲁克林门廊上决斗的孩子们、在炎热的越野跑道上挥汗如雨的孤独跑步者、一对祖母用卡纳斯塔牌技巧换取现金、凌晨 4 点后的 LAN 聚会只玩了一轮雷神之锤。游戏设计师的激情为灵魂增添了色彩，他们花费了无数的时间根据规则调整游戏，关卡设计师为我们创造了充满可能性的神奇新世界，程序员构建了如此优雅的游戏引擎，甚至代码看起来都很完美。正是在这种游戏的灵魂中，我们发现了自己。
Having built the system, played it through, and exited out the other side, we find ourselves transformed. We spent so many months (years even) inside the system, playing with it, resisting it, at times breaking it. It was easy to forget that we too were being played, resisted, and at times, broken. (But this is not as bad as it sounds.) And to be honest, the transformation caught us by surprise. Although this book grew out of our experiences teaching game design, designing games, and—especially—playing them, it was not until we began writing that our endeavor found a soul. This soul is filled to bursting with the joy of play: filled with kids dueling Magic on a Brooklyn stoop, a lone runner sweating along a blistering cross country track, a pair of grandmothers trading Canasta tricks for hard cash, a LAN party up past 4 a. m. playing just one more round of Quake. The soul is colored by the passion of game designers who spend untold hours tuning a game to make play by the alchemy of rules, by level designers who invent fabulous new worlds of possibility for us to inhabit, by programmers who build game engines so elegant even the code appears pleased. It is in this soul of play that we discovered ourselves.
我们发现的并不是什么大秘密，因为几乎每一页都写着。游戏设计师创造了有意义的游戏。真正有意义的游戏。这种游戏在比赛结束多年后仍让玩家谈论，这种游戏能召集忠实的粉丝，让我们在半夜醒来，渴望再次玩游戏，这种游戏能教会我们玩游戏的意义。也许游戏效果的最深层含义在于它能够转变。转变游戏是一种超越，在这种超越中，我们习以为常的结构突然发现自己变成了参与者。语法讲了一个笑话。舞厅的地板开始跳舞。僵硬的规则变得灵活，跳进了游戏的怀抱。转变游戏可以改变游戏的玩家、游戏所属的文化，甚至游戏本身。作为本书的作者，我们也被转变游戏所吸引，被揭示的铰链和模式所改变。我们希望你也能通过阅读这些书页的经历、古老而崇高的知识体系、提出的问题的新颖性、游戏的美妙本质而改变。
What we discovered is no big secret, as it is written on nearly every page. Game designers create meaningful play. Truly meaningful play. The kind that players talk about years after the match has ended, the kind that rallies loyal fans and wakes us up in the middle of the night longing to play again, the kind of play that teaches us what it means to play. And perhaps the deepest meaning for play to effect is its ability to transform. Transformative play is a moment of transcendence, in which those structures we took for granted suddenly find themselves cast as players. Grammar tells a joke. The ballroom floor gets up to dance. The rigid Rule become supple and limber and jumps into the arms of Play. Transformative play can metamorphosize the players of a game, the culture of which the game is a part, even the game itself. As the authors of this book, we were also taken hold by transformative play, altered by the hinges and patterns uncovered. It is our hope that you too have been transformed by your experience with these pages, by an ancient and sublime body of knowledge, by the newness of the questions raised, by the beautiful nature of play.
这确实让我们回到了关心和紧张的问题上。改变游戏设计的面貌需要什么？系统在什么时候会因为设计师在其中的工作而发生改变？你是否足够关心并愿意承担风险？你会吗？这是一个重要的时刻，因为这个领域即将发生变化，而结果尚不确定。我们真的不知道转变会带来什么样的变化。但我们仍然是游戏设计彻底变革的坚定积极分子。
Which really brings us back to caring and nerves. What will it take to alter the face of game design? At what moment will the system be transformed by the play of designers working within it? Do you care enough to take the risk? Do you? This is an important moment, for the field is poised for change and the outcome is uncertain. We honestly don’t know what kind of change a transformation might bring. But we nevertheless are unapologetic activists for a radical transformation in game design.
我们知道游戏的构成；我们知道游戏的工作原理、重要性以及它们能够创造哪些体验。但我们几乎没有测试过它们可能成为的极限。我们向你提出的挑战是测试这些极限，找到你自己的游戏设计灵魂，并鼓起你所有的关心和勇气去改变和发现游戏的意义。
We know what constitutes a game; we know how they work, why they matter, and the kinds of experiences they are capable of producing. But we have barely tested the limits of what they have the potential to become. It is our challenge to you to test those limits, to find your own game design soul, and to muster all of the caring and nerves you’ve got to transform and discover what it means to play.
最后：特别感谢那些老师和学生，在我们作为这项运动的学生成长过程中，他们给了我们挑战，让我们感到高兴和荣幸。也感谢彼此……终于结束了。
Finally: Special thanks to the teachers and students we have had the pleasure and honor of being challenged by in the course of our own evolution as students of the game. And to each other . . . the end, at last.
谢谢你们带来精彩的比赛。
Thanks for a great game.
我们再玩一次好吗？
Shall we play again?
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引用的游戏列表
LIST OF GAMES CITED
以下索引包含《游戏规则》中提到的所有游戏。每款游戏按标题字母顺序列出，包括发布日期、游戏媒介以及游戏开发者或设计者。
The following index contains all of the games mentioned in Rules of Play. Each game is listed alphabetically by title, including date of release, medium in which it is played, and developer or designer of the game.
我们引用的很多游戏都没有可识别的作者或作者群体——或者游戏历史学家对游戏的确切起源存在争议。在这些情况下，游戏被列为“传统”游戏，并标明大致的起源日期（如果已知）。通常，此类游戏具有丰富的历史演变，例如棋盘游戏《蛇梯棋》，它与古埃及的游戏以及印度、尼泊尔和西藏的传统游戏有着惊人的相似之处。在这些情况下，我们选择与我们引用的游戏明显相似的游戏的第一个历史实例作为起源日期。（例如，在《蛇梯棋》的情况下，我们使用的日期是 1892 年：这是 FH Ayre 的《蛇梯棋》的出版日期，这款游戏与当今的《蛇梯棋》几乎完全相同）。
A great many of the games we cite do not have an identifiable author or group of authors—or the exact origin of the game is in dispute by game historians. In these cases, the game is listed as “Traditional” and the approximate dates of origin are indicated, if known. Oftentimes, such games have rich historical evolutions, such as the board game Chutes and Ladders, which has striking similarities to games played in ancient Egypt, as well as to traditional games from India, Nepal, and Tibet. In these cases, we chose as the date of origin the first historical instance of a game that is recognizably similar to the game we cite. (In the case of Chutes and Ladders, for example, we use the date 1892: this is the publication date of F. H. Ayre’s Snakes and Ladders, a game virtually identical to present-day Chutes and Ladders).
出于对游戏创作典型协作过程的尊重，只有当单个设计师或两个设计师独自创作了整个游戏，或者单个设计师在商业上被认定为唯一作者时，个人设计师才会被列为游戏的创作者，就像许多当代棋盘游戏的情况一样。
In deference to the typically collaborative process of game creation, individual designers are listed as the creator of a game only when a single designer or pair of designers created the entire game by themselves, or when a single designer is commercially credited with sole authorship, as is the case with many contemporary board games.
我们经常会引用一系列数字游戏的多个版本，例如《VR战士》和《Virtua Fighter 4》。在这些情况下，我们会将游戏列为一个系列，但只列出该系列中第一款游戏的发布日期和创作者。此外，当游戏的重要版本出现在多个媒体上时（例如后来成为主机游戏的街机游戏），我们会列出所有相关形式，并将原始媒体列在首位。
We often cite more than one version of a digital game that was produced in a series, such as Virtua Fighter and Virtual Fighter 4. In these cases, we list the game as a series but include only the date and creator of the first game in the series. Also, when important versions of a game appear in more than one medium (such as an arcade game that later became a console game), we list all of the relevant forms, with the original medium listed first.
在按媒介组织游戏时，我们选择了非常“粗略”的类别，例如“街机游戏”或“实体游戏”。有些类别确实有重叠，但为了便于比较，我们将游戏分成了在概念上最有用的集群。我们的目的不是对这些游戏进行详细的说明或分类，而是对我们在调查过程中提到和分析的丰富游戏范围进行一般性指示。如果您想进一步研究这些游戏，末尾附有用于汇总此索引中信息的参考列表。
In organizing the games by medium, we opted for very “broad stroke” categories, such as “Arcade game” or “Physical game.” Some of the categories do overlap, but we grouped the games into clusters that seemed most conceptually useful for the sake of comparison. Our intention here is not to provide a detailed accounting or taxonomy of these games, but instead to give a general indication of the rich range of games that we mention and analyze in the course of our investigations. If you are inclined to research any of these games further, a list of references used in putting together the information in this index is included at the end.
街机游戏：此类别的游戏是在专用机器上玩的数字游戏，只能玩一种游戏。这包括典型的街机游戏，如吃豆人和太空侵略者，以及基于位置的娱乐游戏，如迪士尼世界景点“海盗黄金之战”。
Arcade game: Games in this category are digital games played on dedicated machines that only play a single game. This includes typical arcade games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders as well as location-based entertainment games like the Disneyworld attraction Battle for the Buccaneer Gold.
棋盘游戏：除了国际象棋和围棋等在棋盘上进行的游戏外，我们还将在某种类似棋盘的结构上进行的游戏归入这一类别，例如海战和四子棋。
Board game: In addition to games like Chess and Go—games that are literally played on a board—we include in this category games played on some kind of board-like structure, such as Battleship and Connect Four.
基于书籍的游戏：基于书籍的飞行模拟游戏《Ace of Aces》不属于任何其他类别，因此我们将其归为一个类别。其他基于书籍的游戏确实存在，但《游戏规则》中未提及。
Book-based game: The book-based flying simulation Ace of Aces didn’t fit into any other category, so we gave it its own. Other book-based games do exist, but are not mentioned in Rules of Play.
纸牌游戏：此类别中的某些游戏（例如扑克和桥牌）使用一套标准扑克牌。其他游戏（例如万智牌）则使用专为某一游戏设计的专用纸牌。
Card game: Some games in this category, such as Poker and Bridge, use a standard set of playing cards. Others, such as Magic: The Gathering, use specialized cards designed specifically for one game.
电脑游戏：此类别包括专为个人电脑设计的游戏，从古老的 PDP-1 到当今的 Macintosh 和 Windows 计算机。这些游戏主要由单个玩家在一台机器上玩。
Computer game: This group includes games designed to be played on personal computers, from the venerable PDP-1 to present-day Macintosh and Windows machines. These games are played primarily on a single machine by a single player.
主机游戏：这些游戏是在连接到电视的游戏机上玩的，从 Atari 2600 到今天的 Xbox、GameCube 和 Playstation2。
Console game: These games are played on game console machines that attach to a television, ranging from the Atari 2600 to today’s Xbox, GameCube, and Playstation2.
骰子游戏：此组中的游戏主要或完全使用骰子进行。它们包括像掷骰子这样的赌博游戏和像 Pig 和 Yatzee 这样的传统家庭游戏。此外，我们将轮盘赌游戏归入此类别，因为它是一种完全基于机会的游戏。
Dice game: Games in this group are played primarily or exclusively with dice. They include gambling games like Craps and traditional family games like Pig and Yatzee. Additionally, we included the game of Roulette in this category, as it is a game based entirely on chance.
手持游戏：此类别包括在 Game Boy 或 Palm Pilot 等便携式数字设备上玩的游戏。只能玩单一游戏的电子手持设备（例如 POX）也归入此类。
Handheld game: This category includes games played on a portable digital device such as a Game Boy or Palm Pilot. Electronic handheld devices that only play a single game, such as P.O.X., are also grouped here.
冰屋游戏：冰屋是一种使用彩色塑料金字塔作为棋子的游戏系统，可用于多种不同的游戏。游戏规则中提到的冰屋游戏数量足够多，因此我们将其归为单独的类别。
Icehouse game: Icehouse is a game system that uses colored plastic pyramids as the pieces for a great many different games. There were enough Icehouse games mentioned in Rules of Play that we included it as its own category.
手机游戏：此类游戏主要通过手机进行，无论是单人游戏还是多人游戏。
Mobile game: Games in this group are played primarily by using a cell phone, whether single-player or multiplayer.
在线游戏：这是一种特殊类型的数字游戏，强调以基于网络的社交互动作为主要游戏形式。此类游戏包括跨媒体游戏，例如通过互联网、传真机和电话进行的 Majestic。
Online game: This is a special type of digital game that emphasizes web-based social interaction as the primary form of play. Included in this category are trans-media games like Majestic that take place over the Internet, through fax machines, and over the telephone.
身体游戏：此类别包括 Tag 或 Marbles 等游戏，游戏玩法主要涉及身体运动和互动。这些游戏的监管程度低于“运动”类别中的游戏。
Physical game: This category includes games like Tag or Marbles in which the play of the game primarily involves physical movement and interaction. These games are less regulated than games included in the category Sport.
谜题：如定义游戏所述，谜题是只有一个正确答案或一组答案的游戏。谜题的形式多种多样，但我们引用的是使用铅笔和纸等简单材料的单人游戏。
Puzzle: As described in Defining Games, puzzles are games with a single correct answer or set of answers. Puzzles can take a wide variety of forms, but the ones we cite are single-player games that use simple materials such as pencil and paper.
角色扮演游戏：这类游戏具有高度叙事性，主要游戏形式是玩家扮演富有想象力的角色。经典的《龙与地下城》就是这类游戏的典型例子。真人角色扮演游戏，如《吸血鬼：化装舞会》也包括在内。
Role-playing game: These games are highly narrative experiences where the primary form of play involves players taking on imaginative personas. The classic Dungeons & Dragons is the prototypical example of this category of game. Live-action role-playing games such as Vampire: The Masquerade are also included here.
社交游戏：社交游戏是主要由参与者之间的社交互动组成的游戏。通常，这些游戏几乎没有或根本没有物质成分，包括各种各样的聚会游戏，如猜谜游戏、黑手党游戏和转瓶子游戏。
Social game: Social games are games in which the play consists primarily of social interaction between participants. Typically, these games have little or no material components, and include party games as diverse as Charades, Mafia, and Spin the Bottle.
运动：此类别中的游戏是通常以有组织、有规则的运动形式进行的体育游戏，通常在专门为游戏留出的空间中使用非常专业的设备。在某些情况下，被列为运动的游戏也可以构成休闲活动，例如滑雪。
Sport: The games in this category are physical games that are typically played as an organized, regulated sport—usually with very specialized equipment in a special space set aside for the game. In some cases, games listed as Sports can also constitute a leisure activity, such as Skiing.
电视游戏节目：这些游戏以电视体验的形式存在，包括《幸存者》、《危险边缘》和《谁想成为百万富翁》等节目。
Television game show: These games exist as televised experiences, and include shows like Survivor, Jeopardy, and Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
牌类游戏：此类游戏使用某种形式的模块化牌进行，包括多米诺骨牌和麻将等游戏。
Tile game: Games in this group are played with some form of modular tiles, and include games like Dominoes and Mah Jongg.
内森·麦奎伦，1994 年
Nathan McQuillen, 1994
社交游戏
Social game
20 个问题
20 Questions
传统的
Traditional
社交游戏
Social game
人工智能
A.I.
木偶大师/微软，2001
Puppet Masters / Microsoft, 2001
在线游戏
Online game
王牌中的王牌
Ace of Aces
阿尔弗雷德·莱昂纳迪，1980 年
Alfred Leonardi, 1980
以书本为基础的游戏
Book-based game
高级龙与地下城
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
（参见龙与地下城）
(see Dungeons & Dragons)
冒险
Adventure
威尔·克劳瑟和唐·伍兹，1975 年
Will Crowther and Don Woods, 1975
电脑游戏
Computer game
冒险
Adventure
沃伦·罗宾内特，1980 年
Warren Robinett, 1980
主机游戏
Console game
帝国时代
Age of Empires
合奏工作室，1997年
Ensemble Studios, 1997
电脑游戏
Computer game
小巷
Alleyway
任天堂，1989 年
Nintendo, 1989
掌上游戏
Handheld game
手臂摔跤
Arm Wresting
传统的
Traditional
物理游戏
Physical game
刺客
Assassin
传统，1966 年
Traditional, 1966
角色扮演游戏
Role-playing game
小行星
Asteroids
雅达利（Atari），1979 年
Atari, 1979
街机游戏；主机游戏
Arcade game; Console game
雅达利足球
Atari Football
雅达利（Atari），1978 年
Atari, 1978
街机游戏
Arcade game
坏家伙
Bad Dudes
数据东方，1988年
Data East, 1988
街机游戏
Arcade game
双陆棋
Backgammon
传统，约 1600 年
Traditional, circa 1600
棋盘游戏
Board game
芭比时装设计师
Barbie Fashion Designer
美泰，1996 年
Mattel, 1996
电脑游戏
Computer game
棒球
Baseball
阿布纳·道布尔戴，约 1839 年
Abner Doubleday, circa 1839
运动
Sport
篮球
Basketball
詹姆斯·奈史密斯，1891 年
James Naismith, 1891
运动
Sport
海盗黄金之战
Battle for the Buccaneer Gold
迪士尼，2001年
Disney, 2001
街机游戏
Arcade game
战斗机器人
Battlebots
喜剧中心，1998 年
Comedy Central, 1998
体育/电视游戏节目
Sport / Television game show
米尔顿·布拉德利，1967 年
Milton Bradley, 1967
棋盘游戏
Board game
战区
Battlezone
雅达利（Atari），1980 年
Atari, 1980
街机游戏
Arcade game
宝石迷阵
Bejeweled
Popcap 游戏，2001 年
Popcap Games, 2001
在线游戏
Online game
狂暴
Berzerk
斯特恩，1980 年
Stern, 1980
街机游戏
Arcade game
台球
Billiards
传统，约 1500 年
Traditional, circa 1500
运动
Sport
黑，白
Black & White
Lionhead Studios，2001年
Lionhead Studios, 2001
电脑游戏；主机游戏
Computer game; Console game
二十一点
Blackjack
传统，约 1750 年
Traditional, circa 1750
纸牌游戏
Card game
斑点
Blob
新游戏运动，约 1976 年
New Games Movement, circa 1976
物理游戏
Physical game
机器人战士
Botfighers
还活着，2001
It’s Alive, 2001
手机游戏
Mobile game
保龄球
Bowling
传统，约 1880 年
Traditional, circa 1880
运动
Sport
突围（系列）
Breakout (series)
雅达利（Atari），1976 年
Atari, 1976
街机游戏；主机游戏
Arcade game; Console game
拳击
Boxing
传统的
Traditional
运动
Sport
桥
Bridge
传统，约 1885 年
Traditional, circa 1885
纸牌游戏
Card game
调解人
Bridge-Builder
亚历克斯·奥斯汀，2000 年
Alex Austin, 2000
电脑游戏
Computer game
疯人院
Bughouse
传统，约 1965 年
Traditional, circa 1965
棋盘游戏
Board game
激情一刻
Bust-A-Groove
史克威尔艾尼克斯，1998 年
Square Enix, 1998
主机游戏；街机游戏
Console game; Arcade game
卡纳斯塔
Canasta
传统，约 1945 年
Traditional, circa 1945
纸牌游戏
Card game
糖果乐园
Candyland
米尔顿·布拉德利，1949 年
Milton Bradley, 1949
棋盘游戏
Board game
停不下来
Can’t Stop
西德·萨克森，1980 年
Sid Sackson, 1980
骰子游戏
Dice game
夺旗
Capture the Flag
传统的
Traditional
物理游戏
Physical game
查德·厄比和史蒂夫·杰克逊，1982 年
Chad Irby and Steve Jackson, 1982
棋盘游戏
Board game
卡牌游戏
The Card Game
传统的
Traditional
社交游戏
Social game
德军总部城堡
Castle Wolfenstein
缪斯，1981年
Muse, 1981
电脑游戏
Computer game
抓住龙尾
Catch the Dragon’s Tail
新游戏运动，约 1976 年
New Games Movement, circa 1976
物理游戏
Physical game
蜈
Centipede
雅达利（Atari），1980 年
Atari, 1980
街机游戏
Arcade game
猜字谜
Charades
传统的
Traditional
社交游戏
Social game
恰图兰加
Chaturanga
传统，约 650 年
Traditional, circa 650
棋盘游戏
Board game
跳棋
Checkers
传统，约 1500 年
Traditional, circa 1500
棋盘游戏
Board game
棋
Chess
传统，约 850 年
Traditional, circa 850
棋盘游戏
Board game
跳棋
Chinese Checkers
拉文斯伯格，1892 年
Ravensburger, 1892
棋盘游戏
Board game
滑梯和梯子
Chutes and Ladders
FH 艾尔斯，1892 年
F. H. Ayres, 1892
棋盘游戏
Board game
文明（系列）
Civilization (series)
微散文，1991 年
MicroProse, 1991
电脑游戏；主机游戏
Computer game; Console game
命令与征服
Command and Conquer
韦斯特伍德工作室，1995 年
Westwood Studios, 1995
电脑游戏
Computer game
酷炫寄宿生（系列）
Cool Boarders (series)
索尼，1996年
Sony, 1996
主机游戏
Console game
警察和强盗
Cops and Robbers
传统的
Traditional
物理游戏
Physical game
宇宙懦夫
Cosmic Wimpout
CQ 公司，约 1975 年
CQ Incorporated, circa 1975
骰子游戏
Dice game
反恐精英
Counter-Strike
反恐精英小队，2000 年
The Counter-Strike Team, 2000
电脑游戏
Computer game
掷骰子
Craps
约 1700 年
Circa 1700
骰子游戏
Dice game
古惑狼
Crash Bandicoot
顽皮狗，1996 年
Naughty Dog, 1996
主机游戏
Console game
蟋蟀
Cricket
传统，1700
Traditional, 1700
运动
Sport
传统，约 1830 年
Traditional, circa 1830
运动
Sport
达克提尔梦魇
Dactyl Nightmare
虚拟性，1993年
Virtuality, 1993
街机游戏
Arcade game
舞蹈革命
Dance Dance Revolution
Konami，1998 年
Konami, 1998
街机游戏；主机游戏
Arcade game; Console game
后卫
Defender
威廉姆斯，1980 年
Williams, 1980
街机游戏
Arcade game
杀出重围
Deus Ex
离子风暴，2000
Ion Storm, 2000
电脑游戏；主机游戏
Computer game; Console game
暗黑破坏神（系列）
Diablo (series)
暴雪娱乐，1996 年
Blizzard Entertainment, 1996
电脑游戏
Computer game
挖挖
Dig-Dug
南梦宫，1982 年
Namco, 1982
街机游戏
Arcade game
外交
Diplomacy
艾伦·卡尔哈默，1959 年
Allan Calhammer, 1959
棋盘游戏
Board game
躲避球
Dodge Ball
传统的
Traditional
物理游戏
Physical game
骨牌
Dominoes
传统，约 1850 年
Traditional, circa 1850
牌类游戏
Tile game
大金刚
Donkey Kong
任天堂，1981 年
Nintendo, 1981
街机游戏
Arcade game
不要叫醒爸爸
Don’t Wake Daddy
帕克兄弟，1992 年
Parker Brothers, 1992
棋盘游戏
Board game
厄运
DOOM
id 软件，1993 年
id Software, 1993
电脑游戏
Computer game
毒品战争 (Dope Wars)
Dope Wars (originally Drug Wars)
约翰·戴尔
John Dell
电脑游戏；掌上游戏
Computer game; Handheld game
双截龙
Double Dragon
台東，1986 年
Taito, 1986
街机游戏
Arcade game
画画并亲吻
Draw and Kiss
传统，约 1959 年
Traditional, circa 1959
社交游戏
Social game
司机：您是驾驶者
Driver: You are the Wheelman
反思，1999
Reflections, 1999
主机游戏
Console game
赛车挑战赛
Drome Racing Challenge
gameLab，2002年
gameLab, 2002
在线游戏
Online game
核弹公爵 3D（系列）
Duke Nuke ‘Em 3D (series)
3D 境界，1996 年
3D Realms, 1996
电脑游戏；主机游戏
Computer game; Console game
地牢围攻
Dungeon Siege
2002 年 Gas Powered Games
Gas Powered Games, 2002
电脑游戏
Computer game
戴夫·阿内森 & 加里·吉盖克斯，1973 年
Dave Arneson & Gary Gygax, 1973
角色扮演游戏
Role-playing game
地球球
Earthball
新游戏运动，约 1976 年
New Games Movement, circa 1976
体力遊戲
Physical Game
快钱
Easy Money
米尔顿·布拉德利，约 1955 年
Milton Bradley, circa 1955
棋盘游戏
Board game
元素
Elemental
Team Elemental，未发表
Team Elemental, unpublished
电脑游戏
Computer game
魔法森林
Enchanted Forest
米歇尔·马特塞乔斯和亚历克斯·兰道夫，1992 年
Michel Matsechoss and Alex Randolph, 1992
棋盘游戏
Board game
忍耐之吻
Endurance Kissing
传统，约 1959 年
Traditional, circa 1959
社交游戏
Social game
尤克牌
Euchre
传统，约 1860 年
Traditional, circa 1860
纸牌游戏
Card game
无尽的任务
EverQuest
Verant Interactive，1999 年
Verant Interactive, 1999
在线游戏
Online game
击剑
Fencing
传统，约 1670 年
Traditional, circa 1670
运动
Sport
最终幻想（系列）
Final Fantasy (series)
史克威尔艾尼克斯，1990 年
Square Enix, 1990
主机游戏
Console game
手电筒
Flashlight
传统，约 1959 年
Traditional, circa 1959
社交游戏
Social game
体液
FLUID
gameLab，2002年
gameLab, 2002
电脑游戏
Computer game
通量
Flux
安德鲁·鲁尼，1997 年
Andrew Looney, 1997
纸牌游戏
Card game
足球
Football
沃尔特·坎普，1879 年
Walter Camp, 1879
运动
Sport
四方
Foursquare
传统的
Traditional
运动
Sport
生命的游戏
The Game of Life
约翰·康威，1970 年
John Conway, 1970
益智游戏；电脑游戏
Puzzle; Computer game
手套（系列）
Gauntlet (series)
雅达利（Atari），1985 年
Atari, 1985
街机游戏；主机游戏
Arcade game; Console game
齿轮箱
Gearheads
R/GA Interactive，1996 年
R/GA Interactive, 1996
电脑游戏
Computer game
杜松子酒
Gin
传统，约 1920 年
Traditional, circa 1920
纸牌游戏
Card game
去
Go
传统，约公元前 2000 年
Traditional, circa 2000 BCE
棋盘游戏
Board game
传统，约 1585 年
Traditional, circa 1585
纸牌游戏
Card game
高尔夫球
Golf
传统，约 1450 年
Traditional, circa 1450
运动
Sport
诺斯替教
Gnostica
约翰·库珀，2001
John Cooper, 2001
冰屋游戏
Icehouse game
Gran Turismo（系列）
Gran Turismo (series)
复调数码，1998年
Ployphony Digital, 1998
主机游戏
Console game
侠盗猎车手 III（系列）
Grand Theft Auto III (series)
摇滚明星北方，2001
Rockstar North, 2001
主机游戏
Console game
GURPS：通用角色扮演系统
GURPS: Generic Universal Role-Playing System
史蒂夫·杰克逊，约 1986 年
Steve Jackson, circa 1986
角色扮演游戏系统
Role-playing game system
体操
Gymnastics
传统，1896 年
Traditional, 1896
运动
Sport
半衰期
Half-Life
Valve 软件，1998 年
Valve Software, 1998
电脑游戏；主机游戏
Computer game; Console game
红心
Hearts
传统，约 1880 年
Traditional, circa 1880
纸牌游戏
Card game
十六进制
Hex
皮特·海因，1942 年
Piet Hein, 1942
棋盘游戏
Board game
捉迷藏
Hide-And-Seek
传统的
Traditional
物理游戏
Physical game
好莱坞广场
Hollywood Squares
NBC，1965年
NBC, 1965
电视游戏节目
Television game show
亡灵之家
House of the Dead
世嘉，1997年
Sega, 1997
街机游戏；主机游戏
Arcade game; Console game
冰球
Ice Hockey
传统，约 1850 年
Traditional, circa 1850
运动
Sport
冰窖
Icehouse
安德鲁·鲁尼和约翰·库珀，1991 年
Andrew Looney and John Cooper, 1991
冰屋游戏
Icehouse game
光明会
Illuminati
史蒂夫·杰克逊，1982 年
Steve Jackson, 1982
棋盘游戏
Board game
杰克与达斯特
Jak & Daxter
顽皮狗，2001
Naughty Dog, 2001
主机游戏
Console game
詹姆斯·邦德 007 特工火线
James Bond 007 In Agent Under Fire
电子艺界，2001年
Electronic Arts, 2001
主机游戏
Console game
危险
Jeopardy
NBC，1964年
NBC, 1964
电视游戏节目
Television game show
喷射研磨电台
Jet Grind Radio
Smilebit，2000
Smilebit,2000
主机游戏
Console game
威廉姆斯，1982 年
Williams, 1982
街机游戏
Arcade game
垃圾机器人（系列）
Junkbot (series)
gameLab，2001年
gameLab, 2001
电脑游戏
Computer game
踢罐子
Kick the Can
传统的
Traditional
物理游戏
Physical game
杀手（参见刺客）
Killer (see Assassin)
战争游戏
Kriegspiel
冯·赖斯维茨中尉，1824 年
Lt. von Reisswitz, 1824
棋盘游戏
Board game
L 游戏
The L Game
爱德华·德博诺，约 1974 年
Edward DeBono, circa 1974
棋盘游戏
Board game
地主的游戏
The Landlord’s Game
莉齐·玛吉，1904 年
Lizzie Magie, 1904
棋盘游戏
Board game
小麦克斯
Little Max
传统的
Traditional
骰子游戏
Dice game
环形
LOOP
游戏实验室,2002
gameLab,2002
电脑游戏
Computer game
指环王棋盘游戏
Lord of the Rings Board Game
雷纳·克尼齐亚，2000
Reiner Knizia, 2000
棋盘游戏
Board game
疯狂杂志游戏
Mad Magazine Game
派克兄弟，1979年
Parker Brothers, 1979
棋盘游戏
Board game
黑手党
Mafia
传统的
Traditional
社交游戏
Social game
万智牌
Magic: The Gathering
理查德·加菲尔德，1993年
Richard Garfield, 1993
纸牌游戏
Card game
麻將
Mah Jongg
传统，约 1880 年
Traditional, circa 1880
牌类游戏
Tile game
雄伟
Majestic
电子艺界，2001年
Electronic Arts, 2001
在线游戏
Online game
曼卡拉
Mancala
传统，约公元前 3000 年
Traditional, circa 3000 BCE
棋盘游戏
Board game
马拉松（系列赛）
Marathon (series)
Bungie 软件，1994 年
Bungie Software, 1994
电脑游戏
Computer game
弹珠
Marbles
传统，约公元前 100 年
Traditional, circa 100 BCE
物理游戏
Physical game
马里奥兄弟（系列）
Mario Bros. (series)
任天堂，1983 年
Nintendo, 1983
街机游戏；主机游戏；掌上游戏
Arcade game; Console game; Handheld game
火星双陆棋
Martian Backgammon
安德鲁·鲁尼，1997 年
Andrew Looney, 1997
冰屋游戏
Icehouse game
因维克塔，1972 年
Invicta, 1972
棋盘游戏
Board game
马克思佩恩
Max Payne
3D 境界，2001 年
3D Realms, 2001
电脑游戏；主机游戏
Computer game; Console game
洛克人（系列）
Mega Man (series)
Capcom，1987 年
Capcom, 1987
主机游戏；掌上游戏
Console game; Handheld game
记忆
Memory
传统的
Traditional
纸牌游戏
Card game
合金装备（系列）
Metal Gear Solid (series)
韩国中央日报，1998
KCEJ, 1998
主机游戏
Console game
银河战士（系列）
Metroid (series)
任天堂，1985 年
Nintendo, 1985
主机游戏
Console game
米尔斯·伯恩斯
Milles Bournes
派克兄弟，1954 年
Parker Brothers, 1954
纸牌游戏
Card game
导弹指令
Missile Command
雅达利（Atari），1980 年
Atari, 1980
街机游戏；主机游戏
Arcade game; Console game
垄断
Monopoly
查尔斯·B·达罗，1933 年
Charles B. Darrow, 1933
棋盘游戏
Board game
真人快打（系列）
Mortal Kombat (series)
中途岛，1992 年
Midway, 1992
街机游戏；主机游戏
Arcade game; Console game
妈妈 我可以吗？
Mother May I?
传统的
Traditional
物理游戏
Physical game
捕鼠器
Mousetrap
理想，1963 年
Ideal, 1963
棋盘游戏
Board game
吃豆小姐
Ms. Pac-Man
南梦宫，1982 年
Namco, 1982
街机游戏；主机游戏
Arcade game; Console game
音乐椅
Musical Chairs
传统的
Traditional
物理游戏
Physical game
神秘岛
Myst
青色，1993年
Cyan, 1993
电脑游戏
Computer game
神话：堕落之王
Myth: The Fallen Lords
Bungie 软件，1997 年
Bungie Software, 1997
电脑游戏
Computer game
NBA 场边（系列）
NBA Courtside (series)
Left Field Productions，1998 年
Left Field Productions, 1998
主机游戏
Console game
NBA 直播（系列）
NBA Live (series)
电子艺界，1995 年
Electronic Arts, 1995
主机游戏；电脑游戏
Console game; Computer game
NeoPets
NeoPets
NeoPets Inc，1999 年
NeoPets Inc, 1999
在线游戏
Online game
网上行者
Netrunner
威世智，1995 年
Wizards of the Coast, 1995
纸牌游戏
Card game
Bioware，2002年
Bioware, 2002
电脑游戏；网络游戏
Computer game; Online game
夜间司机
Night Driver
雅达利（Atari），1976 年
Atari, 1976
街机游戏
Arcade game
奇异世界（系列）
Oddworld (series)
奇异世界居民，1997
Oddworld Inhabitants, 1997
主机游戏；电脑游戏
Console game; Computer game
奥运会十项全能
Olympic Decathlon
传统，1896 年
Traditional, 1896
运动
Sport
曾几何时
Once Upon a Time
Richard Lambert、Andrew Rilstone 和
Richard Lambert, Andrew Rilstone, and
詹姆斯·沃利斯，1993 年
James Wallis, 1993
纸牌游戏
Card game
奥赛罗
Othello
刘易斯·沃特曼，1888 年
Lewis Waterman, 1888
棋盘游戏
Board game
痘病毒
P.O.X.
孩之宝，2001 年
Hasbro, 2001
掌上游戏
Handheld game
吃豆人
Pac-Man
南梦宫，1980 年
Namco, 1980
街机游戏；主机游戏
Arcade game; Console game
说唱歌手帕拉帕
Parappa the Rapper
互联互通，1997
Interlink, 1997
主机游戏
Console game
传递橙子
Pass the Orange
传统，约 1959 年
Traditional, circa 1959
社交游戏
Social game
捡起棍棒
Pick-Up Sticks
传统的
Traditional
物理游戏
Physical game
画图猜词
Pictionary
罗伯·安吉尔，1986 年
Rob Angel, 1986
棋盘游戏
Board game
猪
Pig
传统的
Traditional
骰子游戏
Dice Game
领航之翼
Pilotwings
任天堂，1990 年
Nintendo, 1990
主机游戏
Console game
乒乓球（见乒乓球）
Ping Pong (see Table Tennis)
匹诺克牌
Pinochle
传统，约 1900 年
Traditional, circa 1900
纸牌游戏
Card game
坠落星球
Planetfall
史蒂夫·梅雷茨基/Infocom，1983年
Steve Meretsky / Infocom, 1983
电脑游戏
Computer game
神奇宝贝
Pokémon
任天堂，1998 年
Nintendo, 1998
掌上游戏；主机游戏；卡牌游戏
Handheld game; Console game; Card game
扑克
Poker
传统，约 1820 年
Traditional, circa 1820
纸牌游戏
Card game
乒乓
Pong
雅达利（Atari），1972 年
Atari, 1972
街机游戏；主机游戏；电脑游戏
Arcade game; Console game; Computer game
Take-Two Interactive，1998 年
Take-Two Interactive, 1998
电脑游戏
Computer game
力量石（系列）
Powerstone (series)
Capcom，1999 年
Capcom, 1999
主机游戏
Console game
雷神之锤（系列）
Quake (series)
id Software，1996 年
id Software, 1996
电脑游戏；网络游戏；主机游戏
Computer game; Online game; Console game
壁球
Racquetball
乔·索贝克，1949 年
Joe Sobek, 1949
运动
Sport
RAM机器人
RAMbots
科里·希思，2001
Kory Heath, 2001
冰屋游戏
Icehouse game
风险
Risk
阿尔伯特·拉莫里斯，1959 年
Albert Lamorisse, 1959
棋盘游戏
Board game
机械王 2084
Robotron 2084
威廉姆斯，1982 年
Williams, 1982
街机游戏
Arcade game
剪刀石头布
Rock-Paper-Scissors
传统的
Traditional
物理游戏
Physical game
轮盘赌
Roulette
传统，约 1900 年
Traditional, circa 1900
骰子游戏
Dice game
橄榄球
Rugby
传统，约 1800 年
Traditional, circa 1800
运动
Sport
拼字游戏
Scrabble
阿尔弗雷德·M·巴茨，1948 年
Alfred M. Butts, 1948
棋盘游戏
Board game
水手
Seaman
动物饲养箱，2000
Vivarium, 2000
主机游戏
Console game
猴岛的秘密（系列）
Secret of Monkey Island (series)
卢卡斯艺术，1990 年
LucasArts, 1990
电脑游戏
Computer game
卡坦岛的定居者
Settlers of Catan
克劳斯·特贝尔，1995 年
Klaus Teuber, 1995
棋盘游戏
Board game
莎木（系列）
Shenmue (series)
世嘉，2000 年
Sega, 2000
主机游戏
Console game
寂静岭（系列）
Silent Hill (series)
Konami，1999 年
Konami, 1999
主机游戏
Console game
模拟城市（系列）
Sim City (series)
马克西斯，1989 年
Maxis, 1989
电脑游戏
Computer game
模拟直升机
Sim Copter
马克西斯，1996 年
Maxis, 1996
电脑游戏
Computer game
模拟生活
SimLife
马克西斯，1992 年
Maxis, 1992
电脑游戏
Computer game
西门说
Simon Says
传统的
Traditional
社交游戏
Social game
马克西斯，2000 年
Maxis, 2000
电脑游戏；主机游戏
Computer game; Console game
西斯西格玛 2000
SiSSYFiGHT 2000
Word.com，2000 年
Word.com, 2000
在线游戏
Online game
滑雪
Skiing
传统，约 1880 年
Traditional, circa 1880
运动
Sport
足球
Soccer
传统，约 1850 年
Traditional, circa 1850
运动
Sport
垒球
Softball
传统，约 1930 年
Traditional, circa 1930
运动
Sport
单人纸牌游戏（多种变体）
Solitaire (many variations)
传统，约 1600 年
Traditional, circa 1600
纸牌游戏
Card game
太空侵略者
Space Invaders
台東1978
Taito 1978
街机游戏
Arcade games
太空大战！
Spacewar!
史蒂夫·拉塞尔，1962 年
Steve Russell, 1962
电脑游戏
Computer game
旋转瓶子
Spin the Bottle
传统的
Traditional
社交游戏
Social game
间谍对间谍（系列）
Spy Vs. Spy (series)
肯科，1986 年
Kemko, 1986
电脑游戏；主机游戏
Computer game; Console game
间谍机器人：夜幕降临事件
Spybot: The Nightfall Incident
gameLab，2002年
gameLab, 2002
电脑游戏
Computer game
SSX（系列）
SSX (series)
电子艺界，2000 年
Electronic Arts, 2000
主机游戏
Console game
起来
Stand Up
新游戏运动，约 1976 年
New Games Movement, circa 1976
物理游戏
Physical game
星际争霸
Starcraft
暴雪娱乐，1998 年
Blizzard Entertainment, 1998
电脑游戏
Computer game
紧急状态
State of Emergency
VIS 娱乐，2002 年
VIS Entertainment, 2002
主机游戏
Console game
活着
Stay Alive
米尔顿·布拉德利，1971 年
Milton Bradley, 1971
棋盘游戏
Board game
隐身棋
Stealth Chess
Dice Corp，1997 年
Dice Corp, 1997
棋盘游戏
Board game
斯特拉特戈
Stratego
米尔顿·布拉德利，1961 年
Milton Bradley, 1961
棋盘游戏
Board game
街头霸王（系列）
Street Fighter (series)
Capcom，1987 年
Capcom, 1987
街机游戏；主机游戏
Arcade game; Console game
相扑
Sumo Wrestling
传统，约 712 年
Traditional, circa 712
运动
Sport
超级马里奥（参见马里奥兄弟）
Super Mario (see Mario Bros.)
超级猴子球（系列）
Super Monkey Ball (series)
娱乐视觉，2001
Amusement Vision, 2001
游戏立方体
GameCube
幸存者
Survivor
哥伦比亚广播公司，2000 年
CBS, 2000
电视游戏节目
Television game show
怀疑
Suspicion
埃里克·齐默曼，1995 年
Eric Zimmerman, 1995
纸牌游戏
Card game
系统冲击（系列）
System Shock (series)
镜子工作室，1994 年
Looking Glass Studios, 1994
电脑游戏；主机游戏
Computer game; Console game
乒乓球
Table Tennis
J. Jaques & Son，约 1890 年
J. Jaques & Son, circa 1890
运动
Sport
标签
Tag
传统的
Traditional
物理游戏
Physical game
坦克
Tanktics
克里斯·克劳福德，1978 年
Chris Crawford, 1978
电脑游戏
Computer game
铁拳
Tekken
南梦宫，1995 年
Namco, 1995
街机游戏；主机游戏
Arcade game; Console game
电话
Telephone
传统的
Traditional
社交游戏
Social game
暴风雨
Tempest
雅达利（Atari），1981 年
Atari, 1981
街机游戏
Arcade game
网球
Tennis
沃尔特·温菲尔德，1873 年
Walter Wingfield, 1873
运动
Sport
俄罗斯方块
Tetris
Alexy Pajnitov，约 1986 年
Alexy Pajnitov, circa 1986
电脑游戏；掌上游戏；主机游戏
Computer game; Handheld game; Console game
小偷（系列）
Thief (series)
镜子工作室，1998 年
Looking Glass Studios, 1998
电脑游戏
Computer game
薄冰
Thin Ice
雅各布·达文波特，约 2001 年
Jacob Davenport, circa 2001
冰屋游戏
Icehouse game
雷雨
Thunderstorm
传统的
Traditional
骰子游戏
Dice game
弹球游戏
Tiddlywinks
约瑟夫·阿什顿·芬奇，1888 年
Joseph Assheton Fincher, 1888
物理游戏
Physical game
時間危機
Time Crisis
南梦宫，1996 年
Namco, 1996
街机游戏；主机游戏
Arcade game; Console game
古墓丽影（系列）
Tomb Raider (series)
核心设计，1996年
Core Design, 1996
主机游戏；电脑游戏
Console game; Computer game
托尼霍克职业滑板手（系列）
Tony Hawk Pro Skater (series)
Neversoft 娱乐，1999 年
Neversoft Entertainment, 1999
主机游戏
Console game
Cavedog 娱乐，1997 年
Cavedog Entertainment, 1997
电脑游戏
Computer game
玩具
Toys
埃里克·齐默曼，2000
Eric Zimmerman, 2000
社交游戏
Social game
平凡的追求
Trivial Pursuit
克里斯·哈尼和斯科特·阿伯特，1981 年
Chris Haney and Scott Abbot, 1981
棋盘游戏
Board game
扭转者
Twister
查尔斯·福利和尼尔·拉本斯，1966 年
Charles Foley and Neil Rabens, 1966
物理游戏
Physical game
创世纪（系列）
Ultima (series)
理查德·加里奥特/《起源》，1980年
Richard Garriot / Origin, 1980
电脑游戏；网络游戏
Computer game; Online game
嗯，贾默·拉米
Um Jammer Lammy
索尼，1999年
Sony, 1999
主机游戏
Console game
环球广场
Universal Square
尤里·察伊格，1996 年
Uri Tzaig, 1996
运动
Sport
乌诺
Uno
梅尔·罗宾斯，1971 年
Merle Robbins, 1971
纸牌游戏
Card game
虚幻（系列）
Unreal (series)
Epic Megagames，1998 年
Epic Megagames, 1998
电脑游戏；主机游戏
Computer game; Console game
沿河而上
Up the River
曼弗雷德·路德维希，1988 年
Manfred Ludwig, 1988
棋盘游戏
Board game
吸血鬼
Vampire
新游戏运动，约 1976 年
New Games Movement, circa 1976
物理游戏
Physical game
吸血鬼：化装舞会
Vampire: The Masquerade
白狼，1992
White Wolf, 1992
角色扮演游戏
Role-playing game
言语网球
Verbal Tennis
传统的
Traditional
社交游戏
Social game
虚拟现实战士（系列）
Virtua Fighter (series)
世嘉，1993年
Sega, 1993
街机游戏；主机游戏
Arcade game; Console game
火山
Volcano
克里斯汀·鲁尼，2002年
Kristin Looney, 2002
冰屋游戏
Icehouse game
排球
Volleyball
威廉·G·摩根，1895 年
William G. Morgan, 1895
运动
Sport
战争
War
传统的
Traditional
纸牌游戏
Card game
魔兽争霸：兽人与人类（系列）
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans (series)
暴雪娱乐，1994 年
Blizzard Entertainment, 1994
电脑游戏
Computer game
战锤（系列）
Warhammer (series)
游戏工作室，1983 年
Games Workshop, 1983
棋盘游戏
Board game
谁愿意成为百万富翁
Who Wants to be a Millionaire
Celador，1998
Celador,1998
电视游戏节目
Television game show
精神错乱，1996
Psygnosis, 1996
主机游戏
Console game
德军总部 3D
Wolfenstein 3D
id Software，1992 年
id Software, 1992
电脑游戏
Computer game
鲁莽行事：Yakuzi 任务
Wreckless: The Yakuzi Missions
文化社游戏，2002
Bunkasha Games, 2002
主机游戏
Console game
亚齐
Yatzee
米尔顿·布拉德利，1956 年
Milton Bradley, 1956
骰子游戏
Dice game
你不了解杰克（系列）
You Don’t Know Jack (series)
果冻视觉，1995 年
Jellyvision, 1995
电脑游戏；网络游戏
Computer game; Online game
扎尔卡纳
Zarcana
约翰·库珀，2001
John Cooper, 2001
冰屋游戏
Icehouse game
扎克森
Zaxxon
世嘉，1982 年
Sega, 1982
街机游戏
Arcade game
塞尔达传说（系列）
Zelda (series)
任天堂，1987 年
Nintendo, 1987
主机游戏；掌上游戏
Console game; Handheld game
禅堂
Zendo
科里·希思，2001
Kory Heath, 2001
冰屋游戏
Icehouse game
Zork（系列）
Zork (series)
Marc Blank 和 Dave Lebling / Infocom，1980 年
Marc Blank & Dave Lebling / Infocom, 1980
电脑游戏
Computer game
< http://www.about.com >。
< http://www.classicgaming.com >。
<http://www.classicgaming.com>.
< http://www.classicgaming.com >。
<http://www.classicgaming.com>.
< http://www.gamecabinet.com >。
Kent, Stephen L.。《电子游戏的终极历史》（加利福尼亚州罗斯维尔：Prima Publishing，2001 年）。
Kent, Stephen L.. The Ultimate History of Video Games (Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing, 2001).
< http://www.looneylabs.com >。
Parlett, David。《牛津纸牌游戏词典》（纽约：牛津大学出版社，1992 年）。
Parlett, David. The Oxford Dictionary of Card Games (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).
Parlett, David。《牛津棋盘游戏史》（纽约：牛津大学出版社，1999 年）。
Parlett, David. The Oxford History of Board Games (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).
斯卡波恩，德西。棋盘游戏（宾夕法尼亚州阿特格伦：Schiffer Publishing，1995）。
Scarpone, Desi. Board Games (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1995).
指数
INDEX
Aarseth，Espen J.，416
Aarseth, Espen J., 416
艾布拉姆斯，珍妮特，568
Abrams, Janet, 568
抽象，439
abstractions, 439
王牌中的王牌，422、425-427
行动
action
和意识，337
and awareness, 337
意义，273，367–368
和结果，354
and outcome, 354
模式，407
patterns of, 407
审查，413
review of, 413
有节奏的，341
rhythmic, 341
另请参阅身体动作；程式化行为
See also physical movements; stylized behavior
动作冒险，523–524
action-adventure, 523–524
激活剂，214–218
activators, 214–218
另请参阅突破
See also Breakout
埃里克·阿迪纳尔（Eric Addinall）423
Addinall, Eric, 423
冒险故事，523
adventure stories, 523
非裔美国奴隶，517
African-American slaves, 517
帝国时代，508
Age of Empires, 508
在 Quake 中，335
in Quake, 335
人工智能游戏，575–577
The A.I. Game, 575–577
网站，586
website, 586
亚历山大，克里斯托弗，4-5
Alexander, Christopher, 4–5
爱丽丝梦游仙境，368–370
Alice in Wonderland, 368–370
小巷，322–323
Alleyway, 322–323
埃米利奥·安巴斯（Emilio Ambasz）40 岁
Ambasz, Emilio, 40
歧义
ambiguity
和游戏定义，301
and play definition, 301
动物之森，364
Animal Crossing, 364
动漫，560
Animé, 560
街机游戏
arcade games
吸引力, 336
attraction of, 336
冲突，251–253
conflict in, 251–253
和快乐，330
and pleasure, 330
规则，145
rules, 145
另请参阅特定游戏
See also specific games
艺术，78
art, 78
人为性
artificiality
和合作，256
and cooperation, 256
和文化，572–573
and culture, 572–573
上下文，104
context, 104
环境，585–586，587
游戏中定义，75、77–78、80、83
in game definition, 75, 77–78, 80, 83
和意义，371–372
and meaning, 371–372
保护框架，94–99
protective frame, 94–99
和规则，123–124，125
另请参阅模拟
See also simulation
ASCII 文本，414
ASCII text, 414
小行星
Asteroids
选择，65
choices, 65
互动性，63
interactivity, 63
叙述
narrative
描述符，400–401
descriptors, 400–401
虚构世界，401–402
fictive world, 401–402
空间，394–396
space, 394–396
听觉辨别，316
auditory discrimination, 316
自动化，88–89
automation, 88–89
埃夫登，EM ，9、28、61、78、188、512、533
Avedon, E. M., 9, 28, 61, 78, 188, 512, 533
艾伦·艾科克533
Aycock, Alan, 533
Barbie Fashion Designer, 333, 507
理查德·巴特尔（ Richard Bartle），465–466，486，488
Bartle, Richard, 465–466, 486, 488
篮球
Basketball
冲突形式，250
conflict form, 250
和文化，509–510
and culture, 509–510
有意义的游戏，33
meaningful play, 33
奈史密斯原则，505–506
Naismith’s principles, 505–506
rule-breaking, 273–274, 276–277
贝特森，格雷戈里，371，373，449–450
Bateson, Gregory, 371, 373, 449–450
战斗机器人，454
BattleBots, 454
战列舰，206
Battleship, 206
战区，394
Battlezone, 394
野兽，575–577
The Beast, 575–577
网站，586
website, 586
behavior theory, 344–350, 350, 361
宝石迷阵，334
Bejeweled, 334
大卫·贝洛（David Berlo）45 岁
Berlo, David, 45
贝塔朗菲，路德维希·冯，195
Bertalanffy, Ludwig von, 195
台球
Billiards
和机会，173
and chance, 173
快乐，341
pleasure, 341
黑箱综合症，88–89
Black Box Syndrome, 88–89
二十一点
Blackjack
冲突形式，250
conflict form, 250
专注的玩家，270
dedicated players, 270
和互动性，61
and interactivity, 61
快乐，341
pleasure, 341
黑色冲击，562
Blacklash, 562
斑点，438–439
Blob, 438–439
虚张声势
bluffing
魔法森林，205–206
in Enchanted Forest, 205–206
和博弈论，237
and game theory, 237
作为战略，164
as strategy, 164
棋盘游戏
board games
和选择，64–65
and choice, 64–65
和社区，463
and community, 463
具有数字特征，90
with digital traits, 90
和出现，164
and emergence, 164
人体工程学，115
ergonomics, 115
和概率，179
and probability, 179
另请参阅《指环王》棋盘游戏；
See also Lord of the Rings Board Game;
兄弟姐妹间的竞争；特定游戏
Sibling Rivalry; specific games
博德利，约翰·H.，512
Bodley, John H., 512
博尔特，杰·戴维，452，456，458
Bolter, Jay David, 452, 456, 458
博纳西亚，玛丽亚，587
Bonasia, Maria, 587
无聊，350–353
boredom, 350–353
机器人斗士，573
Botfighters, 573
爆发
Breakout
成瘾，68，313，314
核心机制，319–323
core mechanic, 319–323
叙述，399
narrative, 399
快乐，340
pleasure, 340
空间，394
space, 394
另请参阅超级突围
See also Super Breakout
突破，321
Breakthru, 321
布鲁克曼，艾米，511
Bruckman, Amy, 511
Destruct 办公室，602
Büro Destruct, 602
Bust-A-Groove，316
Bust-A-Groove, 316
罗杰·卡卢瓦，75–76、82、179、260、262、326、331
Caillois, Roger, 75–76, 82, 179, 260, 262, 326, 331
游戏类别，307–309，314，335
on play categories, 307–309, 314, 335
锻炼，17
exercise, 17
蛋糕部门，239–241
Cake Division, 239–241
友情，483
camaraderie, 483
卡梅伦，安迪，58–59
Cameron, Andy, 58–59
坎贝尔，杰里米，152，158，159–160，169，191，200，213，366
Campbell, Jeremy, 152, 158, 159–160, 169, 191, 200, 213, 366
停不下来，110
Can’t Stop, 110
标题，408
captions, 408
卡片组
card decks
和文化，511
and culture, 511
作为游戏系统，546
as game system, 546
和规则，120–121
and rules, 120–121
和不确定性，208
and uncertainty, 208
纸牌游戏，203
card games, 203
另请参阅《加勒比之星》《铁甲》《深闺疑云》；特定游戏
See also Caribbean Star; Ironclad; Suspicion; specific games
加勒比之星
Caribbean Star
发展，592–599
development, 592–599
测试，599–601
testing, 599–601
汽车大战，448–449
Car Wars, 448–449
基于案例的模拟，445–448，457
case-based simulation, 445–448, 457
Cassell, Justine, 522–523, 532
约翰· L ·卡斯蒂，127、136、154、169、183–184
Casti, John L., 127, 136, 154, 169, 183–184
德军总部城堡，560
Castle Wolfenstein, 560
捉龙尾，257–258，529
Catch the Dragon’s Tail, 257–258, 529
手机，573
cell phones, 573
细胞自动机，161–163
cellular automata, 161–163
蜈
Centipede
基本要素，324–325
basic elements, 324–325
体验式游戏，325–326
experiential play, 325–326
叙述，381
narrative, 381
确定性，175
certainty, 175
另请参阅不确定性
See also uncertainty
挑战
challenge
dynamic difficulty adjustment, 222–223, 227, 352
和心流状态，350–351
and flow state, 350–351
缺乏，350–353
lack of, 350–353
负强化，348
negative reinforcement as, 348
在 Sneak，491
in Sneak, 491
机会
chance
和游戏玩法，179–180
and game play, 179–180
有意义的，187
meaningful, 187
和有意义的游戏，180
and meaningful play, 180
制定战略，185–186
strategizing, 185–186
雷暴示例，180–182
Thunderstorm example, 180–182
改变。另请参阅控制论系统；动态难度调整 (DDA)
change. See also cybernetic systems; dynamic difficulty adjustment (DDA)
改变规则（练习），18
Change the Rules (exercise), 18
性格，453–455
character of, 453–455
和文化抵抗，558
and cultural resistance, 558
迪士尼，562
Disney, 562
as narrative element, 380, 418
在公开比赛中，538–539
in open game, 538–539
和球员，454–455，526
程序性，435–439
procedural, 435–439
在地震中，562
in Quake, 562
in Ultima Online, 538–539, 558
人物
characters
和符号学，42
and semiotics, 42
猜字谜
Charades
冲突，434
conflict, 434
理想规则与现实规则，310
ideal vs. real rules, 310
快乐，340
pleasure, 340
信号传输，196–197
signal transmission, 196–197
四柱岩，516–517
Chaturanga, 516–517
作弊代码，279
cheat codes, 279
作弊
cheating
边界，275–276
boundaries of, 275–276
与退化策略相比， 272
vs. degenerate strategy, 272
悖论，274–275
paradox of, 274–275
规则，277–279
rules for, 277–279
认可（光照派），277–279
sanctioned (Illuminati), 277–279
and SiSSYFIGHT 2000, 280, 565–566
棋
Chess
成瘾，355
addiction, 355
选择，65
choices, 65
针对计算机，164
against computer, 164
作为控制论系统，218
as cybernetic system, 218
出现，164
emergence, 164
作为格斗游戏，594
as fighting game, 594
游戏玩法，310
as game play, 310
和博弈论，236
and game theory, 236
和铁甲舰，297
and Ironclad, 297
意义系统，366
meaning system, 366
元游戏模型，482
metagame model, 482
叙述，381
narrative, 381
叙事空间，390
narrative space, 390
随机性，176
randomness, 176
打破，277
breaking, 277
隐含的，130
implicit, 130
作为信息，205
as information, 205
符号学，42
semiotics, 42
破坏运动，275
spoil-sports, 275
变革性游戏，305
transformative play, 305
不确定性，175
uncertainty, 175
奇克·加里，533
Chick, Garry, 533
孩子们
children
非裔美国奴隶，517
African-American slaves, 517
男孩冒险故事，523
boy adventure stories, 523
和清晰度，137
and clarity, 137
Foursquare 示例，474–478
Foursquare example, 474–478
以色列，517
Israeli, 517
和快乐，330–331
and pleasure, 330–331
另请参阅计数
See also Counting Out
中国跳棋，175–176，342
Chinese Checkers, 175–176, 342
分析，62–65
analysis of, 62–65
和过场动画，410–411
and cutscenes, 410–411
失败国家，65–66
failure states, 65–66
微观与宏观，69
micro- vs. macro-, 69
在模拟中，446
in simulations, 446
获利或继续，110
take profit or continue, 110
另请参阅加固
See also Reinforcement
丘奇，道格，9，62，68，326，343–344，384
Church, Doug, 9, 62, 68, 326, 343–344, 384
滑梯和梯子
Chutes and Ladders
机会，179–180
chance, 179–180
决策树，234
decision tree, 234
信息, 204
information, 204
魔法阵，96
magic circle, 96
玩家角色，465
player roles, 465
快乐，342
pleasure, 342
重新设计想法，132–133
redesign ideas, 132–133
文明，508
Civilization, 508
清晰度，137
clarity, 137
经典条件作用，344–350
classical conditioning, 344–350
斗篷与匕首，495–497
Cloak and Dagger, 495–497
合作。参见合作
collaboration. See cooperation
颜色编码，367–368
color-coding, 367–368
组合概率，177
combined probability, 177
命令与征服，273
Command and Conquer, 273
沟通
communication
和人工智能游戏，576
and the A.I. Game, 576
即时通讯系统，413
instant messaging system, 413
在 LARP 中，579
in LARPs, 579
信使网络，153–154，160–161
messenger network, 153–154, 160–161
元沟通，371–372,374,449–452,458
metacommunication, 371–372, 374, 449–452, 458
和亚文化，568
and subculture, 568
通过游戏，462–463
via game play, 462–463
另请参阅信息论；信号传输
See also information theory; signal transmission
通信网络, 89
communication network, 89
作为复杂系统，153–154，160–161
as complex system, 153–154, 160–161
社区
community
澄清，463
clarification, 463
契约，471–475
contract for artifice, 471–475
开放或关闭，470–471
open or closed, 470–471
复述，412
retelling, 412
另请参阅社交游戏
See also social play
比较器，214–218
comparators, 214–218
竞赛
competition
《捉龙尾》第 257–258 页
in Catch the Dragon’s Tail, 257–258
批评，255–257
criticism of, 255–257
公平，260–263
fairness, 260–263
游戏定义，74–75
in game definition, 74–75
在元游戏模型中，483
in metagame model, 483
和时间，259–261
and time, 259–261
零和游戏，255
zero-sum games, 255
另请参阅冲突
See also conflict
编译器/反编译器，414
compilers/decompilers, 414
复杂
complexity
自动化，88–89
automation of, 88–89
设计方面，4-5
in design, 4–5
meaningful play, 156–158, 165, 170
信使通信网络，153–154，160–161
messenger communication network, 153–154, 160–161
负面特征，155
negative traits, 155
范围，154–156
range of, 154–156
国际象棋，164
Chess, 164
在课堂上，15
in classroom, 15
在数字游戏中，86–90
in digital games, 86–90
和随机性，183–184
and randomness, 183–184
和规则，142
and rules, 142
井字游戏，142
Tic-Tac-Toe, 142
隐瞒，203
concealment, 203
另请参阅欺骗
See also deception
冲突
conflict
《蜈蚣》第 251–252 页、第 258 页
文化，529–531
cultural, 529–531
形式，250，254，265
and game definition, 74–78, 80
和游戏设计，254–255
and game design, 254–255
（间接）250–251
(in)direct, 250–251
和知识，433–434，457
公平竞争环境，260–263，265
level playing field, 260–263, 265
LOOP 案例研究，259–261
LOOP case study, 259–261
叙述，387–388，418
新游戏运动，256–258
New Games Movement, 256–258
在模拟中，431–434
in simulations, 431–434
另请参阅竞争
See also competition
意识，453–455
consciousness, 453–455
主机游戏，221–222
console games, 221–222
构成规则
constituative rules
《蛇梯棋》第 132–133 页
in Chutes and Ladders, 132–133
定义，130
definition, 130
在数字游戏中，146–147，149
in digital games, 146–147, 149
and operational rules, 132–133, 135–136, 139
限制，330–331
constraints, 330–331
语境
context
文化，86，94，104-105
和流动状态，339
and flow state, 339
游戏数量：41
of games, 41
和互动，384
and interaction, 384
and meaning, 273, 366, 367–368, 373
和模拟，445–448
and simulation, 445–448
社交游戏，462–463
social play, 462–463
和系统框架，52
and system framing, 52
另请参阅文化
See also culture
契约，471–475
contract for artifice, 471–475
康威，约翰，161
Conway, John, 161
酷炫寄宿生，508
Cool Boarders, 508
冷却系统，214–217
cooling system, 214–217
库珀，约翰，546
Cooper, John, 546
合作
cooperation
和游戏定义，74–75
and game definition, 74–75
和奢侈的态度，256
and lusory attitude, 256
位于环球广场，563–564
in Universal Square, 563–564
协调，315
coordination, 315
core mechanic, 316–322, 327, 340
和日常生活，579
and everyday life, 579
和叙述，388–389
and narrative, 388–389
腐败热线，24
corruption line, 24
宇宙懦夫，110
Cosmic Wimpout, 110
科斯蒂基安，格雷格，9 , 78 , 82 , 379 , 411 , 484
Costikyan, Greg, 9, 78, 82, 379, 411, 484
《反恐精英》，385–386，564
Counting Out, 185–186, 268, 565
coupled object interactions, 162, 170
考恩，乔治·A，54岁
Cowan, George A., 54
掷骰子，60
Craps, 60
古惑狼，222–223
Crash Bandicoot, 222–223
克劳福德，克里斯，8 , 59 , 68 , 77 , 249
Crawford, Chris, 8, 59, 68, 77, 249
批判性话语，2-3
critical discourse, 2–3
克劳馥，劳拉。参见《古墓丽影》
Croft, Lara. See Tomb Raider
槌球，370
Croquet, 370
米哈伊·奇克森米哈伊，332、336–338、350、352、358、360
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, 332, 336–338, 350, 352, 358, 360
文化冲突，529–531
cultural conflict, 529–531
文化背景，86，94，104-105
cultural context, 86, 94, 104–105
文化环境
cultural environment
AI游戏示例，575–577
the A.I. Game example, 575–577
and artificiality, 585–586, 587
时事，581
current events, 581
设计重点，21
design focus, 21
锻炼，21
exercise, 21
和游戏定义，572
and game definition, 572
和游戏设计，584–586
and game design, 584–586
意识形态，581–584
ideology, 581–584
隐含规则，573–574
implicit rules, 573–574
隐形游乐场，578–579
invisible playground, 578–579
空间因素, 578–579
spatial factors, 578–579
文化环境分析（练习），21
Cultural Environment Analysis (exercise), 21
文化学习，507–508，513，534
cultural learning, 507–508, 513, 534
文化表征，510–511，513
cultural representations, 510–511, 513
文化抵抗
cultural resistance
作弊，565–566
to cheating, 565–566
do-it-yourself (DIY) gaming, 559, 569
锻炼，17
exercise, 17
并置，561–564
juxtaposition, 561–564
mods as, 559–560
重塑，563–565
reinvention, 563–565
策略，559–565
strategies, 559–565
另请参阅《彩票的修辞》；《特定地点的抵抗》
See also The Rhetoric of the Lottery; Site-Specific Resistance
文化修辞，516–517，534
cultural rhetoric, 516–517, 534
文化文本，510–511，513
文化
culture
和人为的，572
and artificiality, 572
超越对象的交互性，60
beyond-the-object interactivity, 60
设计为，511–512
design as, 511–512
粉丝，60，411–413，509
和虚构的世界，403
and fictive worlds, 403
和流动状态，339
and flow state, 339
作为框架，507–508
as framework, 507–508
隐含规则，573–574
implicit rules, 573–574
和知识冲突，434
and knowledge conflict, 434
开放（见开放文化）
open (see open culture)
作为开放系统，97，105，539，581
as open system, 97, 105, 539, 581
朋克音乐，559
punk music, 559
规则，121
rules in, 121
模式描述，6，104–105，507
schema description, 6, 104–105, 507
结构，508–509
structures, 508–509
亚文化，568
subcultures, 568
玩具示例，529–531
Toys example, 529–531
和转型，507，513，526-529，534，552
and transformation, 507, 513, 526–529, 534, 552
价值观，516–517
values, 516–517
时事，581
current events, 581
光标，61–62
cursor, 61–62
控制论分析（练习），20
Cybernetic Analysis (exercise), 20
控制论系统
cybernetic systems
篮球示例，218–219
Basketball example, 218–219
和行为理论，350
and behavior theory, 350
简要说明，20
brief description, 20
《蛇梯棋》第 223–224 页
in Chutes and Ladders, 223–224
难度调整（DDA），222–223，227
difficulty adjustment (DDA), 222–223, 227
在数字游戏中，219–221
in digital games, 219–221
元素，214–217，218
和游戏设计，222–223、224–226、227、228
and game design, 222–223, 224–226, 227, 228
玩家控制，225–226
player control, 225–226
达克提尔梦魇，394
Dactyl Nightmare, 394
舞蹈革命，463
Dance Dance Revolution, 463
戴维斯，莫顿 D.，232
Davis, Morton D., 232
爱德华·德博诺357
De Bono, Edward, 357
权力下放，576
decentralization, 576
欺骗
deception
在刺客中，137
in Assassin, 137
隐瞒，203
concealment, 203
和信息，205
and information, 205
和有意义的游戏，157–158
and meaningful play, 157–158
在 Thief 中，145
in Thief, 145
《吸血鬼：化装舞会》，580
in Vampire: The Masquerade, 580
另请参阅作弊
See also cheating
决定
decisions
和无聊，352
and boredom, 352
和出现，167–168
and emergence, 167–168
魔法森林，208
in Enchanted Forest, 208
和游戏定义，74
and game definition, 74
在博弈论中，237
in game theory, 237
《正面还是反面》第 157–158 页
in Heads-or-Tails, 157–158
和有意义的游戏，157–158
and meaningful play, 157–158
获利或继续，110
take profit or continue, 110
另请参阅选择；强化
See also choice; reinforcement
决策树，232–235，245
一副牌，120–121
deck of cards, 120–121
另请参阅卡片组
See also card decks
反编译器，414
decompilers, 414
dedicated players, 268–271, 285
定义
definitions
设计，40–41
of design, 40–41
退化策略，241，246，271–274，285
degenerate strategies, 241, 246, 271–274, 285
DeKoven ，Bernard ， 21，96，174，187，255–256，257，267，268，281–282，283，331–332，461，470–471，473–475，528
DeKoven, Bernard, 21, 96, 174, 187, 255–256, 257, 267, 268, 281–282, 283, 331–332, 461, 470–471, 473–475, 528
Della Roca，Jason，9岁
Della Roca, Jason, 9
德梅雷骑士，177
De Méré, Chevalier, 177
演示，414–415
demos, 414–415
De Rosnay，J.，215
De Rosnay, J., 215
德里达的机械论，292
Derridean mech, 292
descriptors, 399–401, 404, 419
另请参阅叙述性描述符
See also narrative descriptors
设计
design
复杂性，4-5
complexity, 4–5
作为文化，511–512
as culture, 511–512
定义，41
definition, 41
游戏系统，547–550
of game system, 547–550
互动性，60–67
of interactivity, 60–67
意义，41–46
meaning, 41–46
原型设计，12
prototyping, 12
模拟，439–442，457
另请参阅游戏设计
See also game design
设计工具，540，548-550
欲望、雕刻，340–341
desire, sculpting, 340–341
不稳定，18-19
destabilization, 18–19
不稳定（演习），18–19
Destabilization (exercise), 18–19
Destruct，办公室，602
Destruct, Büro, 602
骰子
dice
示例游戏，181–182、467–468
example games, 181–182, 467–468
和信息理论，194
and information theory, 194
概率，177–179
probability, 177–179
难度，动态调整（DDA），222–223，227，352–353
difficulty, dynamic adjustment (DDA), 222–223, 227, 352–353
数字游戏
digital games
角色和玩家，454
characters and players, 454
作弊，279–280
cheating, 279–280
控制论，219–221
cybernetics, 219–221
不信任，262
distrust, 262
DIY 心态，559
DIY mentality, 559
复活节彩蛋，279
Easter eggs, 279
事件整合，354–355
event integration, 354–355
公平，262
fairness, 262
和游戏定义，86
and game definition, 86
作为游戏系统，548–550
as game systems, 548–550
性别，522–523
gender in, 522–523
指南和演练，279
guides and walkthroughs, 279
沉浸式谬误，450–452
immersive fallacy, 450–452
信息，209–210
information in, 209–210
信息操纵，88
information manipulation, 88
互动性，87
interactivity, 87
水平，261，386，391
中等影响，91
medium effect, 91
剪辑场景，406–408
cut scenes, 406–408
叙事空间，392–398
narrative space, 392–398
网络通信，89
networked communication, 89
玩家设计，539–544
player design, 539–544
快乐，334–335
pleasure, 334–335
保护框架, 95
protective frame, 95
重复性，323
repetitiveness, 323
研究协会，602
research association, 602
规则，142–149
rules, 142–149
自动化复杂性，88–89
automated complexity, 88–89
和反馈，220
and feedback, 220
《俄罗斯方块》第 86–87 页、第 143–145 页
马鞍点，241
saddle point, 241
单人与多人游戏，462
single vs. multiple players, 462
空间，392–396
space, 392–396
冒险示例，396–398
Adventure example, 396–398
活下去，90
Stay Alive, 90
解决方法, 280
workarounds, 280
另请参阅特定游戏
See also specific games
克莱夫·迪尔诺特（Clive Dilnot）40 岁
Dilnot, Clive, 40
直接干预，58-59
direct intervention, 58–59
怀疑，暂停，450
disbelief, suspension of, 450
辨别能力
discernability
活动，354
of events, 354
和叙述性描述，404
and narrative descriptors, 404
354结果
of outcome, 354
迪士尼人物，562
Disney characters, 562
自己动手（DIY）游戏，559–564，569
do-it-yourself (DIY) gaming, 559–564, 569
多米诺骨牌，509
Dominos, 509
大金刚，316
Donkey Kong, 316
别叫醒爸爸346
Don’t Wake Daddy, 346
厄运
DOOM
作弊代码，279
cheat codes, 279
斗鸡补丁，560
Fighter Chicken patch, 560
叙述，378
narrative, 378
玩家兼制作人，540，550，567
player-as-producer, 540, 550, 567
快乐，354
pleasure, 354
朋克摇滚，559
and punk rock, 559
重新审视，414
recams, 414
美少女战士 Wad，560
Sailor Moon Wad, 560
空间，394
space, 394
毒品战争，507
Dope Wars, 507
Driver: You Are the Wheelman, 378, 415
赛车挑战赛
Drome Racing Challenge
信息，209–210
information, 209–210
叙述案例研究，405–407，409
narrative case study, 405–407, 409
不确定性，388
uncertainty, 388
毁灭公爵，507
Duke Nukem’, 507
邓肯，玛格丽特·C.，533
Duncan, Margaret C., 533
龙与地下城
Dungeons & Dragons
和游戏定义，81
and game definition, 81
作为叙事系统，406
as narrative system, 406
并复述，413
and retelling, 413
地牢围攻，548–550
Dungeon Siege, 548–550
Dunnigan, James, 88–89, 442, 443
动态难度调整（DDA ），222–223、227、352–353
dynamic difficulty adjustment (DDA), 222–223, 227, 352–353
地球球，528–529
Earthball, 528–529
复活节彩蛋，279
Easter eggs, 279
信息经济，208-209
economy of information, 208–209
爱丁顿，亨利，423
Eddington, Henry, 423
爱德华兹，保罗·N.，148
Edwards, Paul N., 148
埃尼-米尼-米尼-莫伊，185
Eenie-meenie-miney-moe, 185
效率
efficiency
态度，98
lusory attitude, 98
规则，77
rules, 77
缺乏体育精神的球员，271
unsportsmanlike players, 271
元素，548–550
Elemental, 548–550
电子邮件, 576
E-Mail, 576
嵌入式叙述，383–385，402，406–408，418
embedded narrative, 383–385, 402, 406–408, 418
《黑暗季节》，579–580
in Seasons of Darkness, 579–580
出现，159–163
emergence, 159–163
设计，165–171
design for, 165–171
《生命游戏》第 161–163 页
in The Game of Life, 161–163
在游戏中，163–171
in games, 163–171
意义，366–367
of meaning, 366–367
叙述，383–385、402、418、579–580
of narrative, 383–385, 402, 418, 579–580
通过电子邮件，576
by email, 576
对象交互，160–161
object interactions, 160–161
玩家兼制作人，540
player-as-producer, 540
玩家行为，538–539
of player behavior, 538–539
愉悦，353–354
of pleasure, 353–354
和规则，166–168
and rules, 166–168
在模拟中，446
in simulations, 446
社交游戏，466–470
of social play, 466–470
情绪，448
emotions, 448
魔法森林，206
Enchanted Forest, 206
订婚
engagement
与成瘾，356
vs. addiction, 356
基本概念，329，333–334，336，339–341
basic concepts, 329, 333–334, 336, 339–341
生成元游戏（练习），17
Engendering the Metagame (exercise), 17
熵，191
entropy, 191
环境。参见文化环境
environment. See cultural environment
埃庇米尼德悖论，449–450
Epimenides’ Paradox, 449–450
爱泼斯坦，理查德，174–175、177、186、236
Epstein, Richard, 174–175, 177, 186, 236
人体工程学，115
ergonomics, 115
欧内斯特·詹姆斯（588–601 ）
Ernest, James, 588–601
Eskelinen，Markku，8岁
Eskelinen, Markku, 8
尤克牌，208–209
Euchre, 208–209
事件
events
目前，581
current, 581
可辨别性，354
discernability, 354
外部, 69
external, 69
整合，354–355，361
负面，186
negative, 186
审查，413
review of, 413
连续, 186
successive, 186
意外的（见出现）
unexpected (see emergence)
无尽的任务
EverQuest
和游戏定义，81
and game definition, 81
有意义的游戏，33
meaningful play, 33
开源软件，548
open source software, 548
复述，413
retelling, 413
违反规则，280
rule-breaking, 280
练习，16-21
exercises, 16–21
经验
experience
《蜈蚣》，326
in Centipede, 326
core mechanic, 316–322, 327, 340
作为目的与手段，331–333
as end vs. means, 331–333
并进入游戏，94
and entering game, 94
互动, 316
interactive, 316
和意义，368
and meaning, 368
在元游戏模型中，482–483
in metagame model, 482–483
随着时间的推移，351
over time, 351
重复性，323
repetitiveness, 323
相同但不同，340–342，361
same-but-different, 340–342, 361
和俄罗斯方块，86
and Tetris, 86
另请参阅游戏；乐趣；社交游戏
See also play; pleasure; social play
明确的互动性，60
explicit interactivity, 60
exploits, 241, 246, 271–274, 285
精致的尸体游戏游戏（练习），16
The Exquisite Corpse Game Game (exercise), 16
外部事件, 69
external events, 69
费伯，利兹，602
Faber, Liz, 602
公平，260–265
fairness, 260–265
谬误
fallacies
沉浸式，450–451，452，453，455，458
immersive, 450–451, 452, 453, 455, 458
概率，186
of probability, 186
法尔斯坦，诺亚，603
Falstein, Noah, 603
熟悉度，340–341
familiarity, 340–341
粉丝，60，411–413，509
人工智能游戏，576–577
of the A.I. Game, 576–577
幻想游戏团体，417
fantasy gaming groups, 417
命运，518–519
fate, 518–519
传真，576
faxes, 576
反馈
feedback
关于相对分数，254
about relative scores, 254
《蛇梯棋》第 223–224 页
in Chutes and Ladders, 223–224
and difficulty adjustment, 222–223, 227
例外，357–359
exception, 357–359
稳定性，224–225
stability, 224–225
反馈回路
feedback loops
basic concept, 214–215, 219–225, 227
篮球，218–219
in Basketball, 218–219
《蛇梯棋》第 223–224 页
in Chutes and Ladders, 223–224
在数字赛车游戏中，219–221
in digital racing games, 219–221
虚构的世界，401–402，419
另请参阅模拟
See also simulation
格斗游戏，594
fighting games, 594
另请参阅特定游戏
See also specific games
《最终幻想 VII》，453
Final Fantasy VII, 453
Findeli，Alain，46岁
Findeli, Alain, 46
很好，加里·艾伦，417，454，456，458
Fine, Gary Alan, 417, 454, 456, 458
第一人称射击游戏（FPS），550–551
first-person-shooter (FPS) games, 550–551
固定加固，346–348
fixed reinforcement, 346–348
心流状态，336–339 ，350–353，360
flow state, 336–339, 350–353, 360
弗鲁格尔曼，安德鲁，21，264，456，486，533
Fluegelman, Andrew, 21, 264, 456, 486, 533
流体，210
FLUID, 210
字体，602
fonts, 602
足球，62，233–234，432
另请参阅足球
See also Soccer
禁忌游戏，478–481，489
《怀疑》第 583–584 页
in Suspicion, 583–584
尼克·福图尼奥(578–581)
Fortugno, Nick, 578–581
犯规，276
fouls, 276
400规则项目，603
400 Rules Project, 603
四方，475–478
Foursquare, 475–478
碎片皇后，562
frag queens, 562
框架
frame
认知，370–371
cognitive, 370–371
进入，94–99
entry into, 94–99
模拟，449–450
of simulation, 449–450
弗拉斯卡，贡萨洛，603
Frasca, Gonzalo, 603
自由，73–81，528，545，567
另请参阅选择；玩家作为制作人
See also choice; player-as-producer
自由玩耍，331
free play, 331
冻结标签，579
Freeze Tag, 579
友谊，462
friendships, 462
轻浮，518–519
frivolity, 518–519
趣味，334
fun, 334
功能交互性，59
functional interactivity, 59
增益，75
gain, 75
遊戲
game(s)
作为文化，538 （另见文化环境）
as culture, 538 (see also cultural environment)
进入，333
entry into, 333
正式与非正式，74
formal vs. informal, 74
身份，134–136，139
非对抗性，74
non-adversarial, 74
开放式，83，538–544，552（另见玩家作为制作人）
open-ended, 83, 538–544, 552 (see also player-as-producer)
与游戏，72–73、75、83、303、311
vs. play, 72–73, 75, 83, 303, 311
和现实，295
and reality, 295
作为信号处理系统，204
as signal processing systems, 204
（另见系统）
(see also systems)
关于的理论，4
theories about, 4
实用性，331–333
utility, 331–333
另请参阅街机游戏；棋盘游戏；数字游戏；格斗游戏；赛车游戏；实时战略 (RTS) 游戏；单人游戏；战争游戏
See also arcade games; board games; digital games; fighting games; racing games; real-time strategy (RTS) games; single-player games; war games
游戏与观看画廊，144–145
Game and Watch Gallery, 144–145
游戏设计，60–67，互动性
game design, 60–67, interactivity
和选择，61–66 （另见选择）
and choice, 61–66 (see also choice)
复杂性，156–158 （另见复杂性）
complexity, 156–158 (see also complexity)
冲突，254–255 （另见冲突）
conflict, 254–255 (see also conflict)
和文化环境，584–586
and cultural environment, 584–586
（另见文化环境）
(see also cultural environment)
和文化修辞，516–517，534
and cultural rhetoric, 516–517, 534
课程，9
curriculum, 9
控制论，222–228 （另见控制论系统）
cybernetics, 222–228 (see also cybernetic systems)
决策树，234–235，245
定义，80
definition, 80
退化策略，241，246，271–274，285
degenerate strategies, 241, 246, 271–274, 285
作为纪律，xv，1
as discipline, xv, 1
出现，165–171 （另见出现）
emergence, 165–171 (see also emergence)
参与，329，333–334，336，339–341
engagement, 329, 333–334, 336, 339–341
（另见参与度）
(see also engagement)
基础知识，6-7
fundamentals, 6–7
and information theory, 198–199, 201
（另见信息论）
(see also information theory)
（不）稳定性，224–225
(in)stability, 224–225
魔法阵，94–99 （另见魔法阵）
magic circle, 94–99 (see also magic circle)
和意义，41
and meaning, 41
有意义的游戏，32–36 （另见有意义的游戏）
meaningful play, 32–36 (see also meaningful play)
元游戏，484–485
of metagames, 484–485
参数选择，17–18
parameter selection, 17–18
和球员专业知识，412
and player expertise, 412
玩家，539–544
by players, 539–544
和球员风格，270–271，284
and player styles, 270–271, 284
and probability, 177–179, 186–187, 194–195
资源，602–603
resources, 602–603
和违反规则，281–282，285
and rule-breaking, 281–282, 285
图式，5–6
schemas, 5–6
as second-order design, 168, 171
space of possibility, 66–67, 69 (see also space of possibility)
另请参阅交互性
see also interactivity
游戏设计师
game designers
文化大体上，41
culture at large as, 41
游戏开发流程
game development process
加勒比之星，592–599
Caribbean Star, 592–599
铁甲舰，292–297
Ironclad, 292–297
Lord of the Rings Board Game, 26, 27
兄弟姐妹间的竞争，110–115
Sibling Rivalry, 110–115
潜行，494–495
Sneak, 494–495
gameLab，463
gameLab, 463
长途，89
at long-distance, 89
叙述，411–413
narrative about, 411–413
录制/编辑，414–415
recording/editing, 414–415
另请参阅有意义的游戏；游戏
See also meaningful play; play
游戏作为社交游戏（练习），21
Games as Social Play (exercise), 21
游戏状态，218
game state, 218
游戏系统，17，546–550
脚本，23–24
scripted, 23–24
另请参阅系统
See also systems
决策树，232–235
decision trees, 232–235
和设计，243–244
and design, 243–244
zero-sum games, 239–242, 246, 255
博弈论游戏，236–243
game theory games, 236–243
蛋糕部门，239–241
Cake Division, 239–241
配套硬币，242
Matching Pennies, 242
囚徒困境，242–243
Prisoner’s Dilemma, 242–243
加尔，托比，524
Gard, Toby, 524
加德纳，马丁，161
Gardener, Martin, 161
另请参阅兄弟姐妹间的竞争
See also Sibling rivalry
燃气动力游戏，548–550
Gas Powered Games, 548–550
手套
Gauntlet
社交游戏，466
social play, 466
空间，394
space, 394
齿轮箱，166–167
Gearheads, 166–167
网站，567
website, 567
generalized simulation, 445–448, 457
吉伦斯，贾罗，602
Gielens, Jaro, 602
金酒，205–206
Gin, 205–206
女子运动会，532
Girl Games movement, 532
Girlich，Uwe，414
Girlich, Uwe, 414
玻璃珠游戏，296
Glass Bead Game, 296
去
Go
出现，164–165
emergence, 164–165
信息，210
information, 210
互动性，61
interactivity, 61
和铁甲舰，297
and Ironclad, 297
规则，103–104
rules, 103–104
目标
goals
和竞争，258
and competition, 258
在 LOOP 中，259
in LOOP, 259
和叙述，385–387，418
例如405–407
example, 405–407
and pleasure, 337, 342–344, 361
戈夫曼，欧文，454
Goffman, Erving, 454
黄金，348
Gold, 348
Goldstein, Kenneth, 185, 267, 268, 475
冈萨雷斯，耶稣 M.，545
Gonzalez, Jesus M., 545
贡佐，110
Gonzo, 110
良好的运动精神。参见体育精神
good sports. See sportsmanship
戈芬克尔，埃琳娜，451–452
Gorfinkel, Elena, 451–452
哥特亚文化，521–522
Goth subculture, 521–522
侠盗猎车手III，364，402，510
Grand Theft Auto III, 364, 402, 510
Gran Turismo 3, 413–414, 441, 452
图形，602
graphics, 602
网格，156–157
The Grid, 156–157
网格
grids
决定，239–240，246
游戏定义元素，79
game definition elements, 79
游戏类别，308
of play categories, 308
对于玩家角色，464
for player roles, 464
游戏修辞，519
rhetorics of play, 519
战争游戏，443–445
war games, 443–445
恶心，34
Gross-Out, 34
Grusin, Richard, 452, 456, 458
侠盗猎车手III 、402、408、510
猜测
guessing
在填字游戏中，198
in crossword puzzles, 198
和信息理论，194–195
and information theory, 194–195
和概率，104–195
and probability, 104–195
重复，158
repeated, 158
盖盖克斯，加里，81岁
Gygax, Gary, 81
黑客攻击，280–281
hacking, 280–281
罗恩·黑尔·埃文斯553
Hale-Evans, Ron, 553
半衰期
Half-Life
反恐精英模组，564
Counter-Strike mod, 564
心流状态，350
flow state, 350
操作条件作用，348
operant-conditioning, 348
球员变化，552
player changes, 552
霍尔，贾斯汀，564
Hall, Justin, 564
Hallford，Jana ，345，367–368，437，445
Hallford, Jana, 345, 367–368, 437, 445
Hallford，Neal ，345，367–368，437，445
Hallford, Neal, 345, 367–368, 437, 445
汉斯·詹姆斯· S .，298，305，341
哈里斯，特里西娅“卡齐·雷恩”，553
Harris, Tricia “Kazi Wren,” 553
霍克，托尼。参见Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3
Hawk, Tony. See Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3
海尔斯，凯瑟琳，226
Hayles, Katherine, 226
智力游戏，483
head games, 483
正面还是反面，156–157
Heads-or-Tails, 156–157
改进的设计，157–158
improved design, 157–158
希思，科里，295
Heath, Kory, 295
加热系统，214–217
heating system, 214–217
赫布迪格，迪克，568
Hebdige, Dick, 568
琼·海姆斯科克，560
Heemskerk, Joan, 560
赫尔曼·伦纳德，603
Herman, Leonard, 603
赫伦，RE，464
Herron, R. E., 464
赫兹， JC ，336，342–343，540，603
Herz, J. C., 336, 342–343, 540, 603
约翰·赫斯克特（John Heskett）40 岁
Heskett, John, 40
赫斯，赫尔曼，296
Hess, Herman, 296
十六进制，296
Hex, 296
Hickey, Dave, 274, 505–506, 532
曲棍球，276
Hockey, 276
Holland, John, 159–160, 164, 169, 244
好莱坞广场，434
Hollywood Squares, 434
家庭主妇（游戏组），484–485
homemakers (game group), 484–485
家庭规则，123
home rules, 123
胡赫塔莫，埃尔基，559–560
Huhtamo, Erkki, 559–560
约翰·惠津加，32、75、95、99、264、274–275、303、331、486、565、573
Huizinga, Johann, 32, 75, 95, 99, 264, 274–275, 303, 331, 486, 565, 573
亨尼克，罗宾，9岁
Hunicke, Robin, 9
超媒体，452–453，458
冰室套装，546–548
Icehouse Set, 546–548
身份，扮演，518–519
identity, play as, 518–519
伊克基翁乌，533
Ikekeonwu, 533
在 Quake 中，336
in Quake, 336
想象力，518–519
imagination, 518–519
immersive fallacy, 450–455, 458
不完全信息，204–206，211
imperfect information, 204–206, 211
隐含规则，130
implicit rules, 130
《蛇梯棋》第 133–134 页
in Chutes and Ladders, 133–134
and cultural environment, 573–574, 587
and operational rules, 133–134, 139
和社交游戏，474–475
and social play, 474–475
和体育精神，271
and sportsmanship, 271
信息
information
和选择，64
and choice, 64
和数字游戏，88、90、209–210
and digital games, 88, 90, 209–210
经济体，208–211
economies, 208–211
经济，208–209
economy of, 208–209
《魔法森林》第 206 至 207 页
in Enchanted Forest, 206–207
在反馈回路中，215
in feedback loops, 215
战争迷雾，209
fog of war, 209
隐藏动作，209
hidden moves, 209
和意义，368
and meaning, 368
元叙事，580
meta-narratives, 580
（不）完美，204–206，211
采购，491
purchasing, 491
随机，205–207
random, 205–207
秘密地点，209
secret locations, 209
和战略，207–208
and strategy, 207–208
and uncertainty, 193–197, 201, 205, 208
信息操纵（练习），16
Information Manipulation (exercise), 16
信息论
information theory
基本概念，192–194
basic concepts, 192–194
和游戏设计，198–199
and game design, 198–199
意义，193
on meaning, 193
不确定性，193–197，201 （另见不确定性）
uncertainty, 193–197, 201 (see also uncertainty)
不稳定，224
instability, 224
即时通讯系统，413
instant messaging system, 413
一体化
integration
事件，354–355，361
和有意义的游戏，35–37
and meaningful play, 35–37
和叙述性描述，404
and narrative descriptors, 404
互动性
interactivity
在人工智能游戏中，577
in the A.I. Game, 577
基本单位, 69
basic unit, 69
超越对象，60
beyond-the-object, 60
选择，61–66
choice, 61–66
认知，59
cognitive, 59
和光标，61–62
and cursor, 61–62
和数字技术，87
and digital technology, 87
在新兴叙事中，384
in emergent narrative, 384
和外部事件, 69
and external events, 69
功能, 59
functional, 59
游戏定义，77
in game definition, 77
关键概念，67
key concepts, 67
和意义，368
and meaning, 368
and narrative descriptors, 400, 404
玩家视角，66–67
player perspective, 66–67
在社交游戏中，488
in social play, 488
《俄罗斯方块》145–146
in Tetris, 145–146
和不确定性，187
and uncertainty, 187
内部事件, 69
internal events, 69
国际游戏开发者协会，603
International Game Developers Ass’n, 603
课程，9
curriculum, 9
解释性参与，59
interpretive participation, 59
直接干预，58–59
intervention, direct, 58–59
隐形游乐场，578–579
invisible playground, 578–579
铁甲
Ironclad
简要说明，13-14
brief description, 13–14
发展，292–297
development, 292–297
游戏，286–291
play, 286–291
和退化策略，274
and degenerate strategy, 274
和互动性，59
and interactivity, 59
《兄弟姐妹间的竞争》第 111–115 页
in Sibling Rivalry, 111–115
杰克逊，史蒂夫，448
Jackson, Steve, 448
杰克和达斯特，204，383–384
詹姆斯邦德 007 特工火线，411
James Bond 007 In Agent Under Fire, 411
詹金斯，亨利，2–3，390，416，502，511，522–523，532，553，568
Jenkins, Henry, 2–3, 390, 416, 502, 511, 522–523, 532, 553, 568
Jet Grind 电台，510
Jet Grind Radio, 510
Jodi.org，560
Jodi.org, 560
Johnson, Steven, 151, 161, 169
约翰逊，托马斯·W.，486
Johnson, Thomas W., 486
乔纳斯·沃尔夫冈49 岁
Jonas, Wolfgang, 49
马上长矛比武，252–253，258
尤尔、杰斯珀、4、64、68、379、380、416
Juul, Jesper, 4, 64, 68, 379, 380, 416
killers (player style), 466, 488
金·艾米·乔，511
Kim, Amy Jo, 511
金·斯科特（Kim Scott），80岁
Kim, Scott, 80
金德，玛莎，396
Kinder, Marsha, 396
接吻游戏，479–480
kissing games, 479–480
另请参阅旋转瓶子
See also Spin the Bottle
莱纳·克尼齐亚, 22–27 , 177 , 180–183 , 188 , 263 , 467
Knizia, Reiner, 22–27, 177, 180–183, 188, 263, 467
另请参阅信息
See also information
科斯特，拉尔夫，280
Koster, Ralph, 280
克劳斯·克里彭多夫46 岁
Krippendorff, Klaus, 46
Krzywinska，Tanya ，411，416
Langton, Christopher, 169, 170
语言，306
language, 306
Lantz, Frank, ix–xi, 9 , 167 , 450
Lantz, Frank, ix–xi, 9, 167, 450
另请参阅铁甲
See also Ironclad
Laramée, François Dominic, 450, 484
实况角色扮演游戏
LARPs
核心机制，389–390
core mechanic, 389–390
文化环境，578
cultural environment, 578
禁忌游戏，481
forbidden play, 481
球员变化，552
player changes, 552
社交游戏，466
social play, 466
感人，579
touching, 579
劳雷尔，布伦达，58，62，67，379，511，522–523
Laurel, Brenda, 58, 62, 67, 379, 511, 522–523
学习
learning
感知模式，316
perceptual patterns, 316
勒布朗，马克，128、138、218–219、224、228、334–335、383、446–447
LeBlanc, Marc, 128, 138, 218–219, 224, 228, 334–335, 383, 446–447
伦纳德，乔治，528
Leonard, George, 528
莱昂纳迪，阿尔弗雷德，425
Leonardi, Alfred, 425
利维，史蒂文，161
Levy, Steven, 161
L游戏，357–359
The L Game, 357–359
说谎者悖论，449–450
Liar’s Paradox, 449–450
Life, The Game of, 161–163, 170
局限性
limitations
和快乐，330–331
and pleasure, 330–331
社交游戏，485
of social play, 485
时间，129，474，600
Linux，545
Linux, 545
Littlejohn，Stephen W.，50–51、58、96、160、192–193、200、214–215、226
Littlejohn, Stephen W., 50–51, 58, 96, 160, 192–193, 200, 214–215, 226
小马克斯，467–468
Little Max, 467–468
位置, 104
location, 104
锻炼，17
exercise, 17
逻辑，237
logic, 237
长距离比赛，89
long-distance play, 89
远射，186
long-shots, 186
安迪·鲁尼546
Looney, Andy, 546
指环王棋盘游戏
Lord of the Rings Board Game
冲突，432
conflict, 432
设计，22–24
design of, 22–24
迭代，26-27
iteration, 26–27
测试，24–26
testing, 24–26
零和博弈，240
and zero-sum games, 240
洛杉矶迪士尼，562
Los Disneys, 562
另请参阅机会；不确定性
See also chance; uncertainty
游戏活动，303–309
ludic activity, 303–309
另请参阅
See also play
Ludology.org，603
Ludology.org, 603
艾伦·卢普顿（Ellen Lupton）46 岁
Lupton, Ellen, 46
幻想态度
lusory attitude
基本概念，77，97–99，574
和合作，255-256
and cooperation, 255–256
和隐含规则，574
and implicit rules, 574
和快乐，331
and pleasure, 331
机械电影，550–551
machinima, 550–551
麦凯，丹尼尔，586
Mackay, Daniel, 586
Mad Magazine Game, 517–518, 519
黑手党，392，468–469，510
万智牌：聚会 (万智牌)
Magic: The Gathering (Magic)
冲突，433
conflict, 433
degenerate strategies, 272, 273
出现，168
emergence, 168
规则，123
rules, 123
魔法阵，94–99
magic circle, 94–99
作弊，275–276
cheating, 275–276
认知框架，370
cognitive frame, 370
合作，256
cooperation, 256
edge blurring, 578–579, 581, 585–586
公平，262
fairness, 262
metacommunication, 371–372, 374
在公开比赛中，552–554
in open games, 552–554
玩家角色，465–466
player roles, 465–466
快乐，331–333
pleasure, 331–333
抵抗，569
resistance, 569
模拟，450
simulations, 450
破坏运动，275
spoil-sports, 275
玛吉，莉齐，520
Magie, Lizzie, 520
麻将，546
Mah Jongg, 546
庄严时期，572–573
Majestic, 572–573
虚构，76，307，371-372
make-believe, 76, 307, 371–372
曼宁，弗兰克·E.，475
Manning, Frank E., 475
马诺维奇，列夫，141
Manovich, Lev, 141
地图，443–445
maps, 443–445
大理石，474
Marbles, 474
马库斯，格雷尔，559
Marcus, Greil, 559
马丁，本，102
Martin, Ben, 102
配套硬币，242
Matching Pennies, 242
物质收益，75
material gain, 75
马克思·佩恩，408
Max Payne, 408
Mäyrä，Frans，416
Mäyrä, Frans, 416
麦克马洪，费利西亚 R.，486
McMahon, Felicia R., 486
意义，41–47
meaning(s), 41–47
《爱丽丝梦游仙境》，368–370
in Alice in Wonderland, 368–370
常识与无稽之谈，373
common sense vs. nonsense, 373
上下文，273，366，367–368，373，374
context, 273, 366, 367–368, 373, 374
文化，509–510
cultural, 509–510
解释，372
interpretation, 372
玩家/角色体验方面，454
in player/character experience, 454
表征宇宙，364
representational universe, 364
在社交游戏中，462
in social play, 462
有意义的游戏
meaningful play
和机会，179–183，189
和选择，61–66、179、196、199、201
and choice, 61–66, 179, 196, 199, 201
在《滑梯与梯子》中，137
in Chutes and Ladders, 137
核心概念，354
core concept, 354
设计
design of
魔法森林，205–206
in Enchanted Forest, 205–206
例外，357–359
exception, 357–359
和反馈回路，225
and feedback loops, 225
《正面还是反面》，第 157–158 页
in Heads or Tails, 157–158
and information, 194–195, 208, 211
水平，509
levels of, 509
玩家作为制作人，541–544
player-as-producer, 541–544
和快乐，344
and pleasure, 344
和随机性，189
and randomness, 189
鞍点，241
saddle points, 241
和模拟，425–427
and simulation, 425–427
和社交游戏，462
and social play, 462
和不确定性，174
and uncertainty, 174
梅克林，杰伊，486
Mechling, Jay, 486
媒体，451–452
media, 451–452
迈耶，锡德，434
Meier, Sid, 434
戴维·梅尔策（David Meltzer）54 岁
Meltzer, David, 54
记忆，207
memory, 207
信使通信网络，153–154，160–161
messenger communication network, 153–154, 160–161
元沟通，371–372,374,449–452,458
metacommunication, 371–372, 374, 449–452, 458
锻炼，17
exercise, 17
元叙事，580
meta-narratives, 580
银河战士系列，性别，526
Metroid series, gender, 526
迈耶斯，塔米，578
Meyers, Tami, 578
微软公司，575–577
Microsoft Corp., 575–577
米勒，J.阿博特，46岁
Miller, J. Abbott, 46
米勒，J .希利斯，380–381，385，418
Miller, J. Hillis, 380–381, 385, 418
米尔斯·伯恩斯，293
Milles Bournes, 293
《雷神之锤》第 335 至 336 页
in Quake, 335–336
心灵之眼剧场，389–390
Mind’s Eye Theater, 389–390
修改（mods ），559–565，567，569
modifications (mods), 559–565, 567, 569
莫利诺斯，彼得，165
Molyneaux, Peter, 165
杂种，562
Mongrel, 562
猴子球，220–221
Monkeyball, 220–221
垄断
Monopoly
文化修辞，520–521
cultural rhetoric, 520–521
态度，97
lusory attitude, 97
叙述，378
narrative, 378
概率，179
probability, 179
规则，123
rules, 123
信号传输, 196
signal transmission, 196
蒙特卡罗综合征，186
Monte Carlo syndrome, 186
心情，410
mood, 410
莫斯，416
MOOS, 416
Morganstern, Oscar, 231, 232, 237–238
布莱恩·莫里亚蒂341
Moriarty, Brian, 341
莫里斯，戴夫，165–166
Morris, Dave, 165–166
妈妈，我可以吗？250
Mother May I?, 250
动机
motivation
目标，258
goals, 258
玩家角色，464
player roles, 464
玩游戏，333–334
to play game, 333–334
和规则，103
and rules, 103
运动反应，316
motor responses, 316
另请参阅身体动作
See also physical movements
抢椅子，67
Musical Chairs, 67
神话：堕落之王，270-271
Myth: The Fallen Lords, 270–271
奈史密斯，詹姆斯，505–506
Naismith, James, 505–506
叙述
narrative(s)
在人工智能游戏中，576
in the A.I. Game, 576
背景故事，379–380
backstories, 379–380
例如，405
example, 405
基本概念，378
basic concept, 378
冲突，387–388 （另见冲突）
conflict, 387–388 (see also conflict)
建筑，403–404
construction, 403–404
和核心机制，388–389
and core mechanic, 388–389
定义，380–381
definitions, 380–381
Drome Racing Challenge, 405–407, 409
嵌入式，383–385，402，406–408，418
embedded, 383–385, 402, 406–408, 418
《黑暗季节》，579–580
in Seasons of Darkness, 579–580
新兴，383–385，402，418，579–580
emergent, 383–385, 402, 418, 579–580
通过电子邮件，576
by email, 576
锻炼，20–21
exercise, 20–21
虚构世界，401–403
fictive worlds, 401–403
和目标，385–387，418
例如405–407
example, 405–407
元叙事，580
meta-narratives, 580
模拟为，457 （另见模拟）
simulation as, 457 (see also simulation)
故事事件，402–403
story events, 402–403
紧张局势，379–380
tensions, 379–380
雷暴示例，381–382
Thunderstorm example, 381–382
叙述分析（练习），20–21
Narrative Analysis (exercise), 20–21
narrative descriptors, 399–401, 404, 419
在 Drome Racing Challenge 中，409
in Drome Racing Challenge, 409
虚构世界，401–402，419
故事事件，402–403，419
叙事剧
narrative play
关于游戏玩法，411–413
about play of game, 411–413
LOOP 示例，391–393
LOOP example, 391–393
结构，382–385
structures for, 382–385
叙事空间，390–392，418
在数字游戏中，392–398
in digital games, 392–398
引领，406–408
leading through, 406–408
叙事系统，404–411，419
narrative systems, 404–411, 419
顽皮狗娱乐，222
Naughty Dog Entertainment, 222
NBA 场边，413–414
NBA Courtside, 413–414
negative feedback, 215, 224–227
篮球，218–219
in Basketball, 218–219
《蛇梯棋》第 223–224 页
in Chutes and Ladders, 223–224
在数字游戏中，219–221
in digital games, 219–221
负强化，348–350
negative reinforcement, 348–350
谈判，529–531
negotiation, 529–531
纳尔逊·乔治40岁
Nelson, George, 40
NeoPets，354
NeoPets, 354
NetRunner，293
NetRunner, 293
网络通信，89
networked communication, 89
另请参阅信使通信网络
See also messenger communication network
新的描绘（练习），19
New Depictions (exercise), 19
新游戏运动
New Games Movement
和合作，256-258
and cooperation, 256–258
核心原则，528
core principles, 528
和反主流文化，529
and counterculture, 529
和文化意义，510
and cultural meaning, 510
游戏，528–529
games, 528–529
和规则，285
and rules, 285
尼采机械论，292
Nietzsche mech, 292
夜间驾驶，394
Night Driver, 394
任天堂游戏，144–145
Nintendo Game, 144–145
恩沃卡，533
Nwokah, 533
物体相互作用，160–162，170
object interactions, 160–162, 170
特异性，166
specificity, 166
objective information, 208, 211
奇异世界：阿比逃亡记，378
Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus, 378
很久以前，540
Once Upon a Time, 540
开放文化
open culture
基本概念，538
basic concepts, 538
和时事，581
and current events, 581
锻炼，17
exercise, 17
游戏系统，546–550
game systems, 546–550
和魔法阵，552
and magic circle, 552
玩家兼制作人，539–544，550–551
player-as-producer, 539–544, 550–551
源软件，544–546
source software, 544–546
《Ultima Online》示例，538–539
Ultima Online example, 538–539
开放式游戏，83，538–546，552
open-ended games, 83, 538–546, 552
开源游戏系统（练习），17
Open Source Game Systems (exercise), 17
开源软件，544–546
open source software, 544–546
operant conditioning, 344–350, 361
操作规则，130
operational rules, 130
在《滑梯与梯子》中，130
in Chutes and Ladders, 130
and constituative rules, 132–133, 135–136, 139
和隐含规则，133–134，139
and implicit rules, 133–134, 139
《奥赛罗》223
Othello, 223
结果
outcome(s)
和行动，354
and action, 354
合并（概率），177–179
combined (probability), 177–179
和过场动画，410–411
and cutscenes, 410–411
决定，174–175，189
可辨别性，354
discernability, 354
有利的，186
favorable, 186
和游戏定义，80
and game definition, 80
和博弈论，237–238，245
目标，258
goals, 258
谜题中，80–81
in puzzles, 80–81
量化，80，238，259
in role-playing games, 81–82, 83
和规则，103
and rules, 103
在零和游戏中，240
in zero-sum games, 240
弹球盘，89
Pachinko, 89
踱步，411
pacing, 411
另请参阅吃豆小姐
See also Ms. Pac-Man
帕斯曼斯，德克，560
Paesmans, Dirk, 560
恐慌，307
panic, 307
悖论
paradoxes
人工空间/社会背景，473–474
artifical space/social context, 473–474
埃庇米尼得斯，449–450
Epimenides’, 449–450
游戏和社区，471
game and community, 471
帕莱特，大卫，71，72，73–74，134，203
Parlett, David, 71, 72, 73–74, 134, 203
帕斯卡，布莱斯，177
Pascal, Blaise, 177
寻路，271
pathfinding, 271
皮尔斯，西莉亚，205–206，416
同侪压力，333
peer pressure, 333
皮尔斯，查尔斯·S.，42岁
Peirce, Charles S., 42
perceived information, 208, 211
感知模式，316
perceptual patterns, 316
珀西瓦尔·弗雷德，423
Percival, Fred, 423
perfect information, 204–206, 211
彼得森，伊瓦尔斯，188
Peterson, Ivars, 188
菲利普斯，安德里亚，587
Phillips, Andrea, 587
运动反应，316
motor responses, 316
皮亚杰，让，472,474,486,489
Piaget, Jean, 472, 474, 486, 489
捡拾木棍，176
Pick-Up Sticks, 176
派恩，大卫，54岁
Pine, David, 54
加勒比海盗—争夺
Pirates of the Caribbean—Battle for the
海盗金币，352–353
Buccaneer Gold, 352–353
陨落星球，394
Planetfall, 394
行星，154
planets, 154
规划，408
planning, 408
玩
play
上瘾，355–356
addictive, 355–356
自成目的的，331–333，360
卡卢瓦的类别，307–309
Caillois’ categories, 307–309
意识，453–455
consciousness of, 453–455
文化意义，509
cultural meanings, 509
definitions, 301, 302–305, 311
禁止，478–481
forbidden, 478–481
框架，370–371
framing, 370–371
职能，309
functions of, 309
对战，72–73 , 75 , 83 , 303 , 311
vs. game, 72–73, 75, 83, 303, 311
Huizinga 定义，75
Huizinga definition, 75
和身份，518–519
and identity, 518–519
和想象力，518–519
and imagination, 518–519
长途，89
at long-distance, 89
动机，258
motivation, 258
选项446
options of, 446
与嬉戏相比，303、304、305–307
vs. playfulness, 303, 304, 305–307
重复，340–341
repeated, 340–341
修辞，518–519，534
schema description, 6, 104, 302
作为自我进化，518–519
as self-evolution, 518–519
感觉，17
sensation of, 17
同时或交替，251–254
simultaneous or alternating, 251–254
另请参阅体验；游戏玩法；有意义的游戏；叙事游戏；乐趣；变革性游戏
See also experience; game play; meaningful play; narrative play; pleasure; transformative play
玩家兼制作人，539–544
player-as-producer, 539–544
《DOOM》中，550
in DOOM, 550
地震，550-551
in Quake, 550–551
in Seasons of Darkness, 579, 581
玩家
players
态度，77 （另见lusory态度）
attitudes of, 77 (see also lusory attitude)
（不）信仰，450–451
(dis)belief, 450–451
走向人工智能，262
toward AI, 262
对于规则，269–276，281–282，285，474–475
toward rules, 269–276, 281–282, 285, 474–475
无聊和焦虑，350–353
boredom and anxiety, 350–353
和人物，454–455，526
作为社区，412、416、417、461 （另请参阅社区；社交游戏）
as community, 412, 416, 417, 461 (see also community; social play)
意识，453–455
consciousness, 453–455
对照，225–226
control, 225–226
和过场动画，412
and cutscenes, 412
设计角色，485
design role, 485
design tools for, 540, 548–550
突发行为，538–539
emergent behavior, 538–539
和反馈，225–226
and feedback, 225–226
焦点，136
focus, 136
和目标，342–344
and goals, 342–344
长途，89
long-distance, 89
在元游戏中，482–484
in metagaming, 482–484
修改，559–560
mods by, 559–560
数量
number of
《蜈蚣》第 252–252 页，第 258 页
数字游戏方面，462
in digital games, 462
在格斗与赛车游戏中，594
in fighting vs. racing games, 594
在博弈论游戏中，238
in game theory games, 238
兄弟姐妹间的竞争，114
in Sibling Rivalry, 114
in social play, 463–466, 482–485, 488
观点，66–67
viewpoint of, 66–67
另请参阅风扇
See also fans
playfulness, 303, 304, 305–307
比赛场地，水平，260–262，265
playing field, level, 260–262, 265
乐趣
pleasure
无聊，350–353
boredom, 350–353
条件，344–350
conditioned, 344–350
和限制，330–331
and constraints, 330–331
核心机制，340
core mechanic as, 340
和数字游戏，334–335
and digital games, 334–335
参与，329，333–334，336，339–341
engagement, 329, 333–334, 336, 339–341
进化，339–341
evolution of, 339–341
例外，357–359
exception, 357–359
锻炼, 19
exercise, 19
心流状态，336–339 ，350–353，360
flow state, 336–339, 350–353, 360
趣味，334
fun, 334
维护，339–341
maintenance, 339–341
意义，353–355
meaningfulness, 353–355
模式，341–342
patterns, 341–342
强化，346–350
reinforcement, 346–350
相同但不同，340–342，361
same-but-different, 340–342, 361
和变革性游戏，340–341
and transformative play, 340–341
类型学，334–336
typologies, 334–336
神奇宝贝，343
Pokémon, 343
扑克
Poker
机会，205
chance, 205
出现，164
emergence, 164
互动性，60
interactivity, 60
规则，120–121
rules in, 120–121
作为社交游戏，466
as social play, 466
零和游戏，240
as zero-sum game, 240
上诉，xiii-xv
appeal of, xiii–xv
出现，159
emergence, 159
开源软件，548
open source software, 548
空间, 394
space in, 394
人口众多：开始，165–166
Populous: The Beginning, 165–166
positive feedback, 215–216, 224–225, 227
篮球，218–219
in Basketball, 218–219
正强化，345–350，411
positive reinforcement, 345–350, 411
可能性。参见随机性；可能性空间
possibility. See randomness; space of possibility
Poundstone, William, 233, 242–243, 244
痘，333
P.O.X., 333
偏见，562
prejudice, 562
碰运气游戏，110
press-your-luck games, 110
囚徒困境，242–243
Prisoner’s Dilemma, 242–243
可能性
probability
和骰子，177–179
and dice, 177–179
谬误，186–187
fallacies, 186–187
猜测，194–195
guesswork, 194–195
策略，242
strategy, 242
程序性人物，435–439
procedural characters, 435–439
程序性陈述
procedural representation
嵌入式微型，428
embedded micro-, 428
情绪，448
of emotions, 448
元叙事，580
meta-narratives, 580
and simulation, 422–423, 427–431, 457
另请参阅模拟
see also simulation
职业体育，276–277
professional sports, 276–277
保护框架，94–99
protective frame, 94–99
指环王棋盘游戏，25–26
of Lord of the Rings Board Game, 25–26
兄弟姐妹间的竞争，111
of Sibling Rivalry, 111
处罚，348
punishments, 348
对阵比赛，575
vs. games, 575
金字塔，546–547
pyramids, 546–547
地震
Quake
核心机制，316
core mechanic, 316
数字元素，89–90
digital elements, 89–90
性别，562
gender, 562
元沟通，449
metacommunication, 449
修改，562
modifications, 562
同侪压力，333
peer pressure, 333
玩家作为制作人，550–551，552
player-as-producer, 550–551, 552
重新审视，414
recams, 414
补救措施, 453
remediation, 453
复述，413
retelling, 413
空间，396
space, 396
变革性游戏，305
transformative play, 305
种族偏见，562
racial prejudice, 562
赛车游戏
racing games
控制论，219–221
cybernetics, 219–221
Drome Racing Challenge, 405–407, 409
格斗游戏，594
vs. fighting games, 594
不确定性，388
uncertainty, 388
另请参阅特定游戏
See also specific games
壁球，481
Racquetball, 481
集会，576
rallies, 576
随机性
randomness
基本概念，175–176
basic concepts, 175–176
和计算机，183–184
and computers, 183–184
感觉，189
feeling of, 189
信息，205–207
of information, 205–207
随机数，179，183-184
阅读文化，511
reading culture, 511
现实
reality
在游戏中，295，578–579
在人工智能游戏中，576
in the A.I. Game, 576
immersive fallacy, 450–455, 458
in simulations, 445–451, 453–455
价值，448–449
value of, 448–449
真正的规则，475
real rules, 475
实时战略 (RTS) 游戏，273–274
real-time strategy (RTS) games, 273–274
法律之争，Stephan，341
Rechtschaffen, Stephan, 341
加强
reinforcement
和过场动画，411
and cutscenes, 411
示例游戏，347–349
example game, 347–349
类型，346–350
types, 346–350
重复
repetition
游戏，340–342
of play, 340–342
表示
representation
文化，510–511，513
出现，366–367
emergence of, 366–367
在游戏中
in games
定义，77
definition, 77
和互动性，58
and interactivity, 58
narrative descriptors, 399–401, 404
程序性的（参见程序性陈述）
procedural (see procedural representation)
现实，448–449
reality of, 448–449
表征宇宙，364
representational universe, 364
雷斯尼克，米切尔，169
Resnick, Mitchell, 169
限制。请参阅限制
restrictions. See limitations
复古字体，602
retro-typography, 602
游戏动作回顾413
review, of game actions, 413
在 NeoPets 中，354
in NeoPets, 354
文化，516–517，534
性别，522–526
of gender, 522–526
游戏，518–519，534
彩票的修辞（练习），19–20
The Rhetoric of the Lottery (exercise), 19–20
竞争，462
rivalries, 462
另请参阅竞争
See also competition
罗宾内特，沃伦，279，421，422–423，431，439，440
Robinett, Warren, 279, 421, 422–423, 431, 439, 440
Robotron，465
Robotron, 465
机器人。参见Ironclad
robots. See Ironclad
Rock-Paper-Scissors, 44, 237, 389–390
角色扮演游戏，42，81-83，307，388-389
role-playing games, 42, 81–83, 307, 388–389
另请参阅LARP；特定游戏
See also LARPs; specific games
罗林斯，安德鲁，165–166
Rollings, Andrew, 165–166
轮盘赌
Roulette
魔法阵，573
magic circle, 573
游戏类别，308
play category, 308
概率谬误，186
probability fallacy, 186
风险，175
risk, 175
零和游戏，240
zero-sum games, 240
Rouse, Richard, III, 34, 324–325, 445
拉格比，481
Rugby, 481
打破规则
rule-breaking
退化策略，241，246，271–274
degenerate strategies, 241, 246, 271–274
在数字游戏中，279–281
in digital games, 279–281
游戏设计，281–282，285
光明会，277–279
in Illuminati, 277–279
玩家类型，271–276，284
在职业体育中，276–277
in professional sports, 276–277
批准，276–279
sanctioned, 276–279
类型，269，271–276
规则
rules
模糊性与清晰度，137
ambiguity vs. clarity, 137
态度，269–276，281–282，285，474–475
attitude toward, 269–276, 281–282, 285, 474–475
作弊（光明会），277–279
for cheating (Illuminati), 277–279
和儿童，472–474，489
in Chutes and Ladders, 130–135, 146
作为封闭系统，96
as closed system, 96
constituative, 128–129, 130, 146–147
and operational, 132–133, 135–136, 139
设计，136–136
designing, 136–136
数字游戏，142–149 （另见数字游戏）
of digital games, 142–149 (see also digital games)
和出现，166–168
and emergence, 166–168
练习，18
exercises, 18
vs. experiential play, 124, 125
和反馈回路，224
and feedback loops, 224
和游戏定义，73–80
and game definition, 73–80
家庭规则，123
home rules, 123
和身份，134–136，139
隐式，130 （另请参阅隐式规则）
implicit, 130 (see also implicit rules)
效率低下，77
(in)efficiency, 77
和魔法阵，123–124，139
and magic circle, 123–124, 139
and constituative rules, 132–133, 135–136, 139
and implicit rules, 132–133, 135–136, 139
和快乐，330–331
and pleasure, 330–331
schema description, 6, 103–104
和战略，121
and strategy, 121
紧密性，116
tightness, 116
特征，122–123
traits, 122–123
三个层次的规则
rules on three levels
数字游戏，146–149
for digital games, 146–149
relationships between, 132–133, 133–134, 139
Ryan, Marie-Laure, 8, 451, 456
安全
safety
游戏定义，77–78
in game definition, 77–78
和开放文化，581
and open culture, 581
保护框架，94-99
protective framework, 94–99
萨伦，凯蒂，416
Salen, Katie, 416
相同但不同，340–342，361
same-but-different, 340–342, 361
桑基，达拉格，575
Sankey, Daragh, 575
场景，设置，410
scene, setting, 410
scheduling, of rewards, 345–348, 361
Schell, Jesse, 68, 352–353, 358
施莱纳，安妮·玛丽，567
Schleiner, Anne-Marie, 567
施密特伯格，R.韦恩，21岁
Schmittberger, R. Wayne, 21
肖恩，唐纳德，40岁
Schon, Donald, 40
舒特，乌韦，602
Schütte, Uwe, 602
兄弟姐妹间的竞争，107，109，114
in Sibling Rivalry, 107, 109, 114
拼字游戏
Scrabble
文化环境，586
cultural environment, 586
和文化，509
and culture, 509
字典，481
dictionaries, 481
经验，316
experience, 316
信息经济，209
information economy, 209
符号学，43
semiotics, 43
脚本游戏系统，23-24
scripted game system, 23–24
西曼，389
Seaman, 389
黑暗季节，579-581
Seasons of Darkness, 579–581
猴岛的秘密，384–385
The Secret of Monkey Island, 384–385
自我意识，337
self-consciousness, 337
自我进化，518–519
self evolution, 518–519
符号学，41-46
semiotics, 41–46
游戏的感觉（练习），17
Sensations of Play (exercise), 17
传感器，214–218
sensors, 214–218
塞林，大卫，603
Serlin, David, 603
Settlers of Catan, 387–388, 508
克劳德·香农（Claude Shannon ），192、195–196、200
Shannon, Claude, 192, 195–196, 200
《莎木》，441
Shenmue, 441
规模的转变（练习），19
A Shift in Scale (exercise), 19
肖切特，乔，68，352–353，358
Shochet, Joe, 68, 352–353, 358
兄弟之争
Sibling Rivalry
发展，110-115
development, 110–115
西德曼，凯伦，90岁
Sideman, Karen, 90
西伯格，丹尼尔，587
Sieberg, Daniel, 587
信号传输，195–196
signal transmission, 195–196
在游戏中，204
in games, 204
标志，42–47
signs, 42–47
寂静岭，404
Silent Hill, 404
寂静岭 II，510
Silent Hill II, 510
模拟城市
Sim City
自动化复杂性，89
automated complexity, 89
冲突，254
conflict, 254
陈述，364
representations, 364
复述，413
retelling, 413
空间，394
space, 394
SimCopter 黑客，561
SimCopter Hack, 561
模拟生活，431
Sim Life, 431
西蒙·赫伯特40岁
Simon, Herbert, 40
西蒙说，331
Simon Says, 331
《模拟人生》，539–540
The Sims, 539–540
西姆斯家庭相册，541–544，552
The Sims Family Album, 541–544, 552
《模拟人生热门约会》扩展包，386–387
Sims Hot Date Expansion Pack, 386–387
模拟
simulation
作为抽象，439
as abstraction, 439
基于案例与广义，445–448，457
case-based vs. generalized, 445–448, 457
冲突代表，431–434
conflict representation, 431–434
定义，422–423
definitions, 422–423
锻炼, 19
exercise, 19
框架，449–450
framing, 449–450
游戏，295
games as, 295
和有意义的游戏，425–427
and meaningful play, 425–427
非游戏，424–425
non-game, 424–425
程序性人物，435–439
procedural characters, 435–439
procedural representation, 422–423, 427–431, 457
单人游戏
single-player games
difficulty adjustment, 222–223, 227, 352
玩家角色，465
player roles, 465
纸牌，81，250，334
趋势，462
trends, 462
西斯西格玛 2000
SiSSYFiGHT 2000
禁忌游戏，481
forbidden play, 481
性别，526
gender, 526
快乐，343
pleasure, 343
原型，12
prototype, 12
随机性，176
randomness, 176
特定地点的抵抗力（锻炼），17
Site-Specific Resistance (exercise), 17
斯金纳，BF，345
Skinner, B. F., 345
蓝精灵救援，524
Smurf Rescue, 524
潜行
Sneak
发展，494–495
development of, 494–495
游戏测试，497–501
playtesting, 497–501
Sniderman ，Stephen ，94，137，138，573–574
Sniderman, Stephen, 94, 137, 138, 573–574
斯奈德，基拉，490–493
Snyder, Kira, 490–493
另请参阅潜行
See also Sneak
足球
Soccer
违反规则，276
rule-breaking, 276
和系统，50
and systems, 50
位于环球广场，563–564
in Universal Square, 563–564
社会契约，269，473，488
social contract, 269, 473, 488
社会互动分析（练习）21
Social Interaction Analysis (exercise), 21
社交游戏
social play
人工智能游戏，576–577
the A.I. Game, 576–577
合同性质，473
contractual nature, 473
设计，484–485
design of, 484–485
新兴
emergent
小马克斯，467–468
Little Max, 467–468
黑手党，468–469
Mafia, 468–469
站起来，470
Stand Up, 470
禁忌游戏，478–481，489
隐含规则，474–475
implicit rules, 474–475
接吻游戏，479–480
kissing games, 479–480
限制，485
limits, 485
玩家角色，463–466
player roles, 463–466
社会关系，462–463
social relations, 462–463
另请参阅社区
See also community
超氧化物歧化酶，560
SOD, 560
软件，544–550
software, 544–550
纸牌，81，250，334
配乐，413
soundtrack, 413
空间
space
和复杂性，155
and complexity, 155
在数字游戏中，392–398
in digital games, 392–398
在铁甲舰上，293
in Ironclad, 293
位置, 104
location, 104
锻炼，17
exercise, 17
narrative, 390–392, 406–408, 418
三维, 394
three-dimensional, 394
转型，526–529
transforming, 526–529
太空侵略者，258，341，394
和决策树，234
and decision trees, 234
和退化策略，273
and degenerate strategy, 273
隐形游乐场，578–579
invisible playground, 578–579
代表性的，374
representational, 374
和短期目标，344
and short-term goals, 344
在战争游戏中，443–445
in war games, 443–445
空间因素, 578–579
spatial factors, 578–579
Spector, Warren, 2–3, 9, 57, 363, 390, 451
旋转瓶子
Spin the Bottle
禁忌游戏，480
forbidden play, 480
metacommunication, 371, 449, 452
破坏性的黑客行为，280–281
spoil-sport hacking, 280–281
体育，专业，276–277
sports, professional, 276–277
体育精神
sportsmanship
井字游戏，129
in Tic-Tac-Toe, 129
Spybotics: The Nightfall Incident, 385, 386
SSX，508
SSX, 508
稳定性，224–225
stability, 224–225
桩，482–483
stakes, 482–483
standard players, 268–270, 285
站起来，470
Stand Up, 470
紧急状态，507
State of Emergency, 507
活下去，90
Stay Alive, 90
斯图尔特，苏珊，373
Stewart, Susan, 373
故事、游戏、379
stories, games as, 379
另请参阅叙述
See also narrative(s)
故事事件，402–403，419
Stratego，205
Stratego, 205
战略
strategy
虚张声势，164
bluffing as, 164
和机会，185–186
and chance, 185–186
degenerate, 241, 246, 271–274, 285
博弈论中，235–237，245
和信息，207–208
and information, 207–208
修改，559–565，569
of modifications, 559–565, 569
和概率，242
and probability, 242
实时，273–274
real time, 273–274
在模拟设计中，445–448
in simulation design, 445–448
《井字游戏》第 121 页、第 235–236 页
在《魔兽争霸III》中，222
in Warcraft III, 222
街头霸王 II，507
Street Fighter II, 507
结构
structure
和解释，44-47
and interpretation, 44–47
以任务为基础，385，386-387
叙事游戏，382–385
for narrative play, 382–385
和符号学，45–46
and semiotics, 45–46
模拟，445–448
of simulations, 445–448
和主题，294
and theme, 294
子游戏，296
sub-games, 296
苏德诺，大卫，11，58，66，68，313，319，326，329，399，604
Sudnow, David, 11, 58, 66, 68, 313, 319, 326, 329, 399, 604
西茨，伯纳德，76 , 97 , 98 , 116 , 119 , 283 , 331
Suits, Bernard, 76, 97, 98, 116, 119, 283, 331
相扑，574
Sumo Wrestling, 574
超级突围，377，378，380，399
Super Breakout, 377, 378, 380, 399
超级马里奥兄弟，523
Super Mario Brothers, 523
Super Mario 64, 209, 354–355, 390
超级马里奥世界，453
Super Mario World, 453
惊喜，165–166
surprise, 165–166
另请参阅出现
See also emergence
幸存者（电视节目），250，464–465
Survivor (TV show), 250, 464–465
怀疑，581–584
Suspicion, 581–584
萨顿·史密斯，布莱恩，1，78，93，94，101，183，301，306，315，327，335，339，356，372，464–465，479，486，488，512，516，517，518–519，532，574
Sutton-Smith, Brian, 1, 78, 93, 94, 101, 183, 301, 306, 315, 327, 335, 339, 356, 372, 464–465, 479, 486, 488, 512, 516, 517, 518–519, 532, 574
协同作用，159-160
synergy, 159–160
系统
systems
复杂度范围，155–156，170 （另请参阅复杂 性）
complexity range, 155–156, 170 (see also complexity)
元素，50–52，55，160
出现，170 （另见出现）
emergent, 170 (see also emergence)
历史, 53
history of, 53
叙述，404–411
narrative, 404–411
对象交互，160–161
object interactions, 160–161
开放与封闭，53–55 , 96–97 , 99 , 105
open vs. closed, 53–55, 96–97, 99, 105
和社区，471
and community, 471
玩家作为制作人，539–544
player-as producer, 539–544
信号处理，204
of signal processing, 204
模拟为440
simulations as, 440
另请参阅控制论系统；游戏系统
See also cybernetic systems; game systems
禁忌行为，478–481
taboo behavior, 478–481
标签
Tag
冲突形式，250
conflict form, 250
核心机制，317
core mechanic, 317
和设计，41
and design, 41
和符号学，44
and semiotics, 44
作为社交游戏，462
as social play, 462
感人，579
touching, 579
泰勒，克里斯，549–550
Taylor, Chris, 549–550
技术，451–452
technology, 451–452
电话，573
telephones, 573
滕贝克，肖沙娜，21，264，456，486，533
Tembeck, Shoshana, 21, 264, 456, 486, 533
暴风雨
Tempest
和文化，507
and culture, 507
补丁，562
patch, 562
临时世界，96–97
temporary worlds, 96–97
网球
Tennis
并复述，413
and retelling, 413
和规则，127
and rules, 127
口头，317–318
verbal, 317–318
紧张，379–380
tension, 379–380
territorial conflict, 432, 457
测试
testing
加勒比之星，599–601
Caribbean Star, 599–601
铁甲舰，296
Ironclad, 296
指环王棋盘游戏，24–26
Lord of the Rings Board Game, 24–26
潜行，497–501
Sneak, 497–501
俄罗斯方块
Tetris
和文化背景，86
and cultural context, 86
终点, 259
endpoint, 259
体验式游戏，86
experiential play, 86
正式规则，86-87
formal rules, 86–87
信息, 210
information in, 210
元沟通，452
metacommunication, 452
保护框架, 95
protective frame, 95
作为模拟，425
as simulation, 425
主题，294
theme, 294
主题公园游乐设施，68
theme park rides, 68
恒温器，214–217
thermostat, 214–217
汤普森，J.马克，204
Thompson, J. Mark, 204
3至15岁，128–129，137
Thunderstorm, 181–182, 381–382, 400
井字游戏
Tic-Tac-Toe
复杂性，152-153
complexity, 152–153
在计算机上，142、146–148
冲突，432
conflict, 432
出现，164
emergence, 164
意义系统，366
meaning system, 366
快乐，343
pleasure, 343
constituative, 128–129, 146–147
运作, 147
operational, 147
符号学，43
semiotics, 43
作为模拟，424
as simulation, 424
作为社交游戏，462–463
as social play, 462–463
体育精神，271
sportsmanship, 271
时间限制，271
time limits, 271
不成文的规则，129
unwritten rules, 129
Tiddlywinks，340
Tiddlywinks, 340
时间
time
和竞争，259–261
and competition, 259–261
和复杂性，155
and complexity, 155
作为核心机制，320–321
as core mechanic, 320–321
经验丰富，351
experience over, 351
和快乐，338
and pleasure, 338
reinforcement schedule, 345–348, 361
复古, 资源, 602
retro, resource for, 602
和规则，104
and rules, 104
和体育精神，271
and sportsmanship, 271
转型，338
transformation of, 338
时间限制，129，474，600
古墓丽影
Tomb Raider
角色和玩家，454
characters and players, 454
和文化，507
and culture, 507
变革性游戏，305
transformative play, 305
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, 413, 428
工具，对于玩家来说，540、548–550
tools, for players, 540, 548–550
托瓦尔斯，莱纳斯，545
Torvals, Linus, 545
托斯卡，苏珊娜，8岁
Tosca, Susana, 8
玩具，529–531
Toys, 529–531
变革游戏
transformative play
概念，305–306
concept, 305–306
和文化，507、513、526-529、534、552
and culture, 507, 513, 526–529, 534, 552
在《吃豆人》中，272
in Pac-Man, 272
和快乐，340–341
and pleasure, 340–341
卡坦岛定居者的例子，387–388
Settlers of Catan example, 387–388
在《怀疑》中，583
in Suspicion, 583
运输核心机制（练习），19
Transporting the Core Mechanic (exercise), 19
问答游戏，316
trivia games, 316
琐碎追求，433–434
Trivial Pursuit, 433–434
二十个问题，195
Twenty Questions, 195
龙卷风，330
Twister, 330
泰勒，爱德华，508
Tylor, Edward, 508
扎伊格，乌里，563–564
Tzaig, Uri, 563–564
乌拉姆，斯坦尼斯拉夫，161
Ulam, Stanislaw, 161
Ultima，81
Ultima, 81
Ultima Online, 344, 538–539, 558
乌姆·贾默·拉米，387
Um Jammer Lammy, 387
和决策类型，174–175
and decision types, 174–175
猜测，194–195
guesswork, 194–195
and information, 193–197, 201, 205, 208
操纵，185–186
manipulating, 185–186
和有意义的游戏，174
and meaningful play, 174
叙述，388–389，418
和快乐，337
and pleasure, 337
与风险，174–175
vs. risk, 174–175
另请参阅机会；概率
See also chance; probability
安德伍德，米克，46岁
Underwood, Mick, 46
意外事件。参见出现
unexpected events. See emergence
环球广场，563–564
Universal Square, 563–564
解锁者，347–349
Unlocker, 347–349
联合国，86
UNO, 86
虚幻，89
Unreal, 89
缺乏体育精神的球员，269,271,481
unsportsmanlike players, 269, 271, 481
功利参与，59
utilitarian participation, 59
实用性，237–238，240，245
值
values
表达，516–517
expression of, 516–517
和开源软件，544–546
and open source software, 544–546
转型，528
transformation of, 528
吸血鬼：化装舞会
Vampire: The Masquerade
核心机制，389–390
core mechanic, 389–390
作为文化修辞，521–522
as cultural rhetoric, 521–522
和实况角色扮演游戏，578
and LARPs, 578
元叙事，580
meta-narratives, 580
可变强化，346–348
variable reinforcement, 346–348
言语网球，317–318
Verbal Tennis, 317–318
虚拟现实战士4
Virtua Fighter 4
字符，453
characters, 453
过场动画，410
cutscenes, 410
作为控制论系统，218
as cybernetic system, 218
意义系统，365–366
meaning system, 365–366
程序性人物，436–437
procedural characters, 436–437
视觉扫描，316
visual scanning, 316
词汇
vocabulary
愉悦，334–336
of pleasure, 334–336
画外音，408
voice-overs, 408
火山，546–547
Volcano, 546–547
排球，390
Volleyball, 390
志愿活动，76
voluntary activity, 76
约翰·冯·诺依曼，161、231、232、237–238、241
Von Neumann, John, 161, 231, 232, 237–238, 241
维果茨基，LS，330–331
Vygotsky, L. S., 330–331
战争，340
War, 340
魔兽争霸III
Warcraft III
过场动画，411
cutscenes, 411
信息操纵，88
information manipulation, 88
战争游戏，427–428，442–445
战锤，482
Warhammer, 482
观看 LCD 比赛，144–145
Watch LCD games, 144–145
Weaver, Warren, 192, 195–196, 198, 200
网站
websites
清算所，603
clearing house, 603
DiGRA，602
DiGRA, 602
Gamasutra，8
Gamasutra, 8
游戏女孩前进，567
Game Girl Advance, 567
电子游戏史，602
history of video games, 602
信息论，200
on information theory, 200
国际游戏开发者协会，603
International Game Developers Ass’n, 603
模组和补丁，567
mods and patches, 567
SiSSYFIGHT 2000，565–566
SiSSYFIGHT 2000, 565–566
韦纳，诺伯特，214
Weiner, Norbert, 214
威尔逊，罗伯特·安东，277
Wilson, Robert Anton, 277
获胜
winning
和游戏定义，74
and game definition, 74
元游戏，482–483
metagames, 482–483
新游戏运动，529
New Games Movement, 529
彻底消灭，219–220
Wipeout, 219–220
擦身而过 XL，404
Wipeout XL, 404
沃尔夫，马克 JP，392–394
Wolf, Mark J. P., 392–394
沃尔夫，伯顿 H.，533
Wolfe, Burton H., 533
女性。参见性别
women. See gender
文字游戏，306
wordplay, 306
解决方法, 280
workarounds, 280
工作场所，581–584
workplace, 581–584
世界
worlds
和模拟，422–423
and simulation, 422–423
临时，96–97
temporary, 96–97
《Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions》，重播，413–414
Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions, replays, 413–414
摔跤，574
Wrestling, 574
赖特，威尔，539
Wright, Will, 539
你不了解杰克，434
You Don’t Know Jack, 434
扎克森，394
Zaxxon, 394
塞尔达传说：林克的觉醒，435–436，447
Zelda: Link’s Awakening, 435–436, 447
zero-sum games, 239–242, 246, 255
Zork ，44–45，89，394
父亲： ……关键在于，这些对话的目的是为了发现“规则”。这就像生活——一场游戏，其目的是发现规则，而这些规则总是在变化，无法发现。
Father: . . . The point is that the purpose of these conversations is to discover the “rules.” It’s like life—a game whose purpose is to discover the rules, which rules are always changing and undiscoverable.
女儿：但是爸爸，我不认为那是一个游戏。
Daughter: But I don’t call that a game, Daddy.
—格雷戈里·贝特森，《心灵生态学的步骤》
—Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind